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UNIVERSAL 


GEOGRAPHY, 


OR 


U  l^tmtiption 


OF 


ALL  THE  PARTS  OF  THE  WORLD, 

©ST  A  SflW  J?SLAS?« 

ACCORDING    TO    THE    GREAT    NATURAL    DIVISIONS    OF    THE   GLOBE  ; 

ACCOMrANIEB    WITH 

ANALYTICAL,  SYNOPTICAL,  AND  ELEMENTARY  TABLES. 


BY  M.  MALTE-BRUN. 


iMPHOVED    BY    THE    ADDITION    OF    THE    MOST    RECENT    INFORMATION,    DERIVED 

FROM    VARIOUS    SOURCES. 

VOL.  XL 

COWTAlNINa  THE  DESCRIPTION  OF  PART  OF  ASIA,  OF  OCEANICA,  &C. 

With  additional  matter,  not  in  the  European  edition. 


PHILADELPHIA  : 


PUBLISHED  BY  ANTHONY  FINLEY, 

5K»RTH   KASX    CORNER    OF    FOURTH    AND   OflfiSNUT    STREETS. 
William  Browii,  Priuter. 

1827. 


1/6 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  11. 


BOOK  XXXVIII. 

SIBERIA  CONTINUED. 

Its  J^atio7is,  Provinces,  and  Towns. 


Siberian,   Cossack,    and    other  Nations. 

Progress  of  Civilization, 
Agriculturists,  Hunters,  etc.  Tartar  Co- 
lonies. Biriuss,  Katscliinians,  etc.  Say- 
anians.  Teleootes.  Tartars  of  Tomsk. 
Tchulyro,  etc.  Barabintzi.  Tartars  of 
the  Obi,  Tara,  etc.     Manners  of  the 

Tartars, 

Mongolian  Tribes.  Booriaites.  Tongoos- 
es.  Constitution.  Mode  of  Living. 
Religion.  Tongoose  Tribes, 
Wogools.  Ostiaks  of  the  Obi.  Manners 
and  Customs  of  the  Ostiaks.  Their 
Veneration  for  the  Bear.  Samoid 
Tribes.      Soyetes.      Kaibales.      Kara- 

gasses, 

Samoids.     Their   Physical   Constitution. 

Women.  Yookaghirs, 
Tchooktches.  Manner  of  Life.  Tribes. 
Koriaks.  Kamtchatdales.  Inoculation. 
Dwellings.  Provinces  of  Ekaterinburg, 
Government  op  Tobolsk.  Climate.  Pro- 
ductions.    City,     lluins  of  Sibir.     Ob- 

doria, 

Arctic  Vegetation.  District  of  Surgoot, 
Ditto  of  Turinsk.  Munich's  Account 
of  Pelym.  Tioomen.  Yalotorowsk. 
Koorgan.  (Siberian  Italy.)  Amuse- 
ments,   

District  of  Ischim.      Do  of  Omsk.      Go- 
VEHNMENT  OF  ToMSK. — Province  of  Tu- 
rukhansk.    Physical  Details.     District 
of  Yenisei.    OfNarym.    Tchoulym  and 
Tomsk.     City.     Kainsk.     Kolywan,     . 
District  of  Semipalatnoi.     Climate.    Ve- 
getation.    Schlangenberg.    District  of 
Biisk.      Ditto  of  Kutznesk.      Ditto  of 
Abakansk.      Monuments.      District  of 
Krasnoiarsk.     Rocks  with  Inscriptions, 
Government   of   Irkootse.      Province. 
City.      Physical  Details.      District  of 
Kirensk.      Lower  Udinsk.      Town  of 
Kiakta.     Inhabitants.     Town  of  Selin- 
ghinsk.      Inhabitants.      Physical    Re- 
marks,        ...         ... 

Nertchinsk,  or  Russian  Daooria.  Physi- 
cal  Details.     City.    Exiles.     Province 


Page 


10 


of  Yakootsk.  Curious  use  of  Ice. 
Tongooses.     Towns  and  Districts, 

Islands  of  the  Frozen  Sea.  New  Siberia, 
Province  of  Okhotsk.  Country  of  the 
Tchooktches.  Peninsula  of  Kamt- 
CHATKA.     Climate,        .        .        .        « 

Agricultural  Experiments.  Riches  of  the 
Animal  Kingdom.  Vegetables.  Ma- 
rine Plants.  Settlements.  Behring'a 
Island.  Copper  Island.  General  Con- 
siderations on  Siberia,  .         . 

Its  Trade.     Balance  of  Trade, 


ynge 
12 


14 
15 


Tabular  View  of  the  Provinces  and  JVa= 
tions  of  Siberia,    ....      16- 

Table  of  Distances  of  Siberian  Towns,  . 

Table  of  Geographical  Positions,      .     19- 

Agricultural  Table  of  the  Siberian  Pro- 
vinces,  ....•• 

Chronological  Table  o/"I>«scoi:;eries  TOflrfe 
in  Siberia, 21—23 


-18 

19 

-20 

21 


U 


BOOK  XXXIX. 

CENTRAL  ASIA. 

Comprehending  Little  Jiukharia,  the  KaU 
muk  Country,  and  Mongolia. 

Deficiency  of  our  Information.  Ancient 
and  Modern  Divisions.    Promontory  of 

Tabis, 

Note  on  the  Ancient  Seres,      .     23- 

Djenistan.  Kathaya,  or  Klthay.  Exten- 
sion of  the  term  Tartart,  .         .         . 

Remarks  on  the  Plateau  of  Central  Asia. 
Minerals.     Climate,      .... 

Vegetation.  Animals.  The  Yak.  Musk 
Animal.     Birds,    ..... 

Little  Bukiiaria.  Situation.  Nature 
of  the  Country.  Province  of  Cashgar. 
Province  of  Yarkand,  .... 

Provinces  of  Kotan,  Karaia,  and  Poym. 
City  of  Ciarchian.  Mode  of  Living  in 
the  Thirteenth  Century.  Origin  of 
the  Inhabitants,     .        .        .        .        .    28 

Dress.  The  Kalmuk  Country.  Kanka- 
ragay.  Tshashan-Tala.  Songaria.  Lako 
Palcati.  Camp  of  Harcash.    Organum,    29 


23 
•24 

24 

25 

26 


27 


t 


'9 


ti 


IV 


CONTENTS, 


The  Oigoors  and  their  Country.  Getha. 
Town  of  Lop.  Canton  of  Hamil.  Sin- 
gular Customs.     Tangoot,    . 

Ergi.  Satchoo.  Socor.  Town  of  Selin. 
Country  of  the  Sifans.  The  Kalmuks. 
Their  Physical  Constitution.     Tribes, 

Dress.  Dwellings.  Occupations.  Mare's 
Milk.  Industry.  Language.  Kalmuk 
Poetry,         ...... 

Political  Constitution.  Religion.  Gel- 
longs  or  Priests.  Mongolia,  Desert 
of  Gobi.     Sharra  Mongols, 

Kalkas  Mongols.  Mountains.  Rivers. 
Lakes.  Towns.  Karakorum.  Kyr?e. 
Other  Towns,       ..... 

The  Mongols  Physically  described.  Their 
Mode  of  Living.  Dress.  Food  and 
Cookery,  Wanderings,  Games  and 
Songs.     Marriage  of  the  Dead,  , 

Writing.  Alphabet.  Government.  Laws, 


Page 


Page 


31 


52 


34 


35 
26 


BOOK  XL. 

MANTCHOORIA  AND  COREA. 

General  View  of  the  Mantchoo  Country. 
Mountains.  River  Amoor  or  Seghalien,    36 

Chinese  Divisions.  Province  of  Leao- 
Tong.    Trees.     Animals.     Towns,      .    37 

Province  of  Mantchoo.  Towns.  The 
Yupi.  The  Eastern  Coast.  Marine 
Plants.  Population.  Tribes  of  Mant- 
choos, 38 

Religion.  Language,  Alphabet.  Re- 
marks,   39 

CoKEA.  Mountains.  Rivers.  Climate. 
Minerals.  Animals.  Vegetables.  Names 
of  the  Country.  Provinces.  Towns. 
Islands, 40 

Physical  Constitution  of  the  Coreans. 
Customs.  Language,  Learning,  etc. 
Religion.  Monastic  Orders.  Industry. 
Trade.    Government,  .        .        .         .41 

Armed  Force, 42 


SvNOPTic  Table  of  the  JVations  commonly 
culled  Tartars,      ....      42- 


-45 


47 


48 


Broughton    and    Krusenstern's  Reason 
ings.  Reply  to  these  Reasonings.  Con- 
clusion.   M.  Tilsingh's  MSS, 

Matsumai  Island,  or  lesso  Proper.  The 
Mosins,  or  Ainos.  Iheir  Exercises. 
Dumb  Bargains.     Language, 

Physical  Account  of  lesso.  Tame  Bears. 
Towns  and  other  places.  Different 
Islands.  Volcano  Bay.  Segalian  Isl- 
and, or  Oku  Iesso.  Its  DifFei-ent  Names. 
Inhabitants, 49 

Physical  Account  of  the  Country.  Chief 
Localities.  Kuiiile  Islands.  Little 
Kuriles.  Great  Kuriles.  Beniowski's 
Discoveries, 

EiMPiiiE  OP  Japan,  Diff"erent  Names. 
Mountains.  Volcanoes.  Rivers.  Lakes. 
Climate  and  Seasons,    .... 

Agriculture.  Vegetation.  Forest  Trees. 
Fruit  Trees.     Domestic  Animals, 

Food  of  the  Japanese.  Wild  Animals. 
Metals.  Gold  Mines.  Islands  of  Gold 
and  Silver.  Copper  Mines.  Iron  Ditto. 
Minerals, 

City  of  ledo.  Palace.  Private  Houses. 
Other  Cities.  Miaco.  Temple  of  Dai- 
boots.     Gokinai  Provinces,  . 

Different  Towns.  Isle  of  Likeo,  Fatsi- 
sio.  The  Japanese.  Physical  Consti- 
tution.    Eyes.     Origin,    Language,     . 

Historical  Epochs  and  Antiquities.  Go- 
vernment.   Domestic  Civil  Laws, 

Barbarous  Punishments,  Population.  Ar- 
my,    Navy  and  Navigation,  . 

Revenue.  Religious  Sects.  Sinto.  Na- 
tive Worship,  Budso  Sect.  Philoso- 
phers  

Introduction  of  Christianity.  Progress  of 
Learning,  Science,  and  Art.  Division 
of  Time, 

Schools.  Houses.  Furniture.  Dress. 
Description  of  a  Japanese.  Wives. 
Concubines.  Funeral  Rites.  Public 
Amusements,       ..... 

Domestic  and  Foreign  Trade.  Money. 
AncHiPELAGO  OF  Loo-CHoo.  Tanaxima. 
Oofoo,  ...... 

Great  Loo-Choo  Island.     Climate,  . 

Visit  of  the  Alceste  and  Lyra.  Scenery 
of  Loo-Choo.  Character  of  the  Inha- 
bitants,   


50 


51 


52 


53 


54 


55 


56 
57 


58 


59 


60 


61 

62 


63 


BOOK  XLI. 


Table  of  Geographical  Positions  on  the 
Coasts  of  J\Iantchooria,  Corea,  lesso, 
and  Japan,   .....      64 — 65 


JAPANESE   ISLANDS. 

Japan.  Inlands  of  lesso.  Kurile  and  Loo- 
Choo  Islands.  Critical  Inquiries  on 
lesao, 45 

Sea  of  Japan.  Researches  on  Tesso.  Voy- 
age of  the  Castricom  and  the  Rreske,    45 

Discovery  of  Tessoi'  Strait,  D'Anville's 
Hypothesis.  Voyage  of  Spangenberg, 
etc.  Voyages  of  La  Perouse  and 
Broughton.    Seghalien  Strait,    .       .    46 


BOOK  XLII. 

CHINA, 

Part  I,   General  Description  of  the  Coun- 
try. 

Progress  of  Information  respecting  Chi- 
na.    Chinese  Empire, 

Limits.  Surrounding  Seas.  Extent,  Chi- 
na Proper,    Divisions.   Extent,  . 


65 
66 


CONTENTS. 


Page 

Names.  Mountains.  Southern  Chains. 
Northern  Chains,  .         .        .        .67 

Nature  of  the  Mountains  of  Shan-si. 
Plains.  Rivers.  Hoanho.  Yang-tse- 
Kiang,  .        .        .        •         •        •        .68 

Tributaries.  Nature  of  the  Waters. 
Principal  Lakes.     Canals,    .        .         .69 

Climate.  Hurricanes.  Heat.  Extremes. 
Climate  of  Pekin,  Winds.  Rains. 
Agriculture.     Corn,     .         .        .        .70 

Implements.  Bestial.  Manure.  Grand 
Agricultural  Ceremonies,     .         .         .71 

Fruit  Trees.  Tea  Shrub.  Camphor 
Tree.  Mulberry  Tree.  Bamboo.  Su- 
gar Cane,  he 72 

Drugs.  Forest  Trees.  Domestic  Ani- 
mals. Wild  Ditto.  Birds.  Insects. 
Fish.     Minerals.     Tutenague,      .        .    73 

Copper.     Arsenic,     Rocks  and  Stones,  .    74 


BOOK  XLIV. 

CHINA. 


BOOK  XLIII. 


CHINA. 


Paet  II.     Topographical  Details, 
vinces  and  2'owiis, 


Pro- 


Number  of  Towns,  .        . 

Province  of  Petcheli.  Pekin.  Imperial 
Palace.     Population  of  Pekin,     . 

Other  Cities.  Province  of  Shantung. 
Towns.  Province  of  Kiang-Nang.  Nan- 
king.     Porcelain  Tower, 

Soo-tchoo-fou  and  other  Towns.  Island 
of  Shin-Shan.  Red  Cotton.  Yang- 
tcheou-fou.  Province  of  Tch^-kiang. 
Han-tchoo-foo.    Liampo, 

Province  of  Fou-kien.  Emouy.  Island 
of  Tai-ooan',  or  Formoso.  Physical 
Account  of  this  Island.  Towns.  For- 
tresses, etc.,         ..... 

Inhabitants.  Mode  of  Life.  Supersti- 
tions. Provinces  of  Quan-ton.  City  of 
Canton.    Its  Population, 

Macao.  Grotto  of  Camoens.  Isles  de 
Larrons.  Isle  of  Hainan.  Inhabitants 
of  Hainan.    Valuable  Productions,      . 

Province  of  Kiang-si.  Towns.  Porce- 
lain. Province  of  Houquang.  Towns. 
Province  of  Honan.  Its  Towns.  As- 
tronomical Tower,        .         .        .        . 

Province  of  Sluan-si.  Its  Towns.  Pro- 
vince of  Shen-si.  Towns.  Nestorian 
Monument, 

District  of  Kantcheou,  Province  of 
Setchuen.  Towns,  etc.  Province  of 
Koeit-cheou.     Province  of  Quang-si,  . 

Province  of  Yunnan.    Lolos  Nation, 


74 
74 
75 


76 


77 


78 


79 


80 


81 


82 


83 

84 


Page 
84 


Part  III.  Political  and  General  View  of 
the  Chinese  Juration,      .... 

Physiognomy  of  the  Chinese,  ,         .     84 

Chinese  Idea  of  Beauty.  Despotism. 
Adoration  paid  to  the  Sovereign.  Man- 
darins. Mistakes  on  the  Chinese  Go- 
vernment,    ......     85 

Stability  of  the  Laws.  Ceremonies.  The 
Chinese  Mode  of  Writing,   .         .        .86 

Oral  Language.  Influence  of  the  Lan- 
guage.    Sciences.     Chinese  Gardens,      87 

Printing.  Industry.  Navigation.  The 
Compass.  Vessels.  Gondolas.  The 
Great  Wall.     Its  Antiquity,  ,        .     88 

Houses  of  the  Chinese.  Dress.  Public 
Festivals.  Theatre.  Operas.  Drama- 
tic Taste  and  Style.  Vices  of  the  Chi- 
nese,      89 

Food.  Marriages.  Worship  of  the 
Tombs.  Religion.  Philosophy  of  Con- 
fucius.   Worship  of  Fo,       .        .        .90 

Trade.  Exports  and  Imports.  Hannists. 
Army.     Fleet, 91 

Population.  Military  Discipline.  Reflec- 
tions on  the  Admiration  which  has  been 
entertained  of  China.  Pretended  An- 
quity  of  the  Empire.  Reasons  for  Re- 
jecting that  Antiquity,  .        .        .92 

AncieTit  State  of  China.  Astronomical 
Observations.  Cannibalism  practised 
in  1300.     Summary  Conclusions,  .    93 

Table  of  the  Population  aiid  JRevenne  of 
China  Proper,  from  the  Chinese  Geogra- 
phy,      94 

Collection  of  Old  Statements  of  the  Popu- 
lation, .......     94 

Modern  Statements  of  Population,     .         .     95, 


BOOK  XLV. 

THIBET. 

General  View.  Marco  Polo's  Descrip- 
tion, 95 

Singular  Practices.  Provinces  Enume- 
rated. Paternal  Incubation.  Shamans 
or  Magicians.  Progress  of  Information 
subsequent  to  Marco  Polo,  .         .         .96 

Boundaries.  Different  Names  of  the 
Country.     Mountains,  .         .        .         .97 

Rivers.  Brahma-pootra.  Hoan-ho,  Ira- 
waddy,  etc.  Lakes.  Climate.  Tem- 
perature. Climate  of  Bootan.  Vege- 
tation.   Agriculture,   .        .        .        ,98 


VI 


CONTENTS. 


Page 

Animak,  Quadrupeds.  Fish,  etc.  Mines. 
Tinkal  or  Rorax,  ....     99 

Geographical  Divisions.  Doubts  regard- 
ing- them.  Cities.  Houses.  Buildings. 
Bridges.     Different  Towns,  .         .  100 

Little  Thibet.  Remarks  on  the  Country 
of  Beloot-Tag,  Pamer,  Parestan,  etc.      101 

Character  of  the  Thibetians.  Marriages. 
Plurality  of  Husbands.  Funerals.  Lan- 
guage.   Written  Character.   Industry.  102 

Religion.  Shamanism,  Brahminism,  and 
Lamaism.  Discusssions  on  Shamanism, 
and  its  Identity  with  the  Worship  of 
Fo  or  Budha, 103 

Origin  of  the  Dalai-Lama.  Connexion 
with  Nestorianism  traced,     .         .        .  104 

Government,  Civil  and  Ecclesiastical. 
Population.  Army.  Spiritual  Power 
of  the  Grand  Lama.  Is  he  the  Prester 
John  of  Travellers?  General  Infer- 
ence^   105 

Caufihistan.  Aspect  of  the  Country. 
Inhabitants, 106 

Are  the  Caufirs  Descended  from  the 
Greeks  ?  Rehgion.  Customs.  Govern- 
ment.  Dress.    Houses.    Food.    Wars,  107 

Kaushkar,  and  its  Inhabitants,  .        .        .  108 


BOOK  XLVL 

INDOSTAN. 
Paiit  I.   Physical  Description. 

Knowledge  of  India  possessed  by  the  An- 
cients.   Name  of  India,        .        .        .  108 

Sanscrit  Names.  Boundaries.  Superfi- 
cial extent, 109 

Mountains. — The  Himalahs,  .         .         .110 

Their  height, Ill 

Mountains  on  the  West  of  Indostan.  The 
Ghauts.     Eastern  Ghauts,    .        .         .112 

Western  Ghauts.  Vandhia  Mountains. 
Outline  of  India.  Its  Coasts.  Their 
Shallows.  RivEHs.  Their  Majestic 
Character,   .        .         .         .        .        .113 

The  Indus, 114 

Rivers  of  the  Punjab.  The  Jylum.  The 
Chenab.     The  Ravey,  .         .         .115 

The  Beyah.  The  Sutledge.  The  Gan- 
ges. Its  Source.  Ramifications.  In- 
undations,      .116 

Volume  of  its  Water.  Worship  paid  to  it,  117 

The  Brahmapootra.  The  Nerbuddah. 
The  Tuptee, 118 

The  Godavery.  The  Krishna.  The  Ca- 
daverj'.  Climate.  Seasons.  Dry 
Season.    Rainy  Season.   Temperature,  119 

Reputed  Longevity  of  the  Indians.  En- 
demic  Diseases.     Elephantiasis,  .         .  120 

Feutility.  Deserts.  Alimentary  Plants. 
Flowers.     Plants  used  in  the  Arts,       .  121 

Bamboo  Thickets.  Sugar.  Indigo.  Palms. 
The  Jaggari.  Fruit  Trees.  Forest 
Trees, 122 

Ebony.  Gums.  Amomum.   Malabathrum, 


p»gp 

Bdellium.   Sipachora.    Mits-ehais.  Me- 

.tals, 123 

Diamonds.      Precious  Stones.      Animal 

Kingdom.  Monkeys,  ....  124 
Bats.     Rats.    Bears.    Tigers.    Panthers. 

Lions.    Horses.    Asses,  .        .  125 

Camels.       Sheep.      Goats.      Antelopes. 

O.xen, 126 

The  Ami.     The   Elephant.      Mode  of 

Catching.    The  Rhinoceros.   Serpents. 

The  Worship  of  them.  Reptiles,  .  127 
Fishes.     Insects.     Birds,         .        .        .128 


BOOK  XLVII. 

INDOSTAN  CONTINUED. 

Paiit  II.  Topographical  View  of  the  Couit' 
tries  on  the  Itidus  and  Ganges. 

Province  of  Lahore.   Hilly  Part.   Punjab.  129 

The  Seiks.  Their  History.  Present 
State.     Character  and  Manners,  ,        .  130 

Population  and  Trade.  Revenue.  City 
of  Lahore.     Runjeet  Singh,        .        .  131 

North-West  Parts.  Different  Doabs.  An- 
cient Monument.     Amritsir,        .         .  132 

Hill  Territory.  Mooltan.  Bahawulpoor. 
Sinde, 133 

Cities.    Chinganes.    Gypsies.    Chalchan,  134 

Cutch.  Infanticide.  The  Runn  Morass. 
Guzerat, 135 

Different  Classes  of  the  Population.  Gras- 
sias.  Bhatts.  Charons.  Ungreas. 
Parsees;  their  History,        .        .        .  136 

Customs.  Employments.  The  Borahs. 
Industry  of  this  Province.  Customs  in 
Cases  of  Bankruptcy,  ....  137 

Revolutions  and  Present  State.  Jutwar. 
The  Juts.  Peninsular  Portion.  Hero- 
Ism  of  Concubines,       ....  138 

Doaraca.  Sacred  Usages  of  the  Place. 
City  of  Cambay.     Surat,      .         .        .  139 

City  of  Ahmedabad.  Baroda.  Broach. 
Province  of  Adjemere.    Jauts,    .         .  140 

Rajepoots.  Town  of  Adjemere.  Bhat- 
tees.  Biccanere.  Jesselmere.  Jood- 
poor, 141 

Shekawutties.  J^eypoor.  Kotah.  Bhoon- 
dee.    Odeypoor.   Fortress  of  Chittore,  142 

Basin  of  the  Ganges.  Province  of  Mal- 
wah.  The  Bheels.  Chanderee.  Se- 
ronge.     Oojein, 143 

Indore.  Bopaul.  Saugor.  Account  of 
the  Pindarees.     Their  Expeditions,     .  144 

Their  Suppression.  Province  of  Agra. 
City  of  Agra, 145 

Akber's  Palace.  The  Mosque.  Mausolea, 
etc.  Family  of  Abul  Fazel.  Great 
Gun  of  Agra.     Futtipoor,     .         .         .  146 

Mathura.       Sacred  Monkeys.      Kanoje. 
Furruckabad.       Fortress   of   Gualior,  147 
Bhurtpoor, 148 

Macherry.  Province  of  Delhi.  City  of 
Delhi.     Buildings.     Palace, 


CONTENTS. 


Vll 


Page 

Peacock  Throne.  Pillar  of  Cuttub  Minar. 
Kewarry.  Paniput.  Rohilcund.  The 
Rohillas,        ......  149 

Saharunpoor.  Hurdwar.  Annual  Pil- 
grimages. Hurriana.  Province  of 
Oude, 150 

Lucknow.  Site  of  the  City  of  Oude. 
Province  of  Allahabad,        .        •        •  1^1 

City.  Hindoo  acts  of  Piety.  City  of 
Benares.  Fables  connected  with  this 
City, -152 

Its  Learning.  Observatory.  Pannah. 
Diamond  Mines.    Province  of  Bahar,  153 

City  of  Patna.  Gaya  and  its  Pilgrimages. 
Boglipoor.     Monghir.     Its  Artizans,    .  154 

Province  of  Bengal,  its  Physical  Posi- 
tion and  Aspect.  Produce  and  Agricul- 
ture.    Commerce.     Inland  Navigation,  155 

City  of  Caicutta.  Its  Situation.  Build- 
ings.    Black  Hole.     Indian  Quarter,  .  156 

Fort  William.  Population.  Society  and 
Manners.     The  Asiatic  Society,  .        .  157 

Chandernagore.  Chinsura.  Serampore. 
The  Sunderbunds.  Sagor  Island.  Hu- 
man Victims,        .         .  .         .  158 

Commencement  of  Cultivation,  Recently 
Formed  Island.  District  of  Bacher- 
gunge.  Jessore.  Hoogly.  Tides. 
Nuddea.    Plassey.  Midnapoor,   .        .  159 

The  Sontal  Race.  District  of  Burdvvan. 
Birboom.  Moorshedabad.  District  of 
Rajshahy.     City  of  Rajemahl,      .         .  160 

District  of  Purneah.  District  of  Dinage- 
poor.  Ruins  of  Gour.  Eastern  Dis- 
tricts.    Rungpoor.     State  of  Morals,  .  161 

Rangamatty.  Goalpara.  Descendants  of 
the  Portuguese.  District  of  Cooch-Ba- 
har.  District  of  Mymunsingh.  Its 
Improvement.    Silhet  District,     .        .  162 

Its  Oranges.  Changes  of  Property.  The 
Cosseahs.  Slave  Markets.  Tiperah. 
Dacca  Jelapoor,  .         .         •         •     _  •  163 

City  of  Dacca.  Manufactures.  District 
of  Chlttagong.  Islamabad.  Inhabitants. 
The  Mughs, 164 

Isle  of  Sundeep.  Countbies  ix  the 
Northers  Mountains.  Sutledge  and 
Jumna.     Present  Political  State,  .  165 

Gurwal  and  Kumaoon.  Town  of  Serina- 
gur, 166 

Kumaoon.  Fortress  of  Almora.  Paper 
Plant.     Kingdom  of  Nepal,  .         •  167 

The  Newars.  Original  Inhabitants.  Great 
Valley  of  Nepal.    Catmandoo,  .  168 

Valley  of  Noakote.  The  Twenty-Four 
Rajahs.  Mucwanpoor.  Morung.  Sik- 
kim,     .        , 169 

Bootan.  The  Ueb  Rajah  and  Dharma 
Rajah, 170 

Kingdom  of  Assam.  Adjoining  States. 
Bidgenee, 171 

The  Garrows.  Their  Character  and  Cus- 
toms.    Cachar, 172 

Miinipoor,        ,....•  17o 


BOOK  XLVIII. 

INDOSTAN  CONTINUED. 

Paut  III.    The  Seccan  or  Southern  Iiidos- 
tan. 

Fage 

General  Account, 173 

Divisions.  Kingdomof  the  Deccan.  Mo- 
gul Province  of  the  Deccan.  State  of 
the  Nizam.  Late  and  Present  Divisions. 
The  Deccan  Proper.     Land  Carriage,    174 

Province  of  Cundwana.  The  Gond  Tribes. 
Nagpoor.    Amerkoontook,  .        .        .  175 

Mundela.  Ruttunpoor.  Province  of  Oris- 
sa.  Balasore.  Temple  and  Worship 
of  Juggernaut,     .....  176 

Festival  of  the  Car.  Singular  Power  of 
Fanaticism.  Self-immolations.  Im- 
provements connected  with  Jugger- 
naut.    European  Scruples,  .         .  177 

ReveHue  and  Expenses  of  the  Temple. 
Province  of  tlie  Northern  Circars. 
Division  of  the  Country  into  A^illages,    17S 

Political  Vicissitudes.  District  of  Gan- 
jam.  Vizagapatam.  Desperate  Con- 
duct of  a  Zemindar.  Rajamundry.  Ma- 
sulipatam.  District  of  Guntoor.  Pro- 
vince of  Khandesh.     Arabian  Colonies,  179 

Province  of  Berar.  Suicides  at  Cala  Bhai- 
rava.  Province  of  Beeder.  Province 
of  Hyderabad.  City  of  Hyderabad. 
Nizam's  Court,      .         .         .        .         .180 

Golconda.  Province  of  Aurungabad.  Its 
Capital.  City  of  Dowletabad.  Antiqui- 
ties of  Ellora.     Island  of  Bombay,      .  181 

Its  Advantages  as  a  Station.  European 
Society.  Communication  with  Calcut- 
ta.   Island  of  Salsette.    Its  Population,  182 

Elephanta.  Its  Cave.  Caranga.  Henery. 
Kenery  and  other  Islands.  Mahratta 
Countries, 183 

Account  of  the  Mahratta  Nation.  Origin 
of  the  Peshwa.  Other  Chiefs.  Mah- 
ratta Armies.     Their  Mutual  Quarrels,  184 

Civil  Establishments.  Fall  of  the  Peshwa. 
City  of  Poona, 185 

Caverns  of  Carli.  Incarnate  Deity  of 
Chinchoor.  Province  of  Bejapoor. 
City  of  Bejapoor,        ....  186 

Fort  Victoria.  Gheria.  Warree.  Goa. 
Portuguese  Territory,  .         .         .  187 

Colapoor.  Parnella.  Satara.  Its  Raja. 
Wassotah.  Punderpoor.  Darwar.  Hoo- 
bly.     Bijanagur, 188 

India  South  of  the  Rivek  Krishna. 
General  Physical  Features.  The  Car- 
natic,  or  Coromandel  Province.  Choul- 
tries,      189 

Temples.  Inhabitants.  Madras.  Na- 
ture of  the  Shore  and  Landing.  Cata- 
marans. Fort  George.  Garden  Houses 
or  Villas, 190 

Society.      Pedlars.      Jugglers.      Black 


Vlll 


CONTENTS, 


Page 
Town.     Population.     Origin  and  Pro- 
gress of  this  Settlement.     Presidency 
of  Madras.     Chain  of  Forts,         .         .  191 
District  of  Nellore  and  Ongole.    Nellore. 
Koman  Antiquities.     Northern  Arcot. 
Temple  of  Tripetty.    Vellore.    South- 
ern Arcot.      Fort  of  Gingee.     Pondi- 
cherry.     French  Settlement,       .         ,  192 
Trivicary.      Its  Pagoda.      Petrifactions.     ^ 
Fort  St.  David.      Cudalore.      Pagodas 
of  Chillambaram.     The  Chingleput  or 
Jaghire,        ......  193 

St.  Thome.     District  of  Tanjore.     State 
and  Character  of   the   Present  Baja. 
Combooconam,     .....  194 

Tranquebar.  Danish  Settlement.  Nega- 
patam.  District  of  Tinchinopoly.  Dis- 
trict of  Dindigul  and  Madura.     Dindi- 

gul  Division, 195 

Madura  Division.    Island  of  Ramisseram. 

District  of  Tinnevelly,         .         .         ,  196 
Climate  of  Trichendore  and  Courtallum. 
Cultivation  of  Spices  attempted.    Cape 
Comorin.     Central  Plateau.     Ceded 
Districts  of  Balaghaut,  .        .         .  197 

District  of  Bellary.     Soondoor.     District 

of  Cuddappah,  Province  of  Mysore,  198 
Power  of  the  Ilaja.  Seringapatam,  .  199 
Overthrow  and  Death  of  Tippoo.     City 

of  Mysore.     Chitteldroog,  .         .         .200 
Bangalore.  Province  of  Coirabatoor.  Pro- 
vince of  Barramahal,    ....  201 
Western   Coast.      Province   of   Canara. 
Revolutions  and  Present  State.    Popu- 
lation.    North  Canara.    Soonda.     Kar- 
war.     Onore.     Lake  of  Onore,    .        .  202 
South  Canara.     Mangalore.     Province  of 

Malabar.    Local  State  of  the  Castes,  .  203 
Niadis.    Nairs.    Their  Singularities.    Na- 
tive Christians  of  St.  Thomas.      Syi-o- 
Romish  Christians,        ....  204 
Subjugation   to   Hyder  and  to  Tippoo. 
Tellicherry.      Mahd.      Calicut,     The 
Moplay  Race,                .         .        .         .205 
Cochin.     Christians.     Jews;  White  and 
Black.   PoUlical  State  of  Cochin.  City. 
Cranganor.     Province  of  Travancore,   206 
Produce.   Civil  and  Political  State.  Laws 
of  Succession.    Trivanderim.   The  Pa- 
lace,      207 

Attinga,  , 208 


Page 
213 
214 
215 
216 
217 
218 


BOOK  LXIX. 

INDOSTAN  CONTINUED. 

Part  IV.   Island  of  Ceylon.     The.  Laccu- 
dives,  and  the  JMaldives, 

Names  of  Ceylon.      Situation.     Extent. 

Climate.    Monsoons,    ....  208 

Salubrity.    Rivers, 209 

Minerals.  Vegetables.  Cinnamon,  .  210 
Animals.     The  Elephant.     Buffaloes  and 

other  Quadrupeds,  ,        .        .211 

Birds.     Reptiles.      Insects  and  Worms. 

The  Ceylon  Leech.    Fisli,  ,        -        .  212 


Pearl  Fishery, 

Population.     Different  Classes, 
Singalese  Character.     Castes, 
Outcasts.    The  Kandians.    Laws,  •. 

Religion.     Literature,      .... 

Arts.     Domestic  Habits.     Manners, 

General  Character.  Singalese  of  the 
Maratime  Provinces.  Malabars  and  Ma- 
lay inhabitants, 219 

Christians.  Historical  Revolutions  of 
Ceylon.  Discovery  by  the  Portuguese. 
Dutch  Ascendancy.  The  English. 
Causes  for  the  Occupation  of  the  Inte- 
rior by  the  English,     ....  220 

A  Rebellion.  Its  Suppression,  Towns, 
and  other  Localities.  Jaffnapatam  and 
its  Neighbourhood,       ....  221 

Prevailing  Crimes.  North-west  Coast. 
Aripo  and  Condatchy.  Peninsula  of 
Calpeuteen.  Putlam.  Chilaw.  Ne- 
gumbo.    City  of  CoLUMno.   The  Fort,  222 

The  Pettah.     Suburbs.    Neighbourhood,  223 

Courts  of  Justice.  Style  of  Society.  Re- 
marks. Caltura.  Point  de  Galle.  Ma- 
tura.      Temple  of  Agra-boddha-ganni,  224 

Belhgam,  Dondra-head.  Rock  of  Mul- 
geerelenna.  Tengalle.  Mahagampat- 
toe.    Batticaloe,  .....  225 

Trincomalee.  Wells  of  Cannia.  Coun- 
try between  Trincomalee  and  Jaffnapa- 
tam.    City  of  Kandy,  ....  226 

The  Palace.  Temples.  Tooth  of  Buddha. 
Colleges.    Adam's  Peak,     .        .        .  227 

Aspect  of  the  Country.  Lake  of  Minere. 
Kandelld.  Laccadive  Islands.  Maldives,  228 

Their  Internal  Trade.  Inhabitants.  Hos- 
pitality.  Government.  Foreign  Trade,  229 


BOOK  L. 

INDOSTAN  CONCLUDED. 

Part  V.    Jl  Historical  and  Moral  View  of 
India. 

Antiquities  of  the  Hindoos.  Ancient  De- 
votees. Female  Attendants  on  the 
Temples,  etc 230 

Extravagant  pretensions  to  Antiquity. 
Population  of  Indostan.  Mixture  of 
Races.     The  Hindoos,  .         .         .231 

Savage  Tribes.  Physical  Character  of 
the  Hindoos.    Languages  and  Dialects,  232 

Sanscrit.  The  Pracrit  and  its  Dialects. 
Division  into  Castes,     ....  233 

Example  of  the  Rigid  Laws  of  Caste. 
The  Brahmins, 234 

Their  DHl'erences.  Vishnuvites  and  Si- 
vites.  Four  States  of  a  Brahmin.  1. 
Brachmachari, 235 

2.  Grihastha.  Marriage.  Duties  of  a 
Grlhastha.    Corporeal  Purity,      .        .  236 

On  Scoffers.  Occupations  of  Brahmins. 
Their  Subtilty.  Religious  Toleration. 
Political  Bigotry,  .        .        .        .237 

3.  Vanaprastha.  4.  Sannyasl.  Rules  of 
Life.    Anomalous  Devotees,       .       .  238 


CONTENTS, 


IX 


Page 

239 

240 
241 


Infidels.  General  Character  of  tiie  Brah- 
mins. Caste  of  Kshatriyas.  Caste  of 
Vaisyas.      Caste  of    Sudras.       Mixed 

The  Pariahs.  Other  Outcasts.  Hindoo 
Religion, 

The  Trimurti.  Idolatry.  Brahma  and 
Vishnu.     SiA'a, 

Worship  of  Animals.  Transmigration. 
Hell  of  the  Hindoos.  Ceremonies.  Hu- 
man Sacrifices.  Births.  Marriages.  Fu- 
nerals,   242 

Temples.    Their  Attendants,  .        .        .  243 

Buddhists.  Jains,  etc.  Hindoo  Architec- 
ture. Science.  Literature.  Mode  of 
Writing, 244 

Chai'acters.  Hindoo  Indolence.  Luxury 
of  the  Women.  Miscellaneous  Cus- 
toms. Summary  of  the  Hindoo  Charac- 
ter,        245 

Trade  and  Industry.  Products  of  Indus- 
try,       246 

Dyes, 247 

Plants  used  in  Manufacture.  Commerce 
in  Provisions.  Monopoly  of  the  English 
Company,     ......  248 

Table  Illustrating  the  Indian  Trade.  Im- 
ports,     249 

Exports.     Remarks,        ....  250 

Political  Revolutions.  Character  of  the 
Native  Governments,   ....  252 

Persian  and  Grecian  Conquests.  Maho- 
metan Ascendancy.  Mahmood  of  Ghiz- 
nee.    Tamerlane.    Bauber,  .         .         .  253 

Akber.  The  Ayeen  Akberiy.  Aureng- 
zebe.  Decline  of  the  Mogul  Empii'e. 
Intrusion  of  Europeans.  The  Portu- 
guese.    The  Dutch,     ....  254 

The  French.  Austi'ians.  Danes.  The  Eng- 
lish.   Origin  of  their  Power.    Abuses,  255 

Political  State  of  India  in  1784.  Its  pre- 
sent State.    British  Policy,  .         .       __.  256 

General  Results.  Internal  Changes.  Staje 
of  Landed  Property,  tolice  and  Ad- 
ministration of  Justice,        .        .        .  257 

Proceedings  of  Missionaries.  Supposed 
instability  of  the  British  Power,  .        .  259 

Table  of  the  Area  of  the  Modern  States  of 
Indostan,  and  the  Population  for  1820,     260 

Tabie  of  the  JMilitary  Forces  of  the  Bri- 
tish in  In,dia,  as  laid  before  Parliament 
in  1819,         .         .         .         .         .         .261 

Table  of  the  Principal  Geographical  Po- 
sitions of  Indostan,  according  to  the  jnost 
Recent  Astronomical  Observations,    261-262 


BOOK  LI. 

CHIN-INDIA,  OR  INDO-CHINA. 

Paiit  I.  A  General  Account  of  this  Region, 
and  a  Description  of  the  Birman  Empire, 

Names  of  Chin-India,       ....  262 
Physical  Structure.    Uncertainties  about 
the  Origin  of  the  Rivers.     D'Anville 
supported  in  Opposition  to  Buchanan,  26J 
Vol.  II.— 6 


Page 

Opinion  on  the  liiver  of  Siam.  Different 
Accounts  of  the  liiver  Mei-Koiig.  Un- 
certainties about  the  Mountains,  .         .  264 

Climate.  Inundations.  Character  of  the 
V^egetation.  Forests.  Aromatic  Plants. 
Vegetable  J)ye-Stuffs.  McdicinalPlants,  265 

Alimentary  Plants.  Animals.  Minerals. 
Short  View  of  the  Chin-Indian  Nations. 
Their  Physical  Qualities.     Languages,  266 

Religions.  The  Bali,  or  Sacred  Language. 
The  Birman  Empire.  History  of  the 
Birmans.   Note  by  Philad.  Ed.     .267—268 

Situation  and  Extent  of  the  Empire.  Cli- 
mate. Vegetation.  Animals.  Mine- 
rals. Topography.  Kingdom  of  Cassay,  269 

Kingdom  of  Cachar.  Kingdom  of  Arra- 
can, 270 

Cheduba  Island.  Kingdom  of  Ava.  The 
Old  Capital.  Ummerapoor,  the  Mo- 
dern Capital.     Bamoo.     Monchaboo,  .  271 

Shembigewn.  Petroleum  Wells.  Prome. 
Savage  Tribes.  Lowashan.  Country 
of  Barma.  Kingdom  of  Pegu.  City  of 
Pegu, 272 

Temple  of  Shoemadoo.  Sea-ports.  Ran- 
goon. Southern  Provinces.  Mergui. 
Junkseylon.  Character  of  the  Birmans,  273 

Language.  Calendar.  Manufactures  and 
Trade.    Religion,         ....  274 

Laws.  Government.  Honours  of  the 
White  Elephant.  The  Court.  The 
Great.    Population.    Army,         .        .  275 

Revenue.  Political  Importance.  Protest- 
ant Missionaries.  Adjoining  chain  of 
Islands.     Tlie  Andamans,    .         .         .  276 

Their  Productions.  Inhabitants.  Nico- 
bar  Islands.  Productions.  Inhabitants. 
Barren  Island, 277 


BOOK  Lll. 

CHININDIA. 

Part  II.  The  Kingdom  of  Laos,  Tonqidn, 
Cochin-China,  Cambodia,  Siam,  Malac- 
ca, and  the  Interior. 

Kingdom  of  Yangoma.  Country  of  Lac- 
Tho.  Manners  of  the  Inhabitants. 
KiTigdom  of  Laos,        ....  278 

Its  Towns  and  Provinces.  Inhabitants. 
Government.     Priesthood.     ToNatiiji,  279 

Typhous  of  the  Gulf.  Climate.  Pro- 
ductions.  Natural  Curiosities.    Towns,  280 

Government.  History.  Empire  of  Annam. 
The  Tonquincse  Character.  Sea  and 
Land  Forces.     Laws.     Customs,  .  281 

Manufactures.  Trade.  Cochin-Cuina. 
Uncertainties  about  its  name.  Uncer- 
tainty of  International  Divisions.  Pro- 
vinces and  Towns,        .         .        .        .  282 

Coasts  of  Cochin-China.  Alluvial  Depo- 
sitions. The  nigh  Country.  Low  Coun- 
try,        283 

Inhabitants.  Their  Manners.  Religion. 
Manufactures  and  Arts,        .        .        .  284 


CONTENTS. 


Page 

Historical  Events.  The  Bishop  of  Adran. 
King  N'guyen  Shoong.  Government 
and  Military  Force.  Kingdom  of  Tsi- 
ompa,  ..;....  285 

Donna'i.  The  Paracels.  Condor  Island. 
Kingdom  of  Cambodia.  Hiver.  Towns. 
Productions,         .....  285 

Ancient  City.  State  of  Ponthiamas.  King- 
dom OF  SiAM.  liivers.  Inundations. 
Seasons.  Vegetable  and  Animal  Pro- 
ductions,      ......  287 

Minerals.  Towns  and  Provinces.  The 
Loeach  of  Marco  Polo,         .         .         .  288 

The  Siamese.  Their  Language.  Man- 
ners. Public  Amusements.  Industry. 
Commerce.  Religion.  Laws.  Govern- 
ment,   .289 

Army.  History.  Account  of  Constantine 
Phalcon.  Peninsula  op  Malacca.  At- 
tempts made  to  explore  the  Interior. 
Journey  of  Van  der  Putten.     Produc- 

,    tions, 290 

Tin  Mines.  Provinces  or  Kingdoms.  Pa- 
tani.  Tronganon.  Pahang.  City  of 
Malacca.  Pera, 291 

Queda.  Poolo-Penang,  or  Prince  of 
Wales's  Island, 292 

Note  by  Philadelphia  Editor,       .     292—293 

Table  of  the  Chief  Geographical  Posi- 
tions of  Chin-India,      ....  292 


BOOK  LIII. 

OCEANICA. 

Paut  I.  General  Description  of  this  Divi- 
sion of  the  World,  comprehending  the  Re- 
gions situated  in  the  Great  Ocean  be- 
tween Jlfnca,  Jlsia,  and  America. 

General  View  of  Oceanica,     .         .         .  293 

Boundaries  of  Oceanica.  Designation  of 
this  part  of  the  World,         .  _      .         .294 

Subdivisions.  North-west  Oceanica.  Cen- 
tral Oceanica,  and  Polynesia.  Chains  of 
Mountains.  Their  regular  Direction. 
The   Principal  Chains,         .         .         .  295 

High  Islands.  Volcanoes.  Low  Islands. 
Their  apparent  Physical  Origin,  .         .  296 

Dangers  of  the  Navigation,  lleefs.  Straits 
of  Oceanica, 297 

Particular  Seas.  Winds  and  Currents. 
Climate.    Animals.    Quadrupeds,         .  298 

Birds.  Fish.  Seals.  Whales.  Crabs.  Poi- 
sonous Fish,  .....  299 

The  Vegetable  Kingdom.  Ahmentary 
Plants.  Palms:  their  Utihty.  Bread 
Fruit, 300 

Observations  on  New  Holland.  Fruit 
Trees.  Precious  Woods.  Gums.  Flow- 
ering Shrubs.     Aromatic  Species,         .  301 

Poisonous  Species.  Kaces  of  Men.  Ex- 
tension of  the  Malay  Race.  Their  Phy- 
siognomy,      302 

Identity  of  Language.  Similarity  of  Go- 
vernment and  Laws.  Ceremonial  Dan- 
ces,    bolcina  Songs,  ....  303 


Page 

Amusements.  Society  of  Arrcoy.  Divi- 
sion into  Castes.  Funeral  Ceremonies. 
Ideas  of  a  Future  State.  Mode  of  Dis- 
persion ? 304 

Examples  of  Strayed  Boats.  DifTerent 
Hypotheses  offered.  Focus  of  Malay 
Civilization, 305 

Connection  with  India.  Epoch  of  , Civi- 
lization. Second  Migration  of  the  Ma- 
lays,    Race  of  Oceanic  Negroes,  .  306 

Their  Extension.    Degenerate  Varieties,  307 


BOOK  LIV. 

OCEANICA. 

Paiit  II. — North-Westehn  Oceanica; 

Particular  Account  of  the  Sunda  Islands  ; 
or  Sumatra,  Java,  and  Borneo. 

Names  of  Sumatra.  Extent.  Mountains. 
Volcanoes.    Soil.    Mineralogy,     .         .  508 

Climate.  Vegetable  Productions.  Spices,  309 

Animals.  Birds.    Geographical  Divisions,  310 

Kingdom  of  Acheen.  The  Capital.  Go- 
vernment.    Laws,        ....  311 

The  Batta  Country.  An  Ancient  Build- 
ing.    The  Battas,        ....  312 

Their  Cannibalism.  Government.  Reli- 
gion and  Customs.    Passaman,      .        .  313 

The  Rejangs.  Bencoolen.  Empire  of 
Menangkaboo.  Sultan.  Literature. 
Arts.  Arms.  Kreeses.  Lampoon 
Country.     Kingdom  of  Palembang,     .  314 

Seraglio.  Society  of  Thieves.  Negroes. 
Islands  of  Banka  and  Billiton.     Jamby,  315 

North-eastern  Shore.  Sincapore.  Islands 
on  the  West  of  Sumatra.  Nyas.  Nas- 
sau Islands.     Strait  of  Sunda,      .         .  316 

Java.  Its  Names,  Mountains.  Soil. 
Climate  on  the  Coast,  and  in  the  Inte- 
rior.    Vegetable  Productions,      .        .  317 

Maize.     Yams,  etc.      Palms.      The  Man- 

.....  318 


gosteen. 


The  Durion.  Flowers.  Plants  used  in 
Manufactures.  Produce  for  Exporta- 
tion  319 

Animals.  Esculent  Bird-nests.  Geogra- 
phical Divisions.  Kingdom  of  Bantam. 
Kingdom  of  Jocatra.     Batavia,  ,         .  320 

Its  F^nvirons.  Kingdom  of  Cheribon. 
Mahometan  Tomb,  The  Company's 
Government.  Kingdom  of  Mataram. 
Population,  ......  321 

Account  of  the  Javanese.  Their  Physi- 
cal Constitution.  Moral  Character. 
Integrity.    Credulity,  ....  322 

Savage  Passions.  Treatment  of  Women. 
Customs, •  323 

Amusements.  Tiger  Fights.  The  Drama. 
Houses, 324 

Useful  Arts.  Dress.  Calculation.  Mu- 
sic,      .        .         ,         .         .         •        •  325 

Language,   Histories.   Sunda  Language,  326 

Anc'ient  Religion  and  Antiquities.     Pre-  ^ 
sent  Religion, 327 


CONTENTS. 


XI 


Government.    Revenue, 

Connection  of  the  Dutch  with  Javd.  Mas- 
sacre of  the  Chinese.  Subsequent 
History, 

Character  of  the  Dutch  Colonists.  Of 
the  Chinese  Settlers.  Isiakd  of  Ma- 
dura. IsiAND  OF  Bali.  Peculiarity  of 
Keligion, 

BoKNEo.  Mountains.  Rivers  Climate.  Mi- 
nerals.    Vegetables,     .... 

Animals.  Inhabitants.  Different  States. 
People  of  the  Interior, 

Badjoos.  Tedongs.  Haraforas.  Ne- 
grillos. Dutch  Settlement.  English 
Factory, 


Page  Page 

328  Plants  and  Flowers.     Towns.     Manners 

of  the  Natives, 350 

Neighbouring  Islands.  Fountain  of  Oaths. 

329  Banda  Islands.  The  Great  Timorian 
Chain.  Aroo  Islands.  The  Keys.  Ti- 
mor-Laot,     ......  351 

Timor:  its  Productions.     Climate.     Dis- 

330  eases.  Towns.  Anchorages,  etc.  Cha- 
racter of  the  People,  ....  352 

331  Neighbouring  Islands.       Savoo  Islands. 

Sandal-Wood   Island.      Solor.     Floris. 

332  Sumbawa.  llemarks  on  their  Lan- 
guages,       ......  353 

Lombok.    Molucca  Sea.   White  Water,  .  354 

Tablf,  of  Geographical  Positions  in  JVorth 
Wcstei'n  Oceanian,         ....  354 


BOOK  LV. 

OCEANICA. 


BOOK  LVI. 


Part  III.  Nobth-Westeiin  Oceanica  Cok- 

CLUDED. 

The  Philippines,  Moluccas,  mid  Timorian 
Chaiji. 

Philippine  Islands.  Mountains.  Volca- 
noes. Nature  of  the  Country.  Sea- 
sons and  Climate.    Vegetable  Fertility,  334 

Animals.  Inhabitants.  The  Ygolots. 
Manners  and  Laws.     Population,  .  ooS 

Spanish  Colony  and  Trade.  Account  of 
the  Island  of  Luzon.  Manilla  and  other 
Towns.     Mode  of  Living,     .        .         .  336 

Chinese  Residents.  The  Bissay  Islands. 
Samar.  Panay.  Mindoro.  Palawan, 
and  other  Islands.  General  Influence 
of  the  Spanish  Ascendancy,        .        .  oo7 

Mindanao.  Its  Productions.  The  Hara- 
foras. Other  Natives.  Navy.  Spanish 
Settlement.     Sooloo,  ....  338 

Ambergris  found  here.  Pearl  Fishery. 
Navy.  The  Spice  Islands.  Celebes. 
Its  Soil  and  Productions,     .         .         .  339 

Mines.  Sulphurous  Lands.  Different 
States.     Boni, 340 

Inhabitants.  Their  Ferocity.  On  Run- 
ning a  Muck.  Military  Character  and 
Habits.  Manners  and  Customs.  Amuse- 
ments.    The  Chase,     ....  341 

Religion.  Government.  Historical  Epochs,  342 

Islands  of  Sanghir,  Siao,  etc.  Butung  and 
Salayer.     The  Moluccas,     .         .         .  343 

Volcanoes.  Climate.  Plants.  Cloves. 
Nutmegs, 344 

Animals.  European  Aggressions.  Mas- 
sacre of  Amboyna,        ....  345 

Effects  of  the  Monopoly  of  Spices,        .  346 

Description  of  the  Island  Gilolo.  Isl- 
and of  Mortay.  Ternati.  Tidore. 
Motur.     Makian  and  Batchian,     .        .  347 

Oby  and  Mixoal.  Zula  Islands.  Island  of 
Booro.    Ceram.     The  Sago  Palm,         .  348 

Mountains.  Alfoors,  or  Original  Inhabi- 
tants. A  Singular  Entertainment.  Isl- 
and of  Amboyna,         ....  349 


OCEANICA. 

Part  IV.  JVev)  Holland  and  its  Dependen- 
cies, 

New  South  Wales.     Chain  of  Mountains. 

Their  Height, 355 

Constituent  Parts.    Rivers.    Climate  and 
Seasons,        ......  356 

Vegetation.  Alimentary  Plants.  Animals. 
Ornithorinchus,   .....  357 

Birds.    Black  Swans.     Amphibia.    Fish. 

Inhabitants.  Account  of  the  Gwea-gal,  358 
Dwellings.  Courtship  and  Marriage.    Su- 
perstitions.    Language.     English  Co- 

LoxT 359 

Town  of  Sydney.    Paramatta.    Windsor. 

Hawkesbury  River,      ....  360 
Liverpool.     Colonial  Institutions  and  Im- 
provements,    Newcastle,  and  the  Coal 
River.     Coal  Mines.    Port  Macquarrie,  361 
Country  to  the  West  of  the  Blue  Moun- 
tains.    State  of  Society.     Remarks  on 
Moral  Fastidiousness,  ....  362 
Industry.      Van  Dieman's  Island.      Ori- 
ginal Inhabitants,  ....  363 
Climate.      Mountains.      Rivers.     Lakes. 

Coasts, 364 

Vegetation.    Animals.     Minerals.  Topo- 
graphy and  State  of  the  Colony,  .         .  365 
Exports.     Statistical  I'ables.    Two  years 

compared, 366 

Southern  Shores  of  New  Holland.  Pro- 
ductions. Quadrupeds,  .  -  .  367 
Inhabitants.  Baudin's  Country,  or  Na- 
poleon'sLand.  Gulf  St.  Vincent.  Spen- 
cer's Gulf.  Cape  Catastrophe,  .  .  368 
Nuyts's  Land.  D'Entrecasteaux's  Obser- 
vations. Plants  seen  by  Labillardiere. 
King  George's  Sound,  .         .         .  369 

Lewin'sLand.  Geographer's  Bay.  Edel's 
liand.  Swan  River.  D'Endracht's 
Land.    Its  Productions.    Petrifactions. 

Shark's  Bay, 370 

De  Witt's  Land.  Its  Soil  and  Climate. 
AVinds  and  Tides.    Inluabitants.    Cape 


Xll 


CONTENTS. 


Page 


Willem.  Dampier's  Archipelago.  For- 
rester's Archipelago.  Indications  of  an 
opening, 

Adele  Island.  Buonaparte's  Archipelago. 
Cape  Van  Diemfen.  North  Coast.  Arn- 
heim's  Land.    Van  Diemen's  B.a)^, 

Gulf  of  Carpentaria,  liivers.  Cape  York. 
Endeavour  River.  Bay  of  Inlets.  Con- 
jectural Geography  of  the  Interior,     . 

Methods  of  exploring  it,         ... 

Tablk  of  Geographical  Positions  in  J\^t~:v 
Iloiland  and  the  Adjacent  Islantls,  375 — 376 


3ri 


372 


374 


New  Hanover.  Small  Islands.  Admi- 
raltylslands.     Hermit's  Islands,  , 

New  Guinea.  Our  imperfect  knowledge 
of  it.  Coasts.  Mountains.  Vegetable 
Productions.  Animals.  Ornithology. 
Birds  of  Paradise,         .         .         .         . 

Inhabitants.  Bajoos,  Haraforas.  Oce- 
anian Negroes.  Clothing.  Dress. 
Trade  with  the  Chinese.  Peculiar 
Fire-arms.     Boats.     Island  of  Waijoo, 

Salwatty  Island.  Islands  of  St.  David  and 
Freewill, 


Page 
392 


393 


394 
395 


Table  of  the  Geograplnccd  Positions  of 
the  Great  Compound  Chain  extending 
fromJVew  Zealand  to  JVe^v  Guinea,  395 — 39G 


BOOK  LVII. 


OCEANICA. 

Pakt  V.  -Kew  Zealand,  JVew  Guinea,  and 
the  Intervaiing  Gronps. 

New  Zealand.  Progress  of  its  Discover}'. 
Extent.     Soil  and  Climate,  .         .         .  577 

Mountains.     Kocks  and  Minerals,    .         -  378 

Rivers.  Vegetation.  New  Zealand  Flax. 
Animals, 379 

Inhabitants.      Their  Political   and    Civil  . 
State.     Their  Ingenuity,      .         .         .380 

General  Cliaractcr.     Religion,         .         .  381 

Suicide.  Wai-like  Habits  and  Cannibal- 
ism. Massacres  Committed  on  Euro- 
peans,   382 

Causes  and  Remedy  of  these  Atrocities. 
Good  qualities  of  the  People.  Adjoin- 
ing Islands  to  the  South.  Chatham 
Island.  Its  Productions,  Inhabitants. 
Norfolk  Islanj),  ....  383 

Nkw  Caledonia.  MouTitains.  Rocks. 
Vegetation.  Animals.  Harbours.  In- 
habitants,       384 

Isle  of  Pines,  etc.  Nkw  Heuuides.  Isl- 
and of  Tanna.  Its  Productions.  Inha- 
bitants,   385 

Women.  Sandwich  Island.  Api,  Paoom, 
etc.  Whitsuntide  Island,  Aurora,  etc. 
Mallicola.     Iniiabilants.     Language,    .  386 

Terra  del  Spirito  Santo.  Bays  and  Har- 
bours. Inhabitants.  Poisonous  Fish. 
Vegetable  Productions,  Islands  seen 
byQuiros, 387 

Solomon's  Islands  and  Santa  Cuttz. 
Mendana's  Discoveries.  Carteret's  Ob- 
servations,   .         .         .         ...         .  388 

Observations  of  d'Entrecasteaux  and  La- 
billardicre.  Discoveries  of  Survilie. 
Manners  of  the  Inhabitants.  Discoveries 
of  Bougainville.  Shortland's  Disco- 
veries.   Recapitulation,         .         .         .  389 

Nature  of  the  Country.  Inhabitants. 
Productions.  Low  Islands  Adjoining. 
Archipelago  of  Louisiade.  Its  Inha- 
bitants,         390 

Archipelago  of  New  Britain.  Its  Na- 
ture and  Productions,  ....  391 

Mountains.  Plants  and  Animals.  Island 
of  Cocoas.     Duke  of  Yoi-k's  Island. 


BOOK  LVIII. 

OCEANICA. 
Part  VI.  Eastern  Oceanica  oh  Po- 

LTNESIA. 

Pelew  or  Palaos  Islands.  Inhabitants. 
Government.  Soil  and  Produce.  Ani- 
mals,     397 

Small  Islands.  Marian  Islands.  Inha- 
bitants. Their  Proas  or  Canoes.  Ani- 
mals. Vegetables.  Island  of  Tinian. 
Contradiction  among  Navigators,        .  398 

Volcanic  Islets.  Remarkable  Rock.  Ca- 
roline Islands.  Inhabitants.  ]Manners. 
Laws.     Knowledge  of  the  Compass,    ,  399 

Islands  seen  by  Captain  Wilson.  Mta- 
fiRAVE  Islands.  Islands  little  known. 
To\imaco  or  Rotuma  Island.  Feyjee 
Islands.   Friendly  Islands,         .         .  400 

Tongataboo  particularl}'  Described.  Cli- 
mate. Seasons.  Rocky  Foundations, 
tiovernment.     Character  and  Manners,  401 

Religion.  Dwellings.  Boats.  Mlddle- 
burg,  Rotterdam,  and  other  Islands. 
Ilornc  Island,        .....  402 

Navioator's  Island.  Soil.  ^Mountains. 
Maoona.  Its  Productions.  Inhabitants. 
Murder  of  IMessrs.  Langle  and  Lama- 
non.     Oyolava  Island,  ....  403 

Population.  Society  Islands.  Otaheite. 
Its  Soil.  Harbours.  Climate.  Seasons. 
Vegetable  Productions,        .         .         .  404 

Animals.  Inhabitants.  Circumcision. 
Tattooing.  Houses.  Plantations.  Castes. 
Succession  to  the  Throne,  .        .        .  405 

Nobles,  Lords,  Farmeivs,  etc.  Rights  of 
Property.  Religion.  A  Trinity.  In- 
ferior Deities.  A  Future  State.  Mo- 
ra is.    Funerals, 406 

Conduct  of  Women.  Child-Birth.  So- 
ciety of  Arreoys.  Population.  Indus- 
try. Account  of  the  other  Society 
Islands,        .        .         ....  407 

Detached  Islands  in  the  South.  Easter 
Island.  Low  Islands.  Dangerous 
Archipelago.     MAnauESAs  Islands,     .  408 

Mendana's  Account  of  them.    Nature  of 


CONTENTS. 


Xlll 


Page 
the  Land-    Fruits  and  Plants,    Inhabi- 
tants.    Religious  Ceremonies.     Man- 
ners and  Customs,        ....  409 
Note  by  the  Fhil.  Ed.     .        .        .  410—411 
Roggewynn's   Archipelago.      Sandwich 
Islands.     Inhabitants.    Dress.     Their 
Dexterity  in  Swimming.    Government,  411 
Climate.     Mountains.    Animals.    Plants. 
Particular  Islands,        ....  412 

Table  of  the  Geographical  Positions  of 
Eastern  Oceanicuy  or  Polynesia,  413-414-415 


BOOK  LIX. 

AFRICA. 

A   General  Viexv  of  this  Division  of  the 
World,  and  its  Inhabitants, 

Africa  little  known.  Seas  and  Gulfs. 
Promontories.    Straits,        .         . 

Isthmus.  Rivers.  Configuration  of  the 
Mountains.  Mountain  Chains.  On  the 
Existence  of  a  Central  Chain, 

Reasons  against  its  Existence.  Why  has 
Africa  few  Islands  ?  Plains  and  Table 
Lands.    Rivers  without  Outlets,  . 

Periodical  Swellings  of  the  Rivers.  Cli- 
mate.     Temperature.       Contrasts  of 


416 


417 


418 


419 


Fertility, 

General  View  of  its  Vegetation.  Animals. 
Peculiar  Animal  Forms,       .         .         .  420 

Man.  Three  African  Races.  Languages 
of  Africa.     Progresss  of  Civilization,  .  421 

Primitive  State.  Fetichism.  Theocracies 
of  Meroe,  Thebes,  etc.  Internal  Revo- 
lutions of  Egypt.     The  Carthagenians,  422 

The  Romans.  Christianity.  The  Arabs 
and  Mahometanism.  The  Turks.  Mo- 
dern State, 423 


Page 
Mountains  of  Suez.     Saline  Depositions. 

Mountains  of   Upper   Egypt.     Valley 

of  the  Natron  Lakes.     Valley  of  the 

Dry  River.     Changes  of  the  Soil,        .  429 

Lake  Mosris.  Maritime  Lakes.  Lake 
Menzaleh.     Canals,      ....  430 

Climate.  Varied  Aspect.  Causes  of  the 
Scarcity  of  Rain,  .        .         .         ,431 

Temperature.  The  Mirage.  Progress 
of  the  Winds.  North  Winds.  The 
South  Winds,  or  Khamseen.  Endemic 
Diseases, 432 

Ophthalmia.  Vegetables.  Crops  of  the 
Inundated  Lands.  Corn  Crops.  Cul- 
ture of  Dry  Lands,       ....  433 

Artificial  Irrigations.  Fruit  Trees.  Vines. 
The  Persea, 434 

The  Lotus;  different  meanings  of  this 
term.  Forest  Trees.  Table  of  the 
Succession  of  Cultures  through  the 
Year, 435 

Animals.  Crocodile.  Hippopotamus. 
Fish.    Birds, 436 


BOOK  LX. 


EGYPT. 


BOOK  LXI. 

EGYPT. 

Part  II. — Inquiries  relative  to  the  Isthmus 
of  Suez,  and  the  Extremity  of  the  Ara- 
bian Gulf. 

Question  proposed.  Level  and  Inclina- 
tions of  the  Surface,    .        .        .        .437 

Consequences  of  its  Level.  Hypothesis 
on  the  Waters  of  the  Mediterranean. 
Position  of  Heroopalis.  Heroopolis 
is  not  Pithom 438 

Distances  assigned  in  the  Itineraries,       .  439 

Objections.  Mythological  Tradition.  Con- 
clusions.   The  Heroopohs  of  Ptolemy,  440 

Position  of  Clysma.  Cause  of  Ptolemy's 
Error.     Conclusion,     ....  441 

Ancient  Measures  of  the  breadth  of  the 
Isthmus.  Examination  of  a  passage  in 
Moses.  Heroopolis  is  not  identical 
with  Baal-Zephon,        ....  442 

Canal  of  the  two  Seas.  Antiquity  of 
this  Work, 443 


Paut  I. — A  Physical  Description  of  this 
Country. 

The  Nile,  its  Sources  and  Course,  .  .  424 
Communication  of  the  Nile  and  Niger. 

Cataracts  of  the  Nile.     Valley  of  the 

Nile.      Parallel  line  of  the  Mountains. 

Level.  Basin  of  Faioom,  .  .  .  425 
Plains  of  the  Delta.     Mouths.     Depth 

and  Rapidity, 426 

Navigation.      Inundations   of   the   Nile. 

Mud  of  the  Nile, 427 

Qualities  of  the  Nile  Water.     Nature  of 

the  Rocks,       Specimen  of   Obelisks. 

Mountains  of  Cosseir,  .        .        .  428 


BOOK  LXII. 


EGYPT. 


Part   III. — Topographical  and  Political 

Details. 


Historical    Revolutions.         Mamelukes. 

French,        

Ancient  and  Modern  Division.     Towns  of 

Lower  Egypt.   Alexandria.   Harbours. 

The  Ancient  City, 


444 


445 


XIV 


CONTENTS. 


Page 
Column  called  Pompey's  Pillar.    Rosetta. 

Northern  Coasts,  ....  446 

Damietta.     Towns  of  the  Eastern  Delta. 
Point  of  the  Delta.      Interior  of  the 
Delta.     Places  of  Pilgrimage,      .        .  447 
Towns  on  the  West  of  the  Delta.    Grand 
Cairo.     Origin  of  Cairo.     Manners  and 

Amusements, 448 

Town  of  Djizeh,  and  the  Great  Pyramids.  449 
Belzoni's  Operations  on  the  Second  Py- 
ramid,   450 

The  Great  Sphinx.  Pyramids  of  Sakhara. 
Middle  Egypt.    Faioom.    Lake  Moeris. 
Peculiar  Land  Tax,      ....  451 
The  Labyrintli.    Caverns  of  the  Thebaid. 

Ancient  Paintings,        ....  452 
Akmin.    Meshieh.    Djirdjeh.    Denderah. 
Its  Temples.  The  Zodiacs.  Remains  of 
Ancient  Customs,         ....  453 
Keft.  Kuins  of  Thebes.  Temples.  Tombs 

and  Mummy-Pits,  ....  454 
Description  of  the  Mummies.  Evidences 
of  the  State  of  the  Arts  among  the  An- 
cient Egyptians,  l.inen  Manufactures. 
Drawing  and  Painting.  Architecture. 
The  Arabs  of  Goornoo,  .  .  .  455 
Researches  of  Belzoni.  Erment,  or  Her- 
monthis.  Caverns  of  Elythia.  Ruins 
of  Syene.  Observations  on  the  Change 
of  the  Obliquity  of  the  Ecliptic,  .  456 

Appearance  of  Syene.     Islands  of  Ele- 
phantine and  Philee.     The   names  of 

these  Islands, 457 

Shores  of  the  Red  Sea.    Cosseir.   Desert 
of  the  Thebaid.  Monasteries  of  St.  An- 
thony and  St.  Paul.    City  of  Suez.  The 
Ancient  Berenice.  Emerald  Mountains,  458 
Arab  Tribes.     The  Oases.      The  Great 

Oasis, 459 

Temple  of  El-Kargeh.  Necropolis.  Wes- 
tern Oasis.    Temple  of  Daer-al-Hadjar,  460 
Indigo  Manufacture.    Little  Oasis.    Oases 
in  the  Eastern  Desert.    Government  of 
Egypt.     Land  Tenures.    Revenues,     .  461 
Population.     Recent  Revolutions.     Man- 
ners and  Customs  of  the  Mamelukes,  .  462 
Manners  and  Customs  of  the  Copts.  Phy- 
sical Constitution.   Coptic  Language,  .  463 
Religion.     Name  of  Copts.     The  Arabs. 

Fellahs.    Turks 464 

Greeks.  Contrast  of  Manners.  Heredi- 
tary Parties.  Art  of  Swimming.  Car- 
rying Pigeons.  Enchanters  of  Serpents,  465 
Pottery.  Antiquitiesof  this  Art.  Weaving. 
Rose  Water.  Abyssinian  Caravans. 
Commerce  of  Cosseir,  .        .         .  466 

Caravans  from  Darfoor.    Other  Caravans,  467 

Table  of  Geographical  Positions,  Astro- 
nomically observed  by  M.  Nouet,    .        .  467 


Page 
Vegetable  Species.    Animals.    Minerals. 
Divisions.  Turkish  Nubia.  Sketches  of 
Topography  and   Antiquities.      Deir. 
Ibrim.    Hogos.    Ebsambool,        .        .  469 

Barabras.  The  Ababdes.  State  of  Don- 
gola, 470 

Kingdom  of  Sennaar.  Inhabitants.  The 
Nubians.  The  Shillooks.  City  of  Sen- 
naar,      471 

Government.  On  the  Name  of  Fungi. 
Southern  Provinces.  Abyssinia.  Situ- 
ation and  Extent,         ....  472 

Different  Names.  Mountains.  Rivers. 
Temperature.     Seasons,       .        .        .  473 

Mineral  Productions.  Plants.  Alimen- 
tary Plants.  Aromatic  Trees.  Animals. 
Two  Horned  Rhinoceros,     .        .        .  474 

The  Giraffe.  The  Zebra.  Insects.  Un- 
certainty of  the  Number  of  Provinces. 
Kingdom  of  Tigre,       ....  475 

City  of  Axum.  Inscription.  Dixan.  Tem- 
ple of  Abuhasubba.  Monastery  of 
Fremona.  Provinces  of  Wogara,  Sireh, 
etc.  Kingdom  of  Dembea.  City  of 
Gondar, 476 

Kingdom  of  Gojam.  Begamder.  Am- 
hara.  State  Prison.  Xoa.  Damota. 
Dismembered  Provinces.  Inhabitants. 
The  Abyssins,  or  Agazians,  .        .        .  477 

Languages.     Historical  Epochs,       .        .  478 

Present  State.  Religion.  Civil  and  Po- 
litical State, 479 

The  Army.  Houses.  Abyssinian  Feasts. 
Savage  Nations.  Their  Religion,  Laws, 
and  Customs, 480 

The  Shangallas.  The  Agows.  The  Ga- 
fates.  The  Gurags.  The  Falasjas,  or 
Abyssinian  Jews, 481 

TnoGLODYTicA,  or  the  Coast  of  Habesh. 
Minerals.  Want  of  Water.  Vegeta- 
bles. Animals.  Modes  of  Living.  The 
Troglodytes.  Language,  Manners,  and 
Customs, 482 

Fishermen,  Topography.  Emerald 
Mines.  Isle  of  Topazes.  The  Coun- 
try of  Beja  or  Bodsha,         .         .         .  483 

Port  of  Aidab.  Town  and  District  of  Sua- 
kem.     Island  of  Dahalac.     Massua,      .  484 

Country  of  Samhar.  Territory  of  Bahar- 
Nagash.     Dankali,        ....  485 


BOOK  LXIII. 

rUBiA,  ABYSSINIA,  AND  THE  COASTS 
OF  BEJA  AND  HABESH. 

Region  of  the  Upper  Nile.    Nubia.     Its 
boundaries.   Climate.    Deserts,  .        .  468 


BOOK  LXIV. 

THE  REGION  OF  MOUNT  ATLAS,  BAR- 
BARY,  AND  ZAHARA. 

Part  I. — General  Features  of  these  Coun- 
tries, 

Region  of  the  Atlas,        ....  485 
Mount  Atlas  Described.  Great  and  Small 
Chains.     Extension  of  Atlas.     Nature 

of  the  Rocks, 486 

Hypothesis  of  M.  Ideler,  on  the  Atlas  of 
tlie  Ancients.  Tlie  Atlas  of  the  Phe- 
nicians.    The  Atlas  of  Homer,    .        .  487 


CONTENTS. 


XV 


Page 


Objections  to  this  Hypothesis.  ^  Passage 
in  Maximus  Tyrius.  Description  of  the 
Region  of  Mount  Atlas.     Vegetation,  . 

Vegetation  of  the  Table  Land.  The  Fo- 
rests.    Vlowers.    Alimentary  Plants,  . 

Animal  Kingdom.  Camel  of  the  Desert. 
Degrees  of  Swiftness.  Other  Domestic 
Animals.     Wild  Animals, 

Descriptioh  of  the  Bears  of  Africa.  Os- 
trich Hunting.  Inhabitants.  The  Moors. 
Moorish  Fanaticism,    .        .        .        • 

Arabs.    The  Berbers,     .... 

The  Maraboots.  Description  of  a  Plague,  493 


488 
489 


490 


491 
492 


Tribes  to  the  North  of 

Fate  of  the  Captives. 

South  of  Cape  Blanco. 
Manners  of  the  Moors. 

of  Morocco.      Danger; 

Route  of  this  Caravan, 


Vage 

Cape  Blanco. 

Tribes  to  the 

The  Trarsas,  510 

The  Caravan 

Encountered, 

.  511 


Mode  of  Living  of  the  Travellers.  De- 
serts and  Oases  of  the  Centre.  Origin 
of  the  Desert, 512 


BOOK  LXVI. 


BOOK  LXV. 

THE  BARBARY  STATES  AND  THE 
GREAT  DESERT  OF  ZAHARA. 

Part  IL — Detailed  Descriptions. 

The  Desert  or  Kingdom  of  Barca.  Ruins 
of  Cyrene, 494 

Oasis  of  Siwah.  The  Oasis  of  Audjelah. 
The  Desert  of  Haroodjeh,  .        .        .  495 

Fabulous  Town.  Fezzan.  Climate.  Soil 
and  Productions,  ....  496 

Government.  Inhabitants.  Tibbos.  Tri- 
poli. Climate  and  Products.  Towns. 
Antiquity  of  Tripoh,  ....  497 

Different  Towns.  Government.  Navy. 
Kingdom  of  Tunis.  Government. 
Climate, 498 

Productions.  City  of  Tunis.  Ruins  of 
Carthage.  State  of  Gadames.  State 
or  Algiers,  .....  499 

Note  by  Phil.  Ed.,   .        .         .    _    .499—503 

Soil  and  Productions.  Boundaries.  Di- 
visions. City  of  Algiers.  Towns  of 
the  Province  of  Mascara,     .        .         .  503 

Of  Constantine.  Inhabitants.  Empire 
OF  Morocco,  .....  504 

The  Almoravides.  Boundaries.  Produc- 
tions. Rivers.  Cities  of  the  Kingdom 
of  Fez,        .         .         ....  505 

Towns  of  the  Kingdom  of  Morocca. 
Towns  to  the  South  of  the  Atlas.  Po- 
pulation of  Moi'occa,    ....  506 

Government.  Administration.  Civil  Con- 
dition. Religions.  Situation  of  the 
Jews, 507 

Pride  of  the  Moors.  Singular  Points  of 
Etiquette.  Revenues.  Export  Trade. 
Imports,        .        .        .        ,        .        .  508 

Bildulgerid.  Soil  and  Minerals.  Climate. 
Vegetation.    Animals.    The  Coast,    .  509 


SENEGAMBIA  AND  GUINEA. 

Climate  and  Temperature  of  Senegam- 
bia.  Winds.  Temperature  of  Guinea. 
Winds.     Hurricanes,    ....  513 

Mountains.  Rivers.  The  Senegal.  The 
Gambia, 514 

Vegetation.  Forest  Trees.  Aromatic 
Plants.     Gums.     Alimentary  Plants,    .  515 

Guinea  Grass.    Animals.    Monkeys,        .  516 

Domestic  Animals.  Insects.  Termites. 
Cowries.     Minerals,     ....  517 

Gold  Mines.  Other  Minerals.  The 
French  Settlement.  Kingdom  of  Owol. 
The  Foulahs.  Extension  of  this  Peo- 
ple,       518 

Serracolets.  Kingdom  of  Galam.  The 
Mandingos.     The  Bambookans,  .        .  519 

lallonkadoo.  The  Yalofs.  Emperor  of 
the  Yalofs.  Detached  States.  Kingdom 
of  Salum.     Palace  of  Kahane,     .         .  520 

The  Serreres.  Petty  States.  The  Pe- 
loops.  Boundaries  of  Guinea.  Laws 
and  Manners, 521 

The  Papels.  Portuguese  Settlement. 
Bissajas  Islands.     Bulam,     .         .        .  522 

Manners  of  the  People.  Rio  Grande. 
The  Naloe.  Sierra  Leone.  Philanthro- 
pic Settlement.     Slave  Trade,     .        .  523 

Liberated  Slaves.  Commerce.  Division 
of  Guinea  into  Coasts,  .         .        .  524 

Productions  of  the  Grain  Coast.  Quoya 
and  Hondo  Countries,  etc.  Manners. 
Ivory  Coast.  The  Quaquas.  The  Gold 
Coast, 525 

European  Settlements.  Particulars  on 
the  Interior.  Cultivation  of  the  Land. 
Diversities  of  Soil,       ....  526 

Inland  Nations,  Slave  Coast.  Kingdom 
of  Dahomey.    Barbarous  Customs,       .  527 

The  Eyeos.  Kingdom  of  Benin.  Laws. 
Customs.  Festivals.  Kingdom  of  Wa- 
ree.  Calabar,  etc.  River  of  Cameroons,  528 

River  of  Gaboon.  The  Calbongos,  the 
Biafras,  and  the  Ibbos,         .        .        .  529 


SYSTEM 


or 


UNIVERSAL  GEOGRAPHY. 


Siberian,  Cos- 
sack, and  other 
nations. 


BOOK  XXXVIII. 

SIBERIA. 

Its  JVations,  Provinces,  and  Towns. 

When  we  mean  to  give  a  description  of  an  extensive  country  in  detail,  it  presents 
itself  in  tvi'o  different  points  of  view,  which  have  two  corresponding  modes  of  sub- 
division. It  may  be  divided  into  governments,  provinces,  and  districts.  It  may 
also  be  divided  according  to  the  nations  which  inhabit  it.  The  one  of  these  methods 
is  that  of  chorography ;  the  other,  that  of  ethnography.  We  usually  begin  with  the 
first.  In  the  present  instance  we  shall  begin  with  the  last,  as  an  order  fitted  to  im- 
part both  greater  clearness  and  greater  interest  to  our  descriptions. 

The  Russians,  Cossacks,  and  other  colonists  from  Europe,  inhabit 
chiefly  the  towns  and  military  stations  of  Siberia.  Some  of  them  are 
descended  from  the  soldiers  employed  in  the  conquest  of  the  country ;  others  are 
criminals  sent  thither  in  banishment.  To  these  two  classes  are  to  be  added  adven- 
turers, deserters  among  the  peasantry,  and  ruined  merchants  who  have  sought  here 
the  means  of  repairing  their  fortunes.  These  different  classes  of  colonists,  burying 
themselves  in  a  vast  desert,  have  joined  to  their  original  grossness  that  which  is 
generated  by  a  savage  climate.  But,  if  ignorance,  indolence  and  drunkenness  often 
encroach  on  their  happiness,  we  find  them  praised  by  travellers  for  their  generous 
hospitality,  their  frank  gaiety,  and  the  good  order  which  prevails  among  them.  Only 
a  century  ago  the  Siberians  were  considered  as  so  savage  a  race,  that  Peter  the 
Great  conceived  that  he  could  not  inflict  a  severer  punishment  on  his  mortal  enemies 
the  Swedes  than  to  send  them  to  Siberia.  The  consequence  was,  that  these  honour- 
able exiles  introduced  into  that  country  the  customs  and  the  manufactures  of  Europe. 
While  employed  in  ameliorating  their  own  situation,  they  civihzed  the  people  among 
whom  they  came.  The  Swedes  founded,  in  1713,  the  first  school  at  Tobolsk; 
there  they  taught  German,  Latin,  French,  geography,  geometry,  and  drawing.  In 
1801,  Mr.  Kotzebue  found  in  that  place  people  who  studied  the  Rus-  progress  of 
sian,  French,  and  German  literature,  and  saw  his  own  plays  acted  on  a  civilization, 
public  theatre.*  These  were  symptoms  of  the  extended  progress  of  the  Siberians  in 
the  cultivation  of  the  mind.  At  the  same  time,  the  governors,  and  the  civil  and 
military  officers  have  introduced  into  the  Siberian  towns  the  manners  of  Petersburg, 
with  the  Russian  vanity  and  ostentation.     Mr.  Lesseps  saw  elegant  carriages  rolling 

•  Kotzebue's  Account  of  the  most  remarkable  year  of  his  Life. 
Vol.  II.— a 


Life  of  agri- 
culturists, 
hunters,  &c. 

archal.     T 


Tartar  colo- 
nies. 

Biriuss,  Kat- 
sdiinians,  &c, 


BOOK  THIRTY-EIGHTH. 

along  the  streets  of  Irkutsk.  But  this  refinement  of  the  manners  of  the  Siberians 
has  not  had  an  opportunity  of  extending  to  the  small  towns  and  the  villages  which 
are  sadly  scattered  in  the  midst  of  vast  forests.  Some  farmers,  rich  in 
flocks,  scarcely  know  the  use  of  money,  and  lead  a  life  altogether  patri- 
le  hunters,  ranging  the  deserts,  are  transformed  into  a  sort  of  savages. 
The  frozen  ground  serves  them  for  a  bed;  they  quench  their  thirst  with  the  berries 
of  the  thickets;  they  even  drink  the  blood  of  the  animals  immediately  after  they  are' 
shot.  The  Cossack  who,  at  Tobolsk  or  at  Irkutsk  finds  himself  confounded  with 
the  populace,  becomes  a  sort  of  monarch  when  sent  among  the  Samoids  or  the 
Yookaghires  to  collect  the  taxes,  and  to  maintain  the  social  order  of  the  country. 
He  has  a  cottage  for  his  palace,  and  a  corporal's  staflT  for  a  sceptre;  the  delicacies 
of  his  table  consist  in  salmon,  the  flesh  of  rein-deer,  and  the  heads  of  bears.  Some 
Cossack  families  established  in  the  towns  have  obtained  the  rank  of  dvoriainin,  or 
patrician  nobles.* — The  merchants  of  Siberia  are  chiefly  itinerant,  going  from  town 
to  town,  and  from  market  to  market. — The  number  of  Europeans  established  in  that 
country,  and  of  Siberiaks,  or  descendants  of  Europeans,  amounts  at  present  to  half 
a  million. 

The  numerous  Tartar  colonies  occupy  the  south  part  of  the  govern- 
ment of  Tobolsk.  Those  removed  farthest  to  the  east  are  the  Biriusses, 
the  Katschinzi  or  Katschinians,  and  the  Beltires.  These  three  tibes, 
more  or  less  mixed  with  Mongolian  blood,  live  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Abakan,  a 
river  which  falls  into  the  Upper  Yenisei.  The  Katschinians  are  rich  in  cattle.  Their 
beardless  visage  indicates  a  mixture  of  Mongolian  blood.  They  have  among  them 
Sayanians.  |  some  doxtrous  magicians,  who  dress  like  the  French.l  In  the  south 
the  Sayanians  occupy  the  high  mountains  of  that  name.  These  nomades  have  some 
Teieootes.  |  features  of  resemblance  to  the  Mantchoos.;j;  A  tribe  of  Teleootes,  or 
Telengutes,  lives  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Kutznesk ;  the  greater  part  of  them  live 
in  the  Kalmuk  country.  The  Russians  call  them  the  white  Kalmuks.  Some  of 
them  who  have  been  obliged  to  submit  to  baptism  still  neglect  the  greater  part  of  the 
ceremonies  of  the  Greek  church.  Their  language  is  half  Mongolian.§  In  going 
dov/n  the  rivers  Tomsk  and  Tchulym,  we  find  two  Tartar  colonies, 
called  after  the  names  of  these  rivers.  The  Tchulym  Tartars  speak 
a  dialect  consisting  of  Tartar,  Buriaite-MongoUan,  and  some  Yakoot  words.  || 
Among  various  insignificant  tribes,  we  may  mention  the  Abinzi,  who  call  themselves 
in  the  singular  number  Ma,  and  in  the  plural  Malar.  They  live  among  the  Telen- 
Barabintzi,  |  gootes.  In  passing  the  Obi  we  find  the  Barabinians,  (Barabintzi,)  who 
live  by  fishing  and  their  flocks,  in  the  great  steppe  known  by  this  name.  Some  of 
them  are  Mahometans,  and  the  rest  pagans.  The  Tartars  of  the  Obi 
live  along  the  left  bank  of  that  river,  as  far  as  the  environs  of  Narym. 
Those  of  Tobolsk  live  on  the  two  banks  of  the  river  of  this  name,  from  the  fron- 
tier all  the  way  to  its  mouth.  The  Taralians,  in  the  district  of  Tara,  speak  the 
same  dialect  as  the  preceding.  The  Turalinzi  or  Turalinians,  the  most  civihzed  of 
all  the  Tartars  of  Siberia,  inhabit  the  towns  and  villages  situated  on  the  banks  of 
the  Tara,  from  the  mountains  till  it  reaches  the  Tobol.  They  were  forcibly  bap- 
tized in  the  river  by  Philoppei,  a  noble  or  ecclesiastical  dignitary,  assisted  by  a  body 
of  Cossacks. 

The  constitutions  of  the  Tartars  are  generally  robust  and  vigorous. 
Their  simple  mode  of  life,  their  frugality,  and  their  cleanliness,  protect 
them  from  the  greater  part  of  contagious  and  malignant  diseases,  excepfing  the 
small-pox,  which  has  at  different  times  spread  terrible  ravages  among  them.  The 
cleanhness  and  temperance  of  this  people  chiefly  depends  on  their  religion.  The 
Koran  enjoins  them  to  wash  themselves  several  times  a-day.1T     By  forbidding  the 

*  Georgi,  Russie,  ii.  (vol.  4to.)  1009.  t  Pallas,  Voyages  en  Russie,  iv.  580.  4to. 

*  Gmelin's  Travels,  iv.  370.  8vo.  (in  German.) 

§  Georgi,  Description  of  Russian  nations,  ii.  240,  in  German.     Vocab.  Petropolit.  No.  101. 
S  Vocab.  Petrop.  No.  96. 

il  "U  donne  mfme  despt^ceptes  que  lesfemmes  son  toblig^es  do  suivre  dans  les  accidens 
propres  a  leur  sexc." 


Tartars  of 
Tomsk, 
Tchulym,  &c. 


'I'artars  of  the 
Obi,  Tara,  &c. 


Manners  of  the 
Tartars. 


Mongolian 
tribes. 

Booriaites. 


Tongooses,  or 
CEvoen. 


SIBERIA.  3 

use  of  spirituous  and  vinous  liquors,  it  secures  them  from  the  consequences  of  Rus- 
sian drunkenness.  The  commandment  which  prescribes  abstinence  is  less  favour- 
able to  health.  The  Tartars  observe  205  fasting  days  in  the  year.  The  whole 
number  of  Tartar  tribes  may  amount  to  a  population  of  100,000. 

We  now  proceed  to  mention  such  Mongolian  tribes  as  have  fallen 
under  the  Russian  sway.  The  true  Mongols  live  about  Kiachta  and  Se- 
linginsk,  and  are  in  small  number.  The  Booriaites,  or  Barga-Buratt,  a 
great  Mongolian  race,  have  peopled  almost  the  whole  province  of  Irkutsk,  and  that  of 
Nertchinsk  ;  they  are  computed  at  98,000  souls.*  In  their  exterior  the  Booriaites 
resemble  the  Kalmuks.  There  is  a  greater  proportion  of  fat  people  among  them  ; 
they  have  still  less  hair,  and  many  of  them  have  no  beard  whatever.  Their  com- 
plexion is  pale  and  yellow.  They  are  deficient  in  corporeal  strength  ;  a  Russian  of 
the  same  age  and  size  with  a  Booriaite  is  a  match  for  several  of  them  in  wrestling. 
The  Booriaites,  however,  enjoy  good  health,  though  they  seldom  reach  an  advanced 
age.  The  small-pox,  once  destructive  to  this  tribe,  has  stopped  its  ravages  since  the 
establishment  of  an  institution  for  inoculation  at  Irkutsk.  The  itch  is  very  prevalent 
among  them,  and  promoted  by  their  manner  of  living  and  clothing.  To  the  east  of 
lake  Baikal  they  make  use  of  warm  baths  in  chronic  diseases.  Their  physicians  are 
shamans  or  sorcerers,  who  attempt  to  cure  them  by  sacrifices  and  talismans  rather 
than  by  natural  remedies.  The  Booriaites  speak  a  very  rude  dialect  of  Mongohc, 
rendered  unintelhgible  by  frequent  transpositions  and  changes  of  consonants.^ 

The  third  race  of  indigenous  inhabitants  of  northern  Asia  is  that  of 
the  Tongooses,  who  call  themselves  (EvcEn.  The  Chinese  call  them 
Solon,  J  and  the  Yookageers  Erpeghi.  They  have  a  common  origin  with  the  Mant- 
choos.  The  Tongooses  are  distinguished  by  their  regular  conformation.  They  are 
usually  of  a  middling  size,  limber,  and  well  made.  Their  countenance  is  less  flat- 
tened than  that  of  the  Kalmuks  ;  with  small  and  lively  eyes,  the  nose  well  propor- 
tioned, and  beard  thin,  the  hair  black,  and  the  expression  agreeable.  The  Ton- 
gooses are  subject  to  few  diseases ;  yet  they  seldom  attain  old  age,  |  Constitution, 
which  proceeds  from  their  climate,  and  their  laborious  and  dangerous  mode  of  life. 
Sometimes  the  small-pox  makes  terrible  ravages  among  them.  The  priests  of  their 
idolatry  are  their  physicians.  Among  the  Tongooses  the  senses  of  sight  and  hear- 
ing are  incredibly  acute ;  the  organs  of  taste,  smell,  and  touch  are  less  sensible. 
These  nomades  are  well  acquainted  with  every  tree  and  every  rock  |  Mode  of  living, 
within  their  district.  They  can  point  out  with  certainty  a  road  of  a  hundred  miles, 
by  describing  the  stones  and  trees  which  occur  in  it ;  and  can  give  sure  directions  to 
travellers.  They  follow  the  game  by  the  slight  marks  which  their  steps  leave  on 
the  grass  or  on  the  moss.  They  have  never  submitted  to  the  rite  of  |  Religion, 
baptism.  Their  religion  is  a  branch  of  Shamanism.  Their  supreme  divinity  is  called 
Boa.  Polygamy  is  allowed  among  them.  Their  princes  are  called  Tai-Sha,  a  term 
which  appears  to  be  Mongolic.  The  language  of  the  Tongooses  is  a  dialect  of 
Mantchoo,  with  a  mixture  of  Mongolic  words,  chiefly  consisting  of  such  as  denote 
objects  relating  to  civilized  habits.  §  The  Tongoos  language  comprehends  eight 
or  ten  dialects. 

This  tribe  pitches  its  moveable  dwellings  over  a  third  part  of  Siberia.  It  extends 
from  the  banks  of  the  Yenisei  to  the  Sea  of  Okhotsk.  On  the  south  side  it  occu- 
pies the  east  part  of  Daooria.  These  Tongooses  are  good  horsemen,  I  Different  Ton- 
excellent  archers,  brave  and  robust.  Another  tract  of  the  country  inha-  j  ^°°''^  '"''"• 
bited  by  the  Tongooses  extends  between  the  Lena  and  the  Yenisei,  as  far  as  the 
lower  Tongooska.     Like  their  neighbours  the  Samoides,  they  are  poor.     Those  on 

•  Heym,  Encyclopedic  Russia,  p.  219,  (edition  of  1783-5.) 

f  Fischer's  History  of  Siberia,  i.  p.  33.  Gmelin's  Travels,  iii.  p.  570.  Georgi's  Description 
of  the  Russian  nations,  iv.  p.  420.  (all  in  German.) 

+  Fischer's  History  of  Siberia,  I.  465,  note  16.  Pallas,  Memoires  Histor.  sur  les  Mongols, 
1.  p.  2,  (in  German.) 

I  Vocab.  Petropol.  No.  138—145.  Georgi's  Travels  in  Siberia,  etc.  I.  268—271,  (in  Ger- 
man.) Filling's  Travels,  abridged  by  Sauer,  p.  387.  (in  German)  Fischer,  Ilistoire  de  Siberie, 
introd.  p.  116. 


4  KOOK  THIRTY-EIGHTH. 

the  Lena,  called  Olenians,  live  by  the  rein-deer,  and  the  produce  of  fishing  and 
hunting.  Their  name  is  from  Olena,  the  Russian  word  for  the  rein-deer;  lastly,  the 
Lamutes,  or  shoremen,  from  Lama,  the  sea,  in  the  Tongoose  language,  occupy  the 
province  of  Okhotsk,  as  far  as  the  limits  of  the  Koriaks.  Their  entire  number 
amounts  only  to  24,000  persons.* 

At  the  base  of  the  Uralian  mountains  of  the  north,  and  on  the  lower  Obi,  we  find 
some  tribes  of  Finnish  extraction,  and  perhaps  originally  from  Europe,  for  we  have 
no  proof  that  the  Finnish  nation  was  originally  Asiatic. 

Wogoois,  I  The  Wogools,  who  live  between  the  Tobol,  the  Berezof,  the  Obi, 
and  the  Uralian  mountains,  are  under  the  middling  stature.  They  have  generally 
black  hair  and  little  beard.  Their  principal  business  is  the  chase,  in  which  they  dis- 
play singular  agility  and  address,  and  manage  equally  the  musket  and  the  javelin. 
They  also  excel  in  laying  all  sorts  of  toils  for  deer.  They  call  themselves  JVTami; 
their  language  is  very  mixed. | 

Ostiaks  of  the  The  Ostiaks  of  the  Obi,  who  are  likewise  of  Finnish  extraction,  form 
°''''  one  of  the  most  numerous  tribes  of  Siberia,  reckoning  about  30,000 

males.  The  name  of  Ostiak,  which  signifies  stranger,  has  been  given  by  the  Tar- 
tars to  three  different  tribes.  The  Ostiaks  of  the  Obi,  named  Mansi  by  the  Wo- 
gools, assert  that  they  are  descended  from  the  Permians.  Before  submitting  to 
Russia,  they  were  governed  by  princes  of  their  own  nation  ;  and  from  their  descend- 
ants the  chiefs  of  the  tribes  are  still  taken.  This  people  has  no  alphabet.  They 
can  count  no  higher  than  ten,  which  is  also  the  case  with  the  other  Finnish  tribes. 
They  possess  the  country  from  Surgut  to  Berezof  and  Obdorsknoi. 
Manners  and  The  Ostiaks,  says  a  Russiau  traveller,  Souyef,J  are  small  and  feeble. 

Ostiaks.  Their  physiognomy  has  no  distinguishing  characteristic.     Their  hair  is 

generally  of  a  reddish  or  a  light  yellow  cast.  They  wear  a  tight  dress,  which  is 
made  of  skins  and  furs.  The  men  make  a  mark  upon  their  sldn,  the  women  sew 
figures  on  the  backs  of  the  hands,  the  fore  arm,  and  the  fore  part  of  the  leg.  Their 
summer  cabins  are  of  a  pyramidal  form  ;  the  winter  ones  are  square,  and  built  of 
wood.  The  Ostiaks  are  properly  fishermen,  but  in  winter  they  make  great  hunting 
expeditions.  The  rich  possess  flocks  of  rein-deer.  Nothing  is  so  dirty  and  disgust- 
ing as  their  appearance  and  manner  of  living  :  yet  they  enjoy  good  health.  They 
generally  die  of  scorbutic,  nervous,  and  other  chronic  diseases.  The  Ostiaks  are 
still  pagans.  In  swearing  allegiance  to  a  new  emperor,  they  are  made  to  go  on 
their  knees  before  a  bear's  skin,  or  an  axe  with  which  a  bear  has  been 
killed  ;  each  Ostiak  is  presented  with  a  piece  of  bread  on  the  point  of  a 
knife,  and  takes  his  oath  in  the  following  terms  :  "  If  in  the  course  of  my  life  I  be- 
come unfaithful  to  my  Czar,  if  I  do  not  pay  my  tribute,  if  I  desert  my  canton,  &c. 
&c.  may  a  bear  devour  me  !  may  the  morsel  of  bread  which  I  now  eat  suffocate  me, 
this  axe  cut  off  my  head,  and  this  knife  pierce  my  heart !"  This  is  a  ceremony  used 
among  all  the  idolatrous  people  of  Siberia.  The  bear  enjoys  among  them  a  religious 
veneration.  They  make  sacrifices  before  going  out  to  hunt  this  animal ;  and  after 
having  killed  one,  they  celebrate  his  memory  by  an  expiatory  fete,  and  by  songs  ad- 
dressed to  his  manes. § 

It  is  thought  that  the  whole  Samoid  race  has  moved  down  the  course 
of  the  Yenisei  ;  for  there  are  still  found  from  the  upper  YeniseY  and  the 
Abakan  to  the  west  end  of  lake  Baikal  some  weak  tribes  which  speak  dialects  which 
have  a  great  mixture  of  Samoid  words,  or  which  even  belong  entirely  to  that  lan- 
Soyetes.  |  guage.      Such  are  the  Soyetes,  who  are  said  to  be  numerous  in  Chinese 

Kaibaies.  |  Mongolia;  the  Kaibales,  who  leave  the  dead  bodies  of  their  children 
exposed  on  the  trees,  and  who  dispute  with  the  mountain  hare  the  heaps  of  hay 
Karagasses.  |  provided  by  that  intelligent  animal ;  the  Matores,  the  Karagasses,  the 
Kamachinzes,  and  lastly,  the  Ostiaks  of  Narym.||     It  might  appear  natural  to  con-  . 

•  Heym,  loc.  cit. 

f  Georgi,  Description  des  nations  Uusses,  i.  65.     Compare  with  Adelung's  Mithridates,  i.  p. 
S39.  +  Dans  le  Voyage  de  Pallas,  t.  Iv.  p.  51—88,  (4to.) 

§  Georgi,  Deer,  desnat.  Uusses,  i.  21. 
I  Fischer,  Histoire  de  la  Siberie,  i.  137,  168, 170,  &.c. 


Veneration  for 
the  bear. 


Tribe*  of  tlie 
Sanioid  race. 


Physical  con- 
stitution. 


SIBERIA.  5 

sicler  the  Ostiaks  of  the  Yenisei  or  of  Pumpokol  as  a  link  of  that  chain  ;  but  it  ap- 
pears that  this  tribe  of  hunters  has  formed  for  itself  a  pecular  jargon,  which  defies 
the  researches  of  historians.* 

The  Samoids  properly  so  called  occupy  an  immense  extent  of  terri-  |  samoids. 
tory,  covered  with  heath  and  morass.     They  are  bounded  in  Europe  by  the  river 
Mesen,  about  42°  of  east  longitude;  and  in  Asia  they  go  as  far  as  Olenek  near  the 
Lena,  and  almost  under  the  117th  meridian.     It  is  a  space  of  2070  miles  in  length, 
and  from  270  to  550  in  breadth. 

The  ordinary  stature  of  the  Samoids  is  from  four  to  five  feet ;  they 
are  generally  squat,  with  very  short  legs,  a  large  flat  head,  a  flat  nose, 
the  lower  part  of  the  face  very  projecting,  a  wide  mouth,  large  ears,  and  a  very  scanty 
beard;  their  eyes  are  small,  black,  and  angular  it  to  these  attractions  they  add  an 
olive  coloured  skin  shining  with  grease,  hair  black  and  bristly,  Avhich,  though  small 
in  quantity,  they  arrange  with  great  care.  The  women  have  an  easy  shape  and  mild 
features.  They  arrive  very  early  at  the  age  of  puberty.  The  greater  part  of  the 
girls  are  marriageable  at  eleven  or  twelve,  but  they  have  few  children,  and  they  cease 
bearing  before  thirty.  These  people,  who  may  be  called  the  Hottentots  of  the  north, 
only  use  their  tame  rein-deers  for  drawing  their  sledges ;  they  use  the  wild  rein-deer 
for  food.  Equally  dirty  as  the  Ostiaks,  they  are  richer  and  better  clothed.  Their 
only  worship  is  a  gross  form  of  fetichism;  a  stone  or  a  piece  of  wood  is  the  object 
of  their  adoration,  or  rather  of  their  superstitious  attention.  They  carefully  avoid 
pronouncing  the  names  of  the  dead.  J  Their  magicians  are  adroit  jugglers,  who  will 
plunge  a  knife  into  their  bodies  without  being  wounded.  Acting  the  part  of  inspired 
persons,  many  of  them  become  really  phrenitic.  Some  of  these  sorcerers,  at  the 
least  touch  or  look,  are  seized  with  a  kind  of  madness,  roll  upon  the  ground,  utter 
loud  bowlings,  and  even  attempt  to  kill  those  around  them  with  any  weapon  they  can 
find.  The  Russians,  who  are  accustomed  to  see  these  savage  people,  tell  us  that 
the  magicians  inspire  them  with  a  sort  of  terror.  The  women  are  ex-  |  Women, 
tremely  unhappy  and  despised ;  considered  as  impure  beings,  they  are  obliged  to 
perfume  themselves  before  passing  the  threshold  of  the  cabin.  The  amusements  of 
this  wandering  people  consist  in  dances,  in  which  they  keep  time  to  a  nasal  sort  of 
song.  Divided  into  different  tribes,  among  which  the  Obdorians  and  the  looraks  are 
the  most  remarkable,  the  Samoids  do  not  amount  altogether  to  20,000  persons ;  but 
placed  out  of  the  tract  of  conquerors,  they  have  preserved  their  language,  which 
resembles  no  other,  in  an  unmixed  state. §  They  give  themselves  the  name  of 
JVinctz,  as  apphed  to  their  nation.  Their  term  for  the  men  as  opposed  to  women  is 
Chosovo4 

The  Yakoots,  who  live  to  the  cast  of  the  Samoids,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the 
town  of  Yakootsk,  and  on  the  banks  of  the  Lena  all  the  way  to  the  Frozen  Sea,  ap- 
pear to  be  degenerated  Tartars,  who  have  withdrawn  themselves  from  the  power  of 
the  Mongols  by  emigrating  to  distant  countries.  They  call  themselves  Socha,  in  the 
plural  Sochalar;  there  is  still  among  the  Tartars  of  Krasnoiark  a  branch  which  bears 
this  name.  The  Yakoots,  contrary  to  the  custom  of  their  neighl)ours,  wear  long 
hair,  and  short  and  open  dresses.  In  dirtiness  they  yield  to  none;  for  a  grave  au- 
tlior  assures  us  that  the  mortars  which  they  use  for  bruising  their  dried  fish  are 
made  of  cow  dung  hardened  by  the  frost.  Their  number  in  all  amounts  to  84,000 
persons. 

The  Yookaghirs  inhabit  the  mountains  in  which  the  Indigirka  and  the  |  Yookaghirs, 
Kowyma  take  their  rise.     They  consist  of  500  families,  all  baptized,  who  live  by 
the  chace  and  the  produce  of  their  rein-deer.     We  do  not  well  know  whether  they 
should  be  numbered  among  the  Samoids  or  among  the  Yakoots,  or  be  conjoined 
with  the  tribes  which  are  next  to  be  enumerated.  || 

*  Adelung-,  Mithred,  i.  580. 

t  Storch,  Tableau  de  la  Kussie,  p.  405.     Souyef,  Voyage  de  Pallas,  iv,  p.  190,  (in  4to.) 
+  Wasili  Krestinin,  Observations  on  the  Samoides,  in  Basse's  Journal  of  Russia,  i,  p.  291, 
&.C.  .S71,  &c.  ii.  83,  &c.  245,  &c.  (in  German.) 
§  Vocabul.  Petropol.  No.  120—129. 
B  Georgi,  iii.  328.  Sauer,  Voyage  de  Billings,  38^  &.c. 


BOOK  THIKTY-EIGIITH. 


Tchooktches 
or  Tchoukot- 
ches. 


The  Tchooktches  possess  the  very  eastern  extremity  of  Asia,  on  the 
east  side  of  the  Yookaghirs,  and  on  the  north  of  the  Koriaks.  They 
consist  of  a  thousand  famihes  at  the  utmost,  who  are  generally  found  in  small  camps 
near  the  rivers.  Their  tents,  of  a  square  figure,  consist  of  four  poles  supporting  a 
roof  of  rein-deer  skins.  In  front  of  each  tent  lances  and  arrows,  fixed  in  the  snow, 
are  at  hand,  to  repel  the  sudden  attacks  of  the  Koriaks,  who,  though  belonging  to 
the  same  race,  often  annoy  them  with  perfidious  warfare.  In  the  middle  is  a  stove ; 
and  their  bed  consists  of  small  branches  of  trees  laid  on  the  snow  and  covered  with 
wild  beasts'  skins.     Their  dwellings  are  dirty,  and  their  food  disgusting. 


Manner  of 
living. 


The  dress  of  the  women  consists  of  a  deer's  skin  hung  from  the  neck,  so 


that  by  untying  a  single  knot  they  are  completely  naked.  The  Tchooktches  have 
large  features,  but  they  have  not  the  flat  nose  nor  the  small  eye  of  the  Kamtchatdales. 
Lesseps  says  that  their  figure  has  nothing  of  the  Asiatic  form,  and  Captain  Cook  had 
previously  made  the  same  observation.  The  Tchooktches,  are  able  slingers,  and 
display  much  courage  and  address  in  whale  fishing,  which  they  conduct  in  the  Euro- 
pean manner,  without  having  received  instructions  from  that  quarter. 
Different  '^^^^  Shclagi,  near  the  cape  which  bears  their  name;   the  Ashushalat, 

tribes.  and  the  Peyeskoli,  on  islands  of  the  Frozen  Sea  which  are  little  known, 

belong  to  the  family  of  the  Tchooktches. 

Koriaks.  |  The  Koriaks,  whose  number  does  not  amount  to  2000,  live  by  their 
rein-deers  or  by  hunting,  near  the  rivers  of  Anadyr  and  Olutora.  The  Olutorzi  (the 
Lutores  of  Witsen,)  speak  a  smooth  language,  but  in  general  the  idiom  of  the  Ko- 
riaks approaches  both  to  that  of  the  Tchooktches  and  to  that  of  the  following  tribe.* 
Kamtchat-  '^^^^  Kamtchatdales,  whose  number  diminishes  so  fast  that  in  a  httle 

dales.  the  whole  tribe  will  probably  be  extinct,!  are  a  people  of  short  stature, 

with  firm  shoulders,  a  large  head,  a  long  and  flat  countenance,  small  eyes,  small  lips, 
and  little  hair.  The  Kamtchatdale  women  have  fine  skins,  very  small  hands  and 
feet,  and  a  tolerably  well  proportioned  shape.  This  people  is  subject  to  few  diseases ; 
several  lame  persons  are  to  be  seen  among  them,  a  circumstance  probably  owing  to 
their  labours  and  perilous  undertakings.  Their  most  common  complaints  are  scurvy, 
and  diseases  resulting  from  immorality ;  the  latter  were  known  before  the  Russians 
came  among  them ;  they  have  no  physicians.  The  glare  of  the  snow  subjects  thepi 
Inoculation.  |  to  frequcnt  inflammations  of  the  eyes.  The  small-pox,  like  the  plague, 
carries  oflf  entire  generations;  yet  inoculation  has  been  long  used  among  them;  they 
perform  the  operation  on  themselves  with  a  fish-bone.  Their  sexual  temperament  is 
keen,  which  is  ascribed  to  their  fish-diet ;  and  their  tendency  to  libertinism  is  not  repress- 
Dweiiings.  (  ed  by  the  severity  of  the  climate.  The  Kamtchatdales  of  the  south  have 
their  isbas,  or  balane^ans,  tliat  is  to  say  their  winter  and  summer  cabins,  raised  on  stages 
twelve  or  thirteen  feet  high,  for  the  purpose  of  drying  their  fish,  which  is  almost  their 
whole  support.  They  wear  next  their  bodies  a  cotton  shirt,  with  wide  pantaloons  of 
deer  skin;  their  boots  are  of  tanned  leather,  and  their  caps  of  fur.  The  chief  occu- 
pation of  the  men  is  fishing.  In  the  summer  the  women  go  into  the  woods  to  gather 
vegetables,  and  during  this  occupation  they  give  way  to  a  libertine  phrenzy  like  that 
of  our  ancient  Bacchanti.  They  travel  on  a  light  carriage,  on  which  they  sit  side- 
ways, and  instead  of  the  rein-deer,  they  are  drawn  by  dogs  of  a  breed  very  similar  to 
our  shepherd's  dog.  In  the  north  of  Kamtchatka,  the  cabins  are  subterranean  exca- 
vations, which  retain  the  heat  with  advantage;  but  the  confinement  and  exhalations 
generate  an  atmosphere  which  is  insupportable. 

We  now  proceed  to  give  an  account  of  the  provinces  and  towns  of 

Siberia. 

The  province  of  Ekaterinburg  belongs  to  the  government  of  Perm, 

the  greater  part  of  which  is  situated  in  Europe.  It  occupies  the  eastern 
declivities  of  the  Urahan  mountains.  Ekaterinburg  consists  of  2000  houses,  and 
is  the  seat  of  general  administration  for  the  mines.  Irbut  is  famous  for  a  great  mar- 
ket for  conducting  the  commercial  intercourse  between  Europe  and  Asia. 

•  Sleller's  description  of  Kamtchatka,  59—71,  (in  German.) 

t  Krusenstern's  Voyage  round  the  World,  ii.  270,  (original  German  edition.) 


Provinces  and 
Towns. 

Provinces  of 
Ekaterinburg. 


SIBERIA. 


District  of 
TroVtsk. 


Government 
of  Tobolsk. 


City  of  To- 
bolsk. 


The  districts  of  Troitsk,  containing  a  town  of  the  same  name,  belongs 
to  the  government  of  Orenburg.  The  town  is  a  rendezvous  for  Kir- 
guisan  caravans. 

The  GOVERNMENT  OF  ToBorsK  cxtends  along  the  banks  of  the  Obi, 
the  Irtysh,  and  the  Tobol.  We  begin  with  the  district  of  Tobolsk, 
situated  on  the  junction  of  these  three  rivers,  in  the  midst  of  an  immense  plain,  in- 
tersected by  some  lines  of  elevated  rock.  The  climate  is  on  the  whole  severe,  yet 
the  summer  heats  are  considerable.  It  is  not  an  uncommon  thing  to  see  the  ther- 
mometer rise  to  90°  or  95°.  Storms  are  frequent  in  this  quarter;  and  the  rains  are 
very  heavy.  The  cold  is  as  severe  in  winter  as  the  heats  are  powerful  in  summer, 
the  thermometer  often  falling  to  30"  below  zero ;  yet  the  chmate  is  very  |  climate, 
healthy.  Venereal  complaints  and  intermittent  fevers  are  the  only  two  prevailing 
diseases.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  a  fruit  tree.  The  government  |  Productions, 
garden,  certainly  the  finest  in  the  country,  exhibits  them  only  in  paintings  on  the 
walls.  The  pea-tree  of  Siberia,  or  Robinia  caragana,  the  birch,  and  above  all,  the 
black  elder,  Rhamnus  frangula,  are  the  favourite  trees  of  the  inhabitants  of  Tobolsk. 
There  are  some  red  and  green  gooseberries.  Every  kind  of  grain  succeeds ;  the 
grass  is  thick  and  juicy;  the  soil,  every  where  black  and  light,  stands  in  no  need  of 
manure.  The  peasantry,  too  idle  to  remove  the  dung  of  their  stables  and  cow-houses 
from  time  to  time,  are  sometimes  obliged  to  pull  them  down  and  build  others,  on 
account  of  the  inconvenience  attending  the  enormous  accumulation. 

Tobolsk,  situated  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Irtysh,  and  opposite  to  the 
confluence  of  the  Tobol  with  that  river,  is  considered  as  the  capital  of 
all  Siberia.*  It  is  the  place  of  residence  of  a  governor  and  an  archbishop.  The 
upper  city  is  223  feet  higher  than  the  lower,  and  they  communicate  by  an  ascent  of 
290  steps.  The  numerous  domes  and  steeples  of  this  place  give  it  a  magnificent 
appearance  at  a  favourable  distance.  The  governor's  palace  in  the  citadel  is  an 
agreeable  resting  point  to  the  eye,  but  having  been  burnt  down,  it  only  shews  well 
at  a  distance.  The  streets  are  laid  with  timber ;  the  houses  are  generally  of  wood, 
but  handsome;  the  population,  increased  by  a  flourishing  trade,  amounts  to  16,000 
or  17,000  souls.  The  nundations  of  the  Irtysh  and  Tobol  sometimes  lay  the  country 
under  water  for  twenty-six  miles  round  the  city.  On  such  occasions  it  can  only  be 
entered  by  water,  and  the  streets  are  covered  with  boats  and  rafts  in  which  business 
is  transacted.  "Tobolsk,"  says  Kotzebue,  "  is  surrounded  with  rocks,  which  have 
been  marked  in  a  picturesque  manner  by  the  torrents.  From  these  we  may  see, 
during  the  rains,  the  immense  surface  of  the  waters  which  inundate  the  neighbour- 
hood, to  the  borders  of  the  thick  forests  which  on  all  sides  appear  in  the  horizon. 
There  the  eye  of  the  exile  is  fixed  on  each  sail  which  appears,  and  where,  in  imagi- 
nation, he  figures  his  family  coming  to  participate  in  his  misfortunes. 

Sibir  was  the  capital  of  the  Tartars  while  they  ruled  Siberia;  that  city  |  Ruins  of  Sibir. 
was  situated  about  ten  or  eleven  miles  from  Tobolsk,  on  the  little  river  Sibirka.  It 
is  with  difficulty  that  some  obscure  ruins  of  it  can  be  found. 

At  Kemianskoi-Yam,  a  travelhng  stage  on  the  Irtysh,  north  from  Tobolsk,  cabbage 
ceases  to  form  a  head,  producing  only  some  scattered  leaves.  At  Samarofskoi-Yam, 
a  httle  above  the  confluence  of  the  Irtysh  and  the  Obi,  the  rigour  of  the  climate 
becomes  too  severe  for  horses  to  endure.  We  then  enter  on  the  vast  district  of 
Berezof,  which  extends  to  the  Gulfs  of  Kara,  of  Obi,  and  of  Taz,  a  space  two  or 
three  times  larger  than  Finland  or  Norway,  and  situated  under  the  same  latitudes, 
but  two  or  three  hundred  times  less  populous.  The  summer  heats  of  Berezof,  at 
the  parallel  of  64°,  are  of  short  duration  but  powerful,  and  are  suddenly  followed  by 
the  cold  weather.  The  frosts  generally  begin  at  the  end  of  August,  and  the  ice  of 
the  Obi  never  breaks  up  till  the  end  of  May.  There  is  no  agriculture,  'yet  some 
leguminous  species  succeed.  The  forests  are  composed  of  birch,  pine,  and  Siberian 
cedars,  all  stunted.     Aquatic  birds  and  fish  are  abundant. 

The  country  on  the  mouth  of  the  Obi,  called  Obdoria,  is  still  more  |  obdoria. 
wretched.     The  ground  scarcely  thaws  to  a  depth  of  eighteen  inches,  even  during 

*  See  Hermann's  Memoirs  of  Science,  Economy,  and  Satistics,  (in  German)  i.  p.  23,  lOO, 
for  a  description  of  the  government  of  Tobolsk. 


8  LOOK  THIRTY-EIGHTH. 


Ai-crio  vegeta- 
tion. 


the  long  day  of  summer.     Nothing  is  to  be  seen  but  morasses  over. 

grown  with  all  kinds  of  rushes,  mixed  with  small  plants  of  a  diminutive 
willow,  the  dwarf  large-leaved  birch,  the  marsh  cistus,  the  Andromeda,  and  the  Ar- 
butus alpina.*  On  the  Uralian  mountains,  where  the  elevation  is  not  great,  there  are 
larches  six  feet  high,  alders  and  willows  in  the  state  of  underwood,  and  sometimes 
forming  small  trees.  On  the  borders  of  the  ocean  two  species  of  bramble  are  al- 
most the  only  plants  to  be  found. 

District  of  Sur-  The  district  of  Surgoot,  to  the  south-east  of  Berezof,  and  north  from 
goot.  Tobolsk,  contains  elevated  lands,  covered  with  marshy  forests,  where 

sal)les,  foxes,  and  martens,  formerly  abounded.  Surgoot  is  a  small  town  on  the  Obi. 
Of  Turinsk.  [  The  district  of  Turinsk,  situated  to  the  west  of  Tobolsk,  contains  ara- 
ble lands.  Provisions  here  are  very  cheap.  The  chief  place,  Turinsk  on  the  river 
Tura,  is  a  considerable  town  for  that  country. 

Description  of  It  was  at  Pclym,  north  from  the  preceding,  that  the  celebrated  Field 
Muiini'chf  Marshal  Munnich  passed  twenty  years  of  his  life,  formerly  so  active, 
and  then  so  useful  to  barbarous  and  ungrateful  Russia.  *'  The  woewodat  of  Pelym," 
says  Munnich  himself,  "  is  covered  with  marshy  forests,  which  cannot  be  traversed 
in  summer  with  any  sort  of  carriage.  In  winter,  people  pass  along  by  means  of  pat- 
tens five  feet  long,  six  or  seven  inches  wide  under  the  feet,  and  covered  with  rein- 
deer skins  to  prevent  them  from  sliding.  The  inhabitants  guide  themselves  across 
these  forests  by  means  of  the  compass,  which  they  can  make  for  themselves,  the 
niagnet  being  pretty  well  known  among  them."| 

Tioomen.  |  The  district  of  Tioomen,  to  the  south-west  of  Tobolsk,  is  more  open 
and  less  covered  with  forests  than  Turinsk ;  it  exports  grain,  and  even  some  apple- 
trees  are  found  here.  Tioomen,  a  flourishing  town  on  the  Tura,  has  several  Tartar 
inhabitants,  and  handsome  carpets  are  manufactured  in  it.J  At  some  distance  from 
it  is  found  the  tomb  of  the  traveller  Steller,  who  has  made  us  acquainted  with  Kamt- 
chatka.§ 

Yaiutorowsk.  |  The  district  of  Yalutorowsk  is  east  from  the  preceding.  No  where 
are  richer  meadows  tobe  seen  than  here;  they  are  cut  down  by  the  first  who  comes; 
and  the  greater  part  are  not  mowed  at  all,  as  there  is  a  want  of  cattle  to  consume 
the  fodder.  Insects  swarm  amazingly.  The  district  of  Tara  on  the  Irtysh,  to  the 
south-east  of  Tobolsk,  comprehends  a  flat  country  covered  with  forests,  and  well 
stocked  with  game.  Tara  on  the  river  side  is  a  handsome  town. 
Of  Kooigan.  |  The  district  of  Koorgan  is  situated  south  from  Yalutorowsk  on  the 
Tobol.  The  governor  of  Tobolsk,  in  describing  it  to  M.  Kotzebue,  called  it  the 
Siberian  Italy.  [  Italy  of  Siberia.  The  ground  is  covered  with  beautiful  flowers.  Flocks 
of  horned  cattle,  and  of  horses,  feed  there  without  any  keeper.  Plenty  of  wood- 
cocks, wild  ducks,  and  wood-pigeons  are  seen.  The  town  of  Koorgan,  on  the  To- 
bol, resembles  a  collection  of  farm  houses.  *  Provisions  are  extremely  low  in  price, 
but  all  articles  of  European  manufacture  are  very  high.  Kotzebue  describes  in  the 
following  manner  the  amusements  in  which  the  young  women  of  Koorgan  indulge 

on  the  banks  of  the  Tobol.     ''  Along  the  rivers  there  are  places  where 

the  young  women  come  together  to  wash  linen,  and  to  bathe ;  these  baths 
are  converted  by  them  into  admirable  gymnastic  exercises ;  they  cross  and  re-cross 
the  Tobol,  swimming  gracefully  and  without  effort,  leaving  themselves  for  a  time  to 
the  force  of  the  current,  and  lying  on  the  water  with  their  faces  upward ;  they  often 
pursue  one  another,  or  pelt  one  another  with  sand,  duck,  and  upset.one  another,  and 
plunge  together;  they  remind  a  spectator  of  the  Naiads  of  ancient  fable;  and  so  far 
do  they  carry  their  sport  that  one  not  used  to  see  them  would  apprehend  every  mo- 
ment he  should  see  them  go  to  the  bottom.  The  whole  is  conducted  with  the  utmost 
decency ;  the  head  alone  appears  out  of  water,  and  were  it  not  for  a  slight  glance  of 
the  form  of  the  bosom,  one  might  doubt  of  their  sex.  When  about  to  finish  their 
sport  and  go  out  of  the  water,  they  request  the  spectators  to  retire;  and,  should  any 

•  Soujief,  in  Pallas's  Travels,  t.  iv.  p.  29. 

t  Busching,  t.  ii.  part  i.  p.  491,  French  translation. 

^  Georgi,  Uussie,  ii.  p.  1036,  (in  4to.) 

§  Pallas,  Voyages,  ii.  p.  506,  (in  4to.) 


Koorganese 
girls, 


District  of 
Omsk. 


Government 
of  Tomsk. 

Province  of 
Tui'ukhansk. 


Physical  de- 
tails. 


SIBKRIA.  9 

one  more  curious  or  rude  than  the  rest  refuse,  the  women  on  the  bank's  form  a  close 
circle  round  those  who  are  coming  out,  and  throw  a  piece  of  dress  over  each,  so  that 
every  thing  necessary  to  modesty  in  this  particuhir  is  completed  in  an  instant." 

To  the  east  of  the  preceding  is  the  district  of  Ischim,  which  comes  in  nisti-ict  of  is- 
contact  with  the  great  steppe  of  Issim,  or  Ischim,  in  which  the  Kirgui-  ''"'"• 
sians  of  the  middle  horde  wander.  These  nomades  were  formerly  in  the  practice  of 
carrying  off  the  Russians,  and  dragging  them  along  tied  to  the  tails  of  their  horses. 
In  order  to  put  a  stop  to  these  incursions,  a  line  of  military  posts  was  estabhshed, 
extending  from  the  banks  of  the  Tobol  to  those  of  the  Irtysh,  along  the  margin  of 
a  valley  full  of  salt  lakes.*  The  fortress  of  Petropaulofskiaia  is  the  residence  of 
the  statT  of  this  line.  The  district  of  Omsk  on  the  Irtysh,  near  the 
steppe  of  Barabin,  presents  nothing  remarkable.  Omsk,  its  chief  place, 
contains  a  great  many  exiles. 

The  government  op  Tomsk  comprehends  the  countries  situated  on 
the  Upper  Obi,  and  on  the  Yenisei". 

The  province  of  Tomsk  presents  at  its  northern  extremity  the  vast 
district  of  Mangaseisk,  more  commonly  called  Turukhansk,  a  series  of 
forests,  marshes,  and  deserts.  The  white  foxes,  white  bears,  and  wolves,  are  larger 
here  than  in  any  country  of  Siberia,  and  their  hair  is  thicker  and  of  better  quality. 
Fish  and  aquatic  birds  abound.  On  the  shores  of  the  Frozen  Sea,  to  the  east  of  the 
Yenisei,  quantities  of  timber  are  thrown  on  shore. |  The  climate  is  more  severe  than 
on  the  Obi.  The  ice  does  not  entirely  disappear  till  the  end  of  June.  The  elms, 
larches,  willows,  and  birches,  are  only  two  months  in  leaf.  The  flow- 
ering of  plants  is  more  early.  A  species  of  flax  grows  here,  with  flow- 
ers of  extraordinary  size.'l  The  town  of  Turukhansk,  called  also  Mangaseisk,  con- 
tains a  thousand  people.  The  simovie,  or  cabins  of  the  Cossacks,  extend  330  miles 
farther  north  :  these  hyperboreans  are  very  much  attached  to  their  horrid  country.  § 

To  the  south  of  Turukhansk,  the  district  of  Yenisei  extends  along 
the  river  of  the  same  name,  and  the  Upper  Tunguska  or  Angara.  It  pro- 
duces corn,  venison,  and  winged  game  in  plenty,  but  has  no  fruit  trees.  The  town 
of  Yenisei,  situated  on  the  river,  has  a  great  trade.  It  is  four  miles  in  circumference. 
Its  inhabitants  have  the  character  of  being  cunning  and  deceitful  dealers,  and  ad- 
dicted to  drunkenness  and  debauchery. 

The  districts  of  Narym,  of  Tchoulym,  of  Tomsk,  and  of  Kainsk,  |  OfNarym. 
extend  to  the  south-west  of  the  two  preceding.     Narym,   the  most  northerly,  is  a 
hunting  country,  possessing  very  little  bestial,  and  no  agriculture.     There  are  some 
flocks  in  that  of  Tchoulym.     In  the  district  of  Tomsk,  which  lies  on 
both  sides  of  the  Obi,  the  soil  is  very  productive  in  all  sorts  of  grain, 
and  many  horses  and  cattle  are  reared  in  it.     The  rivers  are  stocked  with  a  great 
variety  of  fish.     In  this  country,  Mr.  Flaxmann  discovered  coal. 

Tomsk  on  the  Tom,  a  river  which  falls  into  the  Obi  on  the  east,  ranks  |  cityofTomsk. 
the  third  town  of  Siberia.  Its  population  amounts  to  11,000,  and  is  daily  increas- 
ing. Its  central  position  will,  perhaps,  render  it  one  day  the  capital  of  Siberia. 
Tomsk  is  the  abode  or  resort  of  a  very  great  number  of  Russian,  Tartar,  Bukha- 
rian  and  Kalmuk  merchants.  The  greater  part  of  the  inhabitants  belong  to  a  sect 
called  the  Roskolniki,  who  are  austere  and  ridiculous  in  their  maxims,  but  are  said 
to  give  themselves  up  in  secret  to  debauchery  and  drunkenness,  though  such  accounts 
of  despised  sectaries  are  seldom  to  be  trusted. 

The  district  of  Kainsk,  which  comprehends  a  part  of  the  steppe   of  |  Kanisk. 
Barabin,  is  remarked  for  a  great  quantity  of  ermines. 

The  province  of  Kolywan  was,  under  Katherine  II.,  a  separate  go-  |  Kolyvan. 
vernment.     It  is  the  southern  part  of  western  Siberia.     The  country  between  the 
Obi  and  the  Tom  is  blessed  with  a  fertile  soil ;  but  when  visited  by  Pallas  it  was 
covered  with  birchwood,  and  very  thinly  inhabited.  ||     Here  the  town  of  Kolywan 

*  Pallas,  Voyage,  iii.  p.  51.  (4to.)  |  Gmelin,  Voyage  in  Sib^rie,  iii,  p.  126. 

i  Souyef,  dans  les  Voyages  de  Pallas,  iv.  p.  458,  (in  4to,) 

§  Georgi,  Russia,  ii.  p.  1057.  11  Pallas's  Travels,  iii.  p.  388. 

Vol.  II.— B 


District  of  Ye- 
nisei. 


Tchoulym 
and  Tomsk. 


10  isuotv  TiinnY-KrcuiH. 

has  been  built  and  rebuilt,  sometimes  in  one  place,  sometimes  in  another.  The 
modern  Kolywan  is  a  middling  town  on  the  Obi. 

District  of  I  ^^^^  district  of  Semipalatnoi,  being  the  southern  extremity  of  western 
semipaiatnof.  [  Siberia,  merits  our  particular  attention  in  regard  to  its  natural  geography. 
The  plain  between  the  Obi  and  the  Irtysh  is  of  a  saline  nature.  The  banks  of  the 
Irtysh  consist  of  hills  of  very  deep  moving  sand.  The  cattle  here  are  extremely 
liable  to  be  cut  oft"  in  multitudes  by  disease.  In  the  southern  part,  which  is  more 
Climate.  |  mountainous,  the  water  in  several  places  is  bad,  and  gives  rise  to  inter- 

mittent fevers.*  This  country  is  exposed  to  storms  and  Inuricanes.  The  heights 
are  generally  arid,  and  none  but  the  low  grounds  are  susceptible  of  cultivation.  The 
vegetation  of  wild  plants,  trees,  and  shrubs  becomes  more  beautiful  in  proportion  as 
Vegetation.  |  WO  ascend  the  mountains.  The  false  acacia,  the  balsam  poplar,  the  wild 
cherry,  the  white  hazel,  the  white  and  red  elder,  the  red  gooseberry,  the  privet,  and 
all  kinds  of  wild  roses,  cover  the  banks  of  the  Ooba.  Large  yellow  strawberries 
please  both  the  taste  and  the  eye.  Hyssop,  water-mint,  hops,  and  wild  hemlocks, 
adorn  the  banks  of  the  Shoolba.  The  Clematites  orienfaUs  attaches  itself  to  the 
trees  in  festoons.  Limpid  springs  flow  under  the  shade  of  the  Tartarian  honey- 
suckle, wl)ich  here  forms  pretty  large  trees.  In  the  Altai  mountains,  plants  more 
peculiar  to  Alpine  temperatures,  such  as  the  Gentiana  veris,  the  alpine  saintfoin,  the 
Drijas  pentnpetala,  the  Polygala  Sibirica,  the  beautiful  Spiroia  aliaica,  the  Valeriana 
Sibirica,  tiie  everlasting  flower  called  Gnaphalinm  silvestre,  display  their  elegant 
blossom  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  snow."j" 

schiangen-  The  mine  and  town  of  Schlangenborg,  called  by  the  Russians  Zmeiew- 

i)erg;.  skaia-Gora,  is  the  most  remarkable  place  in  this  district.   The  mountain 

receives  its  name  from  the  great  number  of  serpents  found  in  it.  The  Tchoodes 
had  made  extensive  workings  here  long  before  the  Russians. 

District  cf  In  the  environs  of  Barnaool,  in  the  district  of  Biisk,  the  air  is  milder, 

^'"'^-  and  the  summer  warmer  than  in  places  more  to  the  south,  which  are 

nearer  the  mountains.  All  kinds  of  pot  herbs,  and  even  artichokes,  grow.  Bar- 
naool  is  a  mining  town  of  nearly  a  thousand  houses,  and  is  famed  for  its  forges. 
In  its  neighbourhood  are  lime-kilns,  brick  works,  and  glass  manufactures. 
Of  Ktitznesk.  |  The  district  of  Kutznesk,  with  a  town  of  the  same  name,  is  situated 
near  the  sources  of  the  Tom,  and  extends  to  the  Yenisei.  It  contains  many  very 
fertile  and  very  agreeable  places. 

District  of  The  district  of  Abakansk,  to  the  east  of  the  former,  is  on  the  upper 

Abakansk.  YeniseV.     Though  full  of  mountains  it  contains  some  excellent  pastures, 

and  some  grounds  which  are  fertile  in  grain.  Near  Abakansk  the  temperature  is 
sufficiently  genial  for  the  culture  of  water  melons.  This  district,  like  the  whole 
Ancient  mo-  of  southcrn  Siberia,  contains  a  great  many  tumuli  or  sepulchral  mounds: 
numents.  ^^^  Tartars  call  them  the  tombs  of  the  Cathayans,  or  Li-KateY;  and  the 

ornaments  of  gold,  and  other  metals  found  in  them,  show  the  flourishing  state  of  the 
ancient  nation  which  raised  them.  There  are  likewise  on  the  rivers  Abakan  and 
Tchoolym  human  statues  from  seven  to  nine  feet  high,  and  covered  over  with  hiero- 
glyphics. J 

District  of  As  we  go  down  the  Yenisei  we  arrive  at  the  district  of  Krasnoiarsk, 

Krasnoiarsk.  where  the  soil  is  so  fertile  that  it  requires  very  slight  labour,  and  may  be 
cropped  for  five  or  six  years,  or  even  more,  in  succession,  without  manure.  In  this 
quarter,  grain  and  all  sorts  of  provisions  are  very  cheap,  and  the  people  indulge  in 
good  living  and  idleness.  The  sepulchral  tumuli  in  the  mountains  of  Krasnoiarsk 
contain  arms,  ornaments,  cups  and  coins  of  gold,  silver,  copper,  and  iron  ;  monu- 
Rocks  with  mcnts  of  the  active  industry  of  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  Siberia.  §  Two 
inscriptions.  ^^^jj^  ^j.  ^ocks,  onc  ou  thc  banks  of  the  Koksa,  and  the  other  on  those 
of  the  Birius,  present  inscriptions  in  unknown  characters  ;  they  are  called  Pisanoi- 


•  Pallas's  Travels,  iii.  p.  200. 

t  Pallas,  iii.  p.  190,  201,  263,  &c.     Patrin,  Voyage  dans  les  monts  Altai. 
+  Georgi.Itussie,  ii.  p.  1029.     Pallas,  Voyage,  &c.     Messersclimidt,  kc. 
§  Georgi,  ibid. 


SIBERIA. 


11 


CJovemment 
and  province 
of  Irkootsk. 


City  of  Ir- 
kootsk. 


Kanien,  or  "  the  rocks  with  the  writing."     Tiiere  is  a  similar  rock  on  the  baiiks  of 
the  Tom,  under  Kutznesk,  on  which  figures  of  animals  are  sculptured. 

We  now  proceed  to  Eastern  Siberia,  included  in  the  vast  Covern- 
MENT  ov  Irkootsk,  the  four  provinces  of  which,  viz.  Irkootsk,  Ncrt- 
chinsk,  Yakootsk,  and  Okhotsk,  supply  us  with  good  geographical  divisions. 

Irkootsk,  the  capital  of  all  the  government,  is  likewise  capital  of  the 
province  which  bears  its  name.  This  city,  which  is  the  seat  of  the  go- 
vernor, and  of  the  archbishop,  is  situated  on  the  banks  of  the  Angara,  in  a  beautiful 
plain,  forty  miles  from  the  lake  of  Baikal.  It  is  one  of  the  largest  and  finest  towns 
in  Siberia.  It  is  fortified,  and  contains  a  population  of  11,200  inhabitants,  the 
greater  part  of  whom  are  tluiving  traders.  Their  household  furniture  generally 
comes  from  China,  the  women  dress  in  Chinese  stufls,  and  the  ordinary  beverage  is 
tea.  Diseases  arisiag  from  vice  are  very  general.  A  Japanese  school  of  naviga- 
tion, is  established  in  this  city,  in  which  native  Japanese  masters  teach  the  language 
of  their  country,  and  persons  from  the  Russian  admiralty  give  instructions  in  the  art 


of  navigation. 


agri- 


ri)ysi(,al  de- 
tails. 


District  of  Ki- 
rensk. 

labitants  of 


Lower 
Udinsk. 


Town  of 
Kiakta. 


The  -environs  of  Irkootsk  are  agreeable,  the  soil  is  fertile,  and 
culture  in  a  flourishing  state.  In  proportion  as  we  a[>proach  the  lake  ol 
BaYkal  the  country  becomes  more  and  more  mountainous.  Game  is  abundant  in  the 
neighbourhood.  There  are  elks,  stags,  wild  boars,  muir-fowl,  woodcocks,  and  par- 
tridges.    This  country  experiences  frequent  earthquakes. 

Kirensk  on  the  I-ena  has  also  a  fertile  territory,  producing  plants  of 
extraordinary  size.    The  small  sturgeons,  and  other  fish  which  are  taken 
in  the  neighbouring  rivers,  are  the  most  delicate  in  all  Siberia.     The  in 
this  country  are  disfigured  by  goitures  of  uncommon  size  ;  these  are  frequently  seen 
even  on  the  cows  and  oxen  of  the  country. 

The  district  of  lower  Udinsk,  which  extends  east  from  that  of  Ir- 
kootsk, is  almost  entirely  covered  with  dark  and   marshy  forests,  where 
the  soil  produces  nothing  but  moss  and  marsh  plants,  in  a  great  measure  similar  to 
those  of  Russia  and  the  north  of  Europe.     The  climate  is  excessively  cold. 

Kiakta,  a  town  built  on  the  frontier  of  Mongolia,  in  the  district  of  Upper 
Udinsk,  has  become  a  place  of  note  from  the  trade  between  Russia  and 
China.  It  is  commanded  by  Mount  Boorgultci,  (the  Mountain  of  Eagles)  which  the 
Chinese  reserved  to  themselves  in  the  last  demarcation  treaty,  on  the  pretext  that  its 
summit  contained  the  tombs  of  their  ancestors.  Kiatka  labours  under  a  great  want 
of  good  water.  The  environs  consist  of  sand  and  rocks,  a  soil  ill  fitted  for  the  cul- 
ture of  vegetables.  The  chief  inhabitants  are  Russian  merchants,  or  |  inhabitants, 
agents  of  the  chief  commercial  houses  of  the  empire.  Their  mode  of  life  is  polished 
and  social.  The  merchants  think  that  the  best  hospitality  they  can  show  to  a  stran- 
ger is  to  press  him  to  drink  all  the  diiferent  kinds  of  tea  in  succession.  Their  furni- 
ture, and  part  of  their  clothing,  are  of  Chinese  manufacture. 

Selinginsk,  another  town  of  the  district  of  Upper  Udinsk,  is  situated 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  high  sandy  mountains,  the  successive  crumb- 
lings  of  which  begin  to  cover  all  its  streets.  The  inhabitants  are  very  little  engaged 
in  trade ;  their  constitution  and  physiognomy  present  a  strong  mixture  of  the  Mongo- 
lian. The  Russians  who  are  established  here  prefer,  in  their  marriages,  |  iniiaWtants. 
wives  from  the  Booriaits  or  Mongols.  These  alliances  give  origin  to  a  breed  called 
Karimki.  The  manners  of  the  common  people  are  very  similar  to  those  of  the  Boo- 
riaites.  The  inhabitants  in  general  even  prefer  speaking  the  Mongol  language. 
The  climate  of  Selinginsk  is  tolerably  temperate ;  on  all  high  grounds  with  a  south- 
ern exposure  snow  disappears  in  the  month  of  March,  and  the  flocks  go  to  pasture 
about  the  twentieth  day  of  the  same  month.  Bushes  of  the  wild  pear,  the  Ribes  dia- 
canlha  and  the  dwarf  elm,  are  not  found  any  where  in  great  nninber.  The  moun- 
tains are  covered  with  the  Robinia  j)ygmaea.* 

This  province  has  an  astonishing  variety  of  soil  and  climate ;  in  one 
place  narrow,  gloomy,  and  cold  valleys;    in  another,  hot  sandy  plains. 


Town  of 
Selinginsk. 


Physical 
remark*. 


•  rallas,  iv.  p.  142,  224,  and  369, 4to, 


Province  of 
Nertchinsk, 
or  Russian 
Daooria. 


Physical 
details. 


City  of 

Nertchinsk. 


12  BOOK  THIRTY-EIGHTH. 

and  a  little  way  off,  a  surface  of  neutral  salts.  At  Selinginsk  water  melons  thrive 
very  well;  while  on  the  banks  of  the  Uda  corn  seldom  ripens.  In  general  this 
country  is  ill  adapted  to  agriculture,  even  with  the  utmost  care.* 

The  province  of  Nertchinsk,  which  comprehends  Russian  Daooria,  is 
covered  with  mountains.  The  plains  met  with  here  are,  properly  speak- 
ing wide  valleys.  The  mountains  present  on  every  hand  nothing  but  per- 
pendicular and  projecting  rocks,  which  seem  suspended  in  the  air.  For  this  reason 
no  country  is  richer  in  picturesque  views  and  situations.  The  air  may 
be  compared  with  that  of  the  Alps,  the  cold  being  rather  keen  even  in 
summer.  The  most  common  wood  consists  of  pines,  larches,  black  and  white  firs, 
Siberian  cedars,  and  black  birch,  which  occurs  in  no  other  part  of  Siberia.  The 
summits  where  the  snow  lies  constantly  contain  some  clumps  of  the  pine  of  Libanus, 
dwarf  birch,  and  a  particular  species  of  junipers  and  willows.  The  hazel  and  the 
oak  do  not  make  their  appearance  till  we  pass  the  river  Argoon  on  the  Chinese  terri- 
tory. For  rare  plants  and  minerals  this  province  surpasses  all  those  of  Siberia.  It 
has  a  brilliant  alpine  vegetation.  To  mention  one  example ;  we  see  entire  mountains 
near  the  banks  of  the  Onon,  whose  surface  on  one  side  is  overspread  with  a  lilac  hue 
produced  by  the  buds  of  the  wild  apricot,  while  the  other  seems  carpeted  Avith  the 
deep  purple  of  the  rhododendrons  with  which  it  is  covered. | 

Nertchinsk,  a  frontier  town,  with  a  fort  on  the  Chinese  side,  is,  next 
to  Kamtchatka,  the  place  of  banishment  most  dreaded  of  any  in  Russia. 
The  exiles  sent  hither  are  employed  in  the  mines.  The  number  in  the  place  at  a 
Exiles.  I  time  is  generally  1000,  sometimes  1800,  rarely  2000.     Confounded  in 

one  single  class,  they  are  dressed  and  fed  like  the  soldiers.  Desertion  is  extremely 
difficult;  they  are  not  however  oppressed  with  too  heavy  work.  The  Chinese  always 
deliver  up  those  who  have  made  their  escape,  and  insist  on  the  infliction  of  an  addi- 
tional chastisement  on  them  for  having  polluted  their  territory. 

The  province  of  Yakootsk  comprehends  the  greater  part  of  the  basin 
of  the  Lena.  Some  southern  strips  of  land  on  the  west  side  of  the  river 
enjoy  a  tolerable  climate.  But  from  this  river  to  the  promontory  of  Tchalaginskoi 
the  country  has  nothing  but  mountains  or  morasses,  and  is  excessively  cold.  Barley 
ripens  in  six  or  seven  weeks,  but  the  harvest  is  uncertain.  The  only  sure  means  of 
subsistence  are  found  in  hunting.  In  this  wintry  region  ice  is  employed 
as  a  protection  from  the  cold  in  the  following  curious  manner :  The  win- 
dow panes  are  generally  lamince  of  transparent  mica,  called  Muscovy  glass ;  exterior 
to  these,  plates  of  transparent  ice  are  set  up,  and  cemented  by  pouring  on  them  a 
little  water,  which  immediately  freezes. J  The  short  summer  heafs  induce  the  Ton- 
gooses  to  go  naked  like  the  Americans,  vvearing  only  a  small  piece  of  leather  round 
the  middle.  Several  of  them  live  on  the  roots  of  the  orange-lily,  which  are  very 
Tongooses.  |  common,  and  which  they  convert  into  meal  and  bread.  The  Tongoos 
fishermen  throw  their  lines  into  the  rivers  when  scarcely  thawed,  and  accompany 
their  fishing  with  merry  songs  and  nimble  dances. 

Yakootsk,  situated  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Lena,  is  the  caphal  of  the 
province.  This  town,  consisting  of  about  600  indifferent  houses,  carries 
on  a  great  trade  in  sables.  In  the  vicinity  of  Olekminsk,  the  chief  place  of  a  dis- 
trict of  the  same  name,  some  fields  of  barley  are  cultivated.  This  town  consists  of 
about  twenty  houses,  with  a  cliurch  and  fort.  Tlie  inhabitants  are  descended  from 
Russians  who  were  sent  hither  when  the  fort  was  established  for  collecting  the  tri- 
bute of  furs;  but  they  have  almost  forgotten  their  native  language  and  manners  for 
those  of  their  rude  neighbours  and  dependents.  The  two  districts  of  Olensk  on  the 
Olenek,  and  of  Shigansk  on  the  Lena,  are  vast  deserts  where  hordes  of  Yakootes  and 
Tongooses  lead  a  wandering  life.  Olensk  is  the  most  northern  place  in  the  world 
that  bears  the  name  of  a  town.  At  Kumah-Surka,  the  Lena,  proceeding  from  the 
mountains,  offers  one  of  the  most  picturesque  and  majestic  views  that  can  be  ima- 

•  Pallas,  iv.  384,  &c,  f  Idero,  iy.  313,  &c.  4to. 

i  Gmelin,  Voyage  de  Slberie.     Georgi,  Russie,  ii,  p.  1102. 


Province  of 
Yakootsk. 


Singular  ap- 
plication of 
ice. 


Towns  and 
districts. 


Islands  of  the 
Frozen  Sea. 


SIBERIA.  13 

glncd.*  The  district  of  Sachiwersk  is  inhabited  by  Yookagirs.  The  tribute  in  these 
countries  is  levied  by  half-noble  Cossakti,  (or  Dworianin)  who  arc  settled  at  Ya- 
kootskj  and  receive  eight  rubles,  (about  £\  5s.)  of  annual  pay.  These  are  the 
princes,  and  sometimes  the  dreaded  tyrants  of  this  Arctic  world. 

The  Frozen  Sea  on  this  part  of  the  Siberian  coast,  seems  to  be  full 
of  islands.  Those  which  are  found  opposite  to  the  mouths  of  the  Lena 
and  the  Yana,  are,  hke  the  adjoining  coast,  great  turf  hills  on  a  base  of  eternal  ice 
Some  of  them  contain  half  frozen  lakes.  These  solitudes  are  the  habitations  of  the 
bear  and  the  rein-deer.  Islands  more  worthy  of  notice  have  been  found  to  the  north 
of  Cape  Sviaitoi.  They  had  been  visited  in  1711  and  1724,  but  were  afterwards  for- 
gotten, till  they  were  re-discovered  by  the  Russian  merchant  Liaikhofl",  in  1774.  He 
first  surveyed  two  flat  islands,  the  southernmost  of  which  contains  a  lake.  The  sand 
and  soft  earth  surrounding  this  lake,  in  falling  to  pieces,  lays  open  collections  of 
bones,  and  entire  skeletons  of  buffaloes,  rhinoceroses,  and  elephants.  The  ivory 
found  here  is  as  white  and  fresh  as  that  which  is  brought  from  Africa.  He  found  at 
a  distance  of  seventy  miles  from  the  second  island,  an  extensive  coast,  which  the 
surveyor  Chwomof  was  sent  to  examine  in  the  following  year,  and  which  has  been 
recently  examined  by  M.  Hedenstrom.  This  land,  which  has  been  named  New 
Siberia,  presented  a  pretty  high  coast,  where  petrified  wood  was  found  I  New  Siberia. 
in  immense  regular  strata  between  the  sand  and  the  clay.  The  bones  of  elephants 
are  found  in  it  in  great  abundance.  There  is  a  considerable  river,  which  indicates 
that  the  land  is  not  of  very  limited  extent.  It  contains  some  plants ;  and  traces  of 
human  beings  were  supposed  to  be  perceived. |  This  jVew  Siberia  is,  perhaps,  only 
an  extremity  of  American  or  west  Greenland,  which  would  have  been  called  a  north- 
ern extremity  had  it  been  short  of  the  pole ;  but  if  it  has  crossed  it,  its  two  opposite 
extremities  must  both  be  called  southern;  and  those  which  look  east  and  west  must 
be  viewed  as  the  shores  of  gulfs  or  bays  formed  by  the  undulating  line  of  the  land. 

The  most  westerly  parts  of  Siberia  are  comprehended  in  the  province     Province  of 
of  Okhotsk,  a  hilly  country,  covered  with  marshy  woods.     Scarcely  any     Okhotsk, 
plant  subservient  to  human  subsistence  grows  here,  and  provisions  are  brouoht  to  it 
from  Yakootsk.     Even  the  potato  speedily  degenerates. +     Tlie  only  town  is  Ok- 
hotsk, a  sea  port,  from  which  the  Russians  fit  out  for  Kamtchatka  and  America. 
Merchant  vessels  are  built  in  this  quarter. 

The  country  of  the  Tchooktches,  which  forms  the  extremity  of  Asia 
on  the  north-east,  supports  among  its  rocks  innumerable  flocks  of  rein- 
deer. The  inliabitants  live  partly  in  the  hollows  of  the  rocks  ;  they  also  build  cots  of 
the  bones  of  whales.§  The  "Bear  Islands,"  which  skirt  the  north  coast  of  the 
country  of  the  Tchooktches  have  more  vegetation  than  those  of  Liaikhofl".  ||  In 
Behring's  Straits  are  the  two  islands  Inioglim  and  Igeliin,  probably  the  same  as  the 
"  Clarke's  Islands"  of  the  English.  They  are  inhabited  by  the  Achootllach  colony, 
a  set  of  intrepid  fishermen,  who  cook  their  provisions  over  lamps  formed  in  little  ca- 
vities in  the  rocks,  in  which  oil  is  burned  with  rush  matches. 

The  large  peninsula  of  Kamtchatka  forms  a  district  of  the  province 
of  Okhotsk.  This  coimtry  is  divided  longitudinally  by  a  chain  of  moun- 
tains, and  its  two  sides  are  watered  by  an  infinity  of  streams,  generally  neither  lar^e 
nor  navigable.  The  most  considerable  of  them  are  the  Kamtchatka,  the  Awatsha 
and  the  Bolshaia-Ricka.  The  winters  of  this  country  are  often  month's  |  climate. 
duration.  It  begins  to  freeze  by  the  month  of  July,  and  the  frosts  often  continue 
till  May.  But  the  cold  is  never  very  intense,  the  sea  fogs  keeping  up  a  humid  and 
comparatively  mild  state  of  the  atmosphere.  The  winds,  and  in  consequence  of  this 
the  climate,  are  extremely  inconstant,  and  the  transition  from  summer  to   winter  is 

*  Kemarkable  account  of  the  islands  of  I-laikhof,  &c.  in  Pallas's  New  Memoirs  of  the  North 
vii.  p.  128—142,  (in  German,)  in  the  Fetersburj^h  Gazette  of  1810. 

t  Adams,  Voyage,  &c.  Ephem.  Geog-r.  xxv.  260. 

t  Melanges  sur  Okhotsk,  dans  Pallas,  Nouveau.Memoires  du  Nord,  iv.  146 — 162. 

§  Extract  of  the  Journal  of  Iwan  Kowalew,  corporal  of  Cossacks,  a  native  of  Tchootcli,  in 
the  preceding  work,  iv.  105 — 111. 

n  Journal  of  Leontiew,  Andreiew,  and  Lissow's  Expedition  to  the  Bear  Islands,  in  Pallas, 
Nouv.  Mem.  i.  p.  ii.  p.  231 — 23r. 


Country  of  the 
Tchooktches. 


Peninmila  of 
Kamtchatka. 


14  liooK  TiiiiiTY-Euarni. 


AgricuIliU'al 
experiments, 


Kiclies  of  the 
Hiiimal  king;- 
doin. 


often  iubtaiitaneous.  Several  of  the  rivers  never  freeze.  Agriculture 
has  not  succeeded  in  this  peninsula  even  in  its  southern  part.  Barley 
and  oats  give  at  most  a  return  of  two  or  threefold,  and  that  only  in  select  spots. 
The  moisture  prevents  the  ears  from  ripening.  At  a  certain  distance  from  the  sea 
they  might  probably  succeed.*  Corn  is  extremely  dear,  being  brought  all  the  way 
from  Irkootsk.  But  the  rearing  of  cattle  might  become  an  important  object,  as  the 
pastures  are  excellent,  and  the  grass  tall  and  waving,  like  that  of  the  savannahs  of 
Louisiania. 

Foxes,  sables,  hares,  ermines,  bears,  and  rein-deers,  range  this  coun- 
try in  droves.  The  coasts  arc  always  surrounded  by  a  crowd  of  ceta- 
ceous and  amphibious  animals,  as  whales,  sea-bears,  manatis,  otters  or  sea-beavers. 
Dabs,  soles,  lampreys,  eels,  and  pikes,  swarm  unmolested  in  the  rivers,  being  only 
eaten  in  times  of  scarcity.  But  the  Salmon,  which  is  excellent,  is  regularly  fished. 
When  this  fish  ascends  the  rivers  from  the  sea,  it  is  in  such  numbers  as  to  obstruct 
in  some  measure  their  current.  The  dogs  and  bears,  by  Steller's  account,  devour 
at  their  leisure  as  many  as  they  please.  The  herring,  which  go  up  into  the  lakes  to 
spawn,  abound  in  them  to  such  a  degree,  that  they  may  almost  be  taken  up  in  buckets. 
The  birds  are  equally  remarkable  for  their  great  number  and  the  multiplicity  of  spe- 
cies. The  sea  birds  are  innumerable.  Among  the  land  birds  may  be  mentioned 
swans,  seven  species  of  geese,  and  eleven  of  ducks.  Eagles  are  used  as  food. 
Fir,  larch,  and  poplar,  are  used  for  building  l>ouses  and  vessels.  The  birches  which 
Vegetables.  |  abound,  are  employed  for  making  sledges.  The  green  bark  of  this  tree 
is  cut  in  small  pieces,  and  eaten  with  caviare,  and  the  sap  of  the  same  tree  furnishes 
an  agreeable  drink.  The  willow  and  the  alder  are  almost  the  only  species  used  as 
firewood.  The  willow  bark  is  eaten  by  the  inhabitants,  and  that  of  the  alder  is  em- 
ployed for  staining  leather.  The  root  of  the  lilium  Kamlchatcensc  is  often  used  for 
Marine  plants.  |  bread.  IVettlcs  are  used  instead  of  flax  and  hemp.  There  are  seve- 
ral medicinal  plants.  Of  the/«ci  which  abound  in  the  adjoining  sea,  the  fucus  dulcis, 
or  palmatus,  the  csculentus,  and  saccharinus,'\  (so  called  from  an  efllorescence  which 
it  gives  out  of  soft  and  glutinous  matter,  compared  to  sugar  from  its  appearance,) 
are  eaten  by  the  people  like  cabbage. 

Nishni-Kamtchatsk,  acapital  on  the  Kamtchatska  river;  Bolscheretzkoi 
and  retropaulowsk,  in  Awatscha  Bay,  are  mere  villages  or  rather  hamlets. 
The  Aleutian  islands  belong  too  evidently  to  America  to  be  described  along  with 
Asia.     But  Behring's  Island  and  Copper  Island  are  entitled  to  follow  our  account  of 
Behring's  Kamtchatka,  of  which  they  appear  to|be  an  easterly  extension.   Behring's 

Island.  Island,  which  is  nearest  to  it,  derives  its  name  from  the  celebrated 

Danish  navigator  whose  active  life  was  terminated  on  this  desert  shore.  It  is  unin- 
habited. The  land  consists  of  granite.  The  cold  on  the  sea  shore  is  not  rigorous, 
and  strong  ice  is  never  seen.  But  the  tops  of  the  hills  in  the  interior,  estimated  by 
iSteller  to  be  6400  feet  in  height,  are  perpetually  covered  with  snow.J  The  island 
Conner  l  ^^  destitute  of  wood,  and  surrounded  with   reefs.     Mednoi-Ostrow,  or 

Wand.  I  Cop|)er  Island,  takes  its  name  from  the  circumstance  of  some   native 

copper  having  been  found  on  its  western  shore.  It  is  in  kidney-shaped  pieces  con- 
tained in  the  gravel  of  which  the  beach  is  formed,  and  situated  in  a  sort  of  veins.^ 
In  1762,  the  navigator  Melenski  obtained  from  it  three  or  four  hundred  pounds 
weight.  The  vein  is  now  exhausted.  Both  of  these  islands  are  inhabited  by  a  pro- 
digious number  of  iscdis,  or  polar  foxes.  Sea  otters,  sea  cows,  and  whales  collect 
here  in  troops. 

Siberia,  the  general  and  particular  description  of  which  we  now  bring 
to  a  conclusion,  presents  a  vast  field  to  the  projects  of  the  politician,  to 
the  speculations  of  the  merchant,  and  the  reflections  of  the  philosopher.  Russia 
derives  more  than  one  great  advantage  from  the  possession  of  this  third  part  of  Asia. 

*  Krusenstern's  Voyage  round  the  world,  ii.  chap.  8.  Compare  with  Pallas,  Nouv.  Mem.  du 
Nord;  Steller  and  others. 

•}■  S<?e  Mr.  Turner's  splendid  work  on  the  f»ci,  in  which  these  plants  are  accurately  and  ele- 
gantly delineated.     +  Steller's  account  of  I'.chring's  Island,  in  Pallas's  Nouv.  Mem.  ii.  p.  255-301. 

§  Jakowlcw,  director  of  the  mines,  quoted  by  (Jeorgi,  Kussic,  ii.  p.  1150.  fcitcller's  account 
of  Copper  Island,  in  the  Nouv.  Mem.  ii.  p.  302-30?'. 


Establisli' 
ments. 


General  con 
sUlurations  on 
Siberia. 


Trade  of 
Siberia. 


SIDEUIA.  15 

Protection  to  hor  European  provinces  from  any  attack  on  this  side;  millions  of  clear 
profit  from  the  mines;  a  commercial  communication  with  China  and  with  America: 
.such  are  the  fruits  which  Russia  derives  from  this  conquest  of  a  single  Cossack, 
Yermak  Timofeiew,  the  Cortez  of  the  hyperborean  world.  The  Siberian  trade  is 
enjoyed  as  a  monopoly  by  the  Russian  merchants.  The  great  rivers  of  this  country, 
the  Obi,  the  Yenisei,  and  the  Lena,  and  their  tributaries,  approach  and  retire  from 
one  another  so  conveniently,  that  goods  may  be  carried  almost  entirely  by  water  from 
Kiakta  to  Russia  in  Europe.  This  passage  occupies  three  years,  that  is,  three  short 
summers;  the  land  route  takes  one  entire  year.  In  1790,  the  carriage  and  freight 
from  Kiakta  to  Pctersburgh  were  six  roubles  or  19  shillings  for  every  pood,  (of  40 
lbs.)  and  by  water,  only  four  (or  twelve  shillings  and  eight  pence.) 

Tobolsk  is  the  chief  emporium  of  the  goods  which  come  from  Eu- 
rope, and  of  those  which  come  from  Siberia  and  China,  the  greater  part 
of  Avhich  is  brought  into  Russia  on  sledges  in  the  winter.  The  caravans  of  the  Kal- 
muks,  which  arrive  at  Tobolsk  during  the  winter,  bring  thither  provisions  and  some- 
times gold  and  silver,  and  when  they  leave  it,  take  home  different  articles  of  copper 
and  iron.  The  Bukharians,  who  also  come  at  the  same  season,  bring  friezed  lamb- 
skins and  cotton  stuffs  from  their  own  country,  together  with  Indian  silks,  and 
sometimes  precious  stones.  Tobolsk  is  the  emporium  of  the  furs  destined  for  the 
use  of  royalty. 

The  other  important  places  for  the  fur  trade  are  Tomsk,  especially  for  such  as  are 
sold  to  the  Kalmuks  and  the  Mongols ;  Krasnoiarsk,  Yeniseisk,  Turukhansk,  and  in 
eastern  Siberia,  Yakootsk  ;    the  three  last  principally  for  the  purchasing  market. 

Irkootsk  is  the  first  town  of  Siberia  for  activity  and  extent  of  trade.  Its  advan- 
tageous position  lays  open  to  it  three  commercial  roads;  that  of  Kiakta,  that  of  east- 
ern Siberia  and  Kamtchatka,  and  that  of  western  Siberia  and  Russia.  In  the  other 
towns  the  trade  is  that  of  simple  transmission,  here  it  is  one  of  active  commercial 
transactions.  The  traffic  with  China  is  in  a  great  measure  in  the  hands  of  the  mer- 
chants of  Irkootsk,  the  greater  part  of  whom  have  warehouses  and  agents  at  Kiakta. 
It  is  likewise  at  Irkootsk  that  the  greater  part  of  the  sea  voyages  to  the  islands  of 
the  eastern  ocean  and  of  the  coast  of  America  are  undertaken  by  the  merchants, 
who  form  partnerships  for  that  purpose.  The  Americo-Russian  trade  will  probably 
at  some  future  time  bring  the  cabinet  of  Petersburg  into  contact  with  English  Ca- 
nada, and  the  American  states.  This  trade  becomes  henceforth  necessary  for  Rus- 
sia, who  without  America  could  not  furnish  a  sufficient  quantity  of  furs  for  the  Kiakta 
market,  where  she  buys  teas,  nankeens,  and  silks,  now  articles  of  necessity  with  the 
inhabitants  of  Siberia.  All  the  fair  sex,  and  even  the  wives  of  the  Cossacks,  use 
tea,  and  dress  themselves  with  the  manufactures  of  China.  The  Chinese  merchant 
himself  begins  to  feel  a  demand  for  more  than  the  ermines  and  fine  furs,  he  wants 
the  cloths,  and  brocades,  and  some  other  productions  of  European  industry.  This 
trade  is  partly  conducted  by  barter  and  partly  by  money.  The  balance  uaianceof 
ag£unst  Russia  has  been  more  than  four  millions  of  livres  for  these  last  "ade. 
years,  a  disadvantage  merely  nominal :  for  it  is  certainly  better  to  purchase  tea  and 
nankeens  at  first  hand,  and  to  pay  the  sledgemen  and  boatmen  of  Siberia  for  the 
transport,  than  to  procure  these  goods  from  the  maritime  countries  of  Europe.  If 
the  balance  of  trade  were  in  itself  a  solid  principle  of  political  economy,  Russia 
might  produce  within  her  own  territory,  a  great  part  of  the  objects  of  exchange  to 
re-establish  this  balance.  But  we  may  ask  one  question,  with  a  reference  to  the 
great  disputed  question  now  alluded  to.  What  object  can  Russia  or  any  other  political 
community  have  in  procuring  for  herself  an  influx  and  discouraging  an  efflux  of  the 
precious  metals,  if  she  does  not  mean  to  hoard  them  in  a  corner,  without  bringing 
them  to  use  till  some  great  national  emergency  calls  for  exertion,  which  is  to  be 
made  by  disgorging  the  store  either  among  her  own  subjects  in  order  to  pay  an  in- 
creased army,  or  among  allies  and  mercenaries,  whose  co-operation  she  might  wish 
to  procure?  And  in  that  case,  would  not  the  sudden  production  of  the  treasure  pro- 
digiously reduce  its  value  ?  We  do  not  mean  here  to  discuss  these  questions,  which 
belong  to  one  of  the  most  difficult  and  profound  as  well  as  most  important  depart- 
ments of  science,  and  are  agitated  in  treatises  devoted  to  the  subject;  but  merely  to 
intimate,  in  transitu,  the  danger  of  adopting  precipitate  conclusions. 


16 


IJOOK  TIIIUTY-ETGHTH. 


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18 


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19 


Table  of  Geographic  Positions  in  Siberia. 


Names  of  places- 


Abakanskoi-Ostrog 


x\rgoun   river  (at   its   issue 
from  lake  DolaV) 

Awalsha 

Barnaool 


BerezofT 


Lon.  E.  from 
London. 


deg.  min.  sec. 


158   46   45 
83   27      0 


Lat.  N. 

defc. 

mint  sec. 

54 

7 

0 

49 

17 

0 

52 

51 

45 

53 

20 

0 

63 

56 

14 

Authoritiea. 


Messerschmid,  Ephemerides 
Geogr.  XVI. 

Idem.  Ibid. 
Connaiss.  des  Temps. 
Petersburg    Calendar,    pub 

lished  by  the  Academy  of 

Sciences. 
Idem. 


20 


BOOK  THiK  rv-Euarni, 


Table  Conlinued. 


Names  of  Places. 


Lon.  E. 
from  Lon. 


Bolcheretzkoi-Ostrog     .  . 
Cape  of  Kamtchatka  .  .  . 

-  of  Olutorsko'i 

—  of  Tchukotchoi,  north 

-  ofTchukotchoi,  south 
-of  St.  Thaddeus  .  .  . 

Ekaterinbouig 


deg.    min. 

156  50 
162  0 
169  15 
190  16 
186  29 
179  5 
60  40 


The  same     

lakutsk 

The  same     

leniseisk •  •  •  • 

Irkutsk 

The  same     

Kiachta 

Kirenskoi-Ostrog     

Kolywansk 

Kowyma  (Lower)     

Khrasnoiarsk 

The  same 

Narym 

Nertchinsk 

The  same 

Okhotsk 

The  same 

Olekminsk 

Omskaia  fort 

Petropaulofskaia  port     .  .  . 

The  same 

Saianskoi-Ostrog 

Selenginsk 

The  same 

Semipalatsk 

Smenogarskaia  or  Sclilangen- 

berg  fort 

Sourgout  

Tobolsk 

The  same 

The  same 

Tomsk 

The  same 

Udinsk  lower,  or  NichneV    . 

IU'dsko'i-Ostrog 
Werchoturia 


sec. 

15 
15 
15 
15 
15 
15 
15 


Lat.  N. 


60  50 

129  42 

129  44 

91  58 

104  11 

104  33 


143   12' 
143  13 
119  34 


15 
30 
0 
45 
33 
45 


108     3     0 


163   18 
102  57 


15 
46 


45 
45 
45 


178  48 

179  49 


106  38 
106  32 


45 
30 


82     9  45 


15 

58 
59 


68  25 
68  5 
68     5 

84  59  45 

85  9  51 
98  61  46 


0 

0 

20 


Authorities. 


deg.    min.   sec. 

51   54  30 

55  55 
59  48 
66  5 
64  14  30 
62  50  0 

56  50  38 


56  50  15 
62  1  50 

(Idem) 
58  27  17 
52  16  41 

52  18  15 

50  20 

57  47  0 

51  19  23 
68  18  0 
56  1 
56  9 

58  54 
51  56 
51  57 

59  20 
(Idem) 

60  22  0 
54  58 
58  1 

53  10 
53  10 
51  6 

(Idem) 
50  29  45 


2 

30 
0 
0 
0 

10 


5 
20 
0 
0 
6 


51 
61 

58 
58. 
58 
56 
56 
54 
55 
58 


9 
16 


25 
0 


12  30 
11  43 


11 
30 


48 
0 


29  39 
55  22 
18  0 
50  15 


Connaiss.  dcs  Temps. 

La  Perouse. 

Idem. 

Petersburg  Calendar. 

Idem. 

Connaiss.  des  Temps. 

Table  of  observations  annexed 

to  the  map  of  Russia  in  12 

sheets. 
Connaiss.  des  Temps. 
Idem. 

Petersburg  Calendar. 
The  same. 
The  same. 

Connaiss.  des  Temps. 
Petersburg  Calendar. 
Connaiss.  des  Temps. 
Petersburg  Calendar. 
Connaiss.  des  Temps. 
Petersburg  Calendar. 
Messerschmid,  Eph.  Geogr. 
Petersburg  Calendar. 
The  same. 

Messerschmid,  Eph.  Geogr. 
Petersburg  Calendar. 
Connaiss.  des  Temps. 
Petersburg  Calendar. 
The  same. 
The  same. 

Connaiss.  des  Temps. 
Messerschmid,  Eph.  Geogr. 
Petersburg  Calendar. 
Ephem.  Geogr.  XVI. 
Petersburg  Calendar. 

Table  of  tlic  map  of  Russia. 
Petersburg  Calendar. 
Connaiss.  des  Temps. 
Petersburg  Calendar. 
Table  of  the  map  of  Russia. 
Connaiss.  dcs  Temps. 
Petersburg  Calendar. 
The  same. 
The  same. 
The  same. 


SIBERIA. 


'^1 


JlgricAiUural  Table  of  some,  of  the  Proimices  of  Siberia. 


Districts, 

Corn,  fields  in  acres. 

Forests,  &c. 

Meadows. 

Delmatow 

Schradinsk      .     .     ,     .     . 
Kamyschlowa      .... 

libit 

Werchoturia 

Turinsk 

Tioomen 

lalutorrw 

Issim 

Tara 

Teniseisk 

279,730,360. 
330,035,275. 
348,794,097. 
103,297,632. 
306,246,132. 

28,675,000. 

48,012,500. 

129,015,000. 

8,602,500. 

64,507,500. 
2,867,500. 

664,129,592. 

59,925,987. 

286,700,000. 

57,857,547. 

512,281,742. 

745,420,000. 

430,050,000. 

1,003,450,000. 

60,134,342. 

63,237,690. 
121,355,467. 

Chronological  Table  of  Discoveries  made  in  Siberia. 

1242.       The  Tartars  enter  Siberia  under  Scheiban,  who  founds  the  Klianat  of 

Sibir  or  Tura. 
1246.       Carpini  mentions  the  Samoides  as  now  included  in  the  conquests  of  the 

Mongols. 
1558.       Troganow  trades  in  Siberia. 
1563.       Iwan  Wasiliewitch  introduces  Siberia  into  the  titles  of  the  Russian 

Czars. 
1580.       Icrmak  Timofeyew,  at  the  head  of  some  Cossacks,  invades  the  Khanat 

of  Sibir,  or  western  Siberia. 
1584.       The  Russians  leave  Siberia. 
1587.       They  build  Tobolsk. 

1598.       The  death  of  Kutshum-Khan  puts  ancTid  to  thensjsistanceof  the  Tartars. 
1604.       The  city  of  Tomsk  built. 
1618.       leniseisk  and  Kutznesk  are  built. 

1621.       Cyprian,  metropolitan  of  Tobolsk,  publishes  a  description  of  Siberia. 
1636.       Russian  vessels  sail  down  the  Lena,  and  explore  the  shores  of  the 

Frozen  Sea. 
1639.       Dimitrei  Kopilow  reaches  the  shores  of  the  Eastern  Ocean. 
1646.       Boniyshlan  sailed  round  from  the  Kowyma  to  the  Anadyr,  doubling 

Cape  Tchukotchi  in  Behring's  Straits. 
1648.       Deschnew,  another  Cossack,  made  the  same  voyage. 
1648-58.  Irkutsk,  lakootsk,  and  Nertchinsk,  are  built. 
1690.       Kamtchatka  known  at  lakootsk. 
1695.       First  Russian  expedition  to  Kamtchatka. 
1706.       The  Russians  make  the  south  point  of  Kamtchatka. 
171 1-24.  The  merchants  of  lakootsk  visit  the  islands  and  countries  north  of  the 

mouths  of  the  Lena  and  the  lana. 
1720-26.  Daniel  Messerschmidt  travels  in  Siberia  as  far  north  as  Turukhansk, 
and  as  far  east  as  Nertchinsk. 

N.  B.  He  was  a  native  of  Dantzick,  and  died  in  extreme  misery  at 

Petersburgh,  in  1735.     His  numerous  papers,  preserved  in  the 

archives  of  the  Academy,  have  been  extracted  by  his  successors. 

1721.       Baron  Strahlenberg,  (originally  a  Swedish  captain,  and  author  of  a  work 

on  northern  and  eastern  Asia)  travels  to  the  lenisc'i. 
1727.       Vitus  Behring,  a  Dane,  coasted  eastern  Siberia, from  the  Pacific  as  high 
as  67°  18'  N.  Lat.,  doubling  Cape  Tchukotchi,  but  without  discover- 
ing the  opposite  coast  of  America. 

N.  B.  This  navigator  was  born  at  Horsens  in  Yutland,  and  died,  in 
1741,  on  the  island  which  bears  his  name. 


22  BOOK  THIRTY-EIGHTH. 

1733.       Behring,  Muller,  Gmelin,  and  Louis  de  I'lle  de  la  Croycre,  set  out  on  a 
great  expedition. 

N,  B.  Tiie  last-mentioned  person,  a  French  geographer  and  astro- 
nomer, died,  in  1741,  on  the  coast  of  America. 
1733-43.  John    George  Gmelin,  the  botanist,  explored  Siberia  as  far  east  as 
lakootsk  and  Kirensk,  as  far  north  as  Turukhansk,  and  to  Nertchinsk 
and  Sayanskoi-Ostrog  on  the  south. 
N.  B.  This  philosopher  was  born  in  1709  at  Tubingen  in  Suabia, 
and  died  therein  1775.     He  was  author  of  the  Flora  Sibirica, 
and  uncle  to  Samuel  Gmelin,  traveller  in  Persia. 
— —        At  the  same  time  Muller  and  Fischer  travelled  along  with  Gmelin,  in 
the  character  of  historians  and  antiquaries. 

N  B.  Muller,  historiographer,  counsellor  of  state.  Sec,  was  a  West- 
phalian  by  birth,  and  died  at  Moscow  in  1784.     Fischer,  a  Livo- 
nian,  member  of  the  Academy  of  Petersburgh,  died  in  1771. 
1738.       Lieutenant  Owzin  sailed  from  the  Obi  to  the  Yenisei. 

Lieutenant  Laptiew  travelled  by  land  along  the  coast,  from  the  Yenisei 

to  the  Lena. 
1739-40.  This  officer  sailed  from  the  Lena  to  the  Kowyma. 
1 740.       George  William  Seller,  a  naturalist,  arnived  in  Kamtchatka,  and  remain- 
ed there  till  the  end  of  1743. 

N.B.  He  was  a  native  of  Franconia,  and  died  in  misery  in  1745. 
Author  of  a  description  of  Kamtchatka,  (1744,)  the  manuscript 
of  which  was  used  by  Kraschenninikow.  His  other  manuscripts, 
viz.  Syllabe  Plautarum  Tobolensium,  Flora  Kamtchatika,  Orni- 
thologia  Sibirica,  and  Ichthyologia  Sibirica,  were  preserved  by 
the  Academy  of  Petersburgh,  and  extracted  by  subsequent  tra- 
vellers. 
1760.       The  Academy  of  Sciences  sent  a  list  of  questions  to  all  the  governors, 

and  other  persons  likely  to  collect  local  information. 
— —        Pleisner,  a  Courlander,  commandant  of  Okhotsk,  ascertained,  by  a  va- 
riety of  researches,  that  the  country  of  the  Tchukotches  is  a  peninsula, 
separated  from  America  by  a  strait  containing  two  islands. 

1764.  Sind,  lieutenant  of  a  Russian  vessel,  examined  Behring's  Strait  and  the 

adjoining  coast  8f  America. — A  merchant  vessel  sailed  from  the  Ko- 
wyma to  the  Anadyr. 

1765.  Eric  Laxmann  travelled  over  Siberia,  to  the  north-west  part  of  Kamt- 

chatka. 

N.B.  He  was  a  Finnish  Swede,  a  clergyman,  afterwards  an  acade- 
mician, counsellor  of  mines,  knight,  &c.     He  died  in  1796.     It 
is  matter  of  much  regret  that  he  committed  so  little  to  writing. 
1768-74.  Peter  Simon  Pallas,  a  native  of  Berlin,  made  his  great  tour;  spent  tlie 
years  1770-1773  in  Siberia  ;  went  to  Daooria.  Souiew  his  companion 
went  to  Obdoria. 

1 77 1 .  Nicholas Ry tschkow,  a  Russian  captain,  and  Bardanes,  an  Illyrian  savant, 

travelled  over  the  steppe  of  Kirguis  along  with  a  Russian  detachment. 
1771-2.     John  Peter  Falk,  a  learned  botanist,  travelled  in  Siberia.     His  papers 
were  published,  in  17S5,by  Georgi. 

N.B.  Falk  was  a  Swede,  and  a  pupil  of  Linnaeus,  of  respecable  at- 
tainments, but  the  victim  of  jealousy  and  intrigue.  He  destroyed 
himself  by  a  pistol-shot,  in  1774. 

1772.  Georgi,  colleague  to  Falk,  made  a  minute  examination  of  the  lake  of 

Baikal,  and  the  Daoorian  and  Uralian  mountains,  Sec. 

N.B.     Georgi  was  a  native  of  Swedish  Pomerania,  author  of  the 
best  statistical  account  of  Russia. 
1775.       Liaichow  and  Chwoinow  visited  a  large  country,  (island  or  continent  ?) 

to  the  north  of  Cape  Sviaitoi, 
1787.       BiHings,an  Englishman,  made  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  sail  round  from 
the  river  Kowyma,  by  Behring's  Strait,  to  Anadyr. 


CKNTRAL  ASIA.  25 

1791-93.  Billings  navigated  the  Kamtchatkan  seas.     The  accounts  of  this  ill-di- 
rected expedition  have  been  collected  by  Sauer,  a  German,  and  Saryt- 
schewj  a  Russian. 
1790-95.  Sievers,  a  botanist  and  apothecary,  travelled  into  the  southern  moun- 
tains of  Siberia. 
•  N,  B.  Sievers,  a  German,  was  another  victim.    He  killed  himself  by 
poison.     Some  of  his  plants  have  been  published  by  Pallas. 
1804.       The  expeditions  of  Krusenstern,  Langsdorf,  Tilesius,  &c. 

This  Table  has  been  exti-acted  from  Fischer's  History  of  Siberia,  Muller's  Collection  on  the 
History  of  Russia,  Georgi,  and  others. — It  does  not  inchidethe  voyages  to  the  Aleutian  Islands, 
those  to  tlie  Kurile  Islands  and  to  lesso,  nor  those  to  Spitzbergen.  These  countries  come  into 
view  in  other  parts  of  our  work. 


BOOK  XXXIX. 


CENTRAL  ASIA.  * 

Comprehending  Little  Bukharia,  the  Kalmuck  country,  and  Mongolia. 

We  return  from  the  northern  extremities  of  Asia  to  the  central  zones,  which  are 
only  known  to  geography  by  vague  traditions  and  antiquated  descriptions.  Tlie  tra- 
ditions often  serve  to  thicken  the  darkness  in  which  we  wander.  The  Deficiency  of 
old  descriptions  furnish  very  deceitful  lights ;  for,  since  the  thirteenth,  information, 
fourteenth,  and  fifteenth  centuries,  in  which  these  countries  were  freely  travelled, 
we  know  not  how  many  cities  may  have  disappeared,  how  many  nations  have  become 
extinct,  how  many  cultivated  fields  may  have  been  suffered  to  lie  waste,  nor  how 
many  deserts  may  have  been  clothed  with  the  benefits  of  cultivation.  An  analysis 
of  the  accounts  of  Carpin,  of  Bubruquis,  of  Marco  Palo,  Pigoletti  and  Haithon,  will 
figure  in  the  general  view  which  will  be  given  of  the  history  of  the  geographical  re- 
search in  the  middle  age;  but  it  is  only  for  want  of  better  materials,  and  with 
circumspection  and  reserve,  that  we  shall  adopt  some  of  their  descriptions  on  the 
present  occasion. 

The  central  part  of  Asia,  from  which  we  separate  Thibet,  includes  five  geographi- 
cal divisions :  Mongolia,  or  Mongohstan,  properly  so  called,  on  the  north  of  China, 
and  the  south  of  Irkootsk;  the  Kalmuk  country,  which  we  may  denominate  Kalmoo- 
kia,  called  also  Songaria,  on  the  west  of  Mongolia,  and  on  the  south  of    Ancie'nt^D?- 
Kolywan;    little  Bukharia,  or  eastern  Turkestan,  to  the  east  of  great     visions. 
Bukharia,  and  the  north  of  Cashmere  and  little  Thibet:  Tangoot,  or  the  country  of 
the  Eleuthes  of  Koko-Nord,  or  the  eastern  Kalmuks ;  and,  lastly,  in  the  middle  of 
these  four  countries,  the  desert  of  Kobi,  with  the  Oases  of  Lop,  of  Hamel  and  others. 
A  small  part  of  Songaria  seems  to  have  been  included  in  what  the  ancients  called 
Scythia  beyond  Imaus.     The  direction  of  the  rivers,  and  perhaps  a  sight  of  lake  Pal- 
cati-Nor,  gave  rise  to  the  supposition  that  the  northern  ocean  was  but  a  short  way  off; 
and  the  Mongolian  name  of  Daba,  which  is  the  general  term  for  a  mountain,  was  ap- 
plied to  the  pretended  promontory  of  Tabis,  considered  as  terminating     Promontory  of 
on  the  north-east  in  the  country  of  the  Igoors.     The  Serica  of  the  an-     TaWj. 
cients  seems  to  have  included  the  western  parts  of  Thibet,  Serinagur,  Cashmere, 
little  Thibet,  and  perliaps  a  small  part  of  little  Bukharia.*     That  name,  known  to 

•  The  opinion  here  given  on  the  Geography  of  the  ancients,  and  which  is  stated  and  sup- 
ported at  some  length  in  the  author's  history  of  geography,  has  been  rendered  less  probable 
by  various  subsequent  discoveries  made  by  British  oflicers  on  the  actual  physical  geograpliy 
of  the  inounlainoub  parts  ol'  Asia,  wiiith  lie  inniiedialely  on  the  north  of  India.    Accordingly, 


Kxtenston  of 
(he  name  of 
Tartary. 


24  ROOK  TIHRTY-NINTII. 

Ammianus  Marcellinus  in  the  fourth  century,  disappeared  in  the  fifth.  Moses  of 
Chorene  mentions,  indeed,  a  town  called  Syrrhia,  which  is  Sera  the  mctropohs,  but 
Djenistan.  |  he  gives  the  country  of  which  it  was  the  capital  the  name  of  Djenia, 
or  Djenistan.*  He  seems  to  comprehend  under  this  name  central  Asia,  and  particu- 
larly little  Bukharia.  He  places  the  country  of  .Sena,  or  China,  more  to  the  east. 
Perhaps  the  term  Djenia  might  have  been  given  in  consequence  of  some  ancient 
conquest  which  the  Chinese  had  obtained  over  these  countries,  or  it  might  signify 
"the  country  of  genii,  or  of  gods,"  as  that  o( Serica  may  denote  in  Sanscrit  "the 
country  of  happiness."  Whatever  be  the  fact  in  this  case,  it  appears  that,  six  ccn- 
Kathaya  or  turies  later,  these  countries  went  under  the  general  name  of  Cathaya, 
Kithay.  or  properly  Kithay."!"     It  is  uncertain  whether  this  word  was  the  proper 

name  of  northern  China,  or  an  appellation  derived  from  a  Tartar  term  signifying 
"Desert  Mountain.".  At  all  events,  Kathay  made  a  conspicuous  figure  in  geogra- 
phy from  the  thirteenth  till  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century.  It  is  certain  that 
the  name  chiefly  applied  to  the  north  part  of  China,  which  long  formed  a  separate 
monarchy,  but  it  probably  extended  at  the  same  time  over  part  of  Mongolia  and  of 
Tangut.  The  meaning  of  the  term  Kara-Kitha7j,  or  Tributary  Cathay,  must  have 
varied  with  the  fortunes  of  war. 

A  name  still  more  vague  has  long  been  applied  in  our  maps,  not  only 
to  the  central  zone,  but  also  to  all  the  northern  and  eastern  part  of  Asia. 
This  is  Tartary  with  its  divisions.  In  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries,  this 
name  was  given  to  the  whole  empire  of  the  Mongols  under  Gengliiz-Khan,  and  that 
of  the  Tartars  under  Tamerlane.  During  the  dismemberment  of  this  latter  monar- 
chy, a  descendant  of  Genghiz-Khan,  called  Isan-Boga-Khan,  founded  a  separate 
state  in  little  Bukharia,  of  which  Bishbalig,  and  afterwards  Cashgar,  were  the  capi- 
tals.    About  the  same  time,  the  four  confederate  tribes  of  Kalmuks,  which  call 


the  ophilon  of  M.  Gosselin  here  acquiesced  in  is  combated  in  a  learned  memoir  by  Mr.  Hugh 
Murray,  inserted  in  the  Transactions  of  the  lioyal  Society  of  Edinburgh,  vol.  riii.  p.  171,  in 
which  the  Seres  are  maintained  to  be  identical  with  the  Chinese.  The  arguments  are  partly 
founded  on  a  confidence  in  the  g-eneral  correctness  of  Ptolemy,  as  confirmed  by  these  discove- 
ries, which,  while  they  subvert  the  views  recently  entertained,  restore,  so  far  as  they  go,  the 
geography  of  that  author.  The  length  of  the  journey  of  the  caravans  which  went  from  western 
to  eastern  Asia,  in  the  silk  trade,  and  the  localities  referred  to  in  the  account  of  Ptolemy,  induce 
the  belief  that  the  ancient  Serica  was  nothing  else  than  China.  From  Bactriana,  where  their 
route  begins  to  be  matter  of  controversy,  tliey  first  ascended  the  Beloor,  apparently  by  the 
valley  of  the  Oxus  laid  down  in  Mr.  Elphinstone's  map  ;  then  descended  into  a  plain  abundant 
in  pasture,  but  not  arable,  (Pamer  plains)  then  ascended  a  valley,  probably  the  valley  of  Ladak, 
to  the  "stone  tower,"  a  great  rendezvous  for  tlie  caravans  (though  this  singular  appellation 
has  never  yet  been  explained,)  situated  most  probably  on  a  lofty  ridge  lying  north  and  south, 
and  separating  Little  from  Great  ThilDct.  Tliis  ridge  is  considered  as  the  Imans  versus  adArc^ 
ton.  From  this  point,  their  journey  to  the  country  of  the  Seres  occupied  seven  months,  a  pe- 
riod which,  allowing  for  the  slowness  of  their  progress,  as  well  as  some  exaggeration,  was 
amply  sufficient  to  bring  them  to  the  heart  of  China,  but  inconsistent  with  any  hypothesis 
wliich  makes  Serica  either  Little  Bukharia,  the  Two  Tliibels,  the  north  of  India,  or  a  country 
made  up  of  these  or  of  portions  of  them.  The  account  given  of  the  Seres,  their  manners, 
their  prejudices,  their  produce,  and  their  manufactures  and  trade,  corresponds  in  every  par- 
ticular to  the  picture  presented  by  China  as  now  known,  and  as  it  is  described  to  have  invari- 
ably existed  from  time  immemorial.  Little  Thibet,  according  to  this  view,  was  the  Sct/lhia  hi- 
tra  Imcutm,  the  country  of  tiie  6'«c.e  ,-  Great  Tliil)et,  the  Scijthia  extra  Imaiim.  These  points 
will  be  more  fully  considered  in  the  history  of  geography.  Though  not  warranted  to  alter 
the  autlior's  text  in  cases  in  which  a  difT'erence  of  opinion  might  be  entertained,  we  think  it 
necessary  to  allude,  as  in  the  present  instance,  to  later  discussions  conducted  under  greater 
advantages.  Corrections  of  geographical  facts  founded  on  actual  discoveries  are,  however, 
every  where  introduced  without  scrujile,  and  without  the  ceremony  of  a  formal  intimation. 
On  the  present  question,  we  must  refer  the  reader  to  the  interesting  memoir  now  mentioned, 
and  also  to  Mr.  Murray's  more  recent  work,  entitled,  "  A  IliRtorical  Account  of  Discoveries  and 
Travels  in  Asia,"  in  3  vols.  8vo.  vol.  i.  p,  485,  &c.  In  this  work,  however,  the  argument  is  in- 
terspersed witl\  other  materials,  and  appears  less  pointed  and  consecutive  than  in  the  me- 
moir.— Tu. 

•  Mos-Chor.  nistor.  Armcn. 

I  And.  Muller,  Disquisiiio,  C-cogr.  et  Ili^lor.  de  Cathaya  (Belling,  1670,)  Compare  with 
Hyde  bynlagnia  Dibscrt.  i.  Itin.  mund.  p.  ol. 


Considerations 
on  the  plateau 
of  central 
Asia. 


CENTRAL   ASIA.  25 

themselves  Derhen-Ocrdf,  or  "  the  four  brothers,"  and  are  called  by  the  Europeans 
Eleuths,  re-estabhshed  their  ancient  independence,  and  elected  a  sovereign,  on  whom 
they  conferred  the  title  of  Contaish,  or  Khan-laidsha.  At  this  epoch,  the  power  of 
the  Mongols  in  China  was  extinguished  ;  the  descendants  of  Genghiz-Khan  retired 
to  Karakorum,  a  place  which  under  Genghiz  had  been  the  capital  of  the  whole  of 
Asia,  but  was  now  merely  the  chief  place  of  the  horde  of  Kalkas.  Divided  among 
themselves,  the  Mongols  gradually  became  tributary  to  the  Chinese,  and  afterwards 
to  the  Mantchoos,  the  new  masters  of  China.  Russia,  after  destroying  the  Tartar 
kingdoms  of  Astrakan,  Kasan,  and  Siberia,  subjugated  some  Mongolian  tribes  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Lake  Baikal.  These  different  revolutions  produced  the  famous 
distinction  in  geography  between  Muscovite  or  Russian  Tartary,  including  Astrakan, 
Kasan,  and  Siberia;  Chinese  Tartary,  consisting  of  the  Mongols  and  Mantchoos; 
and  Independent  Tartary,  consisting  of  the  states  of  Great  and  Little  Bukharia ; 
that  of  the  Eleuth  Kalmuks,  the  Kirguis  and  the  Turcomans.  This  threefold  divi- 
sion, now  entirely  rejected,  had  been  thrown  into  some  confusion  half  a  century  ago. 
The  Kalmuks,  who  in  1683  had  conquered  Little  Bukharia,  and  had  become  formi- 
dable to  China  and  to  Russia,  experienced,  after  fifty  years  of  power  and  glory,  all 
the  miseries  of  civil  war.  The  Chinese,  employing  against  them  the  arms  of  the 
Mongols,  subdued  them,  and  still  hold  them  in  a  state  of  vassalage.  Chinese  Tar- 
tary should,  at  the  present  day,  extend  over  the  whole  central  plateau  of  Asia ;  but 
it  is  more  advisable  to  reject  the  term  entirely. 

TVe  have  already  traced  the  mountain  chains  which  support  or  cir- 
cumscribe the  central  plateau  of  Asia  ;  we  have  followed  the  courses  of 
the  rivers  which  water  that  icy  region.  If  it  is  asked,  what  arc  the  struc- 
ture and  composition  of  that  chain"?  we  are  presented  only  with  a  long  series  of  un 
certainties  and  conjectures.  Does  this  plateau  maintain  nearly  an  equal  level ;  or- 
is it  more  elevated  at  one  or  two  central  points  ?  Is  it  interspersed  with  some  groups 
of  mountains  which  are  of  moderate  elevation  above  their  immediate  bases,  like  the 
mountains  of  Algydim-Shalo  in  the  Kirguis  country  ;  or  may  the  permanence  of  the 
snow  on  the  summits  of  the  great  AltaY  and  the  great  Bogdo  be  considered  as  a 
proof  of  a  greater  elevation  in  the  interior  of  the  Kalmuk  country  1  Is  the  same  ele- 
vation continued  along  the  deserts  by  which  that  country  is  separated  from  Thibet  ? 
Are  these  deserts  filled  entirely  with  black  sand,  as  has  been  hitherto  asserted,  or  do 
they  contain  secondary  mountains  ?  Is  the  granitic  nature  of  the  Altaic,  Sayanian, 
and  Daoorian  mountains,  common  to  the  great  chains  in  the  interior,  if  such  chains 
exist?  or  do  the  latter  consist  solely  of  masses  of  hardened  clay,  mixed  with  gravel, 
like  the  mountains  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  great  wall,  mentioned  by  Staunton  ? 
or,  what  certainly  appears  more  probable,  does  this  centre  of  the  great  continent  of 
Asia  contain  immense  seas  of  sand,  and  a  chaotic  mixture  of  all  the  elements  of  the 
globe.  There  seem  to  be  no  volcanoes  in  it  in  a  state  of  activity  ;  but  may  not  this 
great  extent  of  land  afford  some  traces  of  ancient  volcanic  revolutions,  like  those 
observed  by  M.  Patrin  in  Daooria?  In  fine,  does  this  region,  so  near  to  India,  con- 
tain, like  Siberia,  bones  of  the  elephant  and  the  rhinoceros  1 

These  are  important  questions,  and  the  list  might  be  farther  extended.  It  is  curi- 
ous to  find  that  hitherto  they  remain  unanswered.  This  great  region,  forming  a  sixth 
part  of  the  old  continent,  has  not  been  seen  by  any  of  our  geologists,  w^ho  display 
with  so  much  confidence  their  theories  of  the  earth. 

The  mineralogy  of  these  countries  is  equally  unknown.  The  tin  mines  |  Minerals, 
said  to  exist  in  the  country  strictly  called  that  of  the  Mongols  ;  the  name  of  "  Golden 
Mountains,"  (Altai",)  given  to  one  great  ridge  ;  the  tradition  of  the  great  antiquity  of 
the  art  of  mining  among  the  Mongols  who  live  near  to  the  rich  mines  of  Russian 
Daooria  ;  the  instruments  and  vessels  of  gold  found  in  the  ancient  tumuH  ;  and,  fi- 
nally, the  report  that  the  rivers  of  Little  Bukharia  furnish  a  gold  dust,  which  forms 
an  article  in  the  commerce  of  Kiakta :  these  constitute  the  feeble  proofs  which  we 
possess  of  the  mineral  treasures  of  this  great  region. 

All  accounts  agree  in  representing  the  cold  of  central  Asia  as  ex-  |  climate, 
tremely  rigorous  ;  and  its  elevation  and  latitude  w^ould  lead  us  to  the  same  conclu- 
sion.    La  Perouse  found  the  coasts  of  the  Mantchoo  country,  under  the  parallel  of 
Yor..  IL— D 


26  BOOK  THIRTY-NINTH. 

40°,  covered  with  snow  in  August.  The  ambassadors  of  Sharok  saw,  in  the  Kal- 
muk  country,  the  ground  frozen  two  inches  thick  at  the  summer  solstice.*  Yet  some 
more  temperate  countries  are  found  in  the  interior. 

Vegetation,  (  The  vegetation  of  the  centre  of  Asia,  including  even  that  of  Thibet, 
is  almost  entirely  unknown  to  us;  these  vast  countries  never  having  been  explored 
by  any  able  naturalist.  The  elevation  of  their  soil  and  the  rigour  of  their  winters 
might  produce  a  presumption  that  they  contain  no  plant  belonging  to  the  more  tem- 
perate parts  of  Asia.  Yet  the  cotton  plant  and  the  vine  have  found  their  way  hither. 
From  the  vague  accounts  of  ancient  travellers,  and  the  little  that  we  know  of  the 
vegetables  which  groAV  on  the  maritime  coasts  of  Tartary,  it  would  appear  that  the 
plants  are  partly  the  same  that  are  found  in  the  north  of  Germany,  mixed  with  seve- 
ral of  the  Siberian  species. 

Tiie  vast  extent  of  central  Asia  undoubtedly  contains  new  species,  and  perhaps  a 
flora  altogether  peculiar,  but  we  do  not  yet  know  of  any  of  its  pecuHar  and  indi- 
genous plants,  except  the  singular  fungus  called  Polypodmm  barometz,  or  the  Tarta- 
rian lamb,  (which  is  ligured  and  described  in  Darwin's  Botanic  Garden,)  and  the 
different  species  of  rhubarb.  These  last  grow  on  the  mountains ;  the  fungus,  now 
mentioned,  in  the  steppes. 

Animals.  |  The  animals  which  roam  at  large  in  the  deserts  become  known  by 
making  their  appearance  in  occasional  visits  which  they  pay  to  Siberia  and  to  China. 
All  the  species  which  are  useful  to  man  are  found  here  in  a  state  of  nature.  The 
wild  horse  is  called  by  the  Kalmuksf  takia,  and  by  the  Mantchoos  tahi.'l  The 
koolan  or  wild  ass,  inhabits  the  steppes  and  open  plains ;  and  does  not  exceed  the 
latitude  of  48°. §  His  flesh  is  used  as  food.  A  third  solipedous  quadruped,  which 
holds  an  intermediate  place  between  the  ass  and  the  horse,  the  dijggetai  or  hemionus, 
collects  in  troops  on  the  banks  of  the  Onon,  the  Argoon,  and  the  Amoor,  in  the 
desert  of  Gobi,  as  far  as  the  confines  of  China  and  Thibet.  He  is  often  tamed. 
He  shows  more  intelligence  than  the  common  ass,  but  does  not  entirely  lose  the 
wildness  of  his  disposition.  11  The  two-humped  or  Bactrian  camel,  wanders  inde- 
The  Yak.  I  pendent  in  the  sandy  deserts  of  Mongolia.  The  Yak,  or  wild  grunting 
ox,  (the  Vacca  grimniens  of  Gnielin,  and  the  Buhalus  of  Pallas,)  frequents  the  open 
meadows.  His  reflected  horns,  his  soft  hair,  four  inches  long  on  the  belly,  and  his 
tail  resembling  that  of  the  horse,  show  that  he  is  not  the  father  of  our  domestic  ox.1T 
This  animal  is  called  Kalo  in  the  Bukharian  and  Tangoot  languages,  and  Sarluk  by 
the  Kalmuks.  An  expcrmient  made  at  Irkutsk  proved  that  he  could  be  raised  and 
managed  like  our  black  cattle,  but  the  milk  of  the  female  has  an  unpleasant  taste  of 
tallow.**  The  mountains  in  which  the  river  Amoor  takes  its  rise  mark  the  limits 
which  nature  has  prescribed  to  the  rein-deer  on  the  south,  but  the  elk  is  found  as  low 
as  the  parallel  of  45°.  The  argali  or  wild  sheep,  the  goat,  the  chamois,  the  wild 
goat  of  Caucasus,  the  Jlnldope  guthirosa,  and  the  saiga,  which  is  probably  the  yel- 
Muskaniraais.  j  low  goat  of  Duhalde,jt  wander  in  flocks  on  the  steepest  mountains.  The 
JMoschus  mosciferns  or  musk  animal,  which  delights  in  boundless  solitudes,  inhabits 
Mongolia,  Daooria,  and  the  mountainous  countries  of  the  river  Amoor;  on  the  south 
he  finds  his  way  to  Thibet,  to  China,  and  to  Tonquin;  and  on  the  west,  to  the  moun- 
tains of  Cashmere:  on  the  north,  Pallas  found  him  on  the  banks  of  the  Yenisei,  in 
the  neighbourhoud  of  Krasnoiarsk.JJ  Among  the  animals  of  the  terocious  kind,  are 
known  the  brown  and  black  bear,  the  common  fox,  the  korsak,  and  the  karagan,  the 
white  lynx,  called  irg-is  by  the  Kalmuks,  tlie  karakal,§§  (more  properly  Karakulak 
or  "black  ear,")  and  the  manul,  a  species  of  the  cat  kind,  like  the  ounce  and  tiger. 
The  ounce  is  well  known  here,  and  is  called  Djulbars  in  tlie  Kirguisian  and  Bukha- 
rian languages ;  but  it  is  not  a  matter  of  certainty  whether  the  true  tiger  has  been 

*  Vorster's  Northern  Discoveries,  i.  254.         f  Pallas,  Nouv.  Mem,  sur  le  Nord,  ii.  6. 

:{:  Kien-Long-,  eloge  de  Moukden.  §  Pallas,  Act.  Petrop.  1777. 

II  Sievers,  Lettres  sur  la  Sib^rie,  dans  les  nouv.  Mem.  du.  Nord,  vii.  2141, 

•J  Nov.  .Comment.  Petrop.  v.  Tab.  7.    Pallas,  Act.  Petrop.  i.  p.  11. 

**  Georgi,  Russie,  iii.  (vol.  ix.)  p.  1649. 

If  Pallas,  iv.  p.  285.  (4to.)  compare  with  Gmelin,  Nov.  Comm.  Petroj).  vii,  tab,  19.    , 

4t  Pallas,  t.  iv,  p.  13,  §§  Guldentedt,  Nov.  Comm.  Petrop.  xx,  p.  500. 


Little  Bukhfl' 
ria. 


LITTLE  BUKHARIA.  27 

seen.  Central  Asia  possesses  also  the  fur  animals  of  Siberia,  the  ermine,  the  mar- 
tin, the  sable,  the  otter,  which  last  swarms  on  the  margins  of  the  numerous  lakes  of 
the  Kalmuk  country;  the  marmot,  the  striped  squirrel,  and  different  species  of  hares. 
Even  this  rapid  and  imperfect  enumeration  of  the  principal  animals  of  central  Asia, 
shows  that  nature  has  in  some  measure  assembled  into  one  corner  of  the  world 
species  which  elswhere  exist  far  separated  from  each  other.  This  plateau,  like  that  of 
Africa,  is  a  central  region,  from  which  several  animal  races  may  be  supposed  to  have 
descended  into  the  surrounding  countries.  Even  in  that  class  of  animals  |  Birds. 
to  which  their  power  of  flying  seems  to  have  assigned  the  whole  world  for  a  dwelling, 
Central  Asia  seems  to  claim  as  a  native  the  beautiful  and  singular  bird  which  holds 
an  intermediate  place  between  the  pheasant  and  the  peacock,  the  lucn  of  the  Chinese, 
the  Phasianus  argus,  of  naturalists ;  it  is  also  said  to  be  found  in  China  and  Sumatra. 

We  shall  now  enter  on  more  particular  inquiries,  beginning  with  the  country  near- 
est to  Thibet  and  Independent  Tartary. 

The  country  improperly  called  Little  Bukharia  extends  on  d'An- 
ville's  map  between  the  34th  and  43d  parallels  of  latitude,  and  between 
the  75th  and  83d  degrees  of  east  longitude  from  London.  Major  Rennel  has  shown 
that  in  this  particular*  the  map  of  d'Anville  is  erroneous.  The  western  |  situation, 
frontier  may  be  extended  to  the  69th  degree  of  longitude.  At  least  the  towns  of  Cash- 
gar,  Yarkand,  and  Khoten,  ought  to  be  placed  more  to  the  west  than  they  are  by  d'An- 
ville. The  letter  of  the  Chinese  general,  quoted  by  Grosier,  makes  the  distance  be- 
tween China  and  Cashgar  nearly  28  miles  greater  than  it  is  in  d'Anville's  map  of  Asia. 

Whatever  may  in  that  respect  be  the  fact,  eastern  Bukharia,  a  country  for  a  long 
time  inhabited  or  governed  by  Tartars,  and  included  under  the  name  of  Turkestan, 
must  be  bounded  on  the  north  and  east  by  the  Kalmuk  country  :  on  the  south  it 
comes  in  contact  with  Little  Thibet,  and  the  less  known  parts  of  Great  Thibet :  on 
the  west,  it  is  separated  from  Great  Bukharia  by  the  Beloot  Tag,  or  Beloor  moun- 
tains, and  perhaps  by  a  high  plateau  called  the  plain  of  Pamer,  whici  has  been  con- 
sidered as  the  country  where  the  Indus  takes  its  rise. 

The  river  of  Yarkand  crosses  this  country  in  an  easterly  course,  and 
discharges  itself  into  the  lake  Lop  or  Loknor,  which  seems  to  be  a  com- 
mon receptacle  for  a  great  numljer  of  rivers.  The  territory  seems  to  be  plain  and 
level  in  the  middle,  at  least  we  hear  of  no  mountain  chain  ;  but  on  the  north  and 
west  it  is  encircled  by  mountains  or  elevated  table  lands.  It  is  asserted  that  these 
contain  many  gold  and  silver  mines,  but  neither  the  aborigines  of  the  country  nor 
the  Kalmuks  are  acquainted  with  the  art  of  working  them  :  they  content  themselves 
with  collecting  the  dust  of  these  metals,  brought  down  in  abundance  by  the  torrents 
which  are  formed  by  the  melting  of  the  snows,  and  carry  it  to  China  and  Tobolsk  in 
Siberia.     It  also  affords  some  precious  stones. 

According  to  Marco  Polo,  the  province  of  Cashgar  has  an  extent  of 
five  days'  journey ;  it  is  covered  with  towns  and  castles,  gardens  and 
beautiful  fields,  producing  good  grapes,  of  which  wine  is  made  ;  there  is  also  an 
abundance  of  fruit  of  other  kinds.  Cotton,  flax,  and  hemp,  are  cultivated.  The 
Chinese  general  who  subdued  this  country  in  1759,*  writes  that  the  soil  is  poor  ;  the 
inhabitants  covetous,  and  frugal  in  their  mode  of  living  ;t  that  there  are  about  60,000 
families,  1600  villages  and  hamlets  in  the  province  of  Kashgar  or  Cashgar ;  but  per- 
haps he  meant  the  whole  of  Bukharia,  which  has  received  the  name  of  the  kingdom 
of  Cashgar.  The  town  of  the  same  name,  formerly  the  residence  of  the  khans  of 
eastern  Bukharia,  reckons,  according  to  the  same  general,  2500  families.  It  is  built 
of  brick. 

The  province  of  Yarkand  is  situated  to  the  cast  of  Cashgar.     It  is  I  Province  of 
called  Earcan  in  one  edition  of  Marco  Polo ;  Barcan  in  the  Treviso  |  ^''^''''nd. 
edition  ;  Carchan  and  Carcam  in  others  :  Boorkend,  Oordakend,  and  Ardakend,  in 

•  Grosler's  Account  of  China. 

t  Marco  Polo,  maravegliose  cose  del  mondo.  Edition  of  Melchior  Sesaa,  Venice,  1508, 
cap.  38.  (in  the  Imperial  Library.)  Tliat  of  Treviso  of  1590,  preatly  recommended  by  Pinker-, 
ton  and  Walkenaer,  is  imperfect,  faulty,  and  insignificant,  (Bibl.  de  Saiute-Uenevieve.) 


Nature  of  the 
territory. 


Province  of 
Cashgar. 


28 


BOOK  THIRTY-NINTH. 


Abulfeda,  Albergendi  and  other  eastern  writers.*  This  province  is  fertile  in  cotton  and 
in  all  the  necessaries  of  Hfe.  The  people,  according  to  M.  Polo,  are  able  artizans.  But 
they  are  very  generally  subject  to  swelled  legs  and  goitres,  which  are  attributed  to  the 
water  which  they  drink.  Yarkand,  situated  on  the  river  of  the  same  name,  is  thought 
by  some  to  be  the  present  capital  of  Bukharia.  The  opinion  of  Petis  de  la  Croix, 
who,  in  his  learned  notes  on  Sherefeddin,  considers  Yarkand  as  another  name  for 
Cashgar,  is  sufficiently  refuted  by  the  accounts  of  Marco  Polo,  and  the  Chinese 
general. 

Province  of  The-  province  of  Koten  or  Kotan  lies  on  the  south-eastf  of  the  for- 

Kotan.  mer.     According  to  M.  Polo,  it  is  eight  days  journey  in  extent;  cotton 

flax,  hemp,  wheat,  vines,  and  other  useful  vegetables,  are  cultivated  here.  The  in- 
habitants are  industrious  and  warlike.  J 

Province  of  Karaia  or  Kereia,  which  is  placed  to  the  east  of  Kotan,  is  neither  the 

Karaia.  Caria  nor  the  Carit  of  M.  Polo,  which  we  shall  find  to  be  in  the  south 

of  Thibet,  and  in  the  Birman  empire.  This  province  probably  belongs  to  Little 
Bulihana.  With  regard  to  the  two  following  provinces  or  countries,  that  point  is 
less  certain. 

Province  of  "  0"  the  south-cast  of  Kotam,"  says  M.  Polo,  "  the  province  of  Poym 

Poyra.  is  situated,"  (in  some  editions  it  is  written  Peym,)  "  it  contains  several 

towns  and  castles ;  through  the  capital  there  runs  a  river,  which  carries  down  pre- 
cious stones,  such  as  chalcedony  and  jasper.  This  country  produces  abundance  of 
silk."  D'Anvillc  and  Forster  consider  it  as  the  Oasis  adjoining  Little  Bukharia; 
perhaps  the  Thibetan  term  Poy,  which  denotes  a  province  or  department,  might  jus- 
tify the  conjecture  that  Poym  is  the  northern  part  of  Thil)et. 

chiantr  cTa^r.  ^'^  these  provinces,  says  M.  Polo,  constitute  part  of  Great  Turkcs- 

tiam.  tan.    "  The  first  town  is  Ciarchian  or  Ciartiam.    Going  from  Ciarchian, 

a  journey  of  five  days,  across  a  sandy  country,  containing  salt  waters  and  some  fresh, 
we  arrive  at  the  confines  of  the  Great  Desert,  where  there  is  a  town  called  lob  or ' 
Lop,  situated  east-north-east  of  Poym."  We  see  nothing  in  this  passage  to  show 
that  Ciarchian  is  a  separate  canton  to  the  east  of  Poym,  as  the  translators  have  con- 
cluded. There  is  no  necessity  to  make  first  a  long  turn  to  the  south-east  and  then 
come  round  m  a  northerly  direction  to  go  south-east  a  second  time.  This  would  be 
the  tour  which  they  give  to  M.  Polo.  But  does  he  himself  say  that  he  was  at  Poym? 
\\  e  do  not  see  that  he  does.  Besides,  the  expression,  first  city,  may  designate  the 
capital  of  Turkestan;  now  that  capital  was  Yarkand,  called  before  that  Carcham. 
Might  not  that  be  the  place  of  which  M.  Polo  speaks?  According  to  this  hypothesis. 
It  would  be  necessary  to  bring  the  city  of  Lop  nearer,  to  shorten  the  course  of  the 
river  Yarkand,  and  enlarge  the  extent  of  the  desert. 

ingin^the  is'iTi  Eastern  Turkestan,  a  country  once  rich  and  beautiful,  had,  in  the  time 
century.  of  Marco  Polo,  been  ravaged  by  the  Tartars,  and  was  still  exposed  to 

their  visits  of  devastation.  Chalcedonies  and  jaspers  arc  found  in  it.  The  inha- 
bitants possessed  flocks;  every  person  after  harvest  hid  his  corn  in  a  hole  under  the 
sand,  ni  a  place  known  only  to  himself,  the  surface  being  quickly  smoothed  over  by 
the  drittmg  sand  of  the  desert.  Always  in  dread  of  being  robbed,  they  carried  alon.r 
w.  1  them  no  more  than  a  month's  provision.  Perhaps  the  same  description  wiH 
still  apply  to  the  condition  of  the  people. 

pr.p;i.,  of  the  '^lie  Origin  and  manners  of  the  people  of  Little  Bukharia  are  little 

m.-.>b,tant,.        kuown;  the   population,  notwithstanding  the   admixkire  of  some  Kal- 
niuks,  IS  cluefly  composed  of  native  Bukharians,  who  are  said  to  have  tawny  com- 
plexions; but  many  among  them  are  handsome  and  well-formed.     Their  lan"uaffe 
which  is  called  Zagathayan,  is  nothing  else  than  the  Turkish:   tiieir  idiom  is  mixed 
with  a  great  number  of  Persian  words. 

Bentinck  tolls  us  that  here  as  in  Great  Bukharia,  the  Tartars  give  the  townsmen 

•  See  d'Herbelot,  Bibliotheque  oriental,  v.  Koten  and  Casliear. 

t    1  he  traveller  says,  "  between  Gorge  and  Sosolan." 

+  As  to  theii'  warlike  ti.avaclcr,  tins  passag^e  of  M.  I'olo  is  read  bv  some  so  as  to  ffive  the 


KALMUK  COUNTRY.  29 

the  appellation  of  Taujiks  or  tributaries.  They  never  use  arms,  a  circumstance 
which  makes  them  contemptible  in  the  eyes  of  the  Tartars,  to  whom  a  regular  tri- 
bute is  paid  by  every  town  and  village  of  the  country.  They  differ  from  the  wander- 
ing nations  of  the  east  in  not  being  divided  into  tribes.  The  Chinese  missionaries 
also  make  a  distinction  between  the  Bukharians  and  the  Tartars.*  But  in  that  in- 
stance we  must  probably  understand  by  Tarters  the  Kalmuks,  by  whom  the  coun- 
try was  conquered,  and  by  the  Bukharians  the  real  Tartars  or  Turks. 

The  dress  of  the  men  goes  no  lower  than  the  calf  of  the  leg :  it  is  |  Dress, 
bound  by  a  girdle  like  the  Polish  garment.  The  women  wear  a  similar  one,  with 
long  ear-rings  and  pendents,  like  the  women  of  Thibet;  their  hair  is  equally  divided 
into  long  tresses,  and  adorned  with  ribbands.  They  dye  their  nails  with  the  juice  of 
henne.  Both  sexes  wear  long  drawers,  and  boots  of  Russian  leather:  the  head  dress 
is  the  same  with  the  Turkish.  The  generality  of  the  houses  are  of  stone,  and  de- 
corated with  furniture  of  Chinese  manufacture.  Tea  is  the  general  beveraf^e  of  the 
country;  it  is  taken  with  milk,  butter,  and  saU,  in  the  manner  of  the  other  ifations  of 
central  Asia.  The  women  are  purchased,  and  hence  handsome  girls  are  a  source 
of  wealth  to  their  parents. 

The  Kalmuks  may  be  considered  as  the  western  Mongols.  Mount  |  The  Kaimuk*. 
Bogdo  gave  occasion  to  this  ancient  division  of  the  tribes.  After  1579,  all  the  Kal- 
muk  country  acknowledged  the  dominion  of  the  Emperor  of  China,  The  Khan- 
Taidsha  could  raise  20,000  men  from  Little  Bukharia,  by  taking  one  man  out  of 
every  ten  families.  This  gives  200,000  families,  equivalent  to  a  p'opulation  of  a  mil- 
lion. The  Kalmuks  themselves,  without  reckoning  the  Eleuths  of  Koko-Nor,  pro- 
bably amounted  to  a  million.  Their  country,  which  comes  in  contact  with  China  on 
the  east,  and  Tartary  on  the  west,  is  bounded  by  Siberia  on  the  north,  and  Thibet 
on  the  south.  Its  surface  is  equal  to  the  whole  of  France,  Italy,  and  Spain;  their 
latitudes  are  the  same,  but  in  climate,  productions,  and  manners,  the  dilference  is 
very  wide. 

We  have  a  very  imperfect  knowledge  of  the  provinces,  or  rather  deserts  and  oases, 
which  occupy  that  vast  extent  of  country. 

The  elevated  region  which  d'Anville  calls  Kankaragay,  and  in  which  |  Kankaragay. 
the  river  Irtysh  takes  its  rise,  has  probably  one  of  the  most  rigorous  climates  of  the 
old  continent.     Mount  Bogdo,  and  the  other  mountains  in  the  neighbourhood,  are 
covered  with  perennial  snow.     The  Tshahan-Tala,  or  white  plain,  is     Tsha,han- 
one  of  the  most  elevated  plains  in  the  world,  and  the  same  thing  may  be     '^*'^- 
said  of  the  environs  of  lake  Zaizan.     It  seems  to  be  among  the  mountains  of  Bogdo 
that  we  must  search  for  the  Ringui-Talast  o^  Marco  Polo,  a  country  which  produced 
steel  and  asbestos,  and  which  was  sixteen  days'  journey  from  the  province  of  Ilamil. 

The  country  to  which  the  name  of  Songaria  properly  belongs  is  a  ba-  |  songaria. 
sin  or  concave  plateau,  bounded  on  the  north  by  the  mountains  of  Ulugh  or  Ulu-Tag,. 
and  on  the  south  by  the  Alak  chain.  There  is  a  series  of  lakes,  the  last  and  largest 
of  which  is  the  lake  of  Palcati  or  Balcash ;  we  are  told  that  a  person  can  (  Lake  Paieati. 
scarcely  walk  round  it  in  fifteen  days.  It  is  about  two  degrees  and  a  half  long,  and 
more  than  one  degree  in  breadth.  The  river  Hi,  augmented  by  a  number  of  other 
streams,  falls  into  this  lake,  which  has  no  outlet. 

It  is  on  the  banks  of  tlie  Hi  that  the  Songars,  a  tribe  of  Kalmuks,  attracted  by  the 
exuberance  of  the  pasture,  had  fixed  the  scat  of  their  power;  their  Kham-Taidsha 
hved  in  a  place  called  Harcash.     There  they  kept  immense  droves  of    cam„of  Har> 
.horses  and  fat-tailed  sheep;  their  horned  cattle  and  camels  were  not  so     ^■^'''• 
numerous.     The  great  Tamerlane,  says  an  eastern  historian,  stopped  on  mount 
lllugh  to  survey  the  immense  plain  which  spread  out  at  its  base  like  a  sea  of  verdure,  j 
This  country  was  probably  the  Ovganum  of  the  traveller  Rubruquis,§  |  Organum. 
and  the  Irgone-Kond  of  Abulgazi.j| 

*  Duhalde,  iv.  p.  464. 

t  In  one  edition  of  M.  Polo  called  Chinchin-Talas. 

^  Histoire  de  Timui-  Bey,  par  Scherefeddin,  traduite  liar  Petis  de  la  Croix,  liv.  iii.  cfa.  10 

§  l-orstcr,  Decouvertcs  dans  le  Nord,  p.  170. 

i  Abulgazi,  Histoire  general  des  Tatars,  Hv.  i,  ch.  5. 


30  BOOK  THIRTY-NINTH. 


The  mountains  on  the  south  of  Songaria  comprehended  according  to  d'Anville 

The  Oigoois  -    .        ~ 

and  their 

country. 


the  ancient  estabhshments  of  the  Oigoors  or  Igoors,  the  ancestors  of  the 
Hungarians.  As  it  appears  that  these  mountains  are  easily  passed,  ex- 
cept at  the  straits  of  Chongez,  it  is  very  possible  that  they  may  be  only  a  series  of 
plateaus  of  an  elevation  greater  than  that  which  serves  as  their  base.  Agriculture 
and  trade  formerly  animated  this  country,  which  is  watered  by  a  multitude  of  small 
rivers.  The  civilization  of  the  OYgoors  is  as  old  as  two  centuries  before  the  Chris- 
tian era ;  their  language  was  the  Turkish  ;  their  letters  are  written  from  top  to  bottom 
like  those  of  the  ancient  Syrians.  Their  Alphabet,  on  which  M.  Langles  is  prepar- 
ing a  work,  seems  to  owe  its  origin  to  the  devanaghari  or  Indian  mode  of  writmg.* 
Getha.v^  |  The  Country  of  the  Oigoors  went  also  by  the  name  of  Getha ;  and  per- 
haps the  Getes,  who  were  its  inhabitants,  were  descended  from  the  ancient  Massa- 
getes.  This  country  includes  likewise  the  canton  of  Turfan,  situated  on  the  decli- 
vity of  the  plateau  of  Oigoor  to  the  north  of  lake  Loknor.  Turfan  is  a  considera- 
ble town,  frequented  by  the  merchants  who  travel  between  Persia  and  China.  It  is 
doubtless  the  Tarsal  or  Tarso  mentioned  by  King  Haithon,  and  which  he  describes 
as  the  capital  of  the  flourishing  empire  of  the  logours. 

"  The  empire  of  Tarsce,"  says  Haithon,  in  his  history  of  the  east,  ch.  2,  "  contains 
three  provinces,  the  chiefs  of  which  are  called  kings.  The  inhabitants  are  called 
logoors  ;  they  abstain  most  rigidly  from  drinking  wine  and  eating  animal  food.  They 
raise  much  wheat,  but  have  no  vines.  Their  towns  are  very  pleasant,  and  contain 
many  temples  dedicated  to  the  worship  of  idols  ;  they  cultivate  the  arts  and  sciences, 
but  are  not  at  all  addicted  to  war ;  they  have  a  peculiar  mode  of  writing,  which 
has  been  adopted  by  all  their  neighbours."! 

Town  of  Lop.  I  The  town  of  Lop,  mentioned  by  M.  Polo,  was  situated  on  the  river 
Yarkand,  a  little  above  the  place  where  it  falls  into  the  lake  of  Loknor.  On  the 
journey  from  Little  Bukharia  to  China  it  was  usual  to  stop  here  to  make  the  neces- 
sary preparations  for  crossing  the  Great  Desert. 

Another  road  led  to  China  by  Hami,  Hamil,  or  Chamul,  a  small  pro- 
vince surrounded  on  all  hands  by  deserts  ;  "  the  climate,"  says  the  mis- 
sionary Duhalde,J  "  is  very  warm  in  summer.  The  ground  produces  scarcely  any 
thing  but  melons  and  grapes  ;  the  former  in  particular  are  of  an  excellent  quality ; 
they  are  preserved  during  winter,  and  are  served  up  at  the  table  of  the  Emperor  of 
China."  Other  writers  make  this  country  contain  agate  and  diamond  quarries. § 
The  inhabitants  are  strong  and  large  men,  well  clothed  and  lodged,  and  generally 
profess  the  Mahometan  faith.  In  the  time  of  Marco  Polo  they  were  idolaters  ;  he 
describes  them  as  good-natured  and  merry  savages,  rich  in  the  produce  of  their  soil, 
and  employed  much  in  singing  and  dancing.  When  a  traveller  arrives  in 
their  country,  and  wishes  to  lodge  with  one  of  them,  the  person  on  whom 
his  choice  is  fixed  gives  up  his  house,  wife,  and  family,  entirely  to  the  guest,  whom 
he  invests  for  the  time  with  all  the  prerogatives  of  the  master  of  the  family,  quits  his 
house,  goes  through  the  city  in  quest  of  every  thing  that  can  contribute  to  the  gratifi- 
cation and  amusement  of  his  guest,  and  does  not  re-occupy  his  house  till  the  latter 
has  left  it.  Manghu-Khan  wished  in  vain  to  abolish  the  practice.  The  inhabitants 
regard  it  as  a  precept  of  religion,  and  believe  that  by  giving  it  up  they  would  incur 
the  risk  of  bringing  the  curse  of  sterility  on  their  lands.  j| 

Tangoot.  |  Leaving  the  sandy  and  saline  plains  of  the  great  desert  of  Cobi,  we 
come  to  the  countries  which  formed  in  the  twelfth  century  the  powerful  empire  of 
Tangoot,  which  probably  extended  over  the  north-west  part  of  China,  the  country  , 
of  the  Sifans,  and  perhaps  over  the  whole  or  part  at  least  of  Thibet.  Marco  Polo 
gives  a  detailed  description  of  it ;  Kampioo,  which  according  to  him  was  the  capital 
of  Tangoot,  seems  to  be  the  Kantchoo  of  the  Chinese,  and  Singai  the  modern  Si- 
Ergi  country.  |  gan.  Five  days  journey  from  Kampioo  he  places  the  country  of  Ergi 
or  Ergiool,  (the  termination  iool  signifying  "  kingdom"  in  the  Tangoot  and  Thi- 

•  Langles,  Alphabet  Mantcheou.  t  Haithon,  Hist,  Orient,  t.  2. 

i  T.  iv.  p.  26  and  54.  §  Grosier,  Description  de  la  Chine,  p.  241,  »qq. 

U  Marco  Folo,  ch.  45. 


Canton  of  Ha- 
mil. 


Singular  cus- 
toms. 


Socor  or 
Soocor. 

Vom  this  is 


TownofSelin 
or  Serin. 


Country  of 
the  Silans. 


Physical  con- 
stitution. 


KALMUK    COUNTRY.  31 

betian  languages,*)  where  the  musk  animal,  the  grunting  ox,  and  the  Chinese  phea- 
sant were  seen.  The  moderns  give  Tangoot  the  name  of  Kokonor  or  Hohonor,  i.  e, 
the  blue  lake.  In  the  Chinese  geography  it  is  called  Zinchay.f  Satchoo  |  satchoo. 
seems  to  be  a  considerable  town,  situated  on  a  small  stream  which  falls  into  the 
river  Polonkir ;  and  the  latter  runs  into  the  desert,  and  terminates  in  a  lake  called 
Hara-nor. 

The  boundaries  of  Tangoot  and  Thibet  are  still  wholly  unknown  to  us. 
The  Socor  or  Soocor  of  Marco  Polo,  where  rhubarb  grew,  seems  to  be 
the  Sooc  of  the  map  which  the  missionaries  give  of  Thibet.  Not  far 
the  canton  of  Seri.  The  Bukharian  merchants  who  brought  rhubarb  to  Kiakta,  told 
M.  Pallas  that  "  there  was  a  town  called  Selin  (perhaps  Serin)  situated 
to  the  south-west  of  lake  Hoho-Nor,  on  a  river  which  runs  into  the 
Hoang-ho ;  all  the  country  consists  of  high  and  arid  mountains ;  rhubarb  grows  in 
the  clefts  of  the  rocks  in  most  places ;  the  roots  are  pulled  up  in  April  and  May, 
then  cleaned  and  hung  on  trees. "J 

The  country  inhabited  by  the  Sifans,  who  speak  the  Thibetan  lan- 
guage, is  situated  in  the  corner  in  which  China,  Tangoot,  and  Thibet 
meet.§  It  receives  the  name  of  Tosan,  and  was  once  a  powerful  empire,  but  fell  to 
pieces  in  the  ninth  century  of  our  era.  The  black  Sifans,  who  live  on  the  Hoang- 
ho  or  Hara-Moren,  (the  black  river,)  are  less  civilized  than  the  yellow  Sifans,  who 
live  on  the  banks  of  Yan-tse-kiang,  the  yellow  river.  The  horses  of  this  country 
are  small,  but  valued  foT  their  strength  and  other  excellent  qualities.  Gold  is  found 
in  the  beds  of  the  rivers. 

The  Kalmuks,  who  under  the  sovereignty  of  China  rule  the  country  ]  Kaimuks. 
now  described,  or  at  least  the  greater  part  of  it,  do  not  differ  materially 
from  the  Mongols.  They  completely  exemplify  the  portrait  which  Pro- 
copius,  Ammianus,  Priscus,  and  lornandez,  have  drawn  of  the  celebrated  Huns. 
They  are  generally  of  a  middling  height,  and  more  of  them  under  than  above  the 
ordinary  stature.  Left  to  nature  from  their  infancy,  thoir  bodies  are  universally  well 
made,  and  their  limbs  free.  The  characteristic  features  of  the  Kahnuk  countenance 
are  the  following :  The  angle  of  the  eye  is  directed  obliquely  downward  to  the  nose, 
the  eye-brows  black  and  tiiin,  the  interior  ends  of  the  arches  wh*ch  they  form  are 
low,  the  nose  is  flat  and  broad  at  the  point,  the  cheek  bones  prominent,  the  head  and 
face  very  round.  Perhaps  the  way  in  which  their  caps  are  fitted  close  to  the  head 
makes  their  ears  appear  more  prominent  than  they  would  otherwise  do,  but  they  are 
naturally  large  in  proportion.  Their  teeth  preserve  their  beauty  and  whiteness  to 
the  most  advanced  age.  Their  skin,  naturally  white,  assumes  a  brownish  yellow  by 
exposure  to  the  solar  rays  in  summer,  and  to  the  smoke  of  their  cabins  in  winter. 
This  differs  in  degree  in  different  individuals  and  in  the  two  sexes.  Many  of  the 
Kalmuk  women  have  a  handsome  figure  and  a  white  complexion,  the  effect  of  which 
is  increased  by  their  fine  black  hair.  ||  The  acuteness  of  the  senses  of  smell,  hear- 
ing, and  sight  among  the  Kalmuks,  surpasses  all  the  ideas  that  a  European  can 
form.  They  perceive  by  the  smell  the  smoke  of  a  camp,  hear  the  neighing  of  a 
horse,  and  distinguish  the  most  minute  object  in  their  immense  plains,  at  an  astonish- 
ing'distance. 

The  Kalmuks  call  themselves  Derben  Oeroct,  "  tlic  Four  Brothers  or 
Allies."  The  four  nations  thus  called  are  the  Choshotes,  called  Sifans 
by  the  Chinese,  consisting  of  50,000  families,  and  occupying  the  neighbourhood  of 
lake  Iloho-nor;  the  Songares,  in  the  country  which  bears  their  name,  and  who, 
though  once  very  powerful,  are  reduced  to  20  or  30,000  families;  the  Torgotcs,  who 
after  having  lived  in  Russia  in  the  steppe  of  Astrakan,  amounting  to  60  or  70,000 
persons,  returned  in  1770  to  their  original  country;  lastly,  the  Uerbetes,  some  of 
whom  have  joined  the  Torgotes,  and  others  the  Songares.     In  addition  to  these  no- 

*  Mithridates,  i.  72. 

f  Sxtract  from  Dai-syn-y-tundschi,  in  Biisching's  Magazin  Geogr.  xiv.  554. 

t  Pallas,  Voyages  en  Kussie,  iv.  216,  (trad,  in  4to. 

§  Regis  dans  Duhalde,  iv.  p.  463,  H  Pallas,  Voyages,  i.  p,  491, 


Kalmuk 
tribes. 


32  BOOK  TIUKTY-NINTH. 

made  tribes,  it  appears  that  the  towns  are  inhabited  by  Bukharians,  Chinese,  and 
perhaps  stationary  Kalmuks. 

The  Kalmuks  are  fond  of  society  and  entertainments.  They  cannot  bear  to  eat 
by  themselves;  their  greatest  enjoyment  is  to  share  their  provisions  with  their  friends. 
Dress.  |  The  drcss  of  the  men  resembles  that  of  the  Poles,  with  the  exception 

of  the  sleeves,  which  are  very  tight  and  buttoned  at  the  wrist.  The  common  people 
are  clothed  in  sheep  skins  and  felt.  In  summer  the  girls  go  with  the  neck  bare  down 
to  the  girdle.  The  men  shave  their  heads,  leaving  only  a  small  tuft;  the  women,  on 
the  contrary,  are  very  tenacious  of  that  article  of  attraction ;  their  hair  hangs  loose 
till  the  age  of  twelve,  when  they  are  considered  marriageable;  then  they  collect  it  in 
braids  surrounding  the  head;  when  married,  they  allow  it  to  hang  in  two  divisions 
over  the  shoulders. 

Dwellings.  |  The  dwellings  of  the  Kalmuks  are  tents,  or  rather  a  sort  of  half  cabins 
or  wigwams  of  hurdles,  in  a  circular  form,  covered  with  a  roof  of  felt,  which  is  proof 
against  rain  and  snow. 

The  Kalmuks  prefer  the  freedom  of  their  nomadic  state  and  their  portable  dwel- 
oceupations.  |  lings,  to  all  the  conveniences  of  a  settled  life.  Hunting,  the  care  of  the 
flocks,  and  the  building  of  tents,  are  considered  as  the  only  occupations  suited  to  the 
dignity  of  a  free  son  of  the  desert.  Domestic  labours  fall  to  the  share  of  the  women. 
They  also  pitch  and  strike  the  tents,  saddle  and  bring  out  the  horses ;  hours  of  lei- 
sure are  as  rare  with  them  as  they  are  frequent  with  the  men.  The  Chinese  endear 
your  to  give  the  Kalmuks  agricultural  habits ;  in  this  they  will  not  easily  succeed,  as 
the  rugged  chmate  and  arid  soil  either  banish  rural  culture  from  the  greater  part  of 
their  country,  or  render  its  produce  precarious. 

Mareh  milk.  |  Mare's  milk  is  preferred  by  almost  all  the  people  of  Asia  to  that  of  the 
cow.  This  milk,  in  its  recent  state,  is  more  fluid  than  cow's  milk,  but  it  has  a  slight 
alkaline  taste,  which  makes  it  offensive  to  Europeans.  When  allowed  to  stand  for 
a  sufllcient  time  in  clean  vessels,  it  acquires  an  acid,  vinous,  and  very  agreeable  taste ; 
and  a  few  drops  of  cream  can  with  some  difliculty  be  obtained  from  it.  The  Kal- 
muks make  from  the  milk  a  sHghtly  spiritous  drink,  which  they  call  amJca,  and  not 
Loumis,  as  is  commonly  said:  kowmis  is  the  Tartar,  not  the  Kalmuk  term  for  the 
milk  oi^  the  mare.* 

Their  food  consists  almost  entirely  of  articles  of  dairy,  and  the  flesh  of  animals, 
generally  what  they  take  in  hunting,  for  they  seldom  kill  their  domestic  animals, 
iiuiustry.  I  The  felt  with  which  their  tents  are  covered  is  of  their  own  manufac- 
ture. The  women  have  uncommon  skill  in  preparing  the  skins  of  animals,  and  mak- 
ing from  them  utensils  of  all  kinds.  The  men  manufacture  some  of  their  arms. 
Language.  |  The  language  of  the  Kalmuks  is  the  same  with  that  of  the  Mongols, 
and  totally  different  from  the  Tartar,  both  in  words  and  in  syntax.  It  contains  seve- 
ral proper  names  of  Hunnic  origin. f  The  frequency  of  monosyllables  reminds  us 
of  the  Thibetian  and  Chinese  languages- J  Deprived  of  articles,  scarcely  admitting 
the  aid  of  pronouns,  or  the  elegant  effects  of  conjunctions,  and  giving  few  inflections 
to  the  verb,  it  appears  one  of  the  poorest,  but  also  one  of  the  most  ancient  languages 
Kalmuk  poe-  in  the  world.  It  is  said  to  be  sonorous,  harmonious,  and  poetical. §  The 
'"■y-  affecting  romances  and  epic  poems  of  this  people  partake  of  the  sombre 

and  magnificent  nature  of  their  country.     The  rocks,  the  torrents,  and  the  meteors 


*  Pallas,  Voyages,  i.  49 1 . 

I  Such  as  Miaizak,  Athel,  Beiizik,  Emeilzar,  Uti,  &c. .  See  Bergmann's  nomadische  Strlfe- 
reinen  unter  den  Kalmuken,  i.  p.  V-cS. 

\  Vocab.  Petroj).  No.  loT".  Falh,  Mem.  Topogr.  iii.  575,  (in  German.)  Fisclier's  History 
of  Siberia,  introd.  p.  40,  (in  German.) 

§  The  following  is  a  passage  from  a  heroic  romance  in  tlie  Kalmuk  language: 

Tuclumail  din  kaimain      aboodal      inoo       go       tcclghym  ssaid-kill  ino  cemoogolangtdi  baii/ui 
Minister  thus  spoken  countenance  but  elevated  prophet    mind     but      tranquil        body 
ootaisskylaintai  gaigain  inoo  toonggoolak,..Bi  niggai  sobylongtoo  kcekshiri  joockdi  noossatoo  mcen. 

important       visage   but      serene.         I      a        suffering    old  man    very        aged    truly. 

Translatio7i.  The  minister  thus  spoke:  thy  noble  countenance  announces  a  prcJphet;  thy 
mind  is  tranquil ;  thine  exterior  commanding;  thy  look  serene.  I  am  an  old  man,  suffering 
and  oppressed  with  age.    See  Bergmann,  in  the  work  already  referred  to,  i.  114. 


Polljjcal    con- 
ititution. 


MONGOLIA.  33 

of  Ossian,  figure  here,  along  witli  legwnds  of  miracles  not  less  wild  and  absurd  than 
those  of  the  Hindoos.  Yet  they  contain  features  of  sublime  truth  with  which  per- 
sons of  all  nations,  whatever  may  be  their  factitious  habits,  must  be  pleased.*  The 
romantic  story  of  one  of  their  fugitive  tribes  begins  thus:  "  The  waters  of  the  vast 
lake,  after  exhausting  all  their  stormy  fury,  subside  into  a  calm.  Such  are  the  trou- 
bles of  this  world,  and  their  tranquil  oblivion."  These  nomades  have  poems  of 
twenty  cantos  and  upwards,  preserved  by  tradition  alone.  Tlieir  bards  or  djangarU 
shi  recite  them  from  memory,  surrounded  by  attentive  and  enraptured  audiences. f 
Besides  the  Mongolic  alphabet,  which  consists  of  forty-four  letters  joined  perpendi- 
cularly, the  Kalmuks  have  an  Indian  character  called  the  onctkak,  which  they  employ 
in  their  magical  incantations. 

The  ignorant  arrogance  of  Kuropeans  regards  the  free  people  of  Asia 
as  savages  without  laws  or  manners ;  but  the  khanats  of  Asia  are  at 
least  equally  respectable  with  our  feudal  goveriunents  of  the  middle  ago.  The 
Kalmuks  have  three  distinct  classes  in  society  ;  the  nobility,  who  are  called  "  white 
bones  ;"  the  common  people,  consisting-  of  slaves,  who  are  denominated  "  black 
bones  ;"  and  the  clergy,  who  are  descended  from  both  of  these  castes,  and  consist  of 
free  men.  The  noble  ladies  are  called  "  white  flesh,"  and  the  women  of  the  lower 
orders  "  black  flesh."  The  genealogy  is  always  reckoned  by  the  male  connections, 
or  "  the  bones."  The  poAver  of  the  Khan-Taidsha,  or  head  prince,  must  be  esti- 
mated only  by  the  number  and  importance  of  his  subjects,  and  not  at  all  by  the  ex- 
tent of  his  territory,  which  in  that  vast  country  is  of  little  value.  The  subjects  of 
each  chief  form  an  ooloos,  which  is  divided  into  imaks,  consisting  of  from  250  to  300 
families  ;  each  imak  is  commanded  by  a  Saissan  or  nobleman.  When  they  have  a 
great  khan,  the  princes  submit  to  his  direction  only  in  matters  of  general  concern. 
The  tribute  consists  of  a  tenth  part  of  the  flocks,  and  other  property.  All  the  men 
are  obliged  to  appear  on  horseback  before  the  prince  on  the  first  summons  when  he 
has  occasion  for  military  service,  and  he  dismisses  those  who  are  unqualified  for  the 
fatigues  of  war.  They  are  armed  with  bows,  lances,  sabres,  and  sometimes  fire- 
arms ;  but  the  latter  are  chiefly  confined  to  men  of  rank.  The  rich  warriors  wear  a 
coat  of  mail  formed  of  rings,  or  that  kind  called  chain  armour,  such  as  was  used  in 
Europe  in  the  fifteenth  century. 

The  religion  of  the   Kalmuks,  in  common  with   all   the  Mongolian,  |  Religion. 
Mantchoorian,  and  Thibetian  nations,  is  that  of  the  Delai   Lama.     This  sovereign 
prince  is  chosen  from  the  yellow  Sifans,  whom  Pallas  considers  as  a  Kalmuk  tribe. 
In  our  description  of  Thibet  we  shall  give  a  view  of  this  system.     We  may  only 
observe,  that  of  all  nations  they  are  in  most  complete  subjection  to  the  dominion  of 
their  priests,  to  whom  they  commit  the  direction  of  all  their  aftairs ;  nothing  is  done 
without  consulting  a  gellong  or  juggler,  who  pretends  to  interrogate     Geiiongj,  or 
the  gods  by  means  of  sorceries.     These  gellongs  levy  a  handsome  tri-     P"^'"- 
bute  on  their  credulous  flocks  ;  they  live  in  luxury  ;  celibacy  is  enjoined  on  them, 
but  considerable  licences  are  considered  as  their  right,  particularly  in  the  houses  of 
those  who  show  them  hospitality  in  the  course  of  their  frequent  peregrinations.^ 

When  we  pass  Mount  Bogdo,  we  enter  the  country  of  the  true  Mon-  |  Mongolia. 
GOLs.  The  middle  of  this  region  is  a  cold  and  barren  table  land;  it  forms  the  ter- 
mination of  the  desert  of  Shamo  or  Cobi,  which  is  about  1400  miles  long,  Deimorcobi 
and  the  w^estcrn  and  southern  extremities  of  which  extend  to  Thibet  and  °*'  ^''"'"°' 
Little  Bukharia.  The  countries  of  Hamil,  Lop,  and  other  fertile  Oases,  aflord 
short  interruptions  to  its  frightful  uniformity.  There  are  meadows  along  the  banks 
of  the  rivers  where  the  small  Mongohan  horses  wander  in  large  droves,  and  the  wild 
djiggetai  comes  to  take  his  rapid  meal  in  the  pasture. 

The  countries  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  great  wall  of  China  have 
a  climate  similar  to  that  of  Germany.  The  prevalent  soil  is  of  a  clay 
texture.     At  Zhe-holl,  on  the   confines  of  Mongolia,  in  lat.  41°  58',  the  English 

•  Kalmuk  Romances,  in  Pallas's  Memoirs  of  the  Mongolian  Nations,  i.  p.  153,  (in  German.) 
f  Bergmann,  ii.  206,  236,  &c. 

i  "  Celibat  leur  est  present ;  mais  qiianci  ils  voyagent,  ils  ont  le  droit  de  partagcr  le  lit  d« 
leurs  hotcsses,  et  ilsvoyagent  souvcnl.-' 
Vol.  II.— E 


Country  of 
the  Sharra 
Mongol]. 


Kalkas 
Mongols, 


34  BOOK  THIRTY-NINTH. 

accompanying  Lord  Macartney  saw  aspens,  elms,  hazel  and  walnut  trees  ;  but  on 
the  mountains  the  pines  were  small,  and  the  oaks  stunted.*  The  Yellow  or  Sharra 
Mongols  wander  in  this  country,  while  the  Kalkas,  or  Black  Mongols, 
occupy  the  places  lying  north  of  the  great  desert.  This  last  country, 
adjoining  Siberia,  is  very  little  known.  According  to  the  accounts  given  by  Pallas, 
Sokolof,  and  Patrin,  Russian  Daooria  is  subjected  to  powerful  summer  heats,  and 
the  secondary  mountains  are  covered  with  beautiful  forests  of  pines,  birches,  elms 
and  poplars ;  while  the  plains  support  numerous  flocks,  and  may  be  cultivated  for 
several  sorts  of  grain.  It  was  natural  to  infer  that  Chinese  Daooria,  and  some 
other  parts  of  the  north  of  Mongolia,  resemble  it  in  climate  and  productions.  The 
journey  of  the  last  Russian  embassy  being  begun  in  the  middle  of  winter,  and 
stopping  at  a  distance  of  about  200  miles  from  the  frontier,  we  only  know  that  the 
Mountains.  |  country  contains  arid  plains  and  steep  mountains,  many  of  them  wooded, 
and  abounding  in  wild  boars,  deer,  and  elks.f  There  is  a  mountain  here  held  in 
peculiar  veneration,  called  Khan-Ola,  or  the  "Royal  Mountain,"  on  which  there  are 
several  temples  and  sepulchres.  It  is  thought  that  the  principal  tin  mines  of  the 
Chinese  are  in  this  country.  It  is  ascertaiiled  that  the  Chinese  have  a  very  profitable 
establishment  of  iron  works  near  lake  Iroi,  about  forty  miles  from  Kiakta. 
nivers.  |       The  Hoangho  traverses  part  of  southern  Mongolia.     About  the  mid- 

dle, and  farther  to  the  east,  there  are  many  small  rivers  which  are  lost  in  the  sands. 
In  the  north  the  Selingha  and  the  Orchon  carry  their  waters  to  Lake  Baikal,  while 
the  Kerlon  and  the  Onou  join  to  form  the  magnificent  river  Amoor,  which  flows 
througli  the  territory  of  the  Mantchoos. 

Lakes.  I       At  the  base  of  the  Bogdo  mountains  we  find  the  great  lake  Kosogol, 

and  some  others  of  considerable  extent.  Marco  Polo  has  left  us  a  description  of 
the  lake  Cianga,  which  seems  to  be  identical  with  Tsahan,  or  Tsahan-Nor.  On  the 
banks  of  this  lake  the  great  khan  had  a  country  seat;  it  abounded  with  swans,  Pha- 
siani  ar2;i,  cranes,  partridges,  and  quails ;  but  the  cold  being  severe,  the  khan  visited 
it  only  in  summer. J; 

Towns.  I       It  has  been  thought  by  several  authors  that  this  country  was  once 

filled  with  large  cities  ;  but  it  is  much  more  probable  that  the  Mongols  have  never  been 
sufficiently  numerous,  nor  sufficiently  rich  and  industrious,  to  build  cities  worthy  of 
Karakorura.  |  the  name.  Even  the  famous  Karakorum,  the  Ho-lin  of  the  Chinese, 
the  seat  of  a  great  Mongolian  empire,  was  built  of  earth  and  wood.  Perhaps  it  was 
a  summer  residence,  like  the  present  Zhe-holl,  where  the  emperor  of  China  received 
the  British  ambassador.  Lord  Macartney.  Zhe-holl  contains  a  spacious  Chinese 
palace,  extensive  and  magnificent  gardens,  some  pagodas  or  temples,  and  a  crowd 
of  wretched  huts.  If  deserted,  the  whole  would  disappear  in  less  than  a  century. 
It  is  matter  of  no  surprise  that  we  searcli  in  vain  for  any  vestiges  of  Karakorum. 
According  to  d'Anville  it  is  situated  on  the  Engui-Moren,  about  the  44th  degree  of 
latitude,  and  106th  of  longitude  (from  London)  ;  but  according  to  Fischer,§  on  the 
banks  of  the  Orchon,  at  103°  of  longitude  and  47°  of  latitude.  The  princes  and 
chief  priests  of  the  Kalkas-Mongols  lived  not  many  years  ago  in  a  camp  called  the 
Oorga,  about  220  miles  from  Kiatka,  on  the  river  Tula ;  this  camp  has  been  con- 
Kyrs.  I  verted  into  a  town,  and  called  Kyr3e.l|     The  tem.p]es,  the  houses  of 

ilie  priests,  and  the  house  of  the  Chinese  viceroy,  are  the  only  wooden  edifices  ; 
the  rest  consist  of  tents. 

Other  towns.  |  Maimatshin,  a  small  town  on  the  very  frontier  of  Russia,  is  the  seat 
of  the  trade  with  Kiatka.  Naoon  is  a  mercantile  town,  at  the  distance  of  a  month's 
journey  in  a  southeast  direction  from  the  Russian  post  of  Zooroocliaitau,  on  the 
river  Argoon  ;  the  merchants  of  that  place  come  to  this  post  armed  with  bows  and 
arrows,  and  bring  with  them  stuffs  of  excellent  manufacture.  Their  language  is 
neither  Chinese  nor  Mongolic.lT 

•  Macartnej's  Embassy.        f  Account  of  the  Russian  Embassy.    Ephem.  Geogr.  xxi.  p,  225. 

t  Marco  Polo  de  Iteb.  Orient,  i.  cb.  64.     Forster,  Dccouvertes  dans  le  Nord,  i.  p.  230. 

§  Introduction  to  the  History  of  Siberia,  (in  German.) 

R  Epbem.  Geogr.  xxi.  230     Bruns,  Aussereurop?eische  Geogr.  i,  69.      . 

t  Sokolof,  dans  I'allas,  Voyxge,  iv.  p.  620,  4lo, 


MONGOLIA.  35 


The  Mongols. 
Physical  de- 
scription, 


The  Mongols,  like  the  Kalmuks,  have  flat  noses,  small  oblique  eyes, 
thick  lips,  short  chins,  and  scanty  beards  ;  their  ears  are  large  and  pro- 
minent ;  their  black  hair  adds  to  the  effect  of  their  reddish  brown  or  yellow  com 
plexions.  But  more  civilized,  in  consequence  of  their  former  residence  in  China, 
they  are  more  tractable,  more  hospitable,  and  more  addicted  to  pleasure.  The  Rus- 
sians of  Daooria  cojisider  the  Mongolian  women  as  more  fertile  than  their  own. 
These  women  are  also  industrious  and  cheerful.  The  religious  books  |  Religion, 
of  the  Mongolians  are  written  in  the  language  of  Tangoot  or  Thibet,  and  every 
imak  has  a  schoolmaster.  The  lamas  or  priests,  and  their  heads  the  Jchuiiicitc,  enjoy 
great  consideration,  and  are  under  the  authority  of  the  great  DalaY  Lama. 

Polygamy,  though  allowed,  is  uncommon.  They  marry  very  young,  |  Mode  of  liv- 
and  the  women  bring  to  their  husbands  a  portion  in  cattle  or  in  sheep.  |  '"^* 
They  light  their  fires  in  the  middle  of  their  tents  ;  and  in  the  deserts  cow-dung  is 
used  as  fuel.  The  tents  of  the  nobility  are  hung  with  silk  stuffs  in  the  inside,  and 
the  floors  covered  with  Persian  carpets.  Tin,  silver,  and  porcelain  vessels  are  used 
in  the  houses  of  the  great.  The  tents  of  the  conmion  people  are  made  of  a  kind 
of  felt.  In  some  places  they  erect  small  temples,  round  which  wooden  houses  are 
built. 

They  shave  their  heads,  leaving  only  one  ringlet,  and  cover  them  with  |  Diess. 
a  flat-shaped  yellow  cap.  This  at  least  is  the  case  among  ihe  Sharra  Mongols. 
They  wear  wide  pantaloons,  a  small  vest  with  tight  sleeves,  and  a  girdle  in  which 
they  stick  the  sabre,  the  knife,  and  smoking  apparatus.  The  upper  part  of  their 
dress  is  of  woollen  cloth,  with  wide  sleeves  ;  their  feet  are  wrapped  in  linen,  over 
which  they  wear  leather  boots,  which  are  generally  either  black  or  yellow.  They 
•*"'are  not  yet  so  far  advanced  in  luxury  as  to  use  shirts.  The  Mongols  live  on  ani- 
mal food,  which  they  sometimes  eat  with  pease  ro  beans  ;  water  is  their  |  Food. 
ordinary  drink  ;  they  regale  themselves  with  milk,  butter  and  kowmiss  ;  they  have 
also  become  acquainted  with  the  use  of  spirits,  of  mead,  and  still  more  of  tea.  Their 
flocks  consist  of  horses,  camels,  black  cattle,  sheep  and  goats.  The  women  tan 
leather,  cleanse  the  esculent  roots,  cure  the  winter  provisions  by  salting  or  drying, 
and  distil  the  kowmiss,  or  spirits  of  mare's  milk.  The  men  shoot  the  winged  game, 
and  hunt  the  animals  which  wander  in  great  numbers  over  the  vast  desert. 

When  the  Mongols  travel,  they  dress  a  whole  sheep  in  its  own  skin ; 
they  take  off"  the  skin,  and  convert  it  into  a  kind  of  bag,  which  they  fill 
with  water,  along  with  the  flesh  stripped  from  the  bones,  and  throw  into  it  one  after 
another,  a  number  of  stones  red  hot.  The  meat  is  thus  completely  cooked,  and  the 
broth  is  excellent.* 

When  the  pasture  begins  to  fail,  all  the  tribes  strike  their  tents,  which  |  Peiegiinationj. 
takes  place  from  ten  to  fifteen  times  in  a  year.  In  summer  their  progress  is  north- 
ward, and  in  winter  southward.  The  flocks,  the  men,  the  women,  and  the  children, 
form  a  regular  procession,  followed  by  the  young  women,  singing  cheer- 
ful songs.  The  amusements  of  these  wandering  and  happy  tribes  are 
horse  races,  in  which  even  the  young  women  excel ;  archery,  wrestling,  pantomime, 
singing  performed  by  young  women,  and  generally  accompanied  by  the  violin  and 
the  flute.  The  subjects  of  these  songs  are  love  adventures  ;  the  language  is  highly 
inflated,  but  the  melody  harsh  and  disagreeable.  Drafts  are  a  favourite  game  among 
them.  The  bodies  of  the  princes  and  chief  priests  are  burned  with  great  solemnity, 
and  their  tombs  are  generally  encircled  with  walls,  and  ornamented  with  very  high 
poles,  on  which  strange  looking  flags  are  fixed. 

We  do  not  know  whether  the  Mongols  still  retain  a  superstitious  but 
affecting  custom  described  as  prevalent  among  them  in  the  time  of  Marco 
Polo-t  When  two  famihes  lost  at  the  same  time  favourite  children  of  different  sexes, 
they  made  between  their  manes  what  they  called  marriages  of  the  dead ;  these  alli- 
ances were  celebrated  at  the  graves  of  the  children  with  much  solemnity ;  and  the 

ft 
•  laehrig',  in  the  Selection  of  Memoirs  of  the  Economical  Society  of  Petersburgh,  ili.  341, 
(in  German.) 
t  Marco  Polo  de  Keb.  Orient,  i.  cap.  58. 


Singular  cook- 
try. 


Games  ind 

songs. 


Marriage  of 
the  dead. 


3G  KOOK    FOHTIETlf. 

respeetive  relations  afterwards  conducted  themselves  to  one  another  as  persons 
united  by  the  ties  of  blood. 

The  Mongols,  though  less  addicted  to  superstition  than  the  Kalmuks,  have  more 
external  appearance  of  religious  worship.  They  build  temples,  some  of  which  are 
of  stone.  Books  are  more  common  among  them  than  among  the  Kalmuks.  They 
Writing.  havc,  in  addition  to  their  ordinary  writing,  a  kind  of  short-hand  called 

Alphabet.  akshar,  derived  from  the  Tangoot.   Their  common  alphabet  contains  98 

characters,  some  of  which  represent  whole  syllables.*  This  alphabet  seems  to  be 
in  a  great  measure  borrowed  from  the  Oigoors.  The  Mongolic  language,  which  is 
little  known,  is  the  same  as  that  of  the  Kalmuks  already  described. 
Governrae»t.  |  The  khans  of  southern  Mongolia  are  entirely  subject  to  China,  pay 
an  annual  tribute,  and  present  themselves  at  the  emperor's  court  in  the  posture  of 
the  humblest  vassals.  But  no  tribute  seems  to  be  exacted  of  the  khans  of  the  Kal- 
kas.  They  receive,  on  the  contrary,  a  small  salary  from  the  emperor,  which  is  no 
doubt  as  an  acknowledgment  for  their  station  as  a  garrison  to  protect  the  Russian 
frontier.  To  complete  the  view  of  the  imperfect  but  remarkable  civilization  of  the 
Mongols,  it  must  be  stated,  that,  since  1620,  they  have  been  in  possession  of  a  com- 
Laws.  I  plete  code  of  laws,  subscribed  by  forty-four  princes  and  chiefs.  In  these 

the  greater  part  of  crimes  are  punished  by  fines,  and  actions  of  public  utility  are  re- 
warded. He  who  refuses  milk  to  a  traveller  is  fined  of  a  sheep.  The  evidence  of 
the  ordeal  is  admitted,  likewise  solemn  oaths  from  the  superior  warranting  the  inno- 
cence of  an  inferior  ;  institutions  coinciding  with  those  which  existed  in  Europe 
during  the  middle  ages. 


BOOK  XL. 

MANTCHOORIA  AND  COREA. 


General  view 
of  the  country 
of  the  Mant- 
chooi. 


The  central  zone  of  Asia  ends  with  Mongolia  and  the  Siolki  chain 
of  mountains.  The  rivers  no  longer  flow  along  an  elevated  plain.  The 
ground  inclines  to  the  sea  of  Okhotsk  on  the  ooe  side,  and  the  Yellow 
Sea  on  the  other.  The  plants  and  the  trees  of  temperate  climates  begin  again  to 
appear;  but  to  the  east  a  high  chain  of  mountains,  parallel  to  the  shores  of  the  sea 
of  Corea,  is  continued  through  the  peninsula  of  this  name,  and  by  its  elevation  and 
its  extensive  forests,  counteracts  the  favourable  influence  of  the  solar  heat.  Though 
under  the  same  latitudes  with  France  and  Italy,  these  mountains  have  very  long  and 
rigorous  winters;  but  the  central  parts,  which  are  watered  by  the  river  Amoor,  enjoy 
undoubtedly  a  milder  climate.  If  the  agriculture  of  these  parts  is  deficient,  the  fault 
must  be  ascribed  to  the  indolence  and  ignorance  of  the  inhabitants.  The  territory 
situated  on  the  Yellow  Sea,  or  the  province  of  Leaotong,  seems  to  enjoy  a  cHmate 
resembling  that  of  Germany  and  the  north  of  France. 

Mountains.  |  The  mountains  surrounding  Zhe-holl  are  not  very  high.|  They  pre- 
sent  no  regular  chain,  but  rather  an  undulating  surface,  and  are  composed  of  a  hard 
clay  mixed  with  gravel.  Perhaps  the  high  chain  of  mountains  on  the  shore  of  the 
sea  of  Tartary  is  completely  detached  from  the  central  chains  of  Asia.  In  the  north 
the  Stanovoi  mountains  send  several  branches  to  the  banks  of  the  river  Amoor;  but 
we  know  nothing  of  their  nature.  On  all  that  coast  there  is  frost  and  snow  in  the 
middle  of  September. 

The  Chinese  geographers  tell  us  that  the  river  Amoor  rises  in  the 
mountain  of  Kente  in  Mongolia.     At  first  it  is  called  the  Onon ;  after 


River  Amoor, 
or  Seghalien. 


•  Bayer,  Elem.  litter.  Mongol ,  in  the  Comment.  Petro.  iii.  180.  iv.  289. 
t  Staunton's  Account  of  the  Chinese  Embassy. 


Province  of 
Leao-Tong. 


MANTCIIOORIA  AND  COREA.  -  37 

receiving  the  Ingada  near  Nertchinsk,  it  receives  the  name  of  the  Amoor.*  The 
Russians  call  this  united  stream  the  Shilka;  it  is  after  the  Shilka  is  joined  by  the 
Kerlon  that  they  call  it  the  Amoor.  The  length  and  size  of  the  Shilka  and  Kerlon 
appear  to  be  equal.  The  Amoor,  called  Seghahen-Oolaf  by  the  Mantchoos  and 
Tungooses,  receives  from  the  south  two  great  rivers,  the  Songari-UIa,  in  Chinese 
Chimiungian,  and  the  Usuri  or  Usuli.  It  falls  into  the  sea  at  Okhotsk,  forming  a 
large  gulf  bounded  on  the  east  by  the  shores  of  SeghaHen  Island,  and  communi- 
cating on  the  south  with  the  sea  of  Corea,  or  the  channel  of  Tartary,  by  a  narrow 
opening;  the  mouth  of  it  being  in  some  measure  concealed  by  aquatic  plants.  Deep 
and  still,  it  presents  no  impediment  to  navigation;  it  has  neither  rocks  nor  shallows; 
its  banks  are  lined  with  magnificent  forests.  J  The  Russians  complain  greatly  of 
the  perfidy  of  the  Chinese,  wno  by  force  and  surprise  obliged  the  Russian  plenipo- 
tentiaries to  make  a  formal  cession  of  the  lower  part  of  that  fine  river,  which  was 
indispensable  to  the  masters  of  eastern  Siberia,  and  on  which  the  Cossacks  had 
already  fixed  the  standard  of  Russia. 

Mantchooria,  so  confusedly  described  in  our  geographical  works,  is  clearly  enougli 
delineated  in  those  of  the  Chinese.     That  country  forms  the  government     Chinese  divi- 
of  Shengyn  or  Shin- Yang,  divided  into  two  foos  or  sub-governments ;  that     """'• 
of  Fyntien  or  Leao-Tong  in  the  south,  or  the  Yellow  Sea;  and  that  of  Mantchoo 
on  the  Amoor  and  the  sea  of  Corea. 

The  province  of  Leao-Tong  is  described  in  the  following  manner  by 
the  Emperor  Kien-Long  in  the  "Eloge  of  Mookden,"  (of  which  we 
have  a  French  translation  executed  by  Amyot,)  a  feeble  and  frigid  production  as  a 
poem,  but  very  useful  to  the  geographer.  "In  the  space  of  10,000  ly  we  find  a  suc- 
cession of  hills  and  valleys,  parched  lands,  and  others  which  are  well  watered,  majestic 
rivers,  impetuous  torrents,  graceful  serpentine  streams,  smiling  plains,  and  forests 
which  are  impenetrable  to  the  solar  rays.  The  Iron  Moimtain  and  the  Ornamented 
Mountain§  are  seen  from  a  great  distance.  On  the  latter  is  found  a  lake  which 
never  increases  nor  diminishes."  The  imperial  poet  mentions  among  the  |  Treet. 
trees  of  this  country  the  pine,  the  cypress,  the  acacia,  the  willow,  the  apricot,  the 
peach,  and  the  mulberry.  Wheat  yields  a  return  of  a  hundred  fold.  Southernwood 
and  mngwort  would  cover  all  the  fields,  but,  from  the  general  cultivation,  are  found 
only  in  the  deserts.  Ginseng  grows  in  all  the  mountains ;  its  name  signifies  "  Queen 
of  Plants."  "It  would  make  man  immortal  if  he  were  capable  of  becoming  so." 
Among  animals,  Kien-Long  mentions  the  tiger  as  in  no  degree  formidable,  |  Animals, 
which  is  perhaps  the  lion  without  a  mane  figured  in  Nieuhofr;||  the  leopard,  by  which 
he  undoubtedly  means  a  species  of  the  ounce ;  the  dchighetei,  the  wild  horse,  two 
species  of  ounces,  the  civet,  and  the  sable.  The  dogs  rarely  bark  during  the  day ; 
they  seem  to  .be  of  the  Siberian  race.  The  pheasant  is  conspicuous  among  the 
numberless  birds  with  which  the  fields,  the  forests,  and  the  banks  of  rivers  and  lakes, 
together  with  the  sea  shores,  are  peopled.  The  sturgeon,  the  king  of  fishes,  the 
carp,  the  eel,  and  other  excellent  species,  form  the  food  of  entire  tribes.  The  mother- 
of-pearl  of  this  country  is  of  admirable  quality.  To  these  riches  are  to  be  added 
iron  and  jasper. IT 

Mookden,  in  Chinese  Shin- Yang,  was  the  residence  of  the  last  sove-  |  Towm. 
reigns  or  shivandis  of  the  Mantchoos,  immediately  before  the  conquest  of  China. 
It  contains  several  temples,  and  one  in  particular  where  the  monarch  prays  alone  on 
the  first  day  of  the  year.     The  town  is  surrounded  by  two  walls,  the  outer  one  being 
eleven  miles  in  circumference.     Leao-Yang  is  also  a  considerable  town. 

*  Bay-syn-y-tundshi,  i\iQ  Chinese  Geography,  in  24  vols,  translated  (in  the  form  of  an  abridg- 
ment or  series  of  extracts)  into  Russian  by  Mr.  Leontiew,  and  into  German  by  M.  Hase,  in 
Busching's  Geograph.  Mag.  XIV.  p.  462. 

f  The  Russians  make  it  Saghalyn,  but  the  natives,  according  to  Perouse,  pronounce  it 
Seghalien. 

i  See  Mailer's  Memoir  on  the  river  Amoor,  composed  by  order  of  the  Russian  Government 
in  1740,  in  Busching's  Mag.  Gdogr.  ii.  507.  See  also  the  History  of  the  Country  on  the  Amoor 
in  the  Collections  in  illustration  of  the  history  of  Russia,  ii.  289,  (in  German.) 

§  Mont  Brode.  |  See  the  account  of,  China  in  a  subsequent  Book. 

1  Day-syn-y-Umdschi. 


38  BOOK  FORTIETH. 

MTiuch^o?*^  I  The  province  of  Mantchoo,  which  produces  copper,  iron  jasper,  pearls, 
Towns.  '  I  and  furs,  contains  a  middling  sized  town  of  the  same  name.  Yenden, 
in  Ciiinese  Sin-Tchin,  is  the  old  residence  of  the  Mantchoo  princes,  to  whose 
memory  magnificent  monuments  l^ave  been  raised  by  their  successors.  The  precise 
situation  of  that  town  is  not  known.  Ooanlin  the  largest  town  of  the  country, 
Ningoota  the  capital  of  a  military  government,  Tzitchakart  Merghen,  and  Segha- 
lieu-Oola,  are  marked  as  small  fortresses  on  the  map  of  d'Anville. 
The  Yupi.  I  The  general  denomination  of  Yupi  is  given  to  the  nomade  fishermen; 
such  were  all  the  poor  inhabitants  of  the  eastern  coast,  a  good-hearted  and  simple 
race,  who  were  visited  at  a  few  places  by  the  unfortunate  La  Perouse.  One  tribe 
of  them,  called  the  Ghiliaiky,  lives  on  the  two  banks  of  the  Amoor  or  Seghalien 
near  its  mouth.  The  tribe  of  the  Natki  or  Atchani  begins  higher  up  the  river  about 
fourteen  days  sailing.  Both  tribes  are  dressed  in  fish  skins  during  summer.  The 
Natki  use  dogs  for  drawing  their  carts.  The  Ghiliaikes  are  said  to  employ  tamed 
bears  for  a  similar  purpose.* 

View  of  the  To  La  Pcrouse  the  eastern  coast  appeared  to  be  almost  a  desert.  On 

eastern  coast,  gyery  hand  a  luxuriant  vegetation  reminded  the  mariners  of  their  dear 
native  country,  which  they  were  never  more  to  behold.  The  lofty  mountains  were 
adorned  with  the  spreading  branches  of  the  oak,  and  the  verdant  pyramidal  forms  of 
the  pine.  In  the  lower  grounds  the  willows  drank  the  moisture  of  the  rivers.  The 
birches,  the  maples,  and  the  medlar  trees,  rustled  in  the  winds.  The  lily,  the  rose, 
and  the  convallaria,  perfumed  the  meadow.  The  spring  was  that  of  Europe,  the 
flora  nearly  that  of  France.  But  there  was  no  trace  of  the  slightest  commence- 
ment of  cultivation ;  no  proof  that  these  fine  shores  had  ever  been  inhabited  by 
human  beings ;  no  paths  but  those  of  the  bear  and  stag  were  formed  across  the  rank 
herbage,  often  four  feet  in  height.  A  grave  and  some  fishing  utensils  seemed  to 
indicate  that  some  wandering  tribes  came  occasionally  from  the  interior  to  give  a 
momentary  disturbance  to  the  fishes  which  swarmed  at  the  mouths  of  the  rivers.l 
It  is  strange  to  find  a  country  so  highly  susceptible  of  culture  in  the  state  of  an 
absolute  desert  at  the  very  gates  of  the  ancient  empire  of  China,  in  which  the  exu- 
berance of  the  population  often  proves  the  cause  of  famine  in  all  its  horrors. 
Marine  plants.  |  The  sca  of  Japan  brings  to  the  shores  immense  floating  meadows  of 
marine  plants,  so  that  the  anxious  mariner  often  apprehends  that  his  vessel  is  entan- 
gled by  a  new  land,  seeming  to  rise  up  from  the  waters  which  it  conceals  from  view. 
In  the  extensive  fogs  which  beset  these  countries,  an  optical  illusion  often  presents 
the  appearance  of  elevated  and  extended  lands  :  the  seaman  draws  near  them  and 
thinks  of  landing,  when  the  fairy  scene  suddenly  dissolves  in  vapours  and  disappears. 
Population.  |  The  whole  of  Mantchooria,  according  to  the  Chinese  geography, 
contains  no  more  than  47,124  tributary  peasants,  but  the  aboriginal  people  are  not 
included  in  this  number,  which  probably  consists  of  colonists  from  China.  The 
country  furnishes  10,000  Mantchoo  soldiers. 

Mantchoos.  The  Mantchoos  belong  to  the  great  race  called  the  Tongoos  by  the 

tribis?"  Russians  and  Tartars,  and  the  Oveii  in  their  own  language.^     The  Da- 

oorians  are  Mantchoos,  but  mixed  with  Mongols.  Several  tribes,  such  as  the 
Dutcheri  on  the  banks  of  the  Amoor  about  the  middle  of  its  course,  the  Solons  on 
the  Argoon,  and  others,  seem  to  differ  only  in  slight  shades  of  civilization.  The 
Mantchoos,  under  the  name  of  JVicutche,  before  the  twelfth  century,  subjugated  the 
Leaos  or  Khitans,  to  whom  they  had  previously  been  vassals,  and  who  inhabited  the 
province  of  Mookden  ;  in  1115,  they  invaded  the  north  of  China,  where  these  princes 
founded  the  dynasty  of  Kin,  which  means  gold.§  Dispossessed  by  the  Mongols,  they 
returned  to  their  wild  mountains,  whence  they  issued  afresh  in  1640  under  the  name 
of  Mantchoos,  to  make  the  conquest  of  the  whole  of  China,  which  still  yields  them 
an  obedience  mingled  with  hatred,  and  interrupted  by  partial  rebellions. 

•  The  Cossacks  Payarkow  and  Shabarovv,  quoted  by  MuUer  in  the  work  already  referred 
to  p.  504,  505.  f  La  Perouse,  Voyape  autour  du  Monde,  iii.  12,  15,  16.  etc. 

i  Pallas,  Memou-s  on  the  Mongolic  Nations,  i.  p.  2.  (in  German.)  Georgi,  Description  des 
Nations  Russes,  p.  302.     Langles,  Alphabet  Mantchoo,  p.  41. 

§  Langles,  Alphabet  Mantchoo,  p.  30,  36,  40,  &c. 


MANTCllOOlUA  AND  COUKA.  59 

The  Mantchoos  were  acquainted  with  agricuUure,  and  even  had  a  code  of  laws 
before  they  conquered  China.  That  extension  of  power  has  injured  their  native 
country,  as  the  leading  faniihes  have  migrated  to  China. 

According  to  the  accounts  of  the  Jesuits,  the  Mantchoos  have  neither  |  Reiigioh. 
temples  nor  idols  ;  they  worship  one  Supreme  Being,  whom  they  style  the  emperor" 
of  heaven.  Yet  the  religion  of  the  Mantchoos  who  are  settled  in  China  has  an 
affinity  with  the  system  of  shamanism.  Of  the  three  great  nations  of  central  Asia, 
the  Mantchoos  may  be  considered  as  the  most  advanced  in  civihzation,  particularly 
since  they  have  conquered  China.  And  their  progress  in  this  respect  must  of  late 
have  been  still  greater,  as  the  last  emperor  ordered  the  best  Chinese  books  to  be 
translated  into  the  language  of  the  Mantchoos.  These  people  are  more  robust  in 
their  figure,  but  have  less  expressive  countenances  than  the  Chinese.  Their  women 
have  not,  like  those  of  the  latter,  their  feet  cramped  and  distorted;  their  head  dress 
consists  of  natural  and  artificial  flowers.  Their  general  dress  is  the  same  with  that 
of  the  Chinese. 

The  Mantchoo,  Mongolic,  and  Tartar  languages  differ  radically  from  |  Language 
one  another.     M.  Langl^s,  who  has  published  a  Mantchoo  dictionary,  'asserts  that 
It  IS  the  most  perfect  and  learned  of  the  Tartar  idioms,  without  excepting  that  of 
Thibet,  though  it  did  not  appear  in  a  written  form  before  the  seventeentircentury. 
At  that  period,  the  Mantchoo  monarch  ordered  men  of  learning  to  write  out  a  set  of 
letters  similar  to  those  of  the  Mongols.     The  alphabet  of  the  Mantchoos  I  Alphabet 
contains  fifteen  hundred  groups  of  syllables,  which  M.  Langl^s  has  attempted  to  re 
duce  to  twenty-nine  letters,  the  greater  part  of  which  have  three  different  forms  as 
adapted  to  the  beginning,  the  middle,  and  the  end  of  a  word.  ' 

We  shall  not  dwell  on  the  frequency  of  onomatopmas,  or  words  imi-     "^marks  on 
tating  of  natural  sounds,  nor  on  (he  extreme  softness  of  the  language      Kage""^ 
which  never  admits  of  two  consonants  without  an  intermediate  vowel-   i  or  its  coni 
ousness  in  particles  capable  of  being  joined  to  words  to  modify  their  meaning-  nor 
on  the  great  number  of  inflections  given  to  the  verb  as  in  the  Hebrew  and  Arabic 
The  consideration  of  these  characteristics  belongs  properly  to  the  philoloo-ist.     But 
we  must  not  pass  over  in  silence  a  fact  which  seems  connected  with  the  ancient  mi 
grations  of  mankind.     The  Mantchoo  language,  though  it  belongs  to  the  eastern 
extremity  of  the  old  continent  of  which  we  inhabit  the  western  extremity,  has  many 
radical  sounds  bearing  a  close  affinity  to  those  of  the  languages  of  Europe  *    These 
do  not  consist  of  terms  of  art,  which  might  have  been  brought  by  German  prisoners 
of  war  earned  to  Asia  by  the  Mongols,  nor  of  words  borrowed  from  natural  sounds 
connected  with  the  objects  which  they  denote,  and  thus  derived  from  a  source  com- 
mon  to  all  nrumkmd.     The  resemblance,  besides,  only  extends  to  the  Gothic-German 
and  Latin-Greek  languages,  which,  as  we  have  observed,  have  also  affinities  with 
the  banscrit.     Notliing  in  the  Mantchoo  language  has  the  appearance  of  being  Celtic 
or   bclavonian.     There  is  only  one  feature  which  reminds  us  of  the   Sannatian  or 
l.ithuanian,T   but  this  feature  is  also  common   to   the   Indo-Germanic  lan-uaoes. 

•  The  following  may  be  taken  as  a  specimen: 

Mantchoo  terms.  European  terms. 

Sirl\or,"p ^voine,  iYvtnch.)     mr««,  (Latin.)     Au/",,-,  (German.) 

.WoH«,  ahorse -IficAre,  (German.)     mare,  {VA^^]\sh. 

F^r«  a  sledffe /^«AmMo  ride  in  a  carriage,  (German.) 

/rA«/»  top  Ota  mountain      -     -     .     ,  *cA./>/;  a  summit,  (in  German.) 

Oora,  the  back  part  or  rear,      -     .     -  oi/g«,  the  tail,  (Greek.) 

^         .',,'    , Cacflrc,  (Latin.)     catv;,  (French.) 

Scnpu,h\oo<i. 6Vmi.r«>,  (Latin)     savg,{rvcnJ.) 

.^maayear- .W..,  (Latin.)     a«,  (French.)     ^ 

/fl/«;/a,  blackish /W,/,  (-German.)  ^ 

/^aj/Aw,  indolent /'««/,  (German.) 

jZV']t Furor,  {\,^i\n.)    /«re«r,  (French.) 

Leta,. \osv      -,----     -.  -     -     -     Xa/e,  (English.) 
See.Adehing's  Mithridate,  i.  516, 

the  >•  of  The  LaS?s.    ''"'''■'^''^'"'"'*'"'  '"^  ''  «^  '^''  ^"^'^'^'''  ^^'^  ^'«  «f  ^he  Germans;  and 


40  UOOK    FORTIETH. 

These  roots,  Gonimou  to  languages  locally  separated  by  half  of  the  WKlth  of  the  globe, 
seem  to  indicate  the  Mantchoos  to  belong  originally  to  the  neighbourhood  of  Persia 
and  of  India. 

coiea.  I       Between  the  islands  of  Japan  and  Mantchooria  is  the  great  peninsula 

of  CoREA,  washed  by  the  Sea  of  Japan  on  the  east,  and  on  the  west  by  the  Yellow 
Sea  or  Gulf  -of  Pekin.  This  country  is  about  640  miles  in  length ;  but  one-third  of 
this  length  does  not  belong  to  what  properly  forms  the  peninsula.  Its  breadth,  at 
its  northern  and  its  southern  end,  is  from  250  to  280  miles;  but  at  the  place  where 
the  true  peninsula  begins,  the  width  does  not  exceed  140. 

Mountains.      |       The  Only  well  known  feature  of  the  physical  geography  of  Corea  is 

the  existence  of  a  high  chain  of  mountains  in  a  direction  from  north  to  south,  and 

which  seems  to  have  a  connection  with  the  mountains  of  Mantchooria.     This  long 

chain,  when  it  enters  the  peninsula,  runs  parallel  to  the  shore  of  the  Japanese  Sea, 

at  a  very  short  distance.     The  most  easterly  province  has  the  name  of  Kiang-yuen, 

or  "  the  Country  of  Springs."     The  general  inclination  of  the  land  is  to  the  Yellow 

Sea.     The  coasts  and  adjoining  islands  are  rocky  and  difficult  of  access.     Two  large 

Riven.  |  rivers  are  known  in  this  country,  the  Ya-loo  and  the  Tu-men.     The  first 

discharges  itself  into  the  Western  Sea;  the  second  into  the  Eastern.     Both  are  in 

the  northern  parts  of  Corea,  and  beyond  its  peninsular  part.     They  take  their  rise 

in  the  same  mountain,  which  is  very  high,  and  is  called  by  the  Chinese  Shang-Pe- 

chan,  and  by  the  Mantchoos,  Shen-Jllia,  or  "  the  Mountain  of  Perpetual  Whiteness." 

Climate.         |       It  is  said  that  Corea,  though  in  the  latitude  of  Italy,  has  a  very  cold 

climate,  from  the  mountains  which  it  contains.     We  are  told  that  in  the  northern 

parts,  snow  falls  in  so  large  quantities  as  to  render  it  necessary  to  dig  passages  under 

it  in  order  to  go  from  one  house  to  another.     Yet  the  soil  is  fertile  and  well  culti- 

Minerais.  vated.  Among  its  mineral  treasures  are  gold,  silver,  lead,  iron,  topazes,* 

Aniraaij.  and  rock  salt.     The  most  common  animals,  accordmg  to  Father  Regis, 

are  wild  boars,  bears,  sables  (in  the  northern  parts,)  martens,  beavers,  and  deer.  The 

rivers  abound  in  fish,  and,  according  to  Hamel,  who  says  he  lived  nine  years  in  the 

country,  ka'imans,  a  kind  of  crocodiles,  are  found  here,  some  of  which  are  thirty  or 

forty  feet  in  length.     The  missionaries  also  heard  of  birds  with  remarkable  long 

tails,  which  undoubtedly  belong  to  a  species  of  pheasants.     There  are  ponys  little 

more  than  three  feet  high. 

Vegetables.  |  The  mountains  of  the  north  are  covered  with  vast  forests  :  their  only 
other  produce  is  barley  and  ginseng,  the  root  of  which  last  is  so  precious  in  the  eyes  of 
the  Chinese.  The  southern  provinces  abound  in  rice,  millet,  and  a  species  ofpani- 
cum  from  which  a  vinous  liquor  is  made  ;  in  hemp,  tobacco,  lemons,  and  silk.  A 
tree  of  the  palm  kind  produces  a  gum  which,  when  used  as  an  ingredient  in  varnish, 
gives  it  the  appearance  of  gilding. 

Names.  |       The  true  names  of  Corea  are  Kao-li  and  Tchao-sien ;  the  former  is 

its  ancient  name,  and  still  used  in  common  language,  the  latter  its  modern  appel- 
lation, and  adopted  in  the  official  style.  Both  of  them  are  derived  from  the  names 
of  dynasties  which  have  reigned  hi  the  country. "j" 

Piovinees.  |  It  is  divided  into  eight  provinces  ;  King-ki  in  the  centre  ;  Ping-ngan 
rioang-hai,  and  Tchu-sin,  on  the  western  shore  ;  Tsuen-lo,  in  the  south  ;  Kin-han, 
Kiang-yuen,  and  Hien-king,  on  the  Eastern  Sea. 

Towns,  I       The  Corean  towns  jiave  the  same  general  appearance  with  those  of 

China.  But  the  houses  are  built  of  mud,  without  art,  and  destitute  of  convenience  ; 
in  some  places  they  are  raised  on  stakes.  The  houses  of  the  nobility  have  more 
external  show,  and  are  surrounded  with  extensive  gardens.  King-ki-tao,  in  the  pro- 
vince of  King-ki,  is  the  capital  and  royal  residence.  The  great  wall  wiiich  the 
Coreans  had  built  as  a  bulwark  against  the  inroads  of  the  Mantchoos  is  now  falling 
jjiands.  j  to  ruin.      Tlie  roast  of  Corea  was  found  by  the  Alceste  and  the  Lyra;|; 

to  be  every  where  surrounded  with  numerous  islands,  which  had  been  mistaken  by 
former  navigators  for  a  part  of  Corea  itself.  The  island  of  Quelpaert,  to  the  south 
of  Corea,  has  been  rendered  famous  by  a  number  of  shipwrecks. 

•   Dai  sln-y-Uindshi,  in  Busching'.  Mag.  Gdogr.  xiv.  p.  534. 

f  Duhale,  iv.  p.  451.  ^  See  Captain  Hall's  Account  of  Loo-lchoo. 


MAXTCHOORIA  AXD  COREA.  41 


The  Coreans. 
Phjaical  con- 
stitution. 


Language, 
learning,  &c. 


The  Coreans  are  a  well  made  people,  of  an  agreeable  physiognomy, 
and  very  polished  in  manners.  In  a  state  of  subjection  for  ages  to  a 
foreign  yoke,  they  have  contracted  the  vices  of  servitude.  They  are  much  addicted 
to  pleasure,  loose,  false,  and  so  habituated  to  cheating  and  theft  that  even  the  Chi- 
nese are  taken  in  by  them.  Any  seamen  who  are  unfortunate  enough  to  suffer  ship- 
wreck on  their  shore  are  reduced  to  slavery,  a  custom  to  which  several  barbarous 
nations  have  resorted  under  the  influence  of  fear. 

Diseases  of  an  epidemic  nature  have  struck  such  a  terror  into  the  Coreans,  that 
they  are  in  the  practice  of  carrying  their  sick  out  to  the  fields,  and  leaving  ihem 
without  assitance  to  their  fate. 

Marriages  are  prohibited  between  relations  within  the  fifth  degree.  |  customs. 
Children  are  married  at  seven  or  eight,  and  the  bride  lives  in  the  house  of  her  father- 
in-law.     Poligamy  is  allowed,  but  the  husband  cannot  take  any  except  the  first  wife 
into  his  house.     It  would  appear  that  the  women,  like  those  of  China,  are  shut  up 
in  secluded  apartments,  and  not  allowed  to  be  seen  by  strangers. 

The  dead  bodies  of  persons  of  distinction  are  often  kept  tor  three  years  in  a  coffin 
before  they  are  buried.  They  make  the  graves  on  high  grounds,  and  by  the  side  of 
the  defunct  they  lay  arms,  utensils,  and  various  articles  of  which  he  made  use  during 
his  lite. 

The  Chinese  have  introduced  their  arts,  their  sciences,  and  their  lan- 
guage into  Corea.  The  literati  of  this  country  form  a  separate  order  in 
tlie  state,  and  are  distinguished  by  two  feathers  stuck  in  their  caps.  They  undergo 
many  examinations  as  in  China;  but  their  learning  is  contied  to  the  philosophy  of 
Confucius.  They  make  use  of  the  Chinese  language  and  characters;  the  vernacu- 
lar language  of  Corea  is  wholly  different,  and,  like  that  of  tlie  Mantchoos,  has  a  pe- 
culiar alphabet.  They  write  with  pencils  made  of  wolf's  hair,*  and  print  their  books 
with  wooden  blocks.  Their  language  is  too  little  known  to  enable  us  to  form  any 
judgment  of  its  merits.  It  contains  some  Chinese  and  Mantchoo  words;  but  the 
greater  part  of  it  seems  to  belong  to  neither,  f"  Perhaps  it  may  be  a  dialect  similar 
to  that  of  the  Japan  and  Kurile  islands;  or  Corea  and  Japan  may  have  contained  an 
indigenous  language  and  nation  previously  to  their  having  received  colonies  from 
China  and  Mantchooria.  It  is  left  for  future  travellers  to  elucidate  these  questiona- 
ble points. 

Here,  as  in  China,  the  philosophy  of  Confucius  is  the  prevailing  doc-  |  Religion, 
trine  among  the  great  and  the  learned.  But  the  idolatrous  religion  of  Fob  or  Bud- 
ha  has  many  followers.  The  Corean  Ambassadors  told  the  missionaries  at  Pekin, 
that  the  bonzes  were  kept  in  a  state  of  degradation,  and  obliged  to  build  their  tem- 
ples without  the  limits  of  their  towns.  There  are  monastic  orders,  or 
religious  associations,  the  members  of  which  lead  an  austere  life,  suffer 
with  patience  the  most  cruel  persecutions,  observe  a  great  number  of  ceremonies, 
and  in  recompence  for  so  many  sufferings  only  meet  with  universal  contempt.  Of 
these,  there  are  some  whose  rules  oblige  them  to  have  the  head  shaved,  to  abstain 
from  animal  food,  and  to  shun  the  sight  of  women. 

The  Coreans  manufacture  a  very  white  and  very  strong  paper  from 
cotton.  They  also  make  fans  and  painted  papers  for  ornamenting  rooms, 
and  very  fine  linens. ;j;  The  other  branches  of  their  industry  are  unknown.  The 
Chinese  purchase  their  different  articles  in  exchange  for  tea  and  silks.  The  Coreans 
also  carry  on  some  trade  with  the  Japanese.  Pu-shan,  or  according  to  other  ac- 
counts, Kin-shan,  is  the  port  to  which  the  Japanese  vessels  bring  their  goods,  such 
as  pepper,  fragrant  wood,  alum,  and  buffalo's  horns.  In  exchange,  the  Coreans 
give  lead,  cotton,  raw  silk,  and  ginseng  root.  Payments  are  made  in  small  ingots  of 
silver:  the  only  coin  is  copper. 

Corea,  originaffy  divided  into  several  small  states,  was  subjugated  and  |  Government, 
civilized  by  some  Chinese  adventurers,  at  the  head  of  whom  was  prince  Kitse.     The 

•  Ku-cher,  China  illustrata,  p.  232.    Nieuhof,  Ambassade,  P.  ii.  p.  403. 
t  The  pater-noster  in  pretended  Corean,  in  tlie  Oratio  Dominica  of  M.  Marcel,  p.  26,  appears 
to  Adelung  to  be  written  in  the  Chinese  dialect. 
t  De  Guignes,  Voyage  a  P^kin,  i.  410-411. 
Vol.  il— F 


Monastia 
orders. 


Indnitry. 
Trade. 


42  IJOOK  FORTIETH. 

wise  laws  given  them  by  this  conqueror  produced  a  golden  age ;  but  that  happy  epoch 
is  as  far  back  as  a  thousand  years  belbre  our  vulgar  era.  It  appears  certain  that 
Corea  has  been  subdued  by  the  Japanese,  the  Mantchoos,  and  the  Chinese  in  suc- 
cession :  the  last  alone  have  maintained  their  ascendency.  The  kings  of  Corea,  con- 
founded among  the  other  vassals  of  the  Chinese  empire,  send  to  Pekin  an  annual 
tribute  and  ambassadors,  who  are  not  received  with  much  distinction.  In  his  own 
country,  however,  the  king  is  absolute ;  a  numerous  court  and  a  well  furnished  sera- 
glio contribute  to  the  splendour  of  his  throne.  All  the  inhabitants  arc  bound  to  work 
for  the  sovereign  for  three  months ;  and  to  the  large  revenues  of  his  own  domains 
this  prince  adds  the  produce  of  the  royal  tithe,  taken  in  kind  on  productions  of  every 
sort.  It  appears  from  the  account  of  Hamel,  that  the  nobles  exercise,  in  their 
respective  districts,  a  very  oppressive  feudal  power ;  they  allow  no  house  but  their 
own  to  be  roofed  with  tile;  the  people  arc  obliged  to  live  under  roofs  of  thatch. 
Armed  force.  |  The  soldicry  are  very  numerous,  but  they  would  not  be  formidable  to 
Europeans.  They  are  armed  with  bad  muskets,  bows,  and  whips.  Their  ships  of 
war  are  superior  to  those  of  China,  and  appear  to  be  imitations  of  the  Portuguese 
galleys.  They  are  mounted  with  cannons  and  furnished  with  fire-pots.  The  for- 
tresses, situated  on  high  mountains,  have  a  sort  of  military  monks  for  part  of  their 
garrison.  According  to  one  modern  account,  the  Japanese  hold  the  sovereignty  of 
^^»iart  of  Corea,*  but  M.  Kruscnstern  is  of  opinion  that  the  power  of  the  Emperor 
"^vj.s  confined  to  the  island  of  Tsoo-Sima,  situated  in  the  strait  of  Corea. 

N  SYNOPTIC  TABLE 

^jj  the  JVnfurns  vulo-arhj  called   Tarfars,  inhahilivg  the  JVorth,   the  Centre,  and  the 

Kant  of  Asia. 

N.  B. — This  Tabic  relates  to  all  the  nations  mentioned  in  books  xxxvi. — xl. 

I.  TATAR  RACE. 

I.  Turks  or  Southern  Tatars. 

1.  Turks  or  Turkestan. 

2.  Turcomans  to  the  east  of  the  Caspian  Sea,  in  Persia,  Armenia  and  Asia 

Minor. 

3.  Uzbeks,  in  Khiwa  and  Great  Bukharia. 

4.  Bukharians,  in  the  town  of  the  two  Bukharias. 

N.  B.    Perhaps  they  are  descended  from  a  mixture  of  Persians,  and 
Tartars, 

5.  Karamans,  or  Turks  of  Karamania,  originally  from  Turkestan. 

6.  Osmanlis,  or  Turks  of  Anatolia,  Constantinople,  &c.  who  have  come  from 

Turkestan. 
II    Northern  Tatars. 

7.  Nogais  Tatars,  in  the  Crimea,  on  the  Kuban,  and  in  Bessarabia.     They  are 

called  Mankat,  and  have  a  mixture  of  Mongolian  blood. 

a.  Budziaks,  in  Bessarabia. 

b.  ledsan,  in  the  Crimea,  and  on  the  Kuban. 

c.  lamboilonk,  on  the  Kuban. 

d.  Kubanians,         ditto. 

e.  Kumuks,  in  Eastern  Caucasus. 

f.  Basians,  in  Upper  Caucasus,  &c.     See  Book  XXV. 

8.  Konmanians,  from  the  banks  of  the  Kooma  at  the  foot  of  Caucasus,  living  in 

Great  and  liittlc  Koomania,  in  Ilimgary. 

9.  Tatars  of  Kiptchak.     The  old  Khanat  of  Kipchak  included  Kasan,  Orenburg, 

and  Astrachan.     That  division  may  be  subdivided  into 

a.  Tatars  of  Kasan,  who  speak  a  pure  dialect,  and  are  the  most  civilized 
of  the  Tartar  race. 

•  Zach's  Correspondance,  i.  21. 


TARTAR  NATIONS.  43 

b..  Tatars  of  Ufa  and  of  Orenburg. 

c.  Bashkirs,  mixed  with  the  ancient  Bulgarians  and  Fins;  in  the  govern- 

ment of  Orenburg. 

d.  Meshtclieriaks,  ditto,  ditto. 

e.  Karakalpaks,  on  the  north  of  lake  Aral. 

10.  Kirguis,  or  Kirguis-Kaisaks,  in  their  steppes,  in  Turkestan,  Khiwa,  &c. 

11.  Siberian  Tatars  ;  remains  of  tire  Tatar  inhabitants  of  the  Khanat  of  Sibir  or 

of  Tura. 

a.  Turalinzcs,  on  the  Tura. 

b.  Tatars  of  Tobolsk. 

c.  Tatars  of  Tara. 

d.  Tatars  of  Tomsk. 

c.  Barabintzes,  in  the  steppe  of  Baraba. 
III.  Tatars  mixed  with  Mongols. 

12.  Tatars  of  Krasnoiarsk  and  of  Kutznesk,  with  the  Soyetes.    (See  the  account 

of  Siberia,  Book  XLIX.) 

13.  Katchinzes,  ibid. 

14.  Tatars  of  Tchulym,  on  the  river  of  that  name. 

15.  Teleootes,  or  white  Kalmuks,  with  the  Abuizes,  Beltires,  and  Biriusses,  on 

the  Upper  Yenisei'.  . 

16.  Yakootes,  on  the  Lena. 

II.  3ION(iOLIAN  RACE. 

I.  Mongols. 

Kalkas,  on  the  north  of  the  Desert  of  Gobi. 
Ortosh,  on  the  north  side  of  the  Great  Wall. 
Tumet,  on  the  north-east  of  Pekin. 
Nayman,  ditto,  ibid. 

Kortchines,  ibid,  near  Tsitchacar  in  Mantchooria. 
Tchahary,  north  from  Pekin,  at  a  distance  of  100  and  400  miles. 
Karloses,  ibid.  850  miles. 
Sonjoot,  &c.      See  the  Uay-syn-i-tundshi. 

II.  Kalmuks  or  Derben  Ocroet  (Eleuths.) 

1.  Choschotes,  near  Lake  IIoho-Nor  and  in  Thibet.  The  Sifans  of  the  Chinese. 

a.  Yellow  Sifans. 

b.  Black  Sifans. 

2.  Songarians,  more  particularly  called  Eleuths. 

3.  Derbetes,  joined  to  the  Songarians  and  Torgots. 

4.  Torgots,  who  emigrated  from  the  Kalinuk  country  to  Russia,  and  afterwards 

returned. 

N.B.   Among  the  Kalmuks  perhaps  there  are  some  other  tribes,  remains 
of  the  Oi'goors  in  tlie  Cantons  of  Hiuiiil,  Turfat,  &c. 
HI.  Booriaits,  in  the  neigbuurhood  of  Lake  Baikal.^ 

in.  MANTCHOO,  OK  TONGOOS  RACE. 

1.   Mantchoos  Proper. 

1.  The  Nieutche,  or  Mantchoos  of  Ningoota,  (the  Bogdoitciii  of  the  old  Rus- 

sian authors.) 

a.  The  Atchari. 

b.  The  Mohlio,  &c. 

2.  The  Leao,  or  Kitans,  ancient  nation  of  Leaotong  (?) 

3.  Daoorians,  or  Taguriuns. 

a.  Solons,  near  Mount  Sioiki. 

b.  llumari,  on  the  Anioor  or  Seghalien,  above  its  junction  with  the  Son- 

^ari-Oola. 
4    The  Uulchcry,  on  the  Amoor,  nbovc  llir  Jlnman,  removed  mlo  thf  intrrior  by 
ilip  ''liinf:.--e  ^ovcrnuiriit. 


44  BOOK  FORTIETH. 

5.  Mantchoo  Fishers,  or  the  Yu-pitatse  of  the  Chinese. 

a.  Natki,  or  Fiatta. 

b.  Ghiiiaiky,  or  Ketching,  (doubtful  origin.) 

c.  Orotchys,  on  the  Bay  de  Castries. 

d.  Bitchy's,  more  to  the  south. 

e.  Mantchoos  settled  in  the  north  part  of  Seghalien  island. 
II.  Tongoos,  or  CEvcens. 

1.  Tongoos  hunters,  in  the  north,  on  the  river  Toongooska. 

2.  Tongoos,  whose  employment  consists  in  keeping  droves  of  rein-deer,  in  the 

south  near  the  Baikal,  &c. 

3.  Tongoos  Fishers,  or  Lamutes,  to  the  east  of  the  former. 

N.B.  These  are  only  vague  subdivisions.  There  are  seven  or  eight  dia- 
lects which  are  little  known.  The  Tongoos  are  called  by  the  Chineae, 
She-Goei  and  Scions ;  by  the  Yookaghires,  Erpeghi.  The  names 
which  they  give  themselves  are  (Evoens  and  Donki. 

IV.  SAMOID  RACE. 

I.  Sainioids  Proper.     From  Petchora  in  Europe  to  the  east  of  the  Yenisei. 

1.  Petchorians  or  Ingorians,  on  the  east  side  of  the  Petchora. 

2.  Obdorians  or  Objoodirs,  on  the  Obi. 

3.  Tchijoodirs,  ibid. 

4.  Guarizi,  at  Waigatz  Straits. 

5.  Tissovvski,  (Russian  name,)  on  the  Tass. 

6.  Yuraks,  cast  from  the  preceding. 

7.  Turukhanskoi,  (Russian  name,)  near  the  mouth  of  the  Yenisei. 

II.  Ostiaks  of  Narym  and  of  Tomsk. 

III.  Hdrdes  of  the  Upper  Yenisei. 

1.  Kamatchines,  on  the  Kam. 

2.  Taragams  and  Taiginzes,  on  the  Taasowa. 

3.  Tubinski,  on  the  Tuba,  scattered 

4.  Koibales,  neighbourhood  of  Kutznesk  and  Krasnoiarsk. 

5.  Matores  or  Madores,  on  the  Tuba. 

6.  Soyetes,  among  the  Sayanian  Mountains. 

N.  B.  These  hordes  seem  to  be  the  primitive  stock  of  the  Samoids. 

V.  FINNISH  RACE,  OR  MIXED  YV^ITH  FINNS. 

li    Permiak's  \  ^^^  ^^^  Table  of  the  Finnish  Tribes  in  the  Geogra- 

Ili.   Ostiaks  of  the  Obi,  &c.  j      P'^^^  ^^  ^"''^P^- 

VI.  OBSCURE  EASTERN  RACES. 

I.  Ostiaks  of  the  Yenisei.  * 

1.  Ostiaks  of  Pampokol. 

2.  Arinzes,  in  the  District  of  Krasnoiarsk. 

3.  Kotowzes,  on  the  Kan. 

4.  Asanes,  on  the  Ussolka,  scattered. 

II.  Yookaghirs,  mouth  of  the  Lena  ;  they  call  themselves  Audon  Domni,  and  are 

called  Yedel  by  the  Koriaks. 

III.  Tchooktchcs  or  Tchukotchis. 

1.  Tchukotchis,  in  the  east. 

2.  Shelagi,  in  the  north. 
3.^Acliuchalat  islanders,  &c. 

IV.  Koriaiks. 

1.  Tchantshu,  on  the  Gulf  of  Penjina. 

2.  Tumuhutu,  nonmdcs'. 

3.  Elutctat  or  Olutorzi,  on  the  Olutora. 


JAPANESE  ISLANDS.  45 

V.  Kamtchadales,  who  call  themselves  Itelmen. 

VI.  Kurilians,  called  in  their  own  language  Amo,  and  Mo-Sin  in  the  Japanese  His- 

tories.    Inhabitants  of  the  Great  Kuriles,  of  lesso,  and  Seghalien  Islands. 
(See  Book  XLI.) 

VII.  Coreans.  &c.  &c. 


BOOK  XLI. 


JAPANESE  ISLANDS. 

Japan;  the  Islands  of  lesso;  the  Kurilc,  and  Lco-Choo  Islands.     Critical  inquiries 

oit  lesso. 

To  the  east  of  Mantchooria  lies  the  basin  of  the  sea  of  Japan,  the  |  sca  of  Japan, 
north  end  of  which  has  been  named  by  La  Perouse  the  Channel  of  Tartary.  Steep 
shores,  destitute  of  large  rivers,  surround  this  dark,  foggy,  and  tempestuous  medi- 
terranean. On  the  north  it  communicates  by  two  straits  with  the  sea  of  Okhotsk. 
One  of  them,  near  the  mouth  of  the  river  Amoor,  separating  the  continent  from 
Seghalien  Island,  is  choked  up  with  sand  covered  with  reeds,  and  does  not  admit 
the  passage  even  of  a  small  boat.  La  Perouse's  Strait,  known  formerly  under  the 
name  of  the  strait  TessoY,  affords,  on  the  east,  a  passage  into  the  sea  of  lesso,  a 
part  of  the  sea  of  Okhotsk.  The  strait  of  Songaar,  forms  a  communication  between 
the  sea  of  Japan  and  the  great  Eastern  Ocean,  or  rather  what  is  called  the  Northern 
Pacific.  On  the  south,  the  strait  of  Corea  opens  into  the  Chinese  seas.  A  chain 
of  considerable  islands  forms  the  barrier  by  which  the  Japanese  mediterranean  is 
separated  from  the  Great  Ocean ;  and  this  chain,  which  is  more  than  sixteen  hun- 
dred miles  long,  is  connected  again  with  the  Kurile  Islands  on  the  north-east  and 
with  those  of  Loo-Choo  on  the  south.  The  islands  of  the  Japanese  empire  are 
the  most  extensive. 

In  the  north  of  the  Japanese  empire,  two  great  islands  form,  with  a  number  of 
small  ones,  an  independent  archipelago.  It  is  here  that  geographical  critical  re- 
criticism  amused  itself  with  sketching  the  famous  country  of  lesso.  At  ie»so.'^*  "" 
first  it  was  believed  that  this  country,  known  by  its  connection  with  Japan,  was  a 
continent  or  a  large  island  between  Asia  and  America ;  then  it  was  confounded  with 
Kamtchatka,  or  rather  was  joined  with  the  country  then  called  Russian  Tartary,  for 
Kamtchatka  was  not  known  till  1696. 

At  last,  the  voyage  of  the  Dutch  navigator  de  Vries,  commanding  the  voyag:e  of  the 
ship  Castricom,  threw  the  first  ray  of  light  on  this  part  of  the  world.  It  tiie  Brwke. 
was  found  to  a  certainty  that  these  lands  were  as  much  separated  from  the  continent 
of  Asia  on  the  north-cast  as  from  Japan  on  the  south.  But  three  points  continued 
doubtful.  The  land  seen  by  de  Vries  presented  one  well  marked  island,  the  States 
Island  :  but  to  the  east,  the  extent  of  the  Company's  Land  was  vaguely  understood. 
Some  accounts  of  little  authenticity,  and  among  others  that  of  Jean  de  Gama,  gave 
rise  to  the  idea  that  this  land  extended  to  America.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Castri- 
com having  coasted  the  land  of  Matsumai  or  lesso  on  the  cast  and  north-cast,  was 
repelled  from  the  strait  of  TessoY  by  the  currents.  The  fogs  prevented  her  even 
from  seeing  it ;  and  when  she  touched  on  the  southern  and  eastern  coast  of  Segha- 
lien Island,  it  was  considered  as  forming  a  continuation  of  lesso.  Some  geographers 
might  thus  have  believed  that  all  these  coasts,  instead  of  forming  two  islands,  be- 
longed to  the  same  peninsula  of  Chinese  Tartary.  The  log-book  of  the  Dutch  ves- 
sel the  Breskc  not  having  been  consulted,  it  was  not  known  tliat  tlic  navigators 
belonging  to  that  ship  had  determined  the  strait  of  Songaar  to  be  such  as  we  now 


Discovery  of 
the  strait  of 
Tesso'j. 


Hypotheses  of 
d'Anville. 


46  BOOK  FOUTY-FIRRT. 

know  it.*  The  north  point  of  Japan  being  placed  two  or  three  degrees  too  far 
south,  created  an  immense  gap  between  that  country  and  lesso,  where  the  Japan- 
ese charts  laid  down  a  very  narrow  arm  of  the  sea.|  About  the  same  time,  some 
particulars  were  known  through  the  Chinese  missionaries  respecting  the 
island  of  Seghalien,  and  the  existence  of  a  strait  called  Tessox.  The 
Jesuit  Father  Des  Anges  even  saw  this  strait,  described  its  terrible  currents,  and 
learned  that  the  land  beyond  it,  the  island  of  Seghalien,  was  named  A'ino-Moxorj. 
This  name  signifies  the  isle  of  the  Ainos  ;J  the  last  word  being  the  name  which  the 
inhabitants  of  lesso  and  the  Kurile  islands  gave  themselves,  although  in  1620  this 
name  had  no  meaning  among  geographers,  and  they  could  draw  from  it  no  conclu- 
sion. D'Anville  made  two  attempts  to  delineate  these  countries,  and  by 
a  chance  not  uncommon  in  geographical  criticism,  his  last  idea  was  the 
most  remote  from  the  truth.  He  gave  the  strait  of  TessoY  its  proper  place,  but  he 
connected  the  south  part  of  the  island  of  Seghalien  or  Aino-Moxori  with  the  conti- 
nent of  Mantchooria  ;  then  called  Chinese  Tartary,  and  figured  this  same  island, 
under  very  small  dimensions,  opposite  to  the  mouth  of  the  river  Amoor.§ 

The  Russians,  in  visiting  the  Kurile  islands  adjoining  their  possession  of  Kamt- 
chatka,  necessarily  arrived  at  Icsso.  The 'Cossack  Kosirewski  reached,  in  1713, 
the  isle  of  Koonasheer,  making  part  of  the  coasts  of  the  Icsso  of  the  Dutch.  In 
Voyage  of  I  1736,  Spangeuberg,  a  Dane  in  the  Russian  service,  examined  the  isles 
.^p^angen  rg,  |  ^^  Qoroop  ov  the  Company's  Land,  that  of  .^tovkoo,  which  is  States 
Island  ;  also  Koonasheer,  Tchikotan,  and  Matsumai  or  Icsso.  He  even  made  Ja- 
pan, but  he  had  neither  ships  nor  instruments  corresponding  to  his  talents  and  cou- 
rage. At  last  the  Russian  Potouchkew,  in  1777,  sailed  by  the  west,  round  the  islands 
of  Atorkoo  and  Ooroop.  These  discoveries  were  placed  too  far  to  the  south,  ||  from 
the  respect  paid  to  geographical  systems  on  the  position  of  Songaar.  Two  bad 
sketches  of  these  discoveries,  taken  from  the  Russian  records  and  published  by  M. 
Lesseps,  completed  the  mass  of  confusion  and  fruitless  conjecture  in  which  the  sub- 
ject was  involved. 

At  last  the  unfortunate  La  Perouse  commenced  the  discovery  by  the 
true  method.  He  entered  from  the  Sea  of  Japan,  found  the  channel 
which  separates  Mantchooria  from  the  countries  of  lesso,  penetrated  to  the  sandy 
shallow  strait  which  separates  these  countries  from  the  continent,  crossed  another 
strait  to  which  his  name  has  since  been  properly  given,  and  thus  obtained  for  us  a 
view  of  this  archipelago  altogether  new. 

Broiighton's  I  The  English  navigator  Broughton  has  confirmed  the  correctness  of 
voyage.  j  ^y^^  Dutch  charts  and  of  those  of  Kajmpler,  with  regard  to  the  strait  of 

Songaar  or  Matsumai.  In  consequence  of  the  investigations  of  this  gentleman,  the 
northern  coast  of  Japan  has  obtained  its  right  position  of  latitude.  But  Broughton 
has  given  geographers  a  new  subject  of  dispute,  by  maintaining  that  there  is  no  strait 
between  Mantchooria  and  Seghalien  island. 

La  Perouse,  forced  by  winds  and  other  circumstances  to  leave  this 
channel  before  he  had  explored  it  to  the  end,  had  interrogated  with  much 
care  the  natives  both  of  the  island  and  of  the  continent.  The  former  assured  him 
that  their  country  was  surrounded  with  water,  and  gave  him  a  sketch  of  the  strait 
which  separated  it  from  the  continent. IT  The  people  of  the  continent  told  him  that 
the  boats  which  came  from  the  mouth  of  the  river  Amoor  to  the  bay  of  Do  Castries 
were  dragged  over  a  narrow  isthmus  of  sandy  ground  covered  with  sea  weeds.**  This 
navigator  remarked,  besides,  that  the  depth  of  the  water  rapidly  decreased  at  the  ex- 
tremity of  the  channel,  and  that  no  current  was  perceivable  in  it.  He  seems  to  have 
been  satisfied  that  the  strait  existed,  but  that,  obstructed  by  sand  and  sea  weeds,  it 

•  Witscn,  Noord-cn-Ost-Tartarye,  2d  edit.  p.  138. 
-j-  Kxmpfer  on  Japan,  i.  78.     (Dohm's  German  edition.) 
i  Vocabulary  of  the  Icsso  lanj^uage  in  MS.  coiTiinunicalcd  by  M.  Titsingh. 
§  D'Anville,  Carle  gencrale  de  la  Tartarie  (Jtiinoisc  el  Carte  de  I'Asie,  ii.  pait. —  I'll    Bua 
clie,  Consid.  gei>,i;".  cl  pliys.  sur  les  Dccuuv.  p.  75,  Sec. 

11  Cartes  des  Decouvertes  iiusbea,  publities  ii  i'dersbourg  en  177o  et  17o7. 
*i  La  rei'ouse,  iii.  \i.  36.  ,  •»  J  Jem   ]•  72 


Voyage  of  La 
Fcrousc. 


Description  of 
tlie  Strait  of 
Seghalien. 


Reply  to  these 
I'ea^uiiiiigs. 


.TAPAKESE  ISLANDS.  47' 

only  nflbrded  a  narrow  passage  to  small  boats.  Broughton  goes  fartlier.  lie  says, 
that  having  been  twenty-two  miles  farther  to  the  north  than  La  Pcrouse,  he  arrived 
at  a  bay  which  was  only  two  fathoms  deep,  and  which  was  shut  in  on  all  sides  by  low 
and  sandy  ground.  He  is  persuaded  that  this  tongue  of  land,  which  was  examined 
by  his  boats,  is  in  no  part  interrupted,  and  that  Seghalien  is  a  peninsula.  Mr.  Kru- 
senstern,  who  did  not  go  near  this  strait,  but  visited  that  which  is  situated  to  the 
north  of  the  mouth  of  the  river  Seghalien,  supports  the  opinion  of  Broughton  by  ex- 
tended reasonings.*  The  water  which  he  found  in  the  gulf  formed  by  this  river 
being  almost  fresh,  furnished  a  specious  argument,  which  appeared  decisive  to  him 
and  his  companions.  If  the  Gulf  of  Seghalien  communicated  ever  so  little  with  the 
channel  of  Tartary,  the  salt  waters  of  that  arm  of  the  sea  would  have  mingled  with 
those  of  the  gulf.  M.  de  Krusenstern  supports  his  views  by  the  testimony  of  the 
inhabitants  of  De  Castries  Bay  quoted  by  La  Perousc,  and  by  the  acknowledgment 
of  Broughton,  and  says  he  entertains  no  doubt  of  the  existence  of  a  sandy  isthmus 
rendering  the  land  of  Seghahen  a  peninsula;  but  he  thinks  that  this  is  of  very  recent 
formation,  and  that  Seghalien  was  really  to  be  considered  as  an  island  at  the  time 
Avhen  even  the  modern  Japanese  and  Chinese  charts  were  constructed,  all  of  which 
represent  it  as  detached  from  the  continent. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  nautical  and  political  considerations  prevented 
Krusenstern  from  substantiating  on  the  spot  the  existence  of  this  isth- 
mus. His  reasonings  as  they  stand  are  not  unanswerable.  Two  or  three  windings 
of  the  beach;  some  islets  and  sand-banks;  two  or  three  narrow  canals  filled  with  the 
enormous  rushes  which  grow  over  the  whole  of  this  coast,  encinnl»cred  also  with 
floating  meadows  of  marine  plants,  would  afford  a  sufficient  explanation  of  the  fact 
that  the  salt  water  of  the  channel  of  Tartary  did  not  extend  to  the  Gulf  of  Seghalien. 
If  to  the  west  of  this  shallow  strait  there  is  a  tongue  of  low  land  almost  divided  by 
two  small  rivers,  as  there  certainly  is  one  to  the  north  of  the  mouth  of  the  Amoor,  at 
the  place  which  tlie  Russians  call  Gilazkaia  Perewoloca,  and  the  Chinese  G()/c,|  it 
is  quite  natural  to  suppose  that  the  people  of  the  continent  have  sometimes  dragged 
their  light  boats  over  such  a  strip  of  land,  to  avoid  the  difficult  navigation  of  the  strait 
itself.  This  is  what  the  Cossacks  of  the  seventeenth  century  did,  when  coming  down 
the  Amoor,  and  wishing  to  reach  Udskoi,  they  preferred  carrying  their  boats  over 
the  tongue  of  land  Gilazkaia  to  the  plan  of  doubling  the  promontory  which  M.  Kru- 
senstern calls  Cape  Romberg.  According  to  this  hypothesis,  which  is  singularly 
favoured  by  the  very  remarkable  details  of  a  map  of  M.  d'Anville's,J  we  may  con- 
ceive how  Broughton  may  have  been  deceived  in  mistaking  a  promontory  in  the  strait 
for  an  isthmus.  Besides,  if  this  navigator  found  a  sandy  isthmus,  even  supposing  it 
to  have  been  of  considerable  width,  why  did  he  not  perceive  the  sea  on  its  opposite 
.side  ? 

For  these  reasons,  till  such  time  as  new  light  is  thrown  on  the  ques-  (  conclusion, 
tion,  every  candid  geographer  will  probably  retain  the  strait  pointed  out  by  d'Anville, 
by  the  missionaries,  and  by  the  Chinese  and  Japanese  charts,  as  separating  Segha- 
lien, or  Tchoka  as  it  is  also  called,  from  the  continent  of  Mantchooria. 

Krusenstern  examined  with  great  care  the  western  shores  of  the  isle  of  lesso, 
and  the  south-eastern  and  northern  shores  of  Seghalien  Island.  His  account,  and 
those  of  La  Perouse  and  Broughton,  are  the  only  published  sources  from  which  cer- 
tain ideas  can  be  formed  of  this  archipelago  ;  but  the  kindness  of  M.  m.  lissinKirs 
Tissingh,  a  Dutch  gentleman  who  resided  a  long  time  at  Japan,  enables  manuscruxs. 
us  to  avail  ourselves  of  two  Japanese  descriptions  for  details  which  throw  a  new 
light  on  the  geography  arid  history  of  these  countries.  One  is  called  "  hso-Ki,  or 
a  description  of  lesso,  by  Arai-Tsi-kogo-no-Kami,  instructor  of  Ziogoen  (military 
emperor)  Tsocna-Josi,"  written  in  1720.  The  other  is  called  "  Ieso-Ki,  with  the 
history  of  the  rebellion  of  Samsayla,  by  Kannamon,  Japanese  interpreter,"  written 
in  1752.     Besides  these,   M.  Tissingh  has  communicated  an  account  of  two  Ja- 

•  Knisenstern's  Voyat^e  round  the  World,  ii.  p.  191—195,  (orit^inal  German  edition.) 
I  Midler's  Memoir  on  tlie  Uiver  Amoor,  in  Busching's  Mag.  Gcog.  ii.  507,  508. 
i  Asie,  ill',  part  2'"  feuillc. 


48 


BOOK  FORTY-FIRST. 


Isle  of  MaCiu 
mai.  orlesso 
Proper. 


The  Mo-Sins, 
or  A'inoos. 


panese  maps,  which  will  appear  in  our  periodical  work  of  the  "  Annalesdes  Voyages." 
VV^e  shall  take  the  northern  coast  of  Japan  for  our  point  of  departure. 

The  isle  of  Matsumai,  situated  to  the  north  of  that  of  Niphon,  is 
called  in  the  Japanese  language  lesso,  or  "  the  Coast ;"  it  also  receives 
the  name  of  Mo-Sin,  or  "  the  Hairy  Bodies."  The  Mo-Sins  formerly  occupied  the 
northern  parts  of  Japan  as  far  as  the  mountain  Ojama.  Driven  back  into  their  own 
island,  they  have  there  been  repeatedly  subdued  ;  and  it  is  only  in  the  south  part  of 
the  island  of  Seghalien  that  they  preserve  their  independence.  Accord- 
ing to  Krusenstern  the  Mo-Sins  call  themselves  Amos.*  This  nation 
is  distinguished  from  the  Japanese  by  a  stature  somewhat  taller,  and  a  more  robust 
frame.  They  have  large  very  thick  black  beards,  and  the  hair  of  their  heads  is 
black  and  somewhat  frizzled.  Both  the  men  and  women  tattoo  their  faces  above 
the  lips  with  figures  of  flowers  and  animals.  The  rich  among  them  dress  in  Ja- 
panese or  Chinese  manufactures  ;  the  common  people  wear  a  stuff'  made  of  a  fibre 
obtained  from  a  species  of  willow  bark.  At  the  early  age  of  ten  the  children  learn 
Exercises.  |  to  divc  into  the  sea,  and  to  leap  over  tight  ropes.  The  Ainoos  excel  in 
both  exercises.  Some  of  them  can  leap  six  or  seven  feet  high.  They  hunt  the 
deer  ;  their  principal  arms  are  the  bow  and  arrows.  Small  detachments  of  Japanese 
can  beat  thousands  of  the  Ainos.  The  hereditary  chiefs  of  the  villages  acknow- 
ledge themselves  the  vassals  of  the  Japanese  prince  of  Matsumai,  and  pay  him  a 
tribute  of  otters'  skins,  or  the  skins  of  seals,  bears,  elks,  beavers,  likewise  of  salmon, 
falcons,  and  other  productions  of  their  country.  They  live  together  without  esta- 
l)lished  laws,  and  almost  without  rehgious  worship  ;  at  least  a  few  libations  and  the 
lighting  of  fires  in  honour  of  Kamoi,  a  Japanese  deity,  are  the  only  acts  of  religion 
that  have  been  observed  among  them.  They  have  no  alphabet,  and  no  coin.  They 
trade  entirely  by  barter.  They  repair  to  one  of  the  Kurile  islands,  lay 
down  their  goods  on  the  beach,  and  return  on  board  their  vessels  :  the 
Kiirilians  come  down,  examine  the  goods,  and  place  their  own  by  the  side  of  them; 
and  by  a  series  of  such  negociations  in  dumb  show  their  bargains  are  concluded. 
They  allow  polygamy ;  adultery  they  resent  and  revenge.  If  any  attempt  is  made 
by  a  married  woman  to  seduce  a  man,  he  demands  her  ear-rings,  and,  with  these 
pledges  in  his  hand,  he  is  safe  from  the  attacks  of  the  injured  husband.  Brothers 
marry  their  sisters.  Their  tribes  are  so  many  separate  family  associations,  which 
seldom  form  mutual  alliances.  Their  lamentations  for  the  dead  are  expressed  by 
mock  fights  among  the  relations,  in  which  bloody  wounds  are  sometimes  inflicted. 
To  these  curious  accounts  given  by  the  Japanese  writers  very  little  has  been  added 
by  European  navigators.  Broughton  informs  us  that  these  people  are  uncommonly 
hairy  over  the  whole  body.  This  Krusenstern,  trusting  to  the  Dutch  testimonies, 
considers  as  an  exaggeration  ;  and  the  same  view  appears  to  be  confirmed  by  the 
Japanese  accounts. 

Language  |  The  language  of  the  Amos  seems  to  be  equally  foreign  to  the  Japa- 
nese, the  Mantchoo,  and  the  Kamtchatdale.  On  comparing  about  a  hundred  words 
with  the  corresponding  terms  in  several  of  the  languages  of  Asia,  and  the  large 
adjoining  islands,  we  can  find  no  indication  of  affinity;  but  a  more  intimate  acquan- 
tance  with  the  structure  and  the  roots  of  many  of  these  languages  woxdd  be  requisite 
to  enable  us  to  pronounce  with  any  decision  on  the  question.  This  language,  though 
less  sonorous  and  less  mellow  than  the  Japanese,  has  no  savage  rudeness  in  itn 
articulation. 

The  following  are  a  few  specimens  of  it. 


Dumb  bar- 
gains. 


Heaven, 

likita. 

Night, 

afziroo. 

Earth, 

sinkata. 

Man, 

okkay. 

Sun, 

tofskaf. 

(In  Japanese 

oioko.) 

Moon, 

koonetsoo. 

Woman, 

mennokoosi. 

Stars, 

novo. 

Father, 

fanpe. 

Mountain, 

kimla. 

Mother, 

tafoo. 

Island, 

modjiri. 

(In  Japanese 

/«>•) 

Shore, 

siVt. 

Fire, 

abe. 

Day, 

lokaf. 

*  Kriisensteru's  Voyage,  ii.  p.  74. 


JAPANESE   ISLANDS.  49 


rbysical 

description 

oflciso. 


Tdwns  and 
I'diiMikablu 
places. 


piffbient 


The  isle  of  lesao  piesenls  on  all  sides  lofty  mountains  covered  with 
a  beautiful  verdure.  The  name  In-soo,  given  to  the  island,  according 
to  Broughtoii  expresses  this  circumstance;  the  first  syllable  signifynig /i/o//,  and  the 
second  green.  It  abounds  with  pines,  willows,  and  many  other  trees.  Tussilagos 
and  the  Kamtchatkan  lily  thrive  in  it,  showing  tiuit  the  clinuile  is  moist  and  cold. 
There  arc  several  creeping  plants.  The  reeds  have  the  same  enormous  size  as  at 
the  mouths  of  the  river  A  moor.  Among  the  cultivated  vegetable  species  of  which 
trials  have  been  made  by  the  Japanese,  millet,  pease,  and  beans  have  succeeded. 
The  animals  of  the  island  are  eagles,  three  sorts  of  falcons,  bears,  and  deer.  They 
take  the  bears  when  young,  give  them  to  their  women  to  suckle,  bring  [  Tame  btan. 
them  up  like  favourite  dogs  or  i)igs,  and,  when  grown  up,  contine  llicin  in  cages  till 
fat  enough  for  killing.  The  family  mourn  over  the  death,  yet  eat  the  body  of  the 
animal;  a  custom  which  reminds  us  of  the  Ostiaks.*  The  whales  come  to  the 
bays  and  river  mouths  in  ([uest  of  the  immense  swarms  of  nisiiig,  a  kind  of  sprats 
which  are  found  there.  iSalmon  ;dso  abounds  to  such  a  degree  that  they  may  be 
taken  with  the  hand.  The  sea-leech  is  caught  and  sold  to  the  Japanese.  Several 
of  the  fuci  are  used  ai^connnon  articles  of  food. 

Matsuinai,  or  "the  Town  of  the  Strait,"  (Matsi  being  the  word  fur 
a  strait;)  is  built  near  the  south  end  of  the  island.  It  is  a  Japanese  fort- 
ress, and  inaccessible  by  land.  The  other  military  posts  extend  along  the  west  all 
tho  way  to  the  northern  point.  In  coasting  the  western  shore  we  meet 
with  the  islands  of  Osima,  Kosima,  Okosiri,  Kiusiri,  (which  cunlains  the 
Pic  do  Langle  of  La  Perouse,!)  and  llefoonsiri.  The  large  gulf  which  extends  into 
the  country,  is  called  by  the  Russians  the  Gulf  of  Slrogonof.  The  last  station  on 
the  north  side  is  Notsjiab,  the  Notzamboo  or  Krusenstern..^  Soyea  is  on  a  bay 
farther  to  the  east.  On  the  north-west  coast  the  A'l'nos,  though  subject  to  Japan, 
live  by  themselves.  Atkis,  their  princi[)al  village,  is  on  the  north-cast  coast.  A 
Russian  oliicer,  Mr.  Laxmann,  visited  in  1792  the  harbour  of  Kimoro,  which  belongs 
to  it."^  Mr.  Tissingh's  manuscripts  contain  no  such  name  as  this  last;  but  Atkis 
is  indicated  under  that  of  Atskesi.  A  fulh  or  strait  which  has  received  no  name  sepa- 
rates the  isle  of  Icsso  from  that  of  Chicotan,  one  of  the  Kurile  islands,  claimed  by 
the  Japanese.  The  south-east  coast  has  been  surveyed  by  the  Dutch  and  by 
liroughton.  The  country  is  covered  with  magnilicent  forests.  Volcano  |  VokanoBay. 
13ay  is  a  circular  basin  of  a  very  picturesque  aj)pearance.  There  is  every  reason  to 
suspect  the  existence  of  a  volcano  in  a  state  of  activity  in  this  quarter,  although  it 
has  not  been  positively  ascertained.  The  Japanese  divide  this  island  into  six  dis- 
tricts, but  we  are  unacquainted  with  their  respective  limits. 

To  the  north  of  the  island  of  Mats\nnai,  the  long  island  of  Segiialien 
extends,  called  by  the  Japanese  Oku  Iesso,  or  the  upper  lesso,  some- 
times Kita  Iesso,  which  means  either  northern  Yesso,  or  the  Yesso  of  Kitay,  (China.) 
The  Amos,  according  to  our  Japanese  geographers,  call  it  KaraLo,  to  which  name 
the  Japanese  add  the  termination  sima,  signifying  island.  According  to 
Krusenstern,  the  name  given  to  it  by  the  natives  is  Saldan;  according 
to  La  Perouse,  Tchoka;  but  the  latter  appears  to  be  only  the  name  of  a  leading  vil- 
lage, which  is  written  Tchushin  on  M.  d'Anville's  map.  The  other  two  names  may 
probably  also  turn  out  to  be  local. 

.  La  Perouse,  who  visited  the  west  coast,  gives  a  very  lavourable  ac- 
count of  this  people,  taken  in  a  moral  point  of  view.  The  intelligence 
of  these  poor  islanders  struggles  against  a  severe  cliniate.  They  live  by  fishing  and 
hunting.  They  tattoo  their  persons,  and,  like  the  Aiuos  of  Iesso,  they  make  stuffs 
of  the  willow  bark.  Their  language  contains  some  Glcrman  an(J  some  Mantcboo 
terms.  A  boat  in  their  language  is  kahani,  in  German  Icahn.  The  word  ship  has 
exactly  the  same  meaning  with  them  as  in  English.  So  has  the  word  two,  as  pro- 
nounced by.  the  English.     At  Icsso  isoolsoob  is  the  word  for  the  number  two.     This 

•  See  Book  xxxviii.p.  4,  of  this  volume. 

I  Krusenstern's  VoyagCi  ii.  56.  t  Idem.  ii.  50. 

§  StorcW's  Russia  uader  Alexander  i.  fascic.  6.  (in  German.) 
Vol.  II.— G 


Scj;Ii»licn 
Island,  or  Oku 
Icsso. 


Ditfciciit 
iianio. 


Description  of 
(lie  iiilialM- 
laiits. 


60  BOOK  FORTV-FIRST 


Physical  des- 
cription of  the 
country. 


Remarkable 
localities. 


The  Little  Ku 
riles. 


island,  very  high  in  the  njiddle,  becomes  flat  towards  the  south  end,  where 
it  seems  to  have  an  arable  soil.  Vegetation  is  extremely  vigorous. 
Pines,  willows,  oaks,  and  birches,  are  the  principal  forest  trees.  The  surrounding 
sea  is  full  of  fish.  The  rivers  and  streams  abound  in  salmon  and  trout  of  the  best 
quality.  The  hills  are  covered  with  rose  trees,  with  angelica,  and  Kamtchatkan 
lilies.* 

Kursenstern  examined  Aniwa  bay  at  the  south  end  of  the  island.  Here 
the  Japanese  had  an  establishment,  which  the  Russians  have  destroyed; 
and  it  is  supposed  that  tire  latter  nation  mean  to  colonize  it.  The  whole  eastern 
coast,  examined  by  the  same  navigator,  presented  wooded  valleys,  behind  which 
mountains  covered  with  snow  seemed  to  lose  themselves  in  the  clouds. "j"  At  tlie 
61st  degree  of  latitude  the  ground  becomes  low,  and  nothing  is  to  be  seen  except 
sandy  downs  and  hills. J  The  south  part  is  inhabited  by  the  Ainos.  The  east  coast 
seems  to  be  an  uninhabited  desert;  the  north-west,  near  the  mouth  of  the  river 
Amoor,  is  occupied  by  a  colony  of  Mantchoos. 

Kuriie Islands.  |  On  the  noith-cast  of  the  isle  of  Icsso  a  chain  of  islands  extends  all 
the  way  to  the  south  point  of  Kamtchatka.  The  Russians  call  them  the  Kuhiles. 
They  reckon  twenty-two  of  them,  including  lesso.  The  inhabitants  of  this  last  isle 
reckon  thirty-six,  which  they  comprehend  under  the  name  of  Kooroo-Misi,  which  is 
probably  of  Japanese  etymology,  and  signifies  the  "  Road  of  Sea-weeds ;"  kooroo 
signifying  a  species  of  fucus,  and  railsi  a  road.  The  charts  in  Krusenstcrn's  voyage 
lay  down  only  twenty-six ;  the  others  will  be  discovered  when  the  eastern  shore  of 
lesso  is  better  explored.  D'Anvillc  lays  down  twenty-nine  to  the  north  of  Boussole 
channel,  and  thirty-four  in  all.  This  archipelago  is  naturally  divided  into  two  parts, 
the  chain  on  the  south  of  the  Boussole  channel,  and  that  on  the  north.  The  one 
which  is  nearest  lesso,  and  is  claimed  by  the  Japanese  government,  may  be  called 
the  Great  Kurilcs ;  and  the  other,  adjoining  to  Kamtchatka,  the  Little  Kurilcs. 

The  latter,  inhabited  by  Kamtchatdalcs  who  left  their  native  country 
on  the  approach  of  the  Russians,  present  nothing  but  a  chain  of  precipi- 
tous barren  rocks,  which  are  mostly  volcanic.  roromu-Shir§  is  the  largest.  Siunp- 
chu  shows  some  indications  of  silver  mines.  Ana-Kutan,  Arama-Kutan,  Syas-Ku- 
tan,||  and  several  others,  contain  extinguished  volcanoes.  That  of  Rashotka,  called 
Sarytchew  Peak  by  Krusenstern,  has  a  volcano  always  burning,  and  also  Ikarma. 
In  tJsi-Shir  there  are  Avarm  springs  issuing  with  violet  jets. 

The  Great  Kurilcs  promise  more  considerable  advantages  lo  intelli- 
gent colonists.  Tliat  of  Ooroop,  the  "  Company's  Island"  of  the  Dutch, 
the  Nadeshda  of  some  Russian  maps,  and  the  Ooroowoo  of  the  Japanese  manu- 
script leso-Ki,  has  pines  and  cherry  trees.  Here  begin  tlie  benrdcd  Kurilians  of  the 
race  of  the  Amos  of  lesso  and  Seghalien.  Etorpoo,  the  "  Slates  Island"  of  the 
Dutch,  and  the  Atorkoo  of  Krusenstcrn's  map,  contains  fine  forests,  which,  how- 
ever, are,  at  times  seriously  tlueatcned  by  an  adjoining  volcano  in  the  same  island. 
The  plains  and  mountains  of  Koona-Shir  are  covered  with  the  most  bcautifid  larches 
and  pines.  The  Pimis  ccmbra  tlirives  in  it.  It  was  probably  at  Chicotan  that  Stel- 
ler  and  Spangenberg  believed  they  saw  vines,  and  even  the  wild  citron  of  Japan. 
These  navigators  certainly  did  not  find  the  oak  and  the  walnut  except  on  the  coast 
of  lesso. 

Beniowski's  I  It  is  among  the  Great  Kurilcs  that  we  are  to  look  for  a  part  of  the 
discoveries.  |  alleged  discovcrics  of  Beniowski. IF  This  enthusiast  imagined  thnt  he 
saw  at  Koonasheer  considerable  towns.  There  was  a  j)carl  fishery  on  its  coast. 
His  Tchidgan-Idzon  island,  rich  in  copper,  and  Maanas-Idzon,  abounding  in  gold, 
are  no  more  to  be  found.  But  the  Japanese  geographers  point  out  in  the  isle  of  lesso 
a  district  called  Figasi,  and  a  village  called  Kawa,  which  are  evidently  the  isles  of 
Fiassi  and  Kawith  of  the  Polish  navigator.  His  accounts  of  silver  and  copper  mines, 

•  Voyage  de  M.  La  Perouse,  iv.  p.  73.  ill.  40,  43.  f  Krusenstern,  ii.  p.  92,  96, 144. 

i:  Idem.  p.  153. 

§  Shir  is  the  term  for  an  island  in  the  lanffuage  of  lesso. 

B  Kutan  is  from  A'otanff,  the  lessoic  term  foi-  a  country. 

t  See  his  Voyag'e  translated  by  Torstei",  i.  368. 


The  Great 
Kuriles. 


Empire  Of  Ja- 
pan. 


JAPANl-SE  ISLANDS.  51 

horses,  red  pearl  or  coral,  which  he  found  in  these  countries,  contain  nothing  incre- 
dible. In  giving  the  town  of  Matza  2000  houses  he  probably  exaggerates  ;  but  the 
town  exist>s,  and  is  called  Matzige.*  It  is  on  the  whole  rather  rashly  that  this  navi- 
gator has  been  charged  with  intentional  imposture. 

We  now  proceed  to  describe  a  country  more  frequently  treated  in 
detail  than  those  wc  have  just  examined.  The  three  islands  of  Niphon, 
Kiusiu,  and  Sikokf,  surrounded  with  a  multitude  of  smaller  islands,  form  the  king- 
dom, or  as  it  is  sometimes  called,  the  Empire  of  Japan.  The  Chinese  Different 
at  Hrst  called  it  Yang-hoo,  or  the  "  Workshop  of  the  Sun  ;"  then  they  "*'""• 
called  it  N00-K006,  or  "  the  Kingdom  of  Slaves  ;"  and  finally,  Je-pen,  or  Jepoon, 
"  Country  of  the  Rising  Sun."t  Marco  Polo  knew  it  under  the  corrupted  name  of 
Xipangu.  The  isle  of  Kiusiu  lias  from  north  to  south  a  diameter  of  nearly  two  de- 
grees, or  130  mdes,  and  its  greatest  length  is  about  220.  That  of  Sikokf  is  100 
miles  long,  and  65  broad.  The  large  island  of  Niphon  lies  south-west  and  north- 
oast  ;  its  length  is  not  less  than  1600  miles,  but  its  breadth  is  in  every  part  mode- 
rate. In  the  middle  it  is  not  more  than  160  miles,  though  in  two  places  between 
that  and  the  two  ends  it  may  be  the  double  of  this.  The  surface  of  the  Japanese 
states  may  be  reckoned  at  122,720  scpiarc  miles.  The  population  is  rated  at  between 
15  and  20  millions  by  the  most  moderate  authors.  This  regular  and  flourishing  state, 
at  the  further  extremity  of  Asia,  is  withdrawn  from  the  researches  of  travellers  by  the 
cautiousness  of  its  policy. 

The  whole  country  is  full  of  mountains  and  hills,  and  its  coasts  beset  |  Mountains, 
with  steep  rocks,  which  arc  opposed  to  the  waves  of  a  stormy  ocean.  The  plains 
are  pervaded  by  numerous  rivers  and  small  streams.  But  the  hills,  the  mountains, 
and  tlic  plains,  enriched  with  many  singular  plants,  present  the  interesting  picture 
of  human  industry  amidst  the  traces  of  the  revolutions  of  nature.  The  most  cele- 
brated mountain  of  Japan  is  that  of  Foosi,  Avhich  is  covered  with  snow  through  the 
whole  year.  In  the  neighbourhood  the  mountains  of  Faconi  surround  a  small  lake 
of  the  same  name.  J  Some  of  these  mountains  contain  volcanoes.  The  |  volcanoes, 
greater  part  of  them  abound  in  evergreen  trees  and  limpid  springs.  It  is  said  that 
there  is  near  Firando  an  island  entirely  volcanic ;  and  several  others  of  the  same 
kind  are  mentioned  in  the  surrounding  seas.§  In  the  province  of  Figo  there  is  a 
volcano  which  gives  out  many  flames. 

The  rivers  of  Japan  cannot  have  a  long  course.     The  Jedo-Gawa,  |  Rivers, 
which  passes  by  Osaka,  has  several  bridges  of  cedar  from  300  to  360   feet  long. 
The  Ojin-gawa||  and  the  Fusi-gawa   are  also  broad  and  ra|)id  rivers.     In  the  Japa- 
nese history  the  river  Oomi  is  mentioned  as  having  in  one  night  issued  out  of  the 
earth. 

One  of  the  largest  lakes  is  that  of  Oitz,  from  which  two  rivers  proceed,  |  Lakes, 
one  towards  Miaco,  and  the  other  to  Osaka.     This  lake  is  fifty  Japanese  leagues 
long,  each  league  being  as  much  as  a  horse  goes  in  an  hour  at  an  ordinary  pace;  its 
breadth  abouta  third.     The  delightful  plain  which  surrounds  it  is  rendered  sacred  by 
containing  3000  pagodas. 

These  islands  experience  by  turns  the  extremes  of  heat  and  cold 
The  summer  heat,  however,  is  frequently  alleviated  l)y  the  sea  breezes 
In  winter  the  north  and  north-west  winds  are  exceedingly  sharp,  and  bring  along  with 
them  an  intense  frost.  During  tlie  whole  year  the  weather  is  variable,  and  much 
rain  falls,  particularly  in  the  satsaki  or  rainy  month,  which  begins  at  midsummer. IT 
According  to  observations,  the  highest  degree  of  heat  at  Nagasaki  is  98°  in  the 
month  of  August,  and  the  greatest  cold  35"  in  January.  The  snow  lies  some  days 
on  the  ground  even  in  the  southern  parts.  Thtmder  is  heard  almost  every  night  in 
summer;  storms,  hurricanes,  and  earthqiiakes  are  very  frequent.  The  genial  rains 
conspire  with  human  labour  and  manure  to  overcome  the  natural  sterility  of  the  soil. 

*  Manuscript  Chart  of  Titsingb. 

f  Kaempfer's  History  of  Japan,  i.  73,74,  (German  edition.) 

i  Thunberg,  t.  iii.  p.  164,  (Langles's  translation.) 

^  Kaempfer,  t.  1.  p.  166,  (French  translation.) 

11  The  ^^/on^  ffnwa  signifies  river,  as  it  does  in  Celtic.        fl  Thimberp,  t,  iii.  p.  234 


Climate  and 
seasons. 


52 


BOOK  >'ORTY-FIl{ST. 


Agiiciiituiv      I       Tlie  laws  enjoin  agriculture  as  one  of  ihe  rigorous  duties  of  the  Ja- 
panese.     Every  spot  is  lanler  cultivation,  with  the  exception  of  the  most  impracti- 
cable mountains.     Exempt  from  all  feudal  and  ecclesiastical  exactions,  the  tarmer 
cultivates  the  land  with  zeal  and  success.*     There  are  no  commons.     If  a  piece  of 
land  lies  without  culture,  a  neighbouring  farm.er  who  is  more  active  is  at  liberty  to 
take   possession   of  it.     There   are  no  grass  meadows ;  but  the  attention   paid   to 
manure  is  very  great.     On  the  sides  of  steep  hills  stone  walls  are  raised  Mhich  sustain 
plots  of  ground  sown  with  rice  or  with  pYilse.     Rice  is  the  principal  grain.     Buck- 
wheat, rye,  barley,  and   wheat,    are  rarely  produced;!  potatoe3  are  of  inditlerent 
quality;  but  various  sorts  of  beans,  pease,  turnips,  and  cabbage  succeed  well.    The 
rice  is  sown  in  April,  and  reaped  in  November.     In  this  last  month  wheat  is  sown 
to  be  cropped  in  the  following  June.     Barley  also  lies  in  the  ground  during  winter. 
Vegetables.      |       The  plants  of  Japan  very  much  resemble  those  of  China,  which  is 
probably  owing  to  a  nuitual  interchange  of  the  most  useful  species.     The  tea  shrub 
grows  without  culture  in  the  hedges.  The  most  "superb  bamboos  abound  in  all  the  low 
grounds  ;  ginger,  black  pepper,  sugar,  cotton,  and  indigo,  though  perhaps  originally 
from  the  southern  parts  of  Asia,  are  cidtivatcd  in  Japan  with  great  success  and  in 
Forest  trees.     |  large  cpiantity.     In  the  interior  the   sides  of  the  secondary  mountains 
produce  the  Indian  and  the  camphor  laurel  ;  likewise  the  Rims  vernix,  the  bark  of 
which  yields  a  gum  resin  which  is  regarded  as  the  leading  ingredient  of  the  inimita- 
ble black  Indian  varnish.      Besides  the  sweet  China  orange,  there  is  a  wild  species 
peculiar  to  Japan,  the  fruit  of  the   Cifrns.  Japonica.     The   European  vegetation  is 
mingled  M'ith  that  of  southern  Asia.     The  larch,  the  cypress,  and  the  weeping  wil- 
low, which  make  their  appearance  in  all  the  temperate  countries  between  Japan  and 
the  Mediterranean,  terminate  here.     The  case  is  similar  with  the  Papovcr  somnifc- 
rum,  or  opium-bearing  poppy,  the  Convolvulus  Jalappa,  and  lilac. 
Fruit  trees.      |       The  Japanese  have  none  of  our  apples,  but  they  have  pears  of  con- 
siderable size  ;   Siam  oranges,  Kaki  figs,  or  Japanese  dale-plums,  {Diospyros  knki,) 
and  large  common  oranges.     They  have  the  art  of  making  sweet-meats,  and  pre- 
serving a  variety  of  fruits,  such  as  strawberries  and  cocoa-nuts,  with  the  assistance 
of  banana  spice.     They  procure  oil  for  cookery  as  well  as  for  light  from  sesamum, 
from  tlie  sumachs,  from  the  Ta.riis  <^T)io-/.o,  from  the  Laurns  camphoro,  the  Lmtriis 
glaiica,  the  .Melia  asedararh  or  common  bead  tree,  and  the  cocoa-nut.     They  raise 
a  great  abundance  of  silk  worms.     The  cotton  tree  furnishes  them  with  a  light  na- 
pery,  and  the  Uriica  nivia,  with  durable  cordage  ;  they  make  paper  and  fans  of  the 
bark  of  a  species  of  mulberry,  of  the  Licual,  and  the  Bovassus  jlabeUlformis ;  bot- 
tles of  the  calabash,  combs  of  the  JVTyrica  nagi,  and  all  sorts  of  furniture  o( Lindera, 
different  species   of  pine,  box  wood,  cvpress,  and  the   Taonis  macrophijUa,  or  long- 
leaved  ycvf.   The  eye  is  delighted  with  the  mixture  of  cocoa  trees,  fan-leaved  palms, 
cycas,  and  arborescent  mimosas,  which  adorn  the  sea  beach.     The  hedges  by  which 
the  possessions   are  divided    are   composed   of    Lycium  Japonicum,  three-leaved 
oranges,  Gardenias,  Vihunmms,  and  Thuyas,  besides  several  twining  plants  of  which 
they  make  arbours  and  covered   walks.     Several  plants  useful  in  medicine  are  also 
found  here,  such  as  the  Convallaria  Japonica,  Acorus  aromaiicus,  Smilax  China,  in 
the  virtues  of  which  they  were  instructed  by  the  Swedish  traveller  Thunbcrg  ;  the 
Corchorus  Japonirus,  the  Lanriis  camphora,  the  moxasrrprniaria,  and  mungo  root. 
The  maxims  of  Japanese  industry  have  almost  banished  from  the  em- 
pire two  domestic  animals,  which  in  all  other  coimtries  arc  the  most 
common,  goats  and  sheep.     The  first  are  deemed   hurtful  to  agriculture,  and   the 
wool  of  the  second  is  superceded  by  cotton  and  silk ;  pigs  arc  also   proscribed  as 
pernicious  to  agriculture.    The  neighbomhood  of  Nangasaki  is  the  only  place  where 
any  are  to  be  seen,  and  they  have  probably  been  introduced  by  the  Chinese. [J!     The 
islands  produce  on  the  whole  but  few  quadrupeds.     In  Thunbcrg's  opinion,  one  pro- 
vince of  Sweden  contained  as  many  or  more  horses  than  the  whole  empire  of  Japan; 
there  are  very  few  cattle  ;  a  variety  of  the  buffalo,  with  a  hump  on  the  back,  is  em- 


Ooraestic  ani- 
raaU. 


•  Idem,  t.  iv,  p.  80,  &.c. 
+  Thunberg,  iv.  p.  95. 


t  Kxmpfer,  \.  120,  etc.  (in  German.) 


JAPANESE  ISLANDS.  53 

ployed  in  agriculture,  and  very  small  oxen  ;  yet  the  caprice  or  personal  taste  of  the 
sovereign  has  created  a  law  of  the  state  in  favour  of  dogs,  which  are  fed  at  the  ex- 
jjense  of  the  towns,  and  are  treated  with  much  kindness  and  respect.  The  principal 
tbod  of  the  Japanese  consists  of  fish  and  vegetables.  Fowls  and  ducks  I  Food  of  the 
are  kept  chiefly  for  the  sake  of  their  eggs ;  to  these  are  added  many  |  •'^I'^neie. 
sorts  of  marine  plants,  Fuci  and  UlvcCy  which  are  made  ready  in  different  ways. 
Game  is  not  plenty ;  there  are  wild  geese,  pheasants  and  partridges,  but  very  few 
wild  quadrupeds.  The  bear  met  with  in  the  northern  parts  is  black,  with  ]  wild  nnimgi*. 
two  white  blotches  of  a  crescent  form  on  the  shoulders  ;  the  flesh,  which  is  eaten, 
is  compared  to  mutton,  but  is  tougher.  The  wolf  is  sometimes  seen  in  the  northern 
provinces  ;  there  are  also  some  foxes  ;  the  latter  are  held  in  universal  detestation, 
and  considered  as  evil  spirits  clothed  with  an  animal  body. 

The  precious  metals,  gold  and  silver,  abound  in  the  empire  of  Japan.  |  Metals. 
This  was  well  known  at  one  time  to  the  Portuguese,  and  afterwards  to  the  Dutch, 
Avho  exported  considerable  cargoes.    Gold  is  found  almost  every  where;  but,  in  order 
to  keep  up  its  value  by  its  scarcity,  there  is  a  prohibition  against  digging  beyond  a 
determinate  depth  -,  and  no  mine  can  be  opened  or  worked  without  the  express  per- 
mission of  the  emperor,  who  claims  two-thirds  of  the  produce,  leaving  a  third  to  the 
proprietor  of  the  land.     Gold  is  found  in  small  quantities  in  the  sand,  |  Gold  mines, 
but  the  greater  part  of  it  is  extracted  from  copper  pyrites.     The  purest  and  richest 
mines  are  at  Sado,  in  the  largest  of  the  small  islands  adjoining  Niphon;  those  of  Su- 
remga  hold  the  next  rank.     Silver  seems  to  have  been  at  one  time  more  abundant; 
the  Japanese  consider  it  as  rarer  than  gold,  though  here,  as  every  w-here  else,  it  is 
of  inferior  value  in  exchange.     It  is  said  that  there  are  rich  silver  mines  in  the  pro- 
vince of  Bungo,  and  the  most  northerly  parts  near  Kattami;  but  the  two  islands  called 
the  Gold  and  Silver  Islands  (Ginsima  and  Kinsima,)  are  probably  fabu-     isiandsofGoid 
lous  creations  of  national  vanity,  unless  we  should  suppose  them  to  be     ""*^  ^''''''''" 
indications  of  some- ancient  commercial  connection  with  Mexico,  or  imitations  of  the 
tales  of  Ptolemy  on  the  regio  mtrea  et  regio  argentca. 

Copper,  mixed  largely  with  gold,  forms  the  chief  wealth  of  several  pro-  |  copper  minet. 
vinces,  and  the  most  Aaluable  of  their  exports.  The  finest  and  most  malleable  comes 
from  Saruga,  Astmga,  Kino,  and  Kuni;  the  last  is  considered  as  the  most  malleable; 
that  of  Saruga  contains  the  largest  proportion  of  gold.  There  is  a  great  number  of 
copper  mines  also  in  Satsuma.  Iron  seems  to  be  rarer  in  this  country  |  or  iron, 
than  any  other  metal;  but  it  is  found  in  the  provinces  of  Mimasalla,  Bitsju,  and  Bisen; 
the  Japanese  do  not  make  so  much  use  of  it  as  most  other  nations ;  they  sometimes 
employ  it  in  the  manufacture  of  arms,  of  knives,  scissars,  and  other  necessary  instru- 
ments.    The  gold  and  copper  are  coined  into  money. 

Mr.  Thunbcrg  received  some  amber  in  a  present,  brown,  yellow,  and  |  Minerals, 
iridescent,  which  was  said  to  have  been  found  in  the  country ;  sulphur  is  found  in 
great  abundance,*  and  pumice-stone,  showing  the  former  existence  of  volcanoes. 
We  are  informed  that  mineral  coal  is  found  in  the  northern  provinces ;  there  are  red 
agates  with  white  veins,  which  are  used  for  making  buttons  and  snuff-boxes. t  Ac- 
cording to  Kaimpfer,  calamine  is  imported  from  Tonquin,  but  tin  is  found  in  tlie  pro- 
vince of  Bungo;  perhaps  this  pretended  tin  is  only  the  white  copper  of  China.  A 
reddish-coloured  naphtha  is  employed  for  burning.  Thunberg  saw  asbestos,  porce- 
lain-earth, and  white  marble.  J  Sulphuret  of  mercury  in  its  primitive  crystalline  form, 
and  in  lamellatcd  masses,  has  been  brought  from  Japan.  Baron  Wurmb,  a  German 
savant  settled  in  Batavia,  received  from  Japan,  asbestos,  capillary  scliorl,  hydrophane, 
and  the  atmospheric  stones  formerly  called  thunderstoncs,  denominated  in  Japan  ka- 
minarij  sakki.^  There  are  several  warm  mineral  springs,  to  which  the  inhabitants 
resort  for  various  diseases.  |j 

The  empire  is  divided  into  about  sixty-two  principalities,  ruled  by  chiefs,  who  are 
vassals  of  the  emperor  or  Ktibo. 

*  Thunberg,  t.  iv.  p.  402.  f  Ksmpfer,  i.  p.  121, 122,  (in  German.) 

i  Thnnberg,  iii.  p.  203. 

§  Verhandeliger  van  C.  Batavlaasch  Geuootschaap,  v.  566, 

a  Kacmpfer,  i.  p,  167,  (French.) 


54  IJOOK  FOnTY'FIRSl*. 

Towns,  I       The  capital  of  the  empue  of  Japan  is  called  ledo,  and  is  situated  in  a 

bay  on  the  coast  of  Niphon.  The  houses  are  only  one  or  two  stories  higli,  with  shops 
in  front.  The  harbour  of  this  place  is  so  shallow  that  a  European  vessel  is  obliged 
to  anchor  thirteen  or  fourteen  miles  off  from  the  shore.  The  Emperor's  palace  is 
surrounded  with  stone  Malls,  and  ditches  with  drawbridges.  It  would  form  of  itself 
a  considerable  town,  being  about  fifteen  miles  round,*  while  the  whole  city  is  nearly 
sixty. I  It  is  the  residence  of  all  the  feudatory  princes  for  one  half  of  the  year. 
Their  families,  or  part  of  them,  are  always  kept  there  as  a  sort  of  hostages  for  their 
fidelity.  The  palace  consists  of  a  great  number  of  apartments,  and  occupies  an  im- 
mense space.  The  hall  of  a  hundred  mats  is  600  feet  long  and  300  wide.  The 
palace  has  a  square  tower,  which  is  peculiarly  sacred,  as  representing  royal  strength 
and  security.  None  of  the  grandees  are  allowed  to  enter  it;  and  each  one  of  them 
enjoys  a  similar  prerogative  in  his  own  territory.  The  roofs  arc  adorned  with  gilt 
dragons ;  the  columns  and  ceilings  exhibit  an  elegant  display  of  cedar,  camphor- 
wood,  and  other  valuable  kinds  of  timber;  but  the  whole  furniture  consists  of  white 
mats  adorned  witli  golden  fringes. 

rrWate  '^^^^  houses  of  private  individuals  are  of  wood,  painted  white  so  as  to 

houses.  have  the  appearance  of  stone;  the  upper  story  serves  as  a  wardrobe  and 

store-room;  the  ground  floor  is  in  one  large  apartment,  divisible  at  pleasure  into 
smaller  portions  by  moveable  partitions ;  neither  chairs  nor  tables  are  used,  mats  being 
the  only  seats ;  the  emperor  himself,  when  he  gives  an  audience  to  any  of  his  sub- 
jects, is  seated  on  a  carpet. 

Other  towns.  |  Going  nortli-cast  from  ledo,  we  find  two  of  the  principal  towns,  Ga- 
sima  and  Namboo.  In  a  south-west  direction  we  have  the  town  of  Odowara,  where 
catechu,  erroneously  called  Japan  earth,  is  prepared ;  Okosaki,  with  its  magnificent 
bridge;  and  Kerma,  one  of  the  wealthiest  in  the  empire,  where  there  is  a  strong 
castle  surrounded  with  water.  It  is  the  capital  of  the  fertile  province  of  Owari,  which 
gives  its  name  to  a  bay. 

Miaco.  I       Miaco,  the  second  city  of  the  empire,  is  in  an  inland  situation,  in  a 

level  plain  150  miles  south-west  of  ledo.  It  is  the  principal  seat  of  manufactures 
and  trade.  There  the  royal  coin  is  struck.  It  is  the  seat  of  the  chief  priest  of  Du'iri 
with  his  court  of  literati,  and  the  place  where  all  the  books  are  printed.  Kasmpfer 
informs  us  that,  according  to  a  census  taken  in  1674,  the  population  of  this  place 
amounted  to  405,642  persons,  of  whom  182,070  were  males,  and  223,572  females, 
independently  of  the  numerous  court  of  the  Dairi.|  The  vast  palace  of  this  Japanese 
Pope  is  inaccessible  to  strangers ;  but  the  temples  of  the  holy  city  have  been  visited 
and  described.  That  of  Daiboots  is  the  richest  building  in  Japan,  though 
only  of  wood.  The  gilt  image  of  the  divinity,  sitting  on  a  flower  like 
the  Hindoo  idols,  is  twenty-five  feet  broad  between  the  shoulders,  and  capable  of 
containing  several  persons  in  the  palm  of  his  hand.  The  pyramidal  roofs  of  the 
temples  and  palaces  harmonize  agreeably  with  the  wooded  hills  surrounding  the  city, 
and  from  which  several  limpid  rills  flow.§ 

The  five  provinces  adjoining  to  Miaco,  reserved  for  the  maintenance 
of  the  imperial  court,  arc  comprehended  under  the  name  of  Gokinai: 
they  abound  in  rice  and  pulse.  In  one  of  them,  called  Sitz  or  Sidsjow,  we  find  the 
important  city  of  Osacca,  the  port  of  Miaco,  and  one  of  the  most  flourishing  cities  of 
the  empire.  The  canals  by  which  it  is  intersected,  and  which  are  crossed  by  bridges 
of  cedar,  remind  us  of  Venice.  The  pleasures  which  predominate  here,  together 
with  the  great  abundance  and  easy  price  of  provisions,  attract  a  great  many  who  are 
in  quest  of  voluptuous  indulgence.  ||  Fiogo  in  the  same  province,  on  the  Gulf  of 
Osacca,  possesses  a  harbour  protected  by  a  very  large  mole.  Moo  too,  in  the  pro- 
vince of  Farima,  is  furnished  with  a  natural  harbour.  Horses'  hides  arc  manufactured 
into  leather  at  this  place  in  the  manner  of  the  Russians. 

The  towns  on  the  northern  and  western  coasts  of  the  island  of  Niphon  are  only 
known  to  us  by  name.     The  case  is  the  same  with  those  of  the  whole  island  of 

•  Thunberg,  iv.  p.  54.  t  Ksmpfer,  ii.  2M,  344.  +  Kxmpfer,  ii.  247. 

§  Ksempfer,  ii.  234,  305,  339,  &c.  J  Ksmpfer,  ii,  223. 


Temple  of 
Daiboots. 


The  Gokinai 
provinces. 


Different 
towns. 


JAPANESE  ISLANDS.  55 

Sikokf,  which  have  not  been  visited  by  travellers.  In  the  island  of  Kiusiu,  wc  dis- 
tinguish the  famous  harbour  of  Nani^asaki,  the  only  one  in  which  foreign  vessels  arc 
allowed  to  anchor,  this  privilege  itself  being  at  present  confined  to  the  Dutch  and  Chi- 
nese. This  place  was  formerly  nothing  more  than  a  village,  and  is  indebted  to  the 
Portuguese  conunerce  for  its  prosperity  and  importance.  Nangasaki  contains  eighty- 
seven  streets,  each  130  yards  long,  which  is  the  length  legally  assigned  to  a  street ; 
the  houses  therefore  may  be  reckoned  at  a  thousand.  When  approaclied  by  sea,  this 
city  presents  views  which  would  be  sought  for  in  \^in  in  the  most  celebrated  of  our 
picturesque  gardens.  A  rock  238  paces  long  is  the  only  place  in  which  the  Dutch 
merchants  are  allowed  to  reside,  where  they  live  in  a  state  of  seclusion  and  solitude 
worse  than  monkish,  immersed  in  a  total  ignorance  of  the  whole  world  beside. 

The  isle  of  Kiusiu  or  of  Saikokf,  which  once  formed  a  separate  king- 
dom,* still  contains  the  following  large  towns  :  Sanga,  celebrated  for 
beautiful  women,  and  a  manufacture  of  almost  transparent  porcelain  ;  Kokura,  the 
place  from  which  people  pass  to  Simonoseki  in  the  isle  of  Niphon ;  and  Cangoxima, 
where  the  Portuguese  landed  when  they  first  discovered  this  country.  The  islands 
of  Firando  and  Amakusa  had  great  celebrity  at  that  epoch,  from  being  the  first  seats 
of  the  Christian  religion.  The  isle  of  Tsusima,  between  Kiusiu  and  Corea,  forms 
a  principality  which  was  tributary  to  the  Coreans  before  it  became  subject  to  tlic  Ja- 
panese.    The  archipelago  of  Gotto  terminates  Japan  on  the  south-west. 

To  the  south,  the  island  of  Likeo,  which  we  must  not  confound  with  the  islands 
of  Lieu-kieu,  is  sei)aratcd  from  Kiusiu  by  a  narrow  strait.  It  is  governed  by  a  dal'ri 
or  native  pontiff",  wlio  is  a  vassal  to  the  prince  of  Satsuma.  The  inhubitaiits  raise 
two  crops  of  rice  in  the  year.  Tliey  cultivate  their  fields  to  the  music  of  songs  ac- 
companied by  the  lyre.  It  is  separated  by  Van  Diemen's  Strait  from  the  island  of 
Tanao-sima,  and  a  chain  of  smaller  islands,  extending  in  the  direction  of  the  archi- 
pelago of  Lieu-kieu. 

To  the  south-east  the  Japanese  empire  includes  a  small  archipelago,  conlaining  a 
burning  volcano,  and  traces  of  several  subterraneous  fires  now  extinguished.  Tlie 
most  considerable  island  is  called  Fatsisio,  which  is  500  feet  high,j"  and  steep  on  all 
sides  ;  so  that  it  is  only  accessible  by  means  of  steps  of  ropes  fixed  to  the  tops  of 
the  rocks.  Here  it  is  said  that  loose  women  who  have  been  disgraced 
and  exiled,  weave  silk  stuffs,  according  to  strange  designs  dictated  by  a 
devious  imagination. 

The  Japanese  are  well  formed,  free  and  easy  in  their  gestures,  of  a  |  ihe Japanese, 
hardy  constitution,  and  of  middling  stature.  Their  yellow  complexion  scnnetimes 
inclines  to  brown,  and  at  others  passes  into  a  pale  white.  The  women  of 
distinction,  seldom  exposing  themselves  to  the  air  without  a  veil,  pre- 
serve complexions  equally  fair  with  those  of  our  European  ladies.  It  is  by  a  pecu- 
liarity in  the  eyes  that  the  Japanese  are  chiefly  distinguished.  They  are  |  i  I'cir  eyes, 
farther  from  a  round  shape  than  in  any  other  people  :  oblong,  small,  and  sunk,  as  il" 
constantly  winking.  Their  eyelids  form  a  deeper  furrow,  and  their  eyebrows  are 
placed  a  little  higher  than  wc  generally  laid  them  in  other  nations.  Tlu^y  have  for 
the  most  part  large  heads,  short  necks,  broad  snubby  noses,  and  the  hair  black,  thick, 
and  glossy  from  being  habitually  anointed. 

In  these  physical  characters  we  may  perhaps  trace  a  mixture  of  a  |  Thea- origin, 
Chinese  with  a  Mongolian  or  Mantchoorian  race. J  The  Japanese  Iiistorv,  aflei- 
describing  a  series  of  gods  and  demigods,  says  that  the  nation  owed  the  first  steps  of 
its  civilization  to  a  Chinese  colony.  Their  annals  go  back  to  a  Chinese  monarch 
called  Sin-Moosa.  They  represent  him  with  the  head  of  a  bull,  because  he  tauf^ht 
them  agriculture  and  the  management  of  cattle.  But  the  language  of  |  Language, 
the  Japanese,  a  more  authentic  document,  gives  no  evidence  of  any  forei"n  extrac- 
tion of  these  islanders.  It  contains  few  Chinese  terms.  It  has  no  resemblance  to 
that  of  Mantchooria,  of  Icsso,  or  the  Kurilo  islands.     The  resemblances  said  to 

•   Kacnipfcr,  ii.  p.  6,  201. 

f  Fdtm'  sig-nilics  ten,  anil  xjo  eifjht  in  tlic  Japanese  language. 

+  De  Guigncs,  llistoire  des  Huns.  Oallerer,  Manuel  d'llist.   Uniy.  part  2d.  vol.  i.  p.  441. 
Kasmpfer,  1.  87,  88. 


'Ihe  isle  I'al- 
sisiu. 


riiysical  con- 
stilutiun. 


Historical 
■Epochs. 


56  BOOK  FOHTY-FIKST. 

have  been  fbmul  by  a  learned  person  betvreen  the  Japanese  and  Tartai  languages 
have  long  remained  without  confirmation.*  The  Jajjanese  words  are  not  monosyl- 
labic like  the  Chinese  ;  the  conjugations  and  the  syntax  hare  a  distinct  and  original 
character.f  The  Japanese  or  Yomi  language,  is  employed  in  poetry  and  conversa- 
tion. The  bonzes  write  their  theological  books  in  Chinese,  which  is  to  them  what 
Latin  is  to  us. 

If  it  is  said  that  the  indigenous  Japanese  have  been  subjugated  by  a  tribe  of  Mon- 
gols or  Mantchoos,  who  adopted  the  language  of  the  conquered,  at  what  epoch  are 
we  to  fix  such  an  invasion  ?  The  sacred  era  of  the  Japanese  goes  back 
to  the  establishment  of  the  hereditary  succession  of  the  dairies,  or  eccle- 
siastical emperors,  which  was  660  years  before  the  Christian  era.  This  dynasty  re- 
tained its  power  till  the  year  1585  of  our  vulgar  era.  In  this  interval  two  invasions 
had  been  repelled,  that  of  the  Mantchoos  in  799,  the  accounts  of  which  are  accom- 
panied with  many  fables.  In  1281,  the  Mongols,  under  Mangoo  Khan,  having  con- 
quered China  fourteen  years  before,  attempted  to  take  possession  of  Japan.  The 
learned  Amiot  has  given  us,  in  a  work  translated  from  the  Chinese,  j  the  history  of 
that  expedition  according  to  the  Chinese  authors.  In  this  history,  the  Chinese  army,, 
joined  to  that  of  the  Corcans,  amounted  to  100,000.  The  Coreans  furnished  900 
ships  of  war;  but  that  great  armada  was  dispersed  in  a  dreadful  storm:  an  event 
which  the  Japanese  attributed  to  the  protecting  care  of  their  gods.  All  tlic  acqui- 
sitions which  the  population  of  Japan  could  have  received  from  the  continent  of 
Asia  are  confined  to  some  colonies  of  Chinese  and  Corean  emigrants. 
Conclusion.  |  Tiic  Japanese  are  probably,  like  all  the  principal  nations  of  the  world, 
so  far  aboriginal  that  their  origin  is  beyond  the  reach  of  history.  If  they  came  from 
the  continent,  they  must  have  left  it  previously  to  the  formation  of  the  present  lan- 
guages. They  have  some  obscure  accounts  that  besides  their  race  there  were  otiier 
two  in  the  same  island  of  Niphon,  the  J\Iosins  or  hairy  Kurilians  in  the  north,  and 
a  nation  of  negroes  in  the  south.  Perhaps  the  latter  were  the  liaraforas  of  the 
Philippine  islands.  Many  other  primitive  races  may  have  shone  in  their  day,  and, 
unknown  to  the  rest  of  the  world,  become  extinct. 

aovernnicnt.  |  In  the  year  1128,  the  dairi  or  emperor-pontilf,  who  is  descended  I'rom- 
the  national  gods,  was  weak  enough  to  appoint  a  military  chief  called  the  kuho  or 
(zioo2;oo)i.  The  power  of  this  great  functionary,  consolidated  by  hereditary  suc- 
cession, grew  by  victories  and  by  intrigues,  till  in  1585  the  kul)o  deprived  the  dairi 
of  the  last  semblance  of  political  authority.  Ever  since  this  revolution,  the  govern- 
ment of  Japan  may  be  considered  as  an  absolute  and  hereditary  monarchy,  supported 
by  a  great  number  of  subordinate  hereditary  princes,  also  absolute,  whose  submission 
to  the  supreme  power  is  secured  by  their  reciprocal  jealousies  and  the  hostagets 
which  they  give.  Each  prince  arranges  the  revenue  of  his  own  fief  or  government. 
By  them  he  defrays  the  expenses  of  his  court,  maintains  a  military  force,  repairs  the 
highways,  and  contributes  to  the  general  expenditure  of  tlie  state.  The  daimios  or 
princes  of  the  first  degree,  and  the  siomios  who  are  their  inferiors  in  rank,  possess  a 
dignity  which  is  hereditary.  The  siomios  are  not  only  obliged  to  leave  their  families 
in  the  capital,  but  also  to  reside  there  six  months  in  the  year. 

Civil  laws.  1  Travellers  admire  the  Japanese  laws.  Ka-mpfer  gives  them  the  pre- 
ference over  those  of  Europe.  Justice  is  administered  in  the  most  expeditious 
manner.  Tiie  parties  appear  in  person  before  the  judge,  who  passes  his  sentence 
without  delay.  But  this  traveller  gives  no  account  of  any  legal  code.  He  also 
reduces  the  value  of  his  authority,  by  insisting  on  tlie  pretended  advantage  arising 
from  the  law  by  which  the  visits  of  foreigners  arc  prohibited,  and  no  Japanese  is 
allowed  under  pain  of  death  to  leave  his  country.  According  to  Thunberg,  the  laws 
of  this  country  are  few,  but  executed  with  the  utmost  rigour  and  without  respect  of 
persons ;  only  that  the  rich,  when  found  guilty,  are  allowed  to  get  off  by  paying  pe- 

•  Bayer,  Thesaur,  cpist.  La  Croz.  i.  54. 

f  Thunberg,  Observationes  in  linguam  Japonic&m,  in  Nov.  Act.  Upsal.  i792,  v.  p. 258273. 
llervas,  Catalago  de  las  Icnguas,  ii.  64. 

*  An  Introduction  to  the  History  of  the  Nations  tributary  to  China,  coinppsed  by  order  of*" 
the  Emperor  Kang-Hi.  My.  in  the  Imperial  Library. 


Harlmioiis 
liuiiialiiiK'nts. 


JAPANESR  ISLANDS.  57 

ciuiiary  fines.*     Delinquencios  of  little  inagnitude  are  puiiislicil  wiili  tlealli^  but  the 
sentence  must  be  .signed  I)y  the  emperor's  privy  council.     The  moral  education  of 
children  being  a  i)olitical  duty,  parents  are   rendered  accountable  ibr  tlie  crimes  of 
those  whose  early  vices  they  ought  to  have  repressed.     The  police  is  vigilant.    Not 
oidy  is  there  in  each  town   a  chief  magistrate  of  police  called  the  nhnban;  but  the 
inhabitants  of  each  street,  being  accountable  in  a  body  for  the  oflcnees  committed  by 
any  one  of  their  number,  nominate  a  commissioner  who  watches  over  the  safety  of  lives 
^   and  properties.    In  each  village  there  is  a  place  surrounded  witli  palisades,  containing 
'     in  the  middle  an  inscription  in  large  characters,  consisting  of  a  code  of  police  regu- 
lations.!    It  must  however  be  confessed  that  Varenius,  a  well  informed  Dutch 
writer,  gives  a  less  favourable  idea  of  the  laws  of  Japan.     The  punish- 
ments in  the  seventeenth  century  were  marked  with  the  utmost  cruelty. 
To  hack  the  criminal  to  pieces,  to  open  iiis  belly  with  a  knife,  to  suspend  hini  with 
iron  hooks  lixed  in  his  sides,  or  to  throw  him  into  boiling  oil,  were  common  modes 
of  punishment.     The   great  were  allowed  the  privilege  of  rip[)ing  up  their  bowels 
with  their  own  hands. |     Valentine  also  describes  the  legislation  of  Japan  as  fero- 
cious and  sanguinary.     When  we  are  told  that  crimes  are  rare  in  this  country,  we 
are  not  to  infer  that  the  laws  must  be  excellent.     How  can  it  be  otherwise  in  a 
country  where  every  citizen  is  responsible  for  the  oflences  of  his  ncighliour;  and 
where  families  and  entire  villages  are  visited  with  the  extremity  of  punishment  for 
the  fault  of  an  individual?  Such  institutions,  if  they  lessen  the  number  of  crimes, 
deprive  innocence  of  its  tranquiUity,  and  society  of  its  enjoyments.     Would  it  not  be 
better  to  run  the  risk  of  being  robbed  once  or  twice  in  one's  life,  than  to  be  every 
moment  in  dread  of  having  one's  bowels  laid  open  to  atone  for  robberies  committed 
by  our  neighbours?  All  that  can  be  said  in  its  favour  is,  that  such  terrible  restraints 
may  be  rendered  necessary  by  the  degraded  condition  of  human  nature.   But  allowing 
the  standard  of  private  morals  to  be  the  lowest  that  can  be  imagined,  it  is  a  mistaken 
notion  to  suppose  that  the  eflicacy  of  the  laws  is  in  proportion  to  their  atrocity. 
^Thc  accountableness  of  a  portion  of  the  community  for  crimes  which  the  united 
vigilance  of  that  portion  is  capable  of  preventing,  is  to  a  certain   extent  wise  and 
politic,  but  it  ought  not  to  go  beyond  pecuniary  fines;  and  it  is  only  just  where  (hose 
who  arc  liable  in  such  payments  have  the  exclusive  management  of  the   jirevention 
of  the  crimes.     Cruelties  to  those  who  have  forfeited  their  lives'  are  in  all  cases  to 
be  avoided;   and  when  practised  towards  individuals  who  are  not  the  actual  oflcnders, 
they  are  sure  symptoms  of  a  hideous  barbarism,  which  imagines  that  the  abuse*  of 
the  members  of  the  community  is  the  best  method  of  insuring  a  due  reverence  for 
the  laws. 

The  accounts  of  travellers  concur  in  assigning  to  Japan  a  prodigious  (  Population, 
population.  Even  the  mountains,  of  which  the  country  chiefly  consists,  ar?  turned 
to  the  best  account  by  industrious  cultivators;  and  the  Tokaidn,  the  principal  of  the 
seven  great  roads  of  Japan,  is  sometimes  as  much  crowded  with  travellers  as  the 
streets  of  any  European  capital  are  with  passengers.^  Varenius,  following  the  best 
authorities,  II  reckons  the  number  of  troops  kept  by  the  princes  and  go-  |  Army, 
vernors  at  368,000  infantry,  and  38,000  cavalry;  and  according  to  the  same  author, 
the  Kubo  or  emperor  has  an  army  of  his  own,  amounting  to  100,000  infantry,  and 
20,000  cavalry;  making  in  all  468,000  infantry,  and  58,000  cavalry.  if  this 
statement  is  correct,  we  may  reckon  the  population  at  twenty  or  thirty  millions  of 
souls. 

The  navy  of  the  Japanese  is  not  worth  mentioning.  Their  vessels 
arc  flat  in  the  stern,  and  incapable  of  withstanding  the  waves  of  a  heavy 
sea;  and,  though  the  mariner's  compass  is  used  among  them  as  well  as  among  the 
Chinese,  they  are  very  awkward  and  ignorant  sailors.  It  is  indeed  hardly  conceiva- 
ble how  they  could  attempt  in  former  times  to  keep  up  an  intercourse  with  Formosa, 


Navy   and  na- 
vigation. 


o 


*  'I'hunberp:,  t.  iv.  64.  t  Thunberg,  iv.  T. 

i  See  the  plates  of  the  work  entitled  "  Ambas.sades  des  Hollandais  au  Japon." 

§  Thunberj^,  t.  ii,  o45.  iii.  p.  282  and  318. 

3  Varenius's  Description  of  Japan,  c.  ix. 

Vol.  II.— H 


Native  wor- 
ship. 


58  BOOK  FORTY-FIRST. 

and  even  with  Java,  as  they  are  said  to  have  done.  Their  navigation  to  the  north,  . 
according  to  some  Japanese  maps,  extended  as  far  as  the  American  coast  in  the  ' 
neighbourhood  of  Behring's  Straits,  which  they  called  Foosang.  At  present  they 
scarcely  venture  farther  than  lesso.  And  the  inhabitants  of  that  island  speak  of 
their  voyages  to  llakkosima,  or  "  the  Country  of  Sea  Lions,"  which  is  probably 
either  Behring's  Island  or  Kamtchatka,  as  the  Greeks  did  of  the  voyage  of  the  Ar- 
gonauts.* 

•Revenue.  |  Varcnius  has  given  an  account  of  the  revenues  of  Japan  in  separate 
provinces.  He  makes  the  sum  total  2834  Dutch  tons  of  gold,  which,  valuing  the 
ton  at  10,000/.,  will  be  upwards  of  twenty  milHons  Sterling,  without  reckoning  the 
provinces  and  towns  which  depend  immediately  on  the  emperor.  But  these  reve- 
nues should  not  be  considered  as  national,  being  paid  in  kind  to  the  difl'ercnt  princes. 
The  emperor,  besides  the  gross  revenue  of  the  royal  domains  and  his  O'vvn  provinces, 
possesses  a  considerable  treasure  in  gold  and  silver.  ♦ 

ReiigioHs  sects.         The  Japanese  are  divided  into  two  leading  sects  of  religion,  that  ofj. 
sinto.  Sinto,  and  that  of  Budso.     The  first  acknowledges  a  Supreme  Being, 

who  is  too  exalted  to  receive  the  homage  of  men,  or  to  look  after  their  interests ; 
/-ut  they  admit  as  objects  of  veneration  some  deities  of  subordinate  rank,  to  whom 
they  pray  as  mediators.  They  maintain  that  the  souls  of  the  virtuous  occupy  the 
regions  of  light  adjoining  to  the  heaven  of  heavens,  while  the  souls  of  the  wicked 
wander  through  the  air  till  they  have  expiated  their  sins.  Though  the  doctrine  of 
the  transmigration  of  souls  is  foreign  to  that  creed,  the  rigid  adherents  of  the  Sinto 
sect  abstain  from  all  animal  food,  abhor  the  shedding  of  blood,  and  will  not  touch  a 

dead  body."}"  They  call  their  gods  Sin  or  Kami,  and  their  temples  JMia. 

These  last  consist  of  several  apartments  and  galleries,  formed,  accord- 
ing to  the  custom  of  the  country,  by  partitions  which  are  removed  and  replaced  at 
pleasure.  Straw  mats  are  laid  on  boards,  and  the  roofs  form  on  each  side  a  pro- 
jection sufficient  to  cover  a  sort  of  raised  path  surrounding  the  temple,  on  which  the 
people  walk.  In  these  temples  no  figure  is  remarked  that  can  be  considered  as  re-  i 
presenting  the  invisible  Supreme  Being;  but  they  sometimes  preserve  in  a  box  a 
small  image  of  some  secondary  divinity.  A  large  metallic  mirror  is  placed  in  the 
middle  of  the  temple,  to  remind  the  worshippers  that,  as  every  spot  on  the  body  is 
there  faithfully  represented,  the  faults  of  the  soul  are  seen  with  equal  clearness  by 
the  eyes  of  the  immortals.  J  The  feasts  and  ceremonies  of  their  worship  are  agree- 
able and  cheerful,  because  they  consider  their  deities  as  beings  who  take  pleasure  in 
dispensing  happiness. 

The  sect  of  Budso  is  originally  from  Indostan,  and  is  the  same  with 

that  of  Budha  or  Boodh,  which  is  said  to  have  been  formed  either  in 
Thibet  or  the  island  of  Ceylon  about  eight  centuries  before  the  Christian  era. 
Spread  over  Ava,  Siam,  China,  and  Corea,  that  sect  adopts  some  maxims  from 
others  ;  but  it  preserves  the  doctrine  of  transmigration.  It  threatens  the  wicked 
with  a  dreadful  hell,  where  it  describes  a  bridge  for  souls,  seas  of  water  and  of  fire, 
and  other  imagery  borrowed  from  the  alpine  regions  of  Thibet.  It  also,  like  that  of 
Swedenburg,  promises  to  the  righteous  a  paradise  of  gay  fields,  houses,  and  towns. 
This  paradise,  called  Gokurak,  is  ruled  by  the  god  Amida.  Boodhaism  is  so  mixed 
with  the  Sinto  or  old  religion  of  Japan,  that  it  is  difficult,  and  perhaps  will  become 
in  time  impossible,  to  make  any  discrimination  between  the  votaries  of  the  two. 

Japan  has   a  set  of  moralists  or  philosophers,  whose  doctrine  goes 

under  the  name  of  Sjooto.  It  has  some  aflinity  to  that  of  the  Epicu- 
reans, although  its  professors  acknowledge,  with  Confucius,  that  virtue  is  the 
purest  source  of  pleasure.  These  philosophers  believe  in  the  existence  of  a  soul 
of  the  world,  but  do  not  worship  any  subordinate  deities;  they  have  no  temples  or 
religious  ceremonies.  It  has  been  said  that  these  deists  favoured  Christianity,  and 
that  their  number  has  decreased  since  tlie  persecution  of  that  religion,  as,  in  order 
to  avoid  incurring  suspicion,  they  made  a  point  of  offering  an  ostensible  homage  to 
the  gods  of  their  country. 

•  leso-Ki,  d'Arai-Tsikoego,  MS.  f  Thunberg,  iv.  p.  19.  i  Thunberg,  iv.  p.  21. 


The  Rudso 
sect. 


Japanese  plii' 
losophers. 


JAPANESE  ISLANDS.  59 


Introduction 
of  Christianity. 


From  the  year  1549  till  163S,  missionaries  of  the  order  of  Jesuits 
laboured  in  propagating  their  faith.  They  did  not  find  this  nation  so 
ready  as  many  others  to  embrace  a  plausible  creed,  merely  because  it  was  urged 
with  earnest  importunity.  Their  conversion  could  only  be  effected  by  arguing  with 
them  and  resolving  their  doubts.  In  these  intellectual  efforts  they  obtained  in  the 
first  instance  great  success.  Several  of  the  governors  or  tributary  kings  openly  pro- 
fessed Christianity,  and  in  one  district  the  Jesuits  obtained  the  entire  prohibition  of 
every  other  religion.  Soon,  however,  the  zeal  of  the  grandees  began  to  cool.  They 
differed  materially  in  one  point  of  practice,  viz.  polygamy,  refusing  to  part  with  their 
numerous  trains  of  wives.  The  whole  missionaries  were  ordered  to  leave  the  country. 
This  mandate  not  being  speedily  put  in  force,  the  Jesuits  remained,  but  kept  them- 
selves extremely  quiet.  Afterwards  some  zealous  barefooted  friars  arrived  from  the 
Philippine  islands,  whose  open  proceedings  revived  the  severities  of  the  government; 
some  of  them  were  crucified,  and  others  had  their  ears  cut  oft".  At  the  same  time  a 
Portuguese  vessel  having  been  taken  near  Orudo,  was  found  to  contain  a  quantity  of 
arms.  A  strict  examination  being  made,  the  captain  exculpated  himself  from  the 
imputation  of  conspiracy  ;  but,  being  subsequently  interrogated  by  the  Japanese  ofli- 
cer  on  the  subject  of  the  extensive  conquests  of  the  Portuguese  nation,  of  which  he 
had  boasted,  he  said  that  these  were  made  by  sending  missionaries,  who  converted 
a  large  proportion  of  the  people,  after  which  an  armed  force  was  landed,  and,  being 
joined  by  these  converts,  soon  made  themselves  masters  of  the  country.  The  rage 
of  the  sovereign  Tayoosama  then  knew  no  bounds,  and  a  persecution  of  the  bloodiest 
description  was  immediately  begun.  In  1590,  20,000  Christians  were  put  to  death ; 
and  according  to  the  accounts  of  the  missionaries  the  massacre  of  1638  involved 
37,000.  But  some  cotemporary  authors  tell  us  that  there  were  no  more  than  20,000 
Christians  altogether  in  the  kingdom.*  These  disasters,  are,  in  part  ascribed  to  the 
pretensions  to  power  and  the  political  intrigues  of  the  Jesuits,  throwing  an  odium  on 
the  religion  which  they  professed.  It  is  very  probable  that  the  commercial  jealousy 
which  the  Dutch  harboured  against  the  Portuguese  had  a  share  in  the  bloody  pro- 
ceedings. Ever  since  that  memorable  epoch  the  Catholic  religion  is  held  in  abhor- 
rence in  Japan.  The  missionaries  were  perhaps  too  forward  in  setting  fire  to  the 
places  consecrated  to  the  native  worship.  It  is  very  probable  that,  if  a  band  of  Ja- 
panese missionaries  should  land  at  Havre-de- Grace,  and  set  fire  to  the  cathedral  of 
Rouen,  the  French  police  would  treat  them  with  no  small  severity. 

.  The  civilization  of  the  Japanese  seems,  like  that  of  the  Chinese,  to 
be  stationary ;  but  Japan  has  germs  of  improvement  which  offer  some 
possible  prospect  of  a  moral  revolution.  The  brave  and  intelligent  Ja- 
panese comes  nearer  to  the  European,  by  possessing  a  more  masculine  character, 
and  a  higher  degree  of  civil  liberty.  We  are  told  that  their  learned  language  is  the 
ancient  Chinese,  and  that  their  written  characters  have  a  great  mutual  resemblance ; 
but  those  of  the  Japanese  stand  for  letters,  and  not  for  entire  words.  The  Chinese 
cannot  read  a  Japanese  book ;  but  every  well  educated  Japanese  can  read  the  books 
of  China.  M.  Titsingh,  who  is  now  engaged  in  a  great  work  on  Japan,  has  given 
an  account  of  printed  books  which  do  honour  to  the  talent  of  that  nation.  Their 
types  are  not  moveable,  and  they  print  only  one  side  of  the  paper.  This  gentleman 
has  in  his  possession  a  superb  Herbal,  drawn  and  coloured  both  with  taste  and  ac- 
curacy; he  has  brought  maps  and  plans  veiy  handsomely  coloured ;  and  which,  though 
they  have  neither  latitudes  nor  longitudes,  will  not  be  without  their  use  in  chorogra- 
phy.  They' have,  since  600  years  before  the  Christian  era,  been  in  the  practice  of 
engraving  their  money,  and  the  coats  of  arms  of  their  principal  families. f  The 
Dutch  language  is  read  and  spoken  in  this  Asiatic  country.  Medicine  and  natural 
history  begin  to  be  taught  from  Dutch  books.  Hitherto  their  physicians  have  been 
very  ignorant  men.  Their  astronomers  adhere  to  an  extremely  incon-  Division  or 
venient  division  of  time.  The  year,  which  is  lunar,  sometimes  begins  *"°^' 
in  May,  sometimes  in  February.     Seven  times  in  nineteen  years,  an  intercalary 

*  Plat.de  bono  Statu  Relig-.  lib.  ii.  cap.  50. 

f  M.  Titsingli,  quoted  by  Charpentier-Cossigny  in  his  voyage  to  Bengal. 


Progress  of 
science,  and 
learning,  and 
art. 


Muiises. 

Furniture, 

Dress. 


Description  ol' 
a  Japanese. 

of  his  heac 


60  BOOK  FORTY-FIliST. 

sehooJs.  I  month  restores  it  to  the  solar  course.     The  schools  or  colleges,  how- 

ever, seem  to  he  superior  to  those  of  any  other  Asiatic  country.  Floggings  and 
howlings  are  not  the  sounds  witii  which  they  ring,  but  solemn  songs  in  honour  of  their 
heroes  and  national  gods.  Poetry  is  held  in  honour.  In  some  arts  the  Japanese 
surpass  the  improvements  of  European  industry.  They  have  excellent  coppersmiths, 
blacksmiths,  and  armourers.  Glass-works  are  common  in  Japan,  and  they  even 
make  telescopes ;  tlieir  pictures  are  loaded  with  brilliant  colours,  but  in  composition 
and  design  they  are  defective. 

Their  houses,  which,  on  account  of  earthquakes,  have  only  two  sto- 
ries, would  not  please  the  taste  of  a  European,  nor  would  their  furniture 
or  their  dress;  but  all  these  objects  evince  the  industry  and  ingenuity  of 
the  people.  Divided  into  several  apartments  by  moveable  partitions,  the  interior  of 
the  house  is  ornamented  with  paintings,  and  gilt  and  coloured  paper;  their  furniture 
ghtters  with  a  bright  and  unchangeable  varnish;  their  clothes  wide,  but  tucked  up 
with  a  sort  of  elegance,  are  of  substantial  cotton  and  silk  stufls,  generally  made  in 
the  country ;  they  also  make  their  own  clasps,  buckles,  and  other  trinkets  which  be- 
long to  the  female  attire,  straw  slippers,  (which  are  left  at  the  door  when  they  enter 
a  house,)  hats  of  flags  which  they  wear  in  travelling,  and  indeed  almost  every  article 
.subservient  to  their  luxury  or  convenience.  The  carriages  in  which  their  ladies  ride 
seem  to  be  elegant  and  commodious.*  They  procure  a  kind  of  spirit  from  rice, 
which  they  call  sakki,  possessed  of  a  powerful  intoxicating  quality.! 

A  Japanese  is  certainly  in  some  of  his  forms  rather  a  ludicrous  object : 
liis  head  half  shaved;  the  hair  which  is  left,  accumulated  on  the  crown 
the  enormous  covering  of  oiled  paper  in  which  he  is  wrapped  up  when 
he  travels;  his  salutations,  which  consist  in  bending  his  body  repeatedly  ahnost  to 
the  ground ;  and  the  fan  which  he  constantly  holds  in  his  hand,  present  an  extraor- 
dinary figure.  They  entertain  a  high  sense  of  honour,  and  observe  towards  each 
other  the  most  ceremonious  politeness;  their  courtesies  and  ceremonies  are  infinite;  * 
they  liave  many  books  teaching  them  how  to  take  a  draft  of  water,  how  to  give  and 
receive  presents,  and  all  the  otlier  minutiw  of  behaviour.  Their  chiefs  are  said  not 
so  much  to  resemble  our  counts  and  dukes  as  tributary  sovereigns,  like  those  of 
Arragon  and  Castile;  they  are  supposed  the  entire  proprietors  of  the  land,  part  of 
which  they  keep  for  the  support  of"  themselves  and  their  families,  and  divide  the  rest 
among  their  nobles  who  have  vassals  under  them.  The  Japanese,  proud  of  the 
minute  cleanliness  of  his  habits,  despises  the  Europeans  as  a  dirty  race;  he  has  no 
idea  of  our  keenness  in  dispute,  and,  even  when  loaded  with  injuries,  does  not  utter 
one  vehement  expression ;  but  his  pride  is  deep,  rancorous,  and  invincible,  and  the 
poignard,  which  is  inseparable  from  his  person,  is  employed  as  an  instrument  of  ven- 
geance when  the  object  docs  not  expect  it,  or  to  destroy  his  own  life  in  case  ven- 
geance is  impossible. 

Wives.  The  law  allows  only  one  wife  to  the  Japanese,  but  the  concubines  live 

Concubines,  in  the  same  house  ;  the  wife  is  at  the  absolute  disposal  of  the  husband ; 
and  when  she  incurs  his  displeasure  she  has  no  appeal.  Connubial  infidelity  is  rare 
among  them,  although  they  are  subjected  to  no  system  of  seclusion.  In  cases  of 
divorce  they  are  obliged  to  go  constantly  with  the  head  shaved.  In  their  marriage 
ceremonies  there  is  an  agreeable  simplicity ;  the  woman  standing  up  at  the  foot  of 
the  altar,  lights  a  torch,  at  which  the  inan'hghts  another;  it  is  also  the  custom  for 
the  young  bride  to  throw  the  play-things  of  her  childhood  into  the  fire. 
Funeral  rites.  |  The  bodics  of  pcoplc  of  rank  when  they  die  are  burned,  those  of 
others  are  buried.  The  festival  of  lanterns  is  celebrated  as  in  China,  to  which  is 
added  the  custom  of  visiting  the  graves  at  stated  times;  the  manes  are  regaled  with 
food  and  drink,  and  treated  with  songs  and  compliments. 

Spectacles.      |       The  public  amuscments  consist  of  dramatic  entertainments,  which  are 
said  not  to  be  inferior  to  those  of  our  polished  nations ;  their  numbers  of  dancing 

*  Ambassade  au  Japoii,  p.  98,  145. 

t  Titsing-h,  in  the  "  Verhandelingen  van  het  Balaviaasch  genoostchap." 


JAVANESE   ISLANDS.  61 

girls  and  boys*  announce  tlie  relaxation  of  public  morals,  Which  is  also  evinced  by 
the  great  number  of  infamous  houses,  wliich  arc  more  scandalously  protected  here 
than  in  any  other  country."}" 

Inland  communication  is  greatly  facilitated  by  well  kept  roads ;  nor     i„,ernai  and 
are  there  any  taxes  to  interrupt  the  progress  of  trade.     The  harbours,     loreign  uaJe, 
though  shut  against  the  commercial  enterprise  of  Europeans,  are  filled  with  large 
and  small  craft.  The  shops  and  markets  teem  with  all  sorts  of  wares.    In  the  towns 
tliere  are  large  fairs,  which  attract  a  numerous  concourse  of  people.     The  Chinese 
is  the  most  important  branch  of  their  foreign  trade;  they  import  raw  silk,  sugar, 
turpentine,  and  drugs ;  they  export  copper  in  bars,  varnish,  and  gum-lac.     Accord- 
ing to  Titsingh  and  Thunberg,  the  protitsof  the  Dutch  trade  to  Japan  are  very  in- 
considerable; two  vessels  only  are  employed  in  it.  The  Japanese  money  |  Money, 
is  singular  in  its  form.     Mr.  Titsingh  has  some  pieces  in  his  possession  which  have 
a  convex  elliptical  shape;  the  gold  pieces  are  called  kobangs;  the  silver  ones,  which 
are  called  kodama,  sometimes  have  a  figure  of  Daikok,  the  god  of  riches,  seated  on 
two  casks  of  rice,  with  a  hammer  in  his  right  hand  and  a  bag  in  his  left.  J     M.  Tit- 
singh's  collection  of  coins  goes  as  far  back  as  600  years  before  Christ. 

Such  is  this  singular  Asiatic  country,  too  much  extolled  by  the  travelling  natu- 
ralists, as  Thunberg,  and  too  much  vilified  by  the  missionaries.  The  attention  of 
the  former  was  fixed  on  the  magnificent  botanic  garden,  that  of  the  latter  on  the 
stains  left  by  the  blood  of  the  martyrs.  The  description  of  Varenius  and  that  of 
Valentine  seem  dictated  by  the  discontents  of  the  Dutch  nation  at  the  time  at  which 
they  were  composed.  Mr.  Titsingh,  who,  while  exercising  the  functions  of  Dutch 
resident  conciliated  the  esteem  and  confidence  of  the  princes  of  the  imperial  blood 
of  Japan,  is  employed  in  a  large  historical,  political,  and  geographical  work  on  the 
country,  which  he  seems  to  have  studied  with  greater  deliberation  and  greater  zeal 
than  any  one  before  him. 

The  two  chains  of  mountains  which  traverse  Corea  and  Japan  seem 
to  approach  one  another,  and  have  the  appearance  of  being  afterwards 
continued  along  the  bed  of  the  sea,  so  as  to  form  a  series  of  little  archipelagos,  ex- 
tending from  Japan  to  the  island  of  Formosa.  In  this  maritime  region,  which  is 
little  known,  we  find  the  state  of  Loochoo,  or  Lequeyo.  The  difference  in  the 
orthography  arises  from  this  circumstance,  that  the  Chinese  letter  /.-,  similar  to  the 
Swedish,  has  neither  the  sound  of  the  English  ch,  or  tch,  nor  of  our  k;  it  therefore, 
can  only  be  imperfectly  expressed  by  some  combination  of  our  consonants,  as  //.•, 
or  tgh.  This  is  a  very  flourishing  state,  and  worthy  of  engaging  our  interest.  For 
the  first  good  information  on  the  subject  we  are  indebted  to  a  Chinese  ambassador 
named  Soo-pa-koo-ang,  who  was  sent  thither  in  1719,  and  from  whose  writings  Fa- 
ther Gaubil  the  missionary  has  extracted  his  account.^  Koempfer  had  indeed  pre- 
viously mentioned  it  under  the  name  of  the  islands  of  Lequeyo,  but  in  an  obscure 
and  general  manner.  A  very  few  years  ago,  the  principal  island  was  visited  by  two 
British  vessels,  which  had  gone  out  with  Lord  Amherst  to  China,  and  took  the  oppor- 
tunity of  making  this  trip  during  that  nobleman's  stay. 

According  to  Gaubil,  these  islands  form,  as  we  have  already  stated,  a  sort  of 
chain,  or  series  of  little  archipelagos,  extending  from  Kiu-siu,  the  most  southerly  of 
the  great  islands  of  Japan,  to  the  island  of  Formosa;  there   arc  in  all  thirty-six, 
subject  to  the  same  government.     To  the  south  of  Kiu-Siu,  there  are  seven  small 
islands,  and  a  large  one  called  Tanaxima,  belonging  to  the  Japanese     xanaxima, 
empire,  and  to  the  south  of  these,  eight  others  which  belong  to  the  king     oofoo,&c. 
of  Loo-Choo;  they  are  called  Oofoo  China,  or  the  islands  of  Oofoo;  the  principal 
one  is  called  Oofoo  in  the  country  itself,  and  Tatao,  or  "  the  Great  Island,"  by  the 
Chinese.     These  islands  are  fertile  and  populous,  with  the  exception  of  Kikiai, 
which,  however,  like  Oofoo,  contains  forests  of  fine  large  cedars. 

•  "  Des  Danseuses  en  grand  nombre,  et  surtout  des  danseurs  plus  qu'effemin^s." 
\  Kxmi'er,  ii.  9.  ;j;  Titsingh,  dans  les  VerhandeUngen. 

§  Lettres  Edifiantes,  xiv. 


Archipelagfo  of 
Lou-Cliou. 


62  BOOK  FORTY-FIRST. 

Great  Loo-  I  ^"  ^lie  south-w6st  of  tlicse  is  the  great  island  of  Loo-Choo ;  it  is 
choo  Island.  |  about  fifty  milcs  long  and  from  twelve  to  fifteen  broad.  The  king  resides 
at  its  south  end,  in  a  palace  called  Cheoole,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  capital 
Kien-Ching,  which  has  a  sea  port  named  Napakiang,  at  the  distance  of  five  miles ; 
this  place  was  found  by  the  observations  made  on  board  the  Alceste,  to  be  in  lati- 
tude 26°  14'.  N.  and  in  127°  52'  1"  of  east  longitude;  this  is  its  south-west  point, 
the  main  body  of  the  island  extending  from  this  north  and  a  little  easterly;  all  the 
rocks  about  it  are  of  coral,  and  immense  masses,  often  of  grotesque  shapes,  are  seen 
every  where  along  the  sea-shore ;  many  of  the  same  nature  are  found  on  the  higher 
land,  at  a  distance  from  the  beach,  the  origin  of  which  may  be  considered  as  pro- 
blematical, and  is  supposed  by  some  to  have  been  disguised  by  the  action  of  volcanic 
fire  having  raised  them  to  an  elevation  beyond  the  reach  of  the  ocean  in  which  they 
were  generated.*  To  the  west  of  this  island  there  are  ten  others,  well  peopled  and 
productive,  with  the  exception  of  Lung-hoang-chau,  or  "  the  Sulphur  Island,"  so 
called  from  the  quantities  of  that  substance  which  it  affords.  On  the  east  side  of 
Formosa  there  are  other  seventeen,  all  dependent  on  the  King  of  Loo-Choo. 

The  natives  trace  their  history  back  to  a  period  long  anterior  to  the  Christian  era; 
but  they  had  no  communication  with  the  rest  of  the  world  till  about  the  year  605, 
when  they  were  discovered  by  the  Chinese,  who  found  them  the  same  agreeable  and 
polished  people  as  they  now  are,  though  perhaps  lesa  on  the  Chinese  model  in  some 
particulars  than  they  have  since  been.  The  only  connection  which  they  have  had 
with  their  neighbours  has  been  with  Japan  and  China,  and  even  this  has  been  very 
limited,  nor,  from  what  we  know  of  these  nations,  are  they  liable  to  exhibit  much 
change,  or  likely  to  have  communicated  variations  of  fashion  or  of  habits  to  others. 
Gaubil  says  that  Loo-Choo  was  not  subjected  till  seven  centuries  after,  or  about  the 
fourteenth  century,  and  he  adds  that  before  that  time  the  great  island  was  divided  into 
three  political  communities,  whence  it  is  called  in  some  maps  "  the  island  of  the 
Three  Kings." 

Climate.  |  The  climate  of  Loo-Choo  is  one  of  the  rftost  propitious  in  the  world. 
Refreshed  by  the  sea-breezes  which  blow  over  it  at  every  period  of  the  year,  it  is 
free  from  the  extremes  of  heart  and  cold.  The  land  does  not  contain  those  marshes 
which  are  so  great  a  source  of  disease  in  the  warmer  latitudes,  and  the  people  appear 
to  those  who  have  visited  them  to  enjoy  robust  health.  Nature  has  been  bountiful 
in  all  her  gifts  to  that  favoured  country ;  such  is  the  felicity  of  its  soil  and  climate, 
that  vegetable  productions,  very  different  in  their  nature,  and  generally  found 
in  regions  very  distant  from  each  other,  grow  here  side  by  side.  Not  only  the  orange 
and  the  lime,  but  the  Indian  banyan,  and  the  Norwegian  fir,  the  tea  plant  and  sugar- 
cane, all  flourish  together.  It  aboimds  in  rice,  wheat,  peas,  melons,  pine  ap- 
ples, ginger,  pepper,  camphor,  dye-woods,  wood  for  fuel,  silk,  wax,  and  salt ;  it  also 
yields  coral  and  pearls.  The  animals  are  oxen,  sheep,  horses,  deer,  and  winged 
game.  Almost  the  whole  animal  creation  here  is  of  diminutive  size,  but  all  excellent 
in  their  kind  ;  the  bullocks  seldom  weigh  more  than  350  lbs.  but  are  plump  and  well 
conditioned,  and  the  beef  very  fine  ;  their  goats  and  pigs  are  reduced  in  the  same 
proportion,  their  poultry  forming  the  only  exception. 

The  men  are  a  very  small  race,  the  average  height  not  exceeding  five  feet  tw'o 
inches,  but  sturdy  and  athletic  ;  the  women  are  of  corresponding  stature.  They  have 
a  good  deal  of  the  Corean  physiognomy,  with  increased  mildness.  They  have 
nothing  of  the  drowsy  and  elongated  eye  of  the  Chinese.  The  few  Chinese  and 
their  descendants  settled  here  have  no  appearance  of  having  freely  mixed  with  the 
Loo-Chooans,  both  their  features  and  dispositions  being  wholly  distinct.  They  show 
no  mixture  of  Indian  blood,  being  quite  as  fair  as  the  southern  Europeans;  even  those 
who  are  most  exposed  are  scarcely  so  swarthy  as  persons  of  the  same  class  of  society 
in  Spain  and  Portugal.  They  are  a  well-bred  and  cultivated  race.  They  have  a 
priesthood  of  bonzes,  who  are  generally  educated  in  Japan.  Their  books  on  reli- 
gion, morality,  and  science,  arc  in  the  Chinese  character,  but,  for  common  purposes, 
the  Japanese  letters  aro  employed.     Their  language  differs  both  from  tlie  Chinese 

•  See  Captain  Hall's  account. 


JAPANESE   ISLANDS.  63 

and  Japanese,  though  possessing  many  words  in  common  with  both.  The  emperor 
Kyang-Hi  cstabhshed  a  hbrary  in  the  principal  island  in  1720,  and  ordered  a  temple 
to  be  built  to  Confucius.  To  the  latest  visiters,  the  crews  of  the  Al-  "^^f^'y  ^^'K 
ceste  and  Lyra,  this  people  appeared  amiable  in  the  highest  degree.  The  Lyra, 
friendliness  and  cordiality  of  the  respectable  persons  who  composed  these  crews 
gave  them  an  opportunity  of  cultivating  a  knowledge  of  their  character,  and  exchang- 
ing with  them  sentiments  which  did  the  highest  honour  to  both  parties,  and  appear 
peculiarly  ^fleeting  as  occurring  between  races  who  met  from  such  an  immense  local 
distance,  and  had  derived  all  their  ideas  from  sources  which  in  the  lapse  of  ages  had 
no  mutual  communication.  On  such  scenes  as  are  depicted  in  the  narritives  of  Mr. 
M'Leod  surgeon  of  the  Alceste,  ond  Captain  Hall  commanding  the  Lyra,  the  mind 
enjoys  a  most  agreeable  repose,  after  having  long  travelled  over  pictures  in  moral 
and  political  geography  which  exhibit  so  many  deplorable  instances  of  the  inhumanity 
arising  from  unrestrained  passions,  and  from  errors  which  generate  antipathies  that 
lacerate  in  the  deepest  manner  the  peace  of  society.  The  cfiect  of  this  moral  and 
social  excellence  is  heightened  by  the  delicious  picture,  which  the  country,  rich  by 
nature,  and  admirably  improved  by  art,  exhibits  to  the  eye,  refuting  the  dogmatism 
of  those  who  maintain  that  the  abundance  of  the  means  of  pleasure  has  an  invariable 
elTect  in  vitiating  the  heart,  and  that  virtue  is  nowhere  to  be  found  but  in  scenes  in 
which  the  scantiness  and  simplicity  of  the  gifts  of  nature  set  limits  to  the  wander- 
ings of  human  inclination. 

"From  a  commanding  height  above  the  ships,"  says  Mr.  M'Leod,  |  scenery, 
"the  view  is  in  all  directions  picturesque  and  delightful.  On  one  hand  are  seen  the 
distant  lands  rising  from  a  wide  expanse  of  ocean,  while  the  clearness  of  the  water 
enables  the  eye  to  trace  all  the  coral  reefs  which  protect  the  anchorage  immediately 
below.  To  the  south  is  the  city  of  Napafoo,  the  vessels  lying  at  anchor  in  the  har- 
bour, with  their  streamers  flying;  and  in  the  intermediate  space  appear  numerous 
hamlets  scattered  about  on  the  banks  of  the  rivers  which  meander  in  the  valley  be- 
neath. Turning  to  the  east,  the  houses  of  Kint-ching  the  capital  city,  built  in  their 
peculiar  style,  are  observed  opening  from  among  the  lofty  trees  which  surround  and 
shade  them,  rising  one  above  another  in  gentle  ascent  to  the  summit  of  a  hill,  which 
is  crowned  by  the  king's  palace ;  the  interesting  grounds  between  Napafoo  and  Kint- 
ching,  a  distance  of  some  miles,  being  ornamented  by  a  continuation  of  villas  and 
country  houses.  To  the  north,  as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach,  the  higher  land  is  cov- 
ered with  extensive  forests."  About  half  a  mile  from  this  eminence,  the  traveller  is 
led  by  a  foot  path  to  what  seems  only  a  little  wood;  on  entering  which,  under  an 
archway  formed  by  the  intermingling  branches  of  the  opposite  trees,  he  passes  along 
a  serpentine  labyrinth  intersected  at  short  distances  by  others.  Not  far  from  each 
other,  on  either  side  of  these  walks,  small  wicker  doors  are  observed,  on  opening 
any  of  which  he  is  surprised  by  the  appearance  of  a  court-yard  and  house,  witli  the 
children,  and  all  the  usual  cottcige-train,  generally  gamboling  about;  so  Ihal,  while  a 
man  fancies  himself  in  some  sequestered  retreat,  he  is  in  fact  in  the  middle  of  a  popu- 
lous but  invisible  village. 

They  found  many  of  these  islanders  persons  of  great  intelligence  and  address. 
One  individual  is  particularly  characterized,  whose  name  was  Madera,  a  man  of  rank 
and  influence  in  the  government,  who  came  on  board  in  the  disguise  of  a  perstni  of 
mean  condition,  for  the  purpose  of  learning  the  character  and  intentions  of  these 
visiters,  and  gradually  and  frankly  unfolded  his  real  character  in  proportion  as  his  con- 
fidence in  this  respect  increased.  A  series  of  anecdotes  is  related,  showing  his  apt- 
ness in  acquiring  both  the  language  and  the  ideas  of  the  P^iUglish.  lie  doiiglited  in 
receiving  information ;  and  his  remarks  were  always  pertinent.  The  map  of  the 
world,  with  the  track  of  the  ship  across  the  various  oceans,  from  Britain  to  Loo  Choo, 
with  the  different  intervening  continents  and  islands,  when  pointed  out,  he  and  others 
traced  with  great  care,  and  seemed  at  last  to  comprehend,  though  such  objects  were 
entirely  new  to  them,  and  though  they  appear  to  have  had  no  idea  of  the  figure  or  vast 
extent  of  the  globe.  Madera  was  gay  or  serious  as  occasion  required,  but  always 
respectable,  and  all  his  countrymen  seemed  to  be  gifted  with  a  sort  of  politeness 
which  might  be  fairly  termed  natural,  having  in  it  nothing  constrained  or  studied. 


64 


IJOOK  FORTY-FIRST. 


Table  of  Geographical  rosiiions  observed  on  the   Coasts  of  JMantchooria,  lesso, 

Japan,  and  Corca. 


Places. 


Seghalien. 
Cape  Elizabeth     - 

—  Golowatchef    - 

—  Patience      -     - 

—  Amwa"  -     -     - 
Idem      -     -     -     - 


Idem 


Cape  Crillon 
Idem      -     - 


KURILES. 

Canal  of  Nadcshda,  near  the 
peak  Sarytcliet"       -     -     - 

Iesso. 
Cape  Soya  ------ 

—  Romanzof  -     -     -     -     - 

(Notzamboo.) 
Island  ot"  Riosheii  or  Langlcs 

Peak 

Idem   ------- 


Lat.  N. 


deg.  min.  sec, 

54  20  0 

53  13  15 

48  50  0 

46  2  20 

46  3  0 


Idem 


Cape  Malcspina   -  -  - 

— Novoilzof    .     -  -  - 

(Okomoov.) 
Island  of  Okosir,  (middle) 

Cape  Nadcshda    -  -  - 

Volcano  Bay   -     -  -  - 

Japan. 

Cape  Songaar       -  -  - 

—  dcs  Russes  -     -  -  - 

—  Noto 

Island  of  Tsus      -  -  - 

Nangasa'iki      -     -  -  - 

Cap  d'Anville  -     -  -  - 

-  Namboo      -     -  -  - 


Coast  of  Mantciiooria  and 

Core  A. 
Cape  Romberg     -     -     -     - 
Bay  Castries    -     -     -     -     - 

(Jape  Monti     _     -     -     -     - 


45  54     0 
45  54   15 

48     2     0 

45  31    15 
45  25  50 


45  23     0 

45   10  48 

45   11     0 


45  42  15 
43   11     0 

42     9     0 

41  25   10 

42  33   11 

41  16  30 
39  50  0 
37  3G  0 
34  40  30 


jLoiig'.  E. 
from  Lond. 


deg.  min.   sec. 


142 
141 
144 
143 
143 


Observers. 


45  15  Krusenstcrn. 

55  15  Idem. 

45   15  Idem. 

30  35  Idem. 

29     0  La  Perouse,  after  the  correc 

tions  of  Dagelet. 
144  40  15  Chart  of  La  Perouse's  Voyage, 

(an  error  in  the  chronome 

ter.)  •  ,    ■ 

55  15  Krusenstern's  Chart,  (La  Pe 

rouse. Connais.  des  Terns.) 
68  54  La  Perouse,  corrected  by  Da 

gelet. 


142 
141 


152  52  61 


141 
141 


142 
141 


51   15 
34  45 


10 
22 


15 

6 


141    12  30 


141 
140 


18 
13 


45 
45 


139  30   15 

140  9  56 
140  52  47 

140   14  15 

139  44  15 

137  54  15 

129  29  45 


53  26  30 
51   29     0 

50  30     0 


141  45     0 
141   59   15 

141   53   16 


Krusenstern. 

Idem. 
Idem. 


Chart  of  La  Perouse.  (Error.) 

La  Perouse  after  the  correc- 
tions of  Dagelet. 

Horner  and  Krusenstern,  (re- 
peated and  accurate  obser- 
vations.) 

Idem. 

Idem. 

Idem. 
Idem. 
Broughton. 

Krusenstern. 

Idem. 

Connaiss.  dcs  Temps. 

Krusenstern. 


Krusenstern. 

La   Perouse.    Connaiss.    des 

Terns. 
Idem. 


CHINA. 

Tabic  continued. 


65 


Places. 

Lat.  N. 

Lonjj.  E. 
from  Lond. 

Observers. 

Suffren's  Bay 

Bay  of  Ternay     -     -     -     - 
Isle  of  Dagelct     -     -     -     - 
Tsa-Choni  (Corea)    -     -     - 
Quelpaert  (Island)     -     -     - 

deg.  min.  sec. 

47  63     0 
45   J3     0 
37  25     0 
35  30     0 
33     7  49 

deg.  min.  sec. 

139  40   15 
137  29   15 
131   22   16 
129  43   15 
126    IS  57 

Idem. 
Idem. 
Idem. 
Idem. 
Idem. 

N.  B.  The  Table  of  the  68  provinces  and  600  political  subdivisions  of  Japan  are  omitted  as 
of  inferior  importance,  in  order  to  leave  room  for  more  interesting  materials. 


BOOK  XLII. 


CHINA. 


PART  I. 

General  Description  of  the  Country. 

Several  circumstances  relative  to  the  Chinese  are  given  in  our  history  of  geo- 
graphy. There  the  question  is  considered  which  has  been  agitated  among  geogra- 
phers,* whether  that  people  was  known  to  the  ancients.  We  trace  the  progress  of 
the  Arabian  travellers  of  the  ninth  century,  and  the  missionaries  of  the  thirteenth, 
as  well  as  the  celebrated  Marco  Polo,  in  their  respective  travels  to  Cathay  or  Kithmj, 
and  to  Mangi,  or  Maha-Tchin,  or,  in  other  words,  northern  and  southern  China.  On 
this  account  these  discussions  will  not  now  detain  us.  We  shall  merely 
mention  that  the  travels  of  Riibruquis  and  Marco  Polo  remained  for  a 
long  time  almost  unknown,  and  that  the  learned  Pope  Pius  II.,  in  1448, 
described  China  only  from  a  very  short  account  of  Nicholas  Conti,  who 


Progress  of 
information 
respecting 
China. 


lad 


visited 
it  half  a  century  before,  and  whose  veracity  the  pontiff  seems  to  doubt. t  It  was 
only  by  means  of  the  Portuguese  navigators  who  succeeded  Vasco  de  Gama  that 
Europe  received  any  certain  information  of  the  situation,  extent,  and  splendour  of 
China.  Since  that  period,  we  owe  our  knowledge  to  some  ambassadors  who  have 
seen  the  court  and  the  great  roads,  to  some  merchants  who  have  inhabited  a  suburb 
of  a  frontier  town,  and  a  considerable  number  of  missionaries  who  have  penetrated 
in  every  direction,  and  who  being  considered  as  credulous  admirers  though  artless 
narrators,  inspired  little  confidence  in  their  judgment,  so  that  the  world  was  left  to 
guess  at  the  truth  of  numerous  facts  which  these  well  meaning  persons  were  ill 
qualified  to  appreciate.  We  have  also  some  Chinese  geographers,  whose  dry  tables 
of  nomenclature  give  us  little  information.  Thus  any  extended  description  of  China 
that  could  be  given  would  consist  of  a  series  of  repetitions. 

The  conquests  of  the  Emperors  of  the  Mantchoo  (called  rather  im- 
properly tlie  Tartar)  dynasty,  have  extended  their  power  over  a  great  part 
of  the  countries  which  used  to  be  called  independent  Tartary,  but  wliich  were  inha- 
bited by  Kalmuks  and  Mongols,  races  of  men  wholly  distinct  from  the  Tartars.  The 
Russians  at  the  same  time  advanced  into  Siberia.     The  centre  of  the  old  continent 


Chinese  em- 
pire. 


See  note  at  page  23,  of  this  volume. 
Vol..  II.— 1 


■\  Pii  Papsc,  li.  Asia,  cap.  15. 


Limits  or  the 
territory. 


Surrounding 
seas. 


66  BOOK  FOllTY-SECOND. 

became  a  point  of  mutual  contact  for  two  nations  proceeding  in  opposite  directions 
from  its  two  opposite  extremities.  Two  great  empires,  the  Russian  and  the  Chinese, 
the  one  of  which  approaches  the  pole  while  the  other  passes  the  tropic,  and  which 
appeared  to  have  the  whole  world  intervening,  find  themselves  conterminous  on  a 
line  extending  3000  miles  in  length,  from  the  neighbourhood  of  lake  Palcati  to  the 
mouth  of  the  river  Amoor.  This  long  mutual  frontier  follows  in  general  the  direction 
of  the  Altaic,  Sayanian  and  Daoorian  mountains.  In  Daooria,  however,  the  Rus- 
sians have  extended  their  boundaries  beyond  the  mountains  to  the  banks  of  the 
Amoor.  Lake  Palcati,  the  Alak  mountains,  and  the  Beloot  mountains,  separate  the 
Chinese  empire  on  the  west  from  the  Kirguis,  the  Uzbeks,  and  the  other  independent 
races  of  true  Tartary.  While  the  Chinese  power  gradually  reached  the  frontier  of 
Asiatic  Russia  on  the  north  and  north-west ;  it  extended  to  the  west  and  south-west 
over  the  vast  regions  of  Thibet,  and  has  now  become  almost  conterminous  with  the 
British  possessions  to  the  north  of  Bengal.  The  small  countries  of 
Sirinagur,  Nepaul,  and  the  Garrau  mountains  and  others,  the  last  barrier 
on  this  side  between  the  Chinese  empire  and  India,  are  now  partly  under  the  protec- 
tion of  Great  Britain.  More  to  the  east,  the  Chinese  province  of  Yun-nan  comes 
in  contact  with  the  Burman  empire.  The  possessions  of  the  Siamese  do  not  reach 
the  Chinese  frontier ;  but  the  little  kingdoms  of  Laos  and  Tonquin  are  its  nearest 
neighbours  in  that  quarter,  and  perhaps  tributary  to  it. 

The  Eastern  Ocean,  forming  many  gulfs  and  straits,  washes  the 
shores  of  the  Chinese  empire  for  an  extent  of  3,600  miles,  reckoning 
from  the  Tonquinese  frontier  to  the  mouth  of  the  river  Amoor.  The  Gulf  of  Ton- 
quin and  the  Chinese  Sea  bound  this  empire  on  the  south.  The  channel  of  Formosa 
separates  the  island  of  that  name  from  the  continent.  The  Blue  Sea  extends  be- 
tween China  and  the  islands  of  Lieu-Choo  and  Japan;  the  Yellow  Sea  between  China 
and  Corea.  We  have  already  considered  the  Sea  of  Japan,  the  extremity  of  which, 
explored  by  La  Perouse,  has  received  the  inappropriate  name  of  the  Channel  of  Tar- 
tary. It  is  not  certain  whether  the  Chinese  lay  claim  to  the  island  called  Seghalien 
or  Tchoka,  a  country  which  may  acquire  some  importance,  and  of  which  the  more 
active  ambition  of  the  Russians  will  perhaps  take  possession.  The  extremity  of  the 
Mantchoo  country,  which  has  been  called  Chinese  Tartary,  lies  on  the  sea  called  by 
modern  navigators  the  Sea  of  Okhotsk,  and  by  d'Anville  the  Sea  of  Kamtchatka. 
Extent  of  the  I  The  Chinese  empire,  comprehended  within  these  limits,  has  a  length 
empire.  j  of  about  3460  miles,  reckoning  from  Cashgur  to  the  mouth  of  the  Amoor. 

Its  greatest  breadth  may  be  taken  from  the  Saianian  mountains  to  the  southern  point 
of  China,  opposite  to  the  Island  of  Hay-nan,  a  line  of  more  than  2000  miles.  Its 
surface  may  be  computed  at  seven  millions  of  square  miles,  somewhat  less  than  a 
tenth  part  of  that  of  the  habitable  globe. 

China  Proper.  |  In  the  present  book  we  confine  ourselves  to  China  Proper.  This 
country  presents  in  itself  a  field  of  very  great  extent,  having  a  surface  of  more  than 
537,000  square  miles,  inhabited  by  a  population  which  some  reckon  150,  and  others, 
333  millions.  This  country  has,  indeed,  no  natural  limit;  the  Great  Wall  separates 
it  from  the  Mongols  on  the  north ;  on  the  west,  political  limits  are  prescribed  to  the 
wanderings  of  the  Kalmuks,  or  Eleuths  of  Hoho-Nor,  and  the  Sifans;  on  the  south, 
the  frontiers  of  China  Proper  are  the  same  with  those  of  the  empire. 

The  following  is  the  table  of  division  and  extent  of  China  Proper,  ac- 
cording to  the  information  communicated  by  the  Mandarin  Chow-ta-sing 
to  Lord  Macartney,  when  on  his  embassy  from  Great  Britain. 


Divisions 
Extent. 


CHINA. 


67 


Provinces. 


Pe-tcho-li 
Kiang-nan. 

Kiang-si  . 


Two  provinces 


Square  Miles 


Tche-kiang 
Fo-kien   . 


TT  i  Hou-pe     » 

Ilouquang     {hou-U} 

Honan 


Shan-tong 


Shan-si 

Shen-si  {  f""""']  P^'^l'^' 
(  Kaa-tchou 

Se-shuen      .... 

Quang-tong  .... 

(^uang-si       .... 

You-nan 

Koeit-cheou  .... 


} 


58,949 
92,961 
72,170 
39,150 
53,480 

144,770 

65,104 
65,104 
55,268 

154,008 

166,800 
79,45.6 
78,250 

107,969 
64,554 


Acres. 


1,297,999 


37,727,360 
59,495,040 
46,192,640 
25,056,000 
34,227,200 

92,652,800 

41,666,560 
41,666,560 
35,715,320 

98,565,120 

106,752,120 
50,851,840 
50,080,000 
69,100,160 
41,314,560 


830,719,360 


Southern 
cliaui. 


This  country  has  been  celebrated  under  more  than  one  name ;  the  in-  |  Names, 
habitants  call  it  Tchon-Koo,  or  "  the  centre  of  the  world;"  for  the  Chinese,  in  their 
overweening  pride,  consider  other  countries  as  mere  strips  surrounding  their  own  ter- 
ritory. The  accounts  of  the  Mahometan  travellers  of  the  ninth  century,  published 
by  Renaudot,  give  southern  China  the  name  of  Sin,  pronounced  by  the  Persians 
Tcliin.  The  origin  of  this  name  is  uncertain;  and,  though  the  <Si»(c  of  the  ancients 
were  situated  more  to  the  west  than  any  part  of  modern  China,  the  resemblance  of 
the  names  is  too  great  to  allow  it  to  be  c;onsidercd  as  unmeaning.  It  is  highly  pro- 
bable that  it  was  the  ancient  generic  name  for  all  the  nations  of  Thibet,  China,  and 
India,  east  of  the  Ganges. 

Doubts  no  less  difficult  to  solve   render  the  physical  geography  of  |  Mountains. 
China  less  interesting  than  that  of  so  great  a  country  ought  to  be.     It  seems  to  con- 
tain two  mountainous  regions,  one  in  the  south-east,  and  the  other  in  the  north-west. 

The  great  southern  chain  is  known  so  far  west  as  the  provinces  of 
You-Nan  and  Koeit-Cheoo.  It  is  not  ascertained  whether  it  is  conti- 
nued from  the  mountains  of  Thibet  or  not.  This  chain  extends  between  the  pro- 
vinces of  Quan-Si,  Quan-Tong,  and  Fo-Kien  on  the  south,  and  Hoo-Quang,  and 
Kiang-Si,  on  the  north;  it  runs  first  from  west  to  oast,  and,  after  reaching  the  limits 
of  Fo-Kien,  turns  to  the  north-east ;  thus  it  separates  the  basin  of  the  Yang-tse- 
Kiang,  first  from  that  of  IIon-Kiang  on  the  south,  and  then  from  the  sea  on  the  east. 
Two  branches  of  that  chain  cut  the  basin  of  the  Y'an-tse-Kiang  transversely,  so  that 
the  three  provinces  of  Se-Tcheun,  Ilouquan,  and  Kiaug-Si,  should  stand  at  a  higher 
level  than  the  other,  and  form  a  sort  of  three  terraces.  The  principal  chain  must  be 
difficult  of  approach,  especially  in  the  provinces  of  Kceil-Cheoo  and  Quan-si,  since 
there  are  some  savage  races  in  that  quarter  whom  the  Chinese  have  not  been  able 
to  subdue ;  but  travellers  have  only  examined  the  little  mountain  of  Moiling,  which 
rises  3000  feet  above  the  level  of  the  lake  Po-yang.*  It  is  surrounded  by  several 
other  less  elevated  mountains,  and  the  precipices  of  which,  covered  with  trees  and 
large  plants,  present  a  view  in  the  hiiihcst  degree  wild  and  romantic.  Gneiss  and 
quartz  seem  to  be  the  prevailing  rocks  in  this  mountain-chain,  called  the  Mangian, 
from  Manrii,  the  name  of  southern  China,  and  which  rivals  the  Appenines,  or  per- 
haps the  Pyrennees. 

The  mountainous  region  of  the  north-west  does  not  so  much  consist  [  Northern 
of  regular  chains  as  a  succession  of  terraces,  or  table-lands.     Such  at  j  '•'S'"'- 


Macartney's  Embassy.    Barrow,  t.  iii.  p.  29, 122.     De  Guignes,  t.  i.  p.  18; 


G8  EOOK  FOliTY-SECOND. 

least  they  are  rcpresenled  in  the  maps  of  d'Anville,  in  which  a  trace  of  mountains 
faintly  dehneated  conveys  the  idea  of  gi-eat  exactness  and  fidehty.  In  the  west  of 
the  province  of  Se-tchucn  a  chain  of  mountains  runs  parallel  to  the  river  Yalon 
from  south  to  north,  and  then  enters  the  Sifan  country,  where  it  takes  the  names  of 
Kentac-la,  Rhat-ci-co,  and  others.  From  this  region,  rich  in  springs,  the  chain 
turns  to  the  east,  and  enters  the  province  of  Shen-si,  where  it  runs  parallel  to  the 
river  Hoet-ho,  then  to  the  Hoan-ho.  It  gradually  disappears  in  the  province  of  Ho- 
nan.  In  the  north  of  the  province  of  Shan-si,  and  in  the  country  of  the  Mongoos- 
Ortos,  the  Hoan-ho  is  found  to  make  a  turn  of  800  miles  to  the  north,  and  bounds  on 
three  sides  a  mountainous  and  perfectly  isolated  plateau. 

Nature  of  the  1  The  provincc  of  Shan-si  is  full  of  mountains,  which  seem  to  belong 
simn"si*.'"'"  °  j  to  a  chain  extending  from  the  banks  of  the  river  Amoor  across  Mongolia. 
The  secondary  branches  of  this  chain  have  been  remarked  by  Dr.  Gillan.  The 
mountains  are  almost  all  peaked,  and  present  bare  rocks  in  every  part.  Most  com- 
monly the  first  terrace  is  of  sand  and  vitrifiable  stone  ;  the  second  is  a  rough  gra- 
nulated limestone,  filled  with  bluish  nodules  ;  the  third  is  close  and  very  irregular, 
formed  of  a  hardened  clay  of  a  blue  colour,  and  sometimes  brownish  red.  In  some 
places  there  is  a  large  quantity  of  oxide  of  iron,  giving  the  clay  an  appearance  of 
ochre.  In  several  parts  adjoining  Mongolia  there  are  perpendicular  veins  of  white 
spar  sometimes  mixed  with  blue.  The  tops  of  the  highest  mountains  contain  in 
ditlerent  places  large  masses  of  granite.* 

These  mountains  offer  no  traces  of  the  agency  of  fire.  They  seem  to  have  been 
formerly  covered  with  wood  ;  at  present  their  summits,  and  the  parts  which  are  most 
exposed,  exhibit  none  except  stunted  vegetable  productions. 

The  province  of  Shan-ton  consists  in  a  great  measure  of  a  large  mountainous  pe- 
ninsula. These  mountains,  which  contain  coal  mines,  constitute  a  group  wholly 
detached  from  the  other  mountains  of  China.  The  five  most  elevated  peaks  of  the 
chain  are  called  by  the  Chinese  "  the  Horses'  Heads." 

Plains.  I       The  largest  plains  of  China  arc  those  found  in  the  province  of  Ivian- 

nan,  between  the  two  great  rivers  Koan-ho  and  Yang-tse-Kiang.  These  two  rivers, 
with  the  Hookian  in  tlic  south,  form  three  great  basins,  which  comprehend  the  most 
fertile  parts  of  the  country.  The  coasts  of  China  seem  in  general  to  be  rocky,  sandy, 
and  beset  with  shallows. 

Rivers.  I       Hoan-ho,  or  "  the  Yellow  River,"  receives  this  name  from  the  colour 

of  the  mud  which  it  carries  along.  Its  known  sources  are  two  lakes  situated  in  the 
country  of  the  Kalmuks  of  Hoho-nor,  called  also  the  Chocotcs.  But  according  to 
d'Anville  there  is  a  river  which  flows  into  the  most  easterly  of  these  lakes,  which  is 
entitled  to  be  considered  as  the  commencement  of  the  Hoan-ho.  Its  origin  is  thus 
similar  to  those  of  the  Rhone  and  the  Rhine.  Geographers  nmke  difliculties  about 
these  points  regarding  tlie  origins  of  great  rivers,  as  if  science  and  truth  were  in  dan- 
ger from  an  error,  forgetting  that  they  are  mere  questions  of  nomenclature,  and  that 
the  only  object  worthy  of  pursuit  is  to  have  one  brief  mode  of  speaking,  judiciously 
chosen  and  sufficiently  steady  to  be  always  understood.  Where  this  is  not  the  case, 
every  end  is  obtained  by  specifying  the  fact  in  particular  cases,  as  we  have  now  done. 
Yang-tseki-  The  Yang-tsc-kiaug,  or  "  Blue  River,"  rises  somewhere  in  the  north 

*"^'  of  Thibet,  near  the  desert  of  Cobi.     But  it  is  only  by  forming  reasona- 

ble though  uncertain  conclusions  from  anumber  of  contradictory  accounts  that  d'An- 
ville and  Arrowsmith  have  fixed  the  poshions  of  these  sources. 

These  two  great  rivers,  similar  both  in  rise  and  destination,  descend  with  rapidity 
from  the  groat  table  lands  of  central  Asia,  and  each  of  them  meets  a  branch  of  moun- 
tains which  forces  it  to  describe  an  immense  circuit,  the  Hoan-ho  to  the  north,  and 
the  Yang-tse-kiang  to  the  south.  Separated  by  an  interval  of  1100  miles,  the  one 
.•seems  inclined  to  direct  itself  tp  the  tropical  seas,  while  the  other  wanders  off"  among 
the  icy  deserts  of  Mongolia.  Suddenly  recalled,  as  if  impelled  by  the  remembrance 
of  their  early  brotherhood,  they  approach  one  another,  and  wind  along  together  like 
the  Euphrates  and  Tigris  in  another  Mesopotamia ;  where,  after  being  almost  con- 

*  Macartney's  Embassy,  iii.  207,  246,  259.    Barrow,  ii.  241. 


Various  ri- 
vers. 


Nature  of  the 
waters. 


Principal 
lakes. 


CHINA.  69 

joined  by  canals  and  lakes,  they  terminate  within  a  mutual  distance  of  110  miles  their 
majestic  and  immense  course. 

Among  the  tributaries  of  these  two  great  rivers  there  are  some  wliich 
equal  in  size  the  largest  rivers  of  Europe.  The  Fuen-ho,  the  Ilooi-ho, 
and  the  Hoay-ho,  fall  into  the  Yellow-River;  the  Yalon-kiang,  which  is  nearly 700 
miles  long,  the  Tchoo  or  Yan-kiang,  the  lia-kiang,  and  the  Yuen-kiang,  are  tributa- 
ries to  the  Blue  River.  The  two  rivers  Yuen  and  Yon  run  first  into  the  lake  Ton- 
ting-hoo,  and  the  Kan  into  the  lake  Po-Yadg-hoo,  and  these  two  lakes  then  send 
their  waters  into  the  Yang-tse-kiang.  Each  of  these  secondary  rivers  of  the  interior 
of  China  may  be  compared  to  the  Loire,  the  Rhine,  or  the  Elbe. 

There  are,  however,  two  large  rivers  in  Cliina,  which  maintain  a  perfect  independ- 
ence both  of  the  Hoan-ho  and  the  Yan-tse-kiang.  The  Iloan-kiang  in  the  south, 
descending  from  the  mountains  of  Yun-nan,  after  a  course  of  740  miles,  falls  into 
the  Gulf  of  Canton;  and  in  the  north  the  Pay-ho,  after  receiving  the  Yan-ho,  falls 
into  the  Gulf  of  Pekin.  This  multitude  of  rivers  confers  on  the  Chinese  nation  incal- 
culable advantages  for  agriculture  and  inland  navigation.  Rut  their  water 
is  seldom  of  a  good  quality  for  human  use,  probably  because  in  their 
rapid  descent  from  the  steep  mountains  they  carry  along  with  them  a  quantity  of 
foreign  particles,  and  afterwards  wind  too  slowly  through  the  marshy  flats. 

Some  parts  of  China  are  filled  with  lalccs,  several  of  which  are  very 
large.  Duhalde  tells  us  that  the  lake  of  Tong-ting-hoo,  in  the  province 
of  1  loo-quang,  is  more  than  220  miles  in  circumference.  From  the  borders  of  this 
lake  to  the  city  of  Yoo-tchau,  on  an  area  140  miles  long  and  wide,  there  is  a  great 
niunber  of  lakes  ahnost  touching  one  anotlior.  This  circumstance  has  procured  for 
the  province  its  name  Iloo-quang,  which  signifies  "  tlie  Country  of  Lakes."  The 
lake  Poyang-hoo,  in  the  province  of  Kian-si,  has  a  circumference  of  90  or  100  miles, 
and  receives  four  superb  rivers,  one  of  which  is  fully  cfjual  to  the  Loire  at  Angers. 
The  navigation  of  that  lake,  however  is  dangerous.  The  Tai-iioo,  a  lake  south 
from  Nanking,  is  surrounded  by  very  romantic  hills.  Those  of  llontse-hoo  and 
Kaoyen-hoo,  to  the  north  of  Nanking,  are  of  vast  extent.  All  these  lakes  furnish 
intermedia  of  communication,  and  resorts  for  pleasura])l(!  excursions,  and  are  abun- 
dantly stocked  with  fish.*  In  these  tranquil  basins  barks  are  navigated  which  are 
light  enough  to  be  perfectly  portable;  and  the  Chinese  pelican,  an  aquatic  bird,  is 
trained  for  catching  fish,  a  ring  being  fixed  round  his  neck  to  prevent  him  from  swal- 
lowing his  prey.  (■ 

The  Chinese  have  displayed  their  enlightened  industry  in  imiting  by  |  Canais, 
numerous  canals  all  the  waters  with  which  nature  has  so  largely  endowed  their  em- 
jurc.  Travellers  are  astonished  at  the  length  and  commodiousncss  of  these  canals. 
They  arc  deep  enough  at  all  seasons  to  carry  large  vessels.  Rut  their  locks,  or 
rather  perforated  dykes,  by  means  of  which  vessels  ascend  and  descend,  are  con- 
structed with  very  little  skill.;);  The  rivers  and  canals  are  covered  with  so  great  a 
numl)cr  of  vessels  loaded  with  all  sorts  of  provisions  that  tlio  waters  seem  to  have 
on  their  surface  as  large  a  population  as  the  land.  Tiie  canals  have  a  stone  quay 
all  along  their  margin,  and  somefimes  bridges  constructed  with  wonderful  art:  but 
the  navigation  is  slow,  because  the  vessels  are  gonerally  dragged  by  men.  The 
numerous  rills,  the  rocks,  the  woods,  the  fields,  and  the  quick  succession  of  villages, 
render  China  a  country  highly  pleasing  to  the  eye,  the  wonders  of  nature  being  con- 
joined with  those  of  human  industry.  The  most  celebrated  of  tliese  can.als  is  that 
called  the  Imperial  Canal,  forming  a  commiuiication  between  Pckiu  and  Canton, 
about  1660  miles  long.  It  was  built  in  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century,  under  the 
grandson  of  Genghis  Khan.  The  only  interrujjtion  of  this  long  navigation  is  a  dis- 
tance of  one  day's  journey  in  crossing  a  mountain  between  the  province  of  Quan- 
tong  and  that  of  Kian-si. § 

•  Barrow,  ili.  12.  ii.  387—391. 

•)-  Anderson's  Narrative  of  Lord  Macartney's  Embassy,  p.  277.     Shaw's  Naturalist's  Miscel- 
lany, No.  154.     Diihamel,  Traitc  des  Peches,  sect.  iii.  cli.  i.  p,  17. 
i:  lie  Guignes,  ii.  3.3,  35, 195.     Macartney,  iv.  171. 
§  Duhalde,  i.  33.    Macartney,  &c. 


Extremes  of 
heat  and  of 
cold. 


Climate  of  Pe 
kin. 


70  BOOK  FORTY-SECOND. 

Climate.  |  Thc  difference  of  climate  between  the  different  provinces  is  inerettsed 
by  the  influence  which  the  mountains  of  Central  Asia  necessarily  exercise,  the  cold 
of  whicli  often  diffuses  itself  over  the  adjoining  countries.  On  the  other  side  ihc 
proximity  of  an  immense  ocean  must  modify  in  a  particular  manner  the  climate  and 
seasons  of  the  maritime  provinces. 

Hurricanes,  |  The  hurricancs  to  which  the  island  of  Formosa  is  exposed  often  ex- 
tend their  ravages  over  the  adjoining  shores  of  China.  The  Chinese  history  has 
committed  to  record  the  storm  which  destroyed  the  immense  fleet  destined  for  the 
conquest  of  Japan.  The  dreadful  water-spouts  and  whirlwinds  which  make  their 
appearance  in  the  Gulf  of  Tonquin  also  infest  the  Chinese  Sea. 
Heat.  I       The  south  of  China,  near  the  tropic,  experiences  heats,  stronger  than 

those  of  Bengal,  but  moderated  by  the  monsoons  or  periodical  winds.  The  mean 
heat  of  Canton  is  about  76°  of  Fahrenheit's  scale.*  The  great  trade  wind  blowing 
from  east  to  west  does  not  seem  to  reach  the  southern  coasts  of  China,  or  if  it  does, 
it  is  only  in  an  indirect  and  inconstant  manner.  The  accounts  given  of  these  winds 
by  navigators  seem  full  of  contradictions ;  the  norfh-east  winds  appear  to  prevail  in 
spring  and  summer,  and  the  south-west  and  south  in  the  fall ;  but  both  of  them  are 
liable  to  frequent  changes. 

The  northern  and  western  parts  of  China  have  a  far  colder  chmate  than  the  coun- 
tries of  Europe  which  are  situated  in  the  same  parallel  of  latitude.  The  elevation 
of  the  land,  and  the  snows  with  which  for  the  greater  part  of  the  year  the  central 
mountains  of  Asia  are  covered,  contribute  to  produce  this  difference  of  temperature. 
The  extremes  of  heat  and  of  cold  are  much  greater  at  Pekin  than  at 
Madrid,  though  the  latitude  is  much  the  same;  it  freezes  daily  in  De- 
cember, January,  and  February,  and  very  often  in  March  and  November.  Thc 
cold  is  often  followed  by  excessive  heat.  At  Pekin  there  are,  properly 
speaking,  only  two  seasons,  winter  and  summer.  Calculating  according 
to  the  observations  of  Father  Amyot,"f"  the  mean  term  of  the  greatest  heat  is  121°; 
that  of  the  greatest  cold  63"  below  zero;  the  medium  heat  of  the  year  55°. 
Winds.  I       The  winds  are  often  extremely  violent  at  Pekin.     In  spring  and  au- 

tumn they  begin  at  sunrise  and  cease  at  sunset;  they  carry  along  with  them  a  copious 
impregnation  of  yellow  dust  resembling  a  shower  of  sulphur,  which  is  thought  by 
some  to  be  the  pollen  of  the  flowers  of  the  pines  and  other  vegetable  species  that 
grow  in  thc  neighbourhood  of  Pekin.  The  north  and  south-west  winds  are  the  most 
prevalent. 

Rains.  |       Rain  is  rare  in  Pekin  during  winter.     Nothing  but  snow  falls  at  that 

season,  and  that  in  small  quantity.  The  months  of  June,  July,  and  August  are  very 
rainy;  November  is  the  driest  month  of  the  whole  year.  Storms  are  frequent  in 
December  and  January.  The  average  number  of  rainy  days  throughout  the  year  is 
fifty-eight.  At  Pekin,  auroras  boreales  and  several  other  luminous  appearances  are 
frequently  seen ;  some  which  seem  to  be  of  the  same  nature  occur  during  the  day. 
Agriculture.  |  While  entering  on  a  view  of  the  vegetable  riches  of  China,  the  trea- 
sures of  an  excellent  agriculture  arrest  our  attention.  The  principal  object  of  culti- 
vation is  rice;  but  in  the  north-west  there  are  places  too  cold  and  dry  for  this  grain, 
which  is  therefore  replaced  by  wheat.  Yams,  potatoes,  turnips,  onions,  beans,  and, 
above  all,  a  species  of  white  cabbage  called  pelsai,  are  cultivated  in  this  country.;}; 

Almost  the  whole  arable  land  is  constantly  employed  in  the  production  of  human 
food.  The  practice  of  fallowing  is  unknown.  There  are  very  few  pastures,  and 
few  fields  of  oats,  of  beans,  or  of  turnip  for  feeding  cattle.  Even  the  steepest  moun- 
tains are  brought  into  cultivation;  they  are  cut  into  terraces,  resembling  at  a  distance 
immense  pyramids  divided  by  numerous  steps  or  stories ;  and,  what  is  really  worthy 
of  our  admiration,  the  water  which  runs  at'  thc  foot  of  thc  mountain  is  raised  from 
terrace  to  teiTace  to  the  very  top,  by  means  of  a  portable  chain  pump,  which  may  be 
carried  about  and  worked  by  two  men.  Reservoirs  are  also  dug  on  tlie  tops  of  the 
mountains,  from  which  the  rain  water  that  is  collected  is  let  down  by  a  variety  of 

*  Kirwan  on  Temperature  and  Climate. 

t  Mcmoires  des  Sgavans  Etrangers,  t.  vi  p.  509. 

+  De  Guignes,  iii.  326. 


Agricultural 
fete. 


CHINA.  71 

gutters  for  the  irrigation  of  the  sides.     In  such  places  as  arc  steep  or  too  barren, 
pines  and  larches  are  planted.* 

The  plough  is  on  a  very  simple  construction;  it  has  only  one  handle  |  implements, 
or  hilt,  and  no  coulter.  As  they  do  not  fallow  their  ground,  and  have  no  turf  to  cut, 
the  coulter  is  considered  as  useless.  They  sow  their  corn  in  clean  drills  formed  by 
the  drill  plough,  a  method  lately  tried  in  some  parts  of  England.  The  drill  plough 
employs  the  women  and  children  of  the  farmers.  The  Chinese  sometimes  use  a 
large  cylinder  to  separate  the  grain  from  the  ear;  they  have  always  practised  winnow- 
in"-  with  a  machine  precisely  similar  to  the  fanners  which  were  introduced  into  Eu- 
rope about  a  century  ago."j" 

The  animals  employed  for  agricultural  labour  and  for  carriage,  as  well  |  Bestial, 
as  those  intended  for  food,  are  generally  kept  in  stables,  and  the  fodder  is  collected 
for  them.  Horses  are  chiefly  fed  on  beans  and  finely  chopped  straw.  In  the  north- 
ern provinces  oxen  are  used  for  the  plough,  as  it  is  too  cold  for  the  buffalo ;  but  the 
latter  is  preferred  wherever  the  climate  admits  of  it.  No  substance  susceptible  of 
putrefaction  escapes  the  patient  industry  of  the  inhabitants  in  the  preparation  of  ma- 
nure. The  difierent  expedients  to  which  they  have  recourse  for  the  collection  and 
improvement  of  that  valuable  article  are  numerous ;  but  a  description  of  |  Manure, 
the  details  is  not  necessary,  and,  in  a  work  of  this  sort,  would  be  repugnant  to  good 
taste. 

The  manner  in  which  the  dwellings  of  the  peasantry  are  disposed  contributes  to 
the  flourishing  state  of  agriculture.  They  are  not  collected  in  villages,  but  all  dis- 
persed. They  use  no  fences,  nor  gates,  nor  any  precautions  against  wild  animals  or 
thieves.  The  women  raise  silk  worms ;  they  spin  cotton,  which  is  in  general  use 
among  the  common  people  for  persons  of  both  sexes ;  they  also  manufacture  woollen 
stuffs.     The  women  are  the  only  weavers  in  the  empire. 

Every  one  has  heard  of  the  honours  conferred  on  agriculture  by  the 
Chinese  government.  Every  year,  on  the  fifteenth  day  of  the  first 
moon,  which  generally  corresponds  to  some  day  in  the  beginning  of  our  March,  the 
emperor  in  person  goes  through  the  ceremony  of  opening  the  ground.  He  repairs 
in  great  state  to  the  field  appointed  for  this  ceremony.  The  princes  of  the  imperial 
family,  the  presidents  of  the  five  great  tribunals,  and  an  immense  number  of  manda- 
rins attend  him.  Two  sides  of  the  field  are  lined  with  the  officers  of  the  emperor's 
house,  the  third  is  occupied  by  different  mandarins ;  the  fourth  is  reserved  for  all  the 
labourers  of  the  province,  who  repair  thither  to  see  their  art  honoured  and  practised 
by  the  head  of  the  empire.  The  emperor  enters  the  field  alone,  prostrates  himself, 
and  touches  the  ground  nine  times  with  his  head  in  adoration  of  Tieii  the  God  of 
heaven.  He  pronounces  with  a  loyd  voice  a  prayer  prepared  by  the  court  of  cere- 
monies, in  which  he  invokes  the  blessing  of  the  Great  Being  on  his  labour  and  on 
that  of  his  whole  people.  Then,  in  the  capacity  of  chief  priest  of  the  empire,  he 
sacrifices  an  ox,  in  homage  to  heaven  as  the  fountain  of  all  good.  While  the  victim 
is  offered  on  the  altar,  a  plough  is  brought  to  the  emperor,  to  which  is  yoked  a  pair 
of  oxen,  ornamented  in  a  most  magnificent  style.  The  prince  lays  aside  his  imperial 
robes,  lays  hold  of  the  handle  of  the  plough,  and  opens  several  furrows  all  round  the 
field;  then  gives  the  plough  into  the  hands  of  the  chief  mandarins,  who,  labouring  in 
succession,  display  their  comparative  dexterity.  The  ceremony  concludes  with  a 
distribution  of  money  and  pieces  of  cloth  as  presents  among  the  labourers ;  the  ablest 
of  whom  execute  the  rest  of  the  work  in  the  presence  of  the  emperor.  After  the 
field  has  received  all  the  necessary  work  and  manure,  the  emperor  returns  to  com- 
mence the  sowing  with  similar  ceremony  and  in  presence  of  tlie  labourers.  These 
ceremonies  are  performed  on  the  same  day  by  the  viceroys  of  all  the  provinces. 

It  must,  however,  be  acknowledged,  that  creditable  travellers  have  |  Waste  lands, 
represented  the  state  of  Chinese  agriculture  as  far  less  flourisliing  than  is  generally 
maintained.     On  the  road  from  Pekin  to  Canton  there  are  extensive  tracts  in  a  stale 
of  nature,  arid  mountains  which  are  susceptible  of  no  sort  of  culture,  and  downs  of  an 

*  Macartney,  iv.  210.     Plane,  xxxvi.     l)e  Guignes,  i.  288,  iii.  335. 
t  Barrow,  iii.  66.     De  Guignes,  i.  348,  ii.  17,  iii.  339. 


72  BOOK  FOllTY-SECOND. 

aspect  as  gloomy  as  those  of  Brittany.  The  western  provinces,  according  to  the  ac- 
counts of  tlie  Chinese,  contain  a  still  larger  extent  of  harren  land.* 
Fruit  trees.  |  The  Chinese  have  many  fruit  trees,  hut  in  that  article  their  industry 
is  far  behind.  Wedded  to  old  habits,  they  have  added  little  improvement  to  the 
species  as  furnished  by  nature.  Their  finest  fruits  are  in  general  far  inferior  in  fla- 
vour to  those  of  Europe.  They  do  not  practise  grafting.  They  pay  very  little  at- 
tention to  the  making  of  wine,  though  several  provinces  of  the  empire  abound  in 
vines,  the  grapes  of  wliich  are  chiefly  sold  in  the  form  of  dried  raisins.  Among  the 
fruit  trees  of  Qhina  we  may  remark  our  lemon  tree  and  the  Citrus  CJiinensis,  three 
kinds  of  oranges,  among  which  that  called  kammat  is  of  the  size  of  a  cherry,  the 
Chinese  chesnut,  the  banana,  the  tamarind,  the  mulberry,  and  the  guava,  bearing  a 
fruit  similar  to  the  pomegranate.  Several  European  fruits,  such  as  gooseberries, 
(raspberries,  according  to  some,)  and  olives,  are  hardly  known  in  China.  Cabbage, 
turnips,  and  potatoes  form  a  great  part  of  the  food  of  the  Chinese,  and  the  culture 
of  these  vegetables  is  carried  to  a  high  degree  of  perfection. 

Tea  tree.  |  But  nature  has  conferred  on  China  other  treasures  which  are  peculiar 
to  that  country.  Tea,  which  has  now  become  an  article  of  the  first  necessity  for 
more  than  one  nation  of  Europe,  brings  immense  profits  to  the  Chinese.  The  TJiea 
viridis  or  green  tea,  and  the  Tliea  hohea  or  black  tea,  have  been  generally  considered 
as  trees  of  different  species,  but  some  able  botanists,  and,  among  others,  Messrs. 
Ventenat  and  Celsius,  have  thought  that  the  tea  tree  is  a  single  species,  only  subject 
to  varieties.  Sir  Geo.  Staunton  also  thinks  that  the  green  and  bohea  tea  grow  on 
the  same  shrub,  but  that  the  latter  undergoes  some  preparation  which  deprives  it  of 
its  powerful  agency  on  the  system,  and  communicates  to  it  a  deeper  colour.  Do 
Guignes  tells  us  that  green  and  black  tea  differ  in  their  origin  :  that  the  one  is  the 
produce  of  the  province  of  Kian-quan,  and  the  other  of  Fokien.  Black  tea  has  not 
the  corrosive  quality  of  the  green.j  Other  species,  as  imperial,  Congo,  and  single, 
have  got  these  names  from  the  nature  of  the  ground,  or  the  names  of  the  districts 
which  produced  them.  A  particular  odour  is  communicated  to  tea  by  mixing  it  with 
the  leaves  of  tlie  sweet  smelhng  ohve.  The  tea  shrub  does  not  prosper  in  the  best 
maimer  any  where  except  in  the  space  bounded  by  the  Gulf  of  Canton  on  the  south 
and  the  Yang-tse  kiang  on  the  north,  which  lies  between  the  parallels  of  30°  and  23°. 
Fartlier  north  and  fartlier  south  the  cultivation  of  it  is  less  advantageous. 

The  camphor  tree  grows  to  a  size  which  entitles  it  to  be  numbered 
among  trees,  and  it  furnishes  some  of  the  handsomest  and  best  wood  for 
carpentry.  '  The  branches  alone  are  used  for  preparing  the  drug  known  under  the 
name  of  camphor.  The  bark  of  the  paper  mulberry  is  used  for  malting  cloth  and 
paper.  From  tlie  fruit  of  the  Crolon  sebiferum  or  tallow  tree,  a  green  coloured  wax  is 
obtained  which  is  formed  into  tapers.  The  Chinese  varnishes  are  in  great  reputation. 
They  are  made  of  a  gum  which  is  obtained  by  incision  from  a  tree  called  in  the  Chinese 
language  shi-sku.  The  aloe  has  the  height  and  figure  of  an  olive  tree.  It  contains 
within  the  bark  three  sorts  of  wood  ;  the  first,  black,  compact,  and  heavy,  is  called 
eagle  wood;  it  is  scarce;  the  second,  called  Calambooc,  is  light  like  rotten  wood  ;  the 
third,  near  the  centre,  is  called  Calamba  wood,  and  sells  in  India  for  its  weight  in 
gold.  Its  smell  is  ex(iuisite  ;  it  is  an  excellent  cordial  in  cases  of  fainting  or  palsy. 
The  bamboo  grows  in  marshy  places.  Its  tops  are  applied  to  a  great  many  uses,  on 
account  of  their  lightness.  While  young,  they  are  cut  and  split  for  matting.  When 
old,  they  acquire  a  hardness  equal  to  that  of  the  strongest  building  tim- 
ber. Their  fibrous  part  is  made  into  paper.  The  sugar  cane  grows  in 
f  China,  and  sugar  is  one  of  the  commodilics  whick  the  Europeans  ex- 
port from  that  country.  The  case  is  the  same  with  indigo.  The  crops  of  cotton 
are  equally  abundant.  But  cinnamon,  clove,  and  nutmeg  trees,  are  in  small  number, 
and  confined  to  the  southern  extremity  of  the  country. 

•  Memoires  sur  la  Chine,  vlii.  p.  295.  DuhalJe,  t.  i.  p.  14,  15.  Lettres  edifiantes,  xxii.  p. 
177,  (Nonobslaiit  Macartney,  iv.  471.)  „  . 

t  Father  I.ccompte,  Memoire  sur  I'etat  present  de  la  Chine,  i,  lettre  8,  p.  j68,  De  Ouigacs, 
iii.  244, 247,  etc.     Macartney,  iv.  192.     Barrow,  iii,  79. 


The  camphor 
tree,  mulber- 
ry, &e. 


Bamboo. 
Sugar  caue, 
etc. 

the  south  o 


CHINA. 


73 


Domestic  ani- 
mals. 


Arrow-root,  galanga,  sarsaparilla,  and  rhubarb,  arc  numbered  among  |  Mc<iicai(iniK5. 
the  articles  of  export,  but  the  rhubarb  probably  comes  from  Mongolia  and  Thibet. 

In  the  maritime  provinces  of  China,  no  large  forest  is  to  be  seen  in  the  plains,  but 
several  on  the  mountains.  There  are  some  of  immense  extent  in  the  western  paft 
of  the  country.  Pines  and  birches  are  very  common.  The  weeping  |  Forest  treei- 
willow,  the  Indian  fig,  the  Thuia  orienUtlis  or  Arbor  rt'te,  the  Hibiscus  mutabilis,  and 
several  other  trees  and  shrubs  form  little  groves,  or  grow  detached  in  places  not  sub- 
jected to  agriculture. 

The  Chinese  rear,  though  in  comparatively  small  number,  all  the  do- 
mestic animals  of  Europe  ;  the  horse,  the  ass,  the  ox,  the  Buffalo,  the 
dog,  the  cat,  the  pig ;  but  their  horses  are  small  and  ill-formed.  The  camels  of 
China  are  often  no  larger  than  our  horses  ;  the  other  breeds  are  good,  and  particu- 
larly that  of  pigs.  The  kind  of  dog  most  common  in  the  south  from  Canton  to 
Tong-chin-tchen,  is  the  spaniel  with  straight  ears.  More  to  the  north,  as  far  as 
Pekin,  the  dogs  have  generally  hanging  ears  and  slender  tails. 

Elephants  are  common  in  the  south  of  China,  and  extend  as  far  as  |  "WiWanimsis, 
the  30th  degree  of  north  latitude  in  the  provinces  of  Kiangnan  and  of  Yun-nan. 
The  unicorn  rhinoceros  lives  on  the  sides  of  the  marshes  in  the  provinces  of  Yun- 
nan and  Quan-si.  The  lion  according  to  Duhalde  and  Trigault,*  is  a  stranger  to 
China  ;  but  the  animal  figured  by  Neuhof,  under  the  name  of  the  tiger,|  seems  to 
be  the  nameless  lion  known  to  the  ancients,  described  by  Oppian,  and  seen  by  M. 
Olivier  on  the  Euphrates.  Marco  Polo  saw  lions  in  Fo-kien  :  there  were  some  at 
the  court  of  Kublai  Khan.  J  The  true  tiger  probably  shows  himself  in  the  most 
southerly  provinces,  where  there  are  also  various  kinds  of  monkeys,  the  long-armed 
gibbon  or  Simia  longimana,  the  Simia  injluens  or  ugly  baboon,  and  the  Simia  silvana 
which  mimics  the  gestures  and  even  the  laughter  of  men.  The  musk  animal,  which 
seems  peculiar  to  the  central  plateau  of  Asia,  sometimes  goes  down  into  the  western 
provinces  of  China.  The  deer,  the  boar,  the  fox,  and  other  animals,  some  of  which 
are  little  known,  are  found  in  the  forests  of  China. 

Tame  poultry  abounds  in  China,  particularly  ducks.     They  are  seen  |  Birds, 
wandering  in  whole  flocks  on  the  canals,  and  in  the  evening  their  owners  call  them 
home  with  a  whistle.     Several  of  the  birds  of  the  country  are  distinguished  for 
beauty  of  form  and  brilliancy  of  colour ;  such  as  the  gold  and  silver  pheasants, 
which  we  see  often  painted  on  the  Chinese  papers,  and  which  have  been  brought  to 
this  country  to  adorn  our  aviaries  ;  also  the   Chinese  teal,  remarkable  for  its  two 
beautiful  orange  crests.     The  insects  and  butterflies  are  equally  distin-  |  insects, 
guished  for  their  uncommon  beauty.     Silk  worms  are  common,  and  seem  to  be  in- 
digenous in  the  country.     From  drawings  made  in   China  it   appears  |  Fisii. 
that  it  possesses  almost  all  the  common  fishes  of  Europe  ;  and  M.  Block  and   M. 
de  Lacepcde  have  made  us  acquainted   with  several  species  peculiar  to  it.     The 
Chinese  gold-fish,  which  in  that  country  as  with  us  is  kept  in  basins  as     tiip  GoM 
an  ornament,  is  a  native  of  a  lake  at  the  foot  of  the  high  mountain  of    ^"''" 
Tien-king,  near  the  city  of  Tchang-hoo,  in  the   province   of  Tche-kiang.     From 
that  place  it  has  been  taken  to  all  the  other  provinces  of  the  empire,  and  to  Japan. 
It  was  in  1611  that  it  was  first  brou";lit  to  England. 

Silver  mines  are  abundant  in  China,  but  are  little  worked  ;  perhaps  j  Minciais. 
the  ignorance  of  the  Chinese  is  the  cause  of  that  circumstance.  Gold  is  chiefly  ob- 
tained from  the  sand  of  the  rivers  in  the  [irovinccs  of  Sc-tchucn  and  Yun-nan,  near 
the  frontiers  of  Thibet.  No  gold  or  silver  money  is  coined.  The  tutc-  |  Tiuenague. 
nague  is  a  white  metallic  substance,  of  which  the  ('hinesc  make  vessels  and  chan- 
deliers. Its  exact  nature  is  still  a  problem.  Some  say  that  ttitcnague  is  the  name 
given  by  the  Chinese  to  zinc  ;  otiiers  consider  the  tutenague  of  China  as  an  artificial 
mixture  of  different  metals,  while  the  tutenague  of  India,  according  to  them,  is  pure 
zinc  without  any  alloy  of  lead.§     M. 


de  Guignes 


aftirms  that  it  is  a  native  mixture 


•  Trigatilt,  Kxped.  Sin.  1.  iv.  cap.  2. 
i  M.  Polo,  de  reh.  orient,  ii.  17,  67,  68. 
§   Haiiy,  Mineraloi;le,  t.  iv.p.  1J8. 

Vol.  II.— K 


f  NeuItofT,  Ainbasaade,  f.  !i.  p.  96. 


74  liOOK  FORTY-THIRD 

of  lead  rvnd  iron  peculiar  to  China.  The  province  of  Hoo-quang  contains  a  mine 
which  furnishes  it  in  great  abundance.* 

4p)Pi)er.  I       The  yellow  copper  of  Yun-nan  and  other  provinces  is  used  for  making 

the  small  coin  which  is  current  through  the  whole  empire.  But  there  is  also  a  pecu- 
liar copper  of  a  white  colour,  which  the  Chinese  call  petung,  or  according  to  some 
pa-kfong:  The  knowledge  which  we  have  of  this  metal  does  not  enable  us  to  de- 
cide on  its  precise  nature.  According  to  Einumaun  it  is  a  composition  of  copper, 
nickel,  and  iron.  To  render  it  softer  it  is  alloyed  with  tutenague,  or  what  answers 
better,  a  fifth  part  of  silver. f 

Lead  and  tin  are  the  two  metals  found  in  smallest  quantity  in  China.  That  which 
is  exported  from  Canton  comes  from  Thibet  and  Japan.  The  mines  of  quicksilver 
must  be  abundant  in  Yun-nan,  although  we  are  not  acquainted  with  their  precise 
Arsenic.  |  localities.  J   Realgar,  or  the  native  sulphuret  of  arsenic,  known  to  us  as 

a  violent  poison,  is  employed  by  the  Chinese  in  blocks  for  making  pagodas  and 
vases.  When  they  want  to  take  a  purge,  they  swallow  vinegar  and  lemon  juice  which 
have  been  kept  for  some  hours  in  vessels  of  realgar.  § 

Various  stones.  |  Lazulitc,  jasper,  rock  crystal,  nephritic  jade,  magnetic  iron,  granite, 
porphyry,  and  difterent  kinds  of  marbles,  are  found  in  China.  There  is  a  kind  of 
marble  possessed  of  a  sonorous  property,  to  which  travellers  have  given  the  name 
of  "  the  musical  stone."  Several  images  are  made  of  pot-stone,  (the  talc  graphique 
of  Haiiy.)  The  interior  of  China  undoubtedly  contains  a  great  num.ber  of  useful 
or  curious  minerals  ;  but  the  information  respecting  them  furnished  liy  missionaries 
and  by  the  Chinese  is  extremely  vague.  Rubies,  corundum,  or  adamantine  spar, 
and  some  varieties  of  rock  crystal,  are  found  there.  Nor  must  we  omit  to  mention 
the  three  substances  employed  in  the  composition  of  Chinese  porcelain  :  petuntse,  a 
wiiitish  laminated  feltspar ;  kaolin,  a  feltspar  in  the  state  of  earth  or  clay  ;  and  chc- 
kao,  or  sulphate  of  barytes. 

In  several  of  the  northern  provinces  mineral  coal  is  found  in  great  abundance. 
The  Chinese  pulverize  it  and  form  it  with  water  into  balls  which  are  exposed  to  dry. 
There  seems  to  be  no  fossil  salt  in  the  eastern  parts  of  China  ;  and  kitchen  salt  is 
procured  by  crystallization  from  sea-water.  The  northern  and  western  provinces  con- 
tain abundance  of  saltpetre. 


BOOK  XLIII. 
CHINA. 


PART  II. 

Topographical  Details.     Provinces  and  Toivns. 

The  general  view  which  we  have  taken  of  the  physical  state  of  China  compre- 
hends a  selection  of  all  that  appears  unambiguous  in  the  diflcrent  accounts  given  to 
the  world.  We  proceed  to  the  particular  description  of  the  provinces,  beginning 
with  that  which  contains  the  modern  capital.  It  is  not,  however,  to  be  expected  that 
Nnmi.trof  WO  shall  dcscribc  the  1572  towns,  2796  temples,  3158  bridges,  10,80f) 
towns.  public  buildings,  or  tlie  7C5  lakes,  and  the   14,007  mountains,  enume- 

rated by  Chinese  authors.     Though  wc  shall  avoid  the  unmeaning  rapidity  ol"  the 


*  l)e  Gulgncs,  iii.  p.  262,  &c,  f  GillaH,  in  Mucarlncy,  iv.  289. 

i  IJe  Guijjiics,  iii.  p.  255.  §  llaiiy,  iv.  234. 


ProTince  of 
Petcheli. 


Imperial 
palace. 


CHINA.  .  75 

English  geographers,  we  must  not  run  into  the  opposite  fault,  but  leave  to  such  as 
Busching  the  unwieldy  nomenclatiu'e  of  the  Chinese  books. 

The  province  of  Petcheli,  situated  in  the  gulf  of  the  same  name,  on 
the  south  side  of  the  Great  Wall,  is  productive  in  grain  and  cattle,  but 
deficient  in  wood.  The  high  mountains  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Pckin  furnish  all 
the  coal  which  is  required  for  the  consumption  of  the  country  ;  and  though  it  is  in 
general  use,  the  mines  have  no  appearance  of  being  soon  exhausted ;  these  moun- 
tains also  yield  a  little  gold  and  iron ;  the  soil  is  sandy  and  nitrous,  the  air  cold  and 
healthy.* 

Pekin,  the  chief  city  of  the  province,  is  the  capital  of  the  whole  Chi-  |  Pekin. 
nese  empire,  and  the  ordinary  residence  of  its  sovereigns.  It  is  situated  in  a  fertile 
plain,  at  a  distance  of  twenty-six  miles  from  the  Great  Wall.  It  is  in  the  form  of  a 
long  parallelogram,  and  is  divided  into  two  cities;  the  Tartar,  or  more  properly  the 
Mantchoorian  city,  contains  the  imperial  palace,  and  forms,  along  with  the  other  or 
Chinese  city,  an  irregular  whole,  seventeen  miles  in  circumference.  The  walls  of 
Pekin  are  fifty  cubits  in  height,  and  conceal  the  buildings  from  the  view ;  the  gates 
are  not  embellished  with  statues  or  with  sculpture,  but  their  prodigious  height  gives 
them  at  a  certain  distance  an  air  of  grandeur.  The  arcades  of  the  gates  are  of 
marble,  and  the  remainder  of  broad  bricks  cemented  with  excellent  mortar.  The 
greater  part  of  the  streets  are  in  straight  lines;  the  largest  are  120  feet  wide,  and 
nearly  three  miles  in  length,  well  aired,  clean  and  cheerful.  The  whole  street  is 
generally  occupied  with  shops,  in  which  the  silks  and  wares  of  China  are  sold.  The 
fronts  of  the  houses,  which  are  very  low,  have  nothing  gloomy  in  their  appearance. 
The  magnificence  of  the  imperial  palace  does  not  consist  so  much  in 
the  imposing  elegance  of  its  architecture,  as  in  the  multitude  of  its 
buildings,  its  courts,  and  its  gardens.  The  walls  of  the  palace  comprehend  a  little 
town,  inhabited  by  the  great-officers  of  the  court,  and  a  great  quantity  of  mechanics, 
all  in  the  emperor's  service.  Father  Artier,  a  French  Jesuit  who  obtained  permis- 
sion to  visit  the  palace,  says  that  it  is  a  league  in  circumference,  that  its  front  is 
embellished  with  painting,  gilding  and  varnished  work,  and  that  the  furniture  and 
ornaments  of  the  interior  comprise  every  thing  that  is  most  rare  and  valued  in  China, 
India,  and  Europe.  The  gardens  of  the  palace  form  a  vast  park,  in  which,  at  proper 
distances,  mountains  rise  twenty  or  sixty  feet  in  height,  separated  from  one  anotlicr 
by  little  valleys,  which  are  watered  with  canals ;  these  waters  unite  to  form  lakes 
and  broad  ponds,  which  are  navigated  by  magnificent  pleasure  boats,  and  their  banks 
are  adorned  with  a  series  of  buildings  of  which  no  two  are  alike.  Each  valley 
contains  a  summer  house  or  villa,  sufficiently  spacious  to  accommodate  one  of  the 
first  noblemen  of  Europe,  with  all  his  attendants.  The  cedar  of  which  these  houses 
are  built  is  not  found  within  a  less  distance  than  1400  miles  from  Pekin.  In  the 
midst  of  a  lake  which  is  a  mile  and  a  half  broad,  there  is  a  rocky  island,  crowned 
with  a  superb  palace  containing  more  than  a  hundred  apartments.  The  mountains 
and  hills  are  covered  with  trees  and  fine  aromatic  flowers;  the  canals  skirted  with 
rocks  so  artfully  arranged  as  to  be  a  perfect  imitation  of  nature  in  her  wildest  and 
most  desolate  forms.  The  whole  has  an  air  of  enchantment.  On  the  summits  of 
the  highest  mountains  tall  trees  encircle  pavilions  and  kiosks  consecrated  to  retire- 
ment and  pleasure. 

The  temples  of  Pekin  arc  not  equal  to  the  palaces.  The  religion  of  the  Emperor 
is  comparatively  new  in  China,  and  its  ceremonies  arc  celebrated  with  less  [jonq)  in 
that  country  than  in  Tartary.  Tlie  mandarins  and  literati,  from  whom  the  magis- 
trates who  rule  the  empire  are  selected,  rather  respect  than  worsliip  Confucius,  and 
assemble  to  honour  his  memory,  in  simple,  neat,  and  cleanly  buildings. 

The  English  make  the  number  of  inhabitants  amount  to  three  million,  |  Population, 
an  estimate  ridiculously  extravagant.     The  city  of  Pekin  docs  not  afford  sufficient 
space  for  three  milhon  of  men  to  stand  on.     With  these  accounts  we  may  contrast 

•  Dai-svn-y-tundshi,  Clunese  Geography  in  Busching's  Magas.  xiv.  411,  &.c.     De  Guignes 

iii.298,  sir. 


Province  of 
Shanton. 


76  BOOK  FORTY-THIRD. 

the  testimony  of  tlie  Russians  who  have  visited  Pekin,*  who  tell  us  that  it  scarcely 
doubles  Moscow  in  extent;  that  a  laige  portion  of  it  is  occupied  by  the  palace  and 
its  gardens,  and  that  the  houses  are  not  closer  together  than  those  of  Moscow.  Now 
we  know  that  Moscow,  though  larger  than  Paris,  does  not  contain  more  than  300,000 
inhabitants.  According  to  these  data,  Pekin  will  only  contain  600,000,  or,  at  most, 
700,000  inhabitants. 

Other  towns.  |  Pao-ting-fou  is  the  residence  of  the  viceroy  of  the  province.  On  the 
south  of  that  city  we  find  a  small  lake  celebrated  for  the  quantity  of  nenuphars,  or 
water  lilies,  found  in  it,  and  which  the  Chinese  call  Licu-Hoa.  Their  violet,  white, 
or  mixed  red  and  white  flowers,  sometimes  rise  two  or  three  cubits  above  the  surface 
of  the  water  which  carries  their  floating  leaves.  Every  part  of  this  plant,  even  to  its 
knotty  root,  is  either  adapted  for  food  or  some  other  purpose  of  utility.t 

This  city  forms  a  stage  on  the  road  from  Pekin  to  the  province  of  Chan-Si,  one 
of  the  handsomest  and  most  agreeable  roads  that  can  be  travelled.  The  whole  coun- 
try is  level  and  cultivated:  The  road  soomth,  and  in  several  places  lined  with  rows 
of  trees.     It  is  constantly  thronged  with  men,  carriages,  and  beasts  of  burden. 

To  the  south  of  the  gulf  of  Petcheli  is  the  peninsula  which  forms  a 
part  of  the  province  of  Shanton.  The  great  Imperial  Canal  crosses  it, 
and  by  this  canal  all  the  barks  pass  which  are  bound  for  Pekin  from  the  south.  An 
infinite  number  of  lakes,  rivulets,  and  rivers,  enliven  this  province,  in  itself  barren 
and  exposed  to  great  droughts  by  the  extreme  infrequency  of  rains.  One  part  of  the 
province  is  a  vast  plain  on  the  two  sides  of  the  river.  Wheat,  millet,  and  tobacco 
grow  here,  but  herbaceous  cotton  is  the  chief  produce  of  this  as  well  as  of  the  adjoin- 
ing province  of  Kiang-Nan. 

There  are  worms 'resembling  catterpillars,  which  produce  in  the  fields  a  white 
silk,  which  attaches  itself  in  threads  to  the  shrubs  and  bushes.     Of  this  substance 
stufls  are  manufactured,  coarse  in  quality,  but  close  and  strong. 
Towns,  I       Tsi-nan-foo,  the  capital  of  this  province,  is  famous  for  the  lustre  of  its 

white  silks.     Yeu-tchoo-foo,  a  large  and  populous  district,  contains  the  city  of  Kio- 
scoo-hieu,  celebrated  as  the  birth  place  of  Confucius. 

The  mouths  of  the  two  gi-eat  rivers,  Hoangho,  and  Yangtse-Kiang, 
are  in  the  province  of  Kiang-Nang,  one  of  the  most  fertile,  most  trading, 
and  consequently  one  of  the  richest  in  the  empire.  It  is  situated  on  the  gulf  of  Nan- 
king in  the  Yellow  Sea.  Its  inhabitants  are  regarded  as  the  most  civilized  of  the 
Chinese.  Their  silk  and  cotton  cloths,  their  paper,  and  their  varnished  wares,  are 
held  in  higher  esteem  tlian  those  of  any  other.  Here  the  ancient  emperors  con- 
stantly held  their  court  till  reasons  of  state  obliged  them  to  transfer  it  to  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Tartary,  and  fix  on  Pekin  as  their  place  of  residence.  Green  tea  is 
the  chief  production;  the  mountains,  which  are  composed  of  sand-stone  in  well 
marked  strata,|  furnish  magnetic  iron,  copper,  and  a  little  silver.§ 
Nanking.  |  Nanking,  formerly  the  capital  of  the  whole  empire,  is  situated  on  the 
Kiang,  not  far  from  the  mouth  of  that  river.  Without  reckoning  its  suburbs,  it  is 
said  to  be  thirty-three  miles  in  circumference,  but  the  missionaries  most  entitled  to 
credit  say  that  the  ground  now  built  upon  docs  not  exceed  one-third  of  Paris.  ||  Its 
ancient  wall  is  at  present  in  the  midst  of  cultivated  fields  at  a  little  distance,  and 
perhaps  the  vast  extent  of  space  which  it  included  was  formerly  occupied  in  a  great 
measure  by  gardens.  The  palace,  a  most  beautiful  building,  was  burned  in  1645, 
by  the  Mantchoos.  The  only  public  buildings  remaining  at  Nanking  arc  its  gates, 
which  arc  extraordinary  for  beauty,  and  some  temples,  such  as  that  to  which  the 
famous  porcelain  tower  belongs,  which  has  eight  stories,  is  ascended  by 
884  steps,  and,  according  to  the  Chinese,  is  adorned  at  the  top  with  a 
pine  apple  of  solid  gold.  All  the  outside  is  ornamented  with  diflerent  sorts  of  de- 
signs in  red,  yellow,  and  green.     The  materials  of  this  fine  building  are  so  well 

*  Travels  of  Lange,  with  a  geographical  description  of  the  city  of  Pekin,  published  in  Ger- 
man, by  M.  Fallas,  at  Petersburg,  in  1780.  f  Duhalde,  t.  i.  p.  128. 
\  De  Giiignes,  iii.  317. 

§  DaY-sin-y-tundshi,  in  Rusching,  p.  433,  439,  &c. 
II  Journal  des  Savans,  1782,  Juil'let,  p.  470.     Duhalde,  t.  i.  p.  128. 


Province  of 
Ivaing-Nang. 


Porctlain 
tower. 


Soo-tchoo-foa, 
and  other 
towns. 

landsomest 


Yangr-tcheou- 
fou. 


CHINA.  77 

joined,  tliat  they  have  the  appearance  of  being  in  one  piece.  In  tlie  corners  of  all 
the  galleries  are  hung  bells  without  number,  which  emit  clear  and  delightful  sounds 
by  the  impulse  of  the  wind.  Nanking  passes  for  the  seat  of  Chinese  learning;  its 
libraries  are  more  numerous  than  those  of  any  other  place.  Here  the  physicians 
have  their  principal  school.  The  satins,  plain  and  flowered,  which  are  manufactured 
here,  are  the  best  in  China. 

To  the  south-east  of  Nanking  we  find  Soo-tchoo-foo,  a  town  inter- 
sected with  canals.  This  place  is  a  school  for  the  ablest  comedians, 
and  the  best  rope  dancers  and  cup-jugglers;  it  is  the  native  place  of  the 
and  smallest  footed  women;  the  dictatrix  of  Chinese  taste,  fashion,  and  language j 
and  the  resort  of  the  most  wealthy  voluptuaries  of  China.  "  What  paradise  is  in 
heaven,"  say  the  Chinese,  "  Soo-tchoo-foo  is  on  earth."  Long-kiang-fou  is  a  town 
built  in  the  water,  so  that  vessels  enter  it  and  depart  on  all  sides.  It  exports  an  ex- 
traordinary quantity  of  cotton.  Tchin-kiang-fou  is  one  of  the  maritime  keys  of 
the  empire,  and  defended  by  a  very  strong  garrison.  Its  walls,  in  several  places 
more  than  thirty  feet  high,  are  built  of  large  bricks.  Its  streets  are  paved  with 
marble. 

At  a  distance  of  600  paces  from  the  shore  of  Yang-tse-kiang,  ia  the  I  island  or  chin- 
wonderful  island  of  Chin-Shan,  or  the  "  Golden  Mountain."  This  island,  |  '''"''• 
the  shores  of  which  are  quite  prerupt,  is  covered  with  gardens  and  pleasure  houses. 
Art  and  nature  have  united  their  efforts  to  give  it  the  most  enchanting  aspect.  It  is 
the  property  of  the  emperor.  It  is  in  the  fields  of  this  neighbourhood  that  the  shrub 
grows  which  produces  the  cotton  of  which  the  article  known  under  the  |  Red  cotton, 
name  of  Nankeen  is  made.  The  fibre  is  not  white  like  other  cotton,  but  of  a  deli- 
cate pinkish  orange,  which  it  preserves  after  it  is  spun  and  woven. 

Yang-tcheou-fou  is  five  miles  and  a  half  in  circumference ;  and  the 
city  and  suburbs  are  said  to  contain  in  all  200,000  souls.  This  is  pro- 
bably only  a  temporary  population;  the  place  being  the  emporium  for  the  sale  and 
distribution  of  salt.  Ngan-king-foo  has  a  separate  vice-roy.  The  inhabitants  of 
Hoei-tchoo,  the  most  southerly  town  of  the  province,  are  considered  as  the  ablest 
merchants,  overreaching  the  Chinese  who  overreach  all  other  nations.  Here,  also, 
is  made  the  best  China  ink. 

To  the  south-east  of  Kiang-nan  lies  the  province  of  Tchfe-kiang,  en- 
riched by  the  cultivation  of  the  silk-worm  and  the  manufacture  of  silk 
stuffs.  Nothing  can  be  compared  to  the  beauty  of  the  country  on  the  banks  of  the 
Tchiang;  presenting  a  fresh  variety  of  aspect  at  every  step.  In  one  place  are  steep 
rocks  wholly  destitute  of  verdure,  on  both  sides  of  the  river.  In  another,  the  river 
makes  a  turn,  and  suddenly  displays  to  our  view  the  richest  and  gayest  rural  scenery. 
The  numerous  sinuosities  of  the  Tchiang  keep  the  traveller's  curiosity  in  constant 
exercise ;  and  the  scene  is  diversified  and  enlivened  by  the  sight  of  farmers  occupied 
in  the  culture  of  rice  and  the  sugar-cane,  and  carrying  the  produce  to  the  different 
mills  along  the  river  side.* 

Han-tcheou-fou,  the  capital  of  the  province  of  Tche-kiang,  is  one  of  "^"anaoXr 
the  most  important  towns  in  China,  situated  almost  in  the. middle  point  n>wn». 
of  its  extensive  range  of  sea-coast.  It  has  the  mouth  of  the  Imperial  canal  on  one 
side,  and  the  river  Tchiang  on  the  other.  It  is  the  emporium  of  the  trade  hctwecn  the 
northern  and  southern  provinces.  Ning-po-fou,  which  the  Europeans  |  Liampo. 
call  Liam-po,  is  a  town  of  the  first  order,  and  has  an  excellent  harbour  to  which  the 
Chinese  merchants  of  Siam  and  Batavia  repair  every  year  to  buy  silks'.  It  also  car- 
ries on  a  great  trade  with  Japan,  Nangasaki  being  at  a  distance  of  only  two  days' 
sail.  The  Chinese  carry  silks,  stuffs,  sugar,  medicines,  and  wine  to  this  country; 
and  bring  home  copper,  gold,  and  silver.  Chao-king-fou  is  a  place  penetrated  in 
every  direction  with  canals,  supplied  with  the  most  limpid  water.  Its  broad  streets 
are  paved  with  large  blocks  of  hewn  stone,  and  extremely  clean.  The  triumphal 
arches  and  houses  are,  contrary  to  general  custom,  built  of  that  stone.     The  inhabi- 

•  Macartney,  v.  183.    De  Guignes,  Voyage  a  Pekin,  iii.  319. 


ProTince  of 
Tchfrkiang. 


Island  of  Tai 
ouan  or  Fer- 
mosa. 


78  BOOK   FORTV-THIRD. 

tants  are  Ihe  most  formidable  of  all  the  Chinese  for  chicanery.     Every  viceroy,  and 
every  great  man,  prefers  a  native  of  this  town  for  his  siang-cong,  or  secretary. 
Province  of  From  Tche-kiang  we  shall  proceed  southward  to  Fou-kien,  one  of  the 

Fou  kien.  Smallest,  yet  one  of  the  richest  provinces  in  the  empire.     Its  situation  is 

favourable  for  fishing,  navigation,  and  trade.  The  air  is  very  warm,  but  pure  and  healthy. 
The  fields  are  watered  with  an  infinity  of  rivers  which  come  from  the  moun- 
tains, and  which  the  labourers  manage  with  great  dexterity  for  watering  their  rice 
grounds.  Black  tea  is  the  principal  produce.  It  also  contains  musk,  precious 
stones,  iron,  tin,  and  quicksilver  mines;  silk,  hemp,  and  cotton  are  manufactured; 
steel  is  prepared,  both  in  the  form  of  bars  and  ready-made  articles  of  hardware;  and 
among  the  delicious  and  abundant  fruits  which  it  produces,  the  oranges  are  remarkable 
for  the  flavour  of  muscat  grapes  which  they  possess.*  Fou-tcheou-fou,  the  capital 
of  the  province,  is  above  all  celebrated  for  its  situation,  for  the  great  trade  which  it 
possesses,  for  the  multitude  of  its  men  of  learning,  for  the  beauty  of  its  rivers,  which 
liear  the  great  barks  of  China  to  its  very  walls;  and  finally,  for  an  admirable  bridge 
known  over  the  gulf,  consisting  of  a  hundred  arches,  and  entirely  built  of  beautiful 
white  stone.  Yen-ping-fou,  situated  on  the  declivity  of  a  mountain,  at  the  foot  of 
which  flows  the  river  Min-ho,  is  not  large,  but  it  is  considered  as  one  of  the  hand- 
Emouy.  |  somcst  towns  in  the  empire.      Tchang-tcheo-fou  is  near  the  port  of 

Emouy,  a  great  emporium  of  trade,  frequented  by  the  Spaniards  from  Manilla. f 

Opposite  to  the  coast  of  Fou-kien,  is  the  large  and  fine  island  called 
by  the  Chinese  Tai-ouan,  and  by  the  Portuguese  Formosa.     It  forms 
part  of  the  government  or  viceroyalty  of  Fou-kien. 

It  was  in  the  reign  of  the  Emperor  Cang-hi  that  the  Chinese  first  extended  their 
knowledge  and  power  to  this  island.  It  has  remained  in  their  possession  ever  since 
they  drove  out  the  Dutch  in  1661.  The  latter  had  taken  it  from  the  Portuguese. 
It  is  divided  into  two  parts  by  a  chain  of  mountains.  The  eastern  part  has  been 
inhabited  by  the  Chinese  ever  since  the  Dutch  were  obliged  to  leave  it ;  the  remain- 
der is  possessed  by  the  aboriginal  inhabitants. 

The  coast  of  Formosa  which  is  in  the  possession  of  the  Chinese,  is 
certainly  deserving  of  the  name  by  wliich  it  is  known  ;  it  is  a  truly  de- 
lightful country.  The  air  is  pure  and  serene  ;  the  land  is  fertile  in  rice,  in  all  sorts 
of  grain,  and  in  sugar  canes :  it  is  covered  with  magnificent  forests,  and  watered  by 
an  infinite  number  of  streams,  which  descend  from  steep  and  well-wooded  mountains. 
Oxen  are  generally  used  for  riding,  for  want  of  horses  and  asses.  With  the  excep- 
tion of  stags  and  monkeys,  which  make  their  appearance  in  flocks,  the  wild  quadru- 
peds are  not  numerous.  The  fisheries  of  the  coast  present  an  abundant  variety  of 
food.  Pheasants,  wood-cocks,  and  pigeons  swarm  in  the  woods.  If  the  earthquakes 
were  less  frequent  and  less  destructive,  and  if  the  water  of  the  rivers  were  as  well 
adapted  for  human  use  as  it  is  for  fertilizing  the  fields,  there  would  be  nothing  to  de- 
sire in  this  island,  which  in  other  respects  produces  all  that  is  requisite  to  render  life 
agreeable.  I 

Formosa  has  a  Chinese  government  with  a  garrison  of  10,000  men, 
but  its  authority  is  limited  to  the  west  side.  The  city  Tai-Ouan  is  po- 
pulous and  wealthy.  The  streets,  in  straight  lines,  and  covered  with  awnings  for 
seven  or  eiglit  months  in  the  year  to  protect  them  from  the  heat  of  the  sun,  lined 
with  storehouses  and  elegant  shops,  where  silks,  porcelain,  varnished  and  other 
wares,  are  arranged  with  admirable  art,  so  as  to  give  the  appearance  of  so  many 
charming  galleries,  woidd  be  delightful  to  walk  in  if  less  crowded  with  passengers 
and  better  paved.  Tiiis  city  is  defended  by  a  good  fortress,  which  was  built  by  tlic 
Dutch,  and  called  by  them  Fort  de  Zelandia.  The  harbour  is  spacious  and  deep, 
but  the  entrances  of  it  are  extremely  narrow,  and  only  eight  or  twelve  feet  deep.§ 

•  Duhalde,  Martini,  Sec.  passim. 

t  Renonard  de  Sainte-Groix,  Voyage  aux  Indes-Orientales,  ill.  205,  &c. 

+  Valentyn,  Oud  und  niew  Ostindien,  t.  vi.  Description  de  Formose,  p.  37,  40,  &c.  Rechte- 
ren,  dans  les  Voyages  de  la  Coinpagnie  Hollandaise,  v.  160,  &c.  Le  P.  Mailla.  Lettres  edifi- 
antes,  xiv.  28,  30. 

§  Pierre  Niiyts,  Mem.  sur  Formose,  dans  Valentyn,  1.  c  p.  (\'.     I.ettrcs  ^difianl.  i.  c. 


Physical  de- 
scriptions. 


Towns, 
Fortresses,  &c. 


CHINA.  79 

Between  the  port  of  Tui-Ouaii  and  the  coast  of  China,  the  httlc  archipelago  of  the 
islands  of  Pongou,  or  Pescadores  (t.  e.  fishermen's  islands)  aflbrds  good  anchorage, 
and  a  station  which,  with  a  suitable  navy,  might  command  the  channel  of  Formosa. 

The  savage  people  inhabiting  the  eastern  and  mountainous  part  of  |  inhabitants. 
Formosa  acknowledge  no  regular  government.  Resembling  in  complexion  and  fea- 
tures the  Malays  and  other  islanders  of  the  South  Sea,  they  speak  a  distinct  lan- 
guage from  all  that  we  are  acquainted  with.*  There  seem,  indeed,  to  be  several 
indigenous  tribes  ;  and  in  particular,  according  to  Valentyn's  account,  besides  aa 
olive-coloured,  there  is  a  negro  race  of  gigantic  size.  The  cottages  of  the  Formo- 
sans  are  of  bamboo  ;  they  have  articles  of  furniture  and  utensils  formed  out  of  stag's 
leather.  According  to  other  travellers,  they  have  in  their  huts  no  chairs,  benches, 
tables,  beds,  or  any  sort  of  furniture.  In  the  middle  is  placed  a  sort  of  |  Mode  of  life, 
furnace  made  of  earth,  and  two  feet  high,  which  serves  them  for  cooking.  They  feed 
on  corn  and  on  game,  which  last  they  catch  by  hunting  on  foot,  for  they  are  possessed 
of  surprisuig  agility  and  swiftness.  Their  only  bed  consists  of  the  fresh  leaves  of  a 
particular  tree  common  in  the  country.  Their  only  clothing  is  a  single  piece  of  cloth, 
with  which  they  cover  their  bodies  from  the  middle  down  to  the  knees,  "Their  skin 
is  covered  with  indelible  marks  representing  trees,  animals,  and  flowers  of  grotesque 
forms ;  in  the  act  of  decking  themselves  with  these  barbarian  marks  of  distinction,  they 
inflict  on  themselves  acute  pain.  The  privilege  of  wearing  them  is  allowed  to  none 
but  those  who,  in  the  opinion  of  the  chief  persons  of  a  district,  have  surpassed  their 
fellows  in  running  or  in  hunting.  All,  however,  have  the  privilege  of  blackening 
their  teeth,  and  of  wearing  bracelets,  collars,  and  ear-rings.  In  the  north  end  of  the 
island,  where  the  climate  is  a  little  cooler,  they  dress  themselves  with  the  skins  of 
stags  killed  in  hunting,  which  they  make  up  into  a  kind  of  dress  without  sleeves  ; 
and  their  cylindrical  caps  aremade  of  banana  leaves.  They  worship,  }  superstitionj. 
though  with  little  ceremony,  a  plurality  of  deities,  whose  priestesses  are  said  to  for- 
bid the  women  from  bearing  children  till  they  are  thirty-six  years  of  age,  and  take 
the  most  revolting  means  of  prevention.  Though  we  know  few  particulars  of  their 
superstitions,  the  bridge  of  souls,  and  the  abyss  of  ordure  into  which  they  throw  the 
manes  of  the  wicked,  indicate  some  connexion  with  central  Asia.|  A  century  ago, 
some  of  the  Formosans  preserved  traces  of  the  Christian  religion  and  of  the  Dutch 
language,  which  they  had  learned  together. |  Their  mode  of  burying  the  dead  re- 
sembled that  which  is  practised  among  the  islanders  of  Oceanica.  The  bodies  were 
dried  and  remained  a  long  time  under  sheds. — We  now  return  to  continental  China. 

The  most  considerable  of  the  southern  provinces  is  that  of  Quan-Ton,     province  of 
to  the  south-west  of  Fou-Kien,  and  bounded  in  its  turn  on  the  south-     ^"an-Ton. 
west  by  the  kingdom  of  Tonquin.     This  province  is  fertile  in  grain  and  all  kinds  of 
fruits.     It  contains  mines  of  gold,  precious  stones,  and  tin;  also,  pearls,  ivory,  and 
odoriferous  woods,  which  are  applied  to  all  sorts  of  work.  One  rare  production  pecu- 
liar to  this  province  is  the  tree  called  by  the  Portuguese  the  **  iron  tree ;"  it  resembles 
iron  in  colour,  in  hardness,  and  in  weight ;  it  sinks  in  water.   Quan-tcheou-fou,  which 
we  call  Canton,  the  capital  of  the  province,  is  one  of  the  most  populous  |  canton, 
and  wealthy  cities  of  China.     Its  harbour  is  the  only  one  in  the  whole  empire  fre- 
quented by  Europeans.     The  wall  by  which  it  is  enclosed  is  between  four  and  five 
miles  in  extent.     The  adjoining  plain  is  diversified  with  arid  hills,  verdant  valleys, 
small  towns,  villages,  high  towers,  temples,  and  houses  of  mandarins.  It  is  delightfully 
watered  by  lakes,  canals,  and  small  branches  of  the  river  Ta,  covered  with  boats  and 
junks.     The  city  of  Canton  contains  a  great  number  of  triumphal  arches  and  tem- 
ples richly  ornamented  with  statues.     The  tlnong  of  passengers  in  the  streets  is  so 
great  that  it  is  difficult  to  get  along.     There  are  few  Chinese  merchants  in  easy  cir- 
cumstances whose  families  live  in  the  same  place  where  their  business  is  conducted; 
they  are  lodged  either  in  tlie  remote  suburbs  or  quite  in  the  country. 

The  population  of  Canton  is  estimated  by  Father  Lecompte  at  a  mil-  |  Population. 

*  Mcmoires  sur  Formose.  dans  Ics  Anrmles  des  Voyages,  viii.  p.  367. 
f  Ciiiulidius,  Kelat.  sur  Formose,  dans  Ics  Voyajjcs  dc  la  Coinp.  v.  102. 
t  Lett,  edifiuut.  xiv.  51,  52. 


Isles  de  Lar- 
roDS. 


80  BOOK  FOUTY-TIIIUD. 

lion  and  a  half;  Duhalde  reduces  it  to  a  million.  M.  Sonnerat  accuses  both  autliors 
of  ridiculous  exaggeration ;  he  asserts  that  he  has,  with  the  assistance  of  several 
Chinese,  ascertained  the  population  of  this  city,  and  found  it  to  be  only  75,000  ;  but 
he  does  not  give  the  particulars  of  this  calculation,  and  he  every  where  betrays  too 
strong  prejudices  against  the  Chinese  to  be  credited  on  his  bare  assertion.*  The 
companions  of  Captain  Cook|  learned  from  the  British  factors  established  at  Canton 
a  number  of  details,  which  seem  to  make  the  population  of  the  city  and  suburbs 
150,000.  The  inhabitants  of  the  sampans,  or  boats,  which  are  40,000  in  number, 
may  be  100,000  at  most,  though  the  English  have  made  them  much  more  numerous. 
Thus  Canton  will  contain  in  all  250,000  inhabitants. 

Macao.  |      We  shall  describe  the  trade  of  Canton  in  a  more  suitable  place,  and 

proceed  in  the  mean  time  with  our  topographic  survey.  Macao,  a  Portuguese  esta- 
bUshment  on  a  little  tongue  of  land  belonging  to  an  island,  has  nothing  left  of  its  an- 
cient importance  but  the  name.  Three  or  four  hundred  negro  soldiers  formed  its 
whole  garrison  at  the  time  of  Lord  Macartney's  visit.  The  number  of  its  inhabit- 
ants amounts  to  33,800  according  to  Renouard  de  Sainte  Croix,  and  more  than  one 
half  of  them  are  Chinese.  This  little  corner  of  land  was  allowed  to  the  Portuguese 
in  the  days  of  their  power  and  enterprise  ;  and  here,  for  a  long  time,  they  carried  on 
a  great  trade,  not  only  with  China,  which  scarcely  any  other  nation  then  visited  but 
with  other  countries  of  eastern  Asia,  and  particularly  with  Japan  and  Tonquin.  At 
present  the  English  carry  on  the  trade  of  Macao  in  the  name  of  the  Portuguese. 
Grotto  ofCa-  A  group  of  rocks  near  one  of  the  highest  eminences  of  the  city  forms 

moens.  ^  pg^yg  called  "the  grotto  of  Camoens;"  as  tradition  says  that  the  poet 

of  that  name  composed  in  this  place  his  celebrated  Lusiad.  An  English  inhabitant 
of  Macao  has  contrived  to  include  within  his  garden  wall  this  picturesqe  spot,  the 
sacred  retreat  of  misfortune  and  of  genius. 

The  Larron  islands,  near  to  Macao,  are  always  filled  with  pirates, 
who  frequently  carry  off  the  small  Chinese  craft  employed  in  the  constant 
trade  between  Macao  and  Canton.  A  small  European  force  could  easily  extirpate 
these  pirates,  but  the  efforts  of  the  Chinese  government  to  get  rid  of  them  are 
fruitless,  in  consequence  of  a  connection  which  they  keep  up  with  rebellious  and 
discontented  persons  of  the  interior. 

isieofHainaD.  |  The  southem  point  of  the  province  of  Quang-tong  and  of  continen- 
tal China  projects  in  tlie  form  of  a  narrow  peninsula  towards  the  isle  of  Hainan, 
which  belongs  to  this  government,  except  when  in  a  state  of  rebellion.  This  island 
has  a  superficial  extent  of  14,000  square  miles.  The  north  part  is  a  flat  and  level 
country;  the  south  filled  with  high  mountains.  The  air  is  unhealthy,  and  the  water, 
unless  previously  boiled,  cannot  be  used  without  injury.  But  numerous  rivers,  and 
frequent  rains  at  fixed  seasons  of  the  year,  make  the  fields  fertile  in  sugar,  indigo, 
cotton,  and,  above  all,  in  rice,  of  which  the  inhabitants  often  raise  two  crops  in  a 
year.  The  capital,  Kioun-tcheou-fou,  is  situated  on  a  promontory,  and  the  vessels 
anchor  close  under  the  walls. 

Inhabitants.  |  Tho  uativcs  are  generally  ugly,  of  low  stature  and  copper  complexion; 
their  hair  ia  passed  through  a  ring  on  the  forehead.  They  go  almost  naked.  The 
women,  by  way  of  heightening  their  attractions,  draw  a  number  of  blue  lines  with 
indigo  from  the  eyes  to  the  lower  part  of  the  face.  Both  sexes  wear  gold  and  silver 
buckles  attached  to  the  ears.  They  are  armed  with  bows  and  arrows,  but  they  are 
more  dexterous  in  the  use  of  a  kind  of  cutlass.  This  is  the  only  tool  which  they 
employ  in  carpentry,  and  for  clearing  away  the  trees  and  bushes  which  obstruct  their 
way  in  traversing  the  forests. 

Minerals.  |  Besides  the  gold  mines  in  tho  centre  of  the  island  there  are  several 
coloured  boles  in  the  north  which  are  carried  to  Canton  for  colouring  the  porcelain. 
The  best  wood,  both  for  perfume  and  for  carving,  comes  from  tho  mountains  of  H;ii- 
Precious  wood  |  nan.  The  most  valuable  of  these  woods,  next  to  the  eagle- wood,  is  lliat 
which  the  Europeans  call  rose-wood,  or  violet-wood.     There  is  also  a  yellow  wood 

•   Sonnerat,  Vojag-e  aux  Indcs,  t.  ii.  p.  24. 

t  Cook's  Third  Voyage,  French  Iranslalion,  t.  iv.  p.  503. 


Province  oC 
Kiang-si. 


CHINA.  81 

of  remarkable  beauty  and  wliich  has  the  cliaracter  of  being  incorruptible.  This  is 
formed  into  small  columnar  pieces,  wliich  are  sold  at  a  very  high  price.  There  is  a 
pearl  fishery  on  the  shores.  It  is  said  that  the  Chinese  have  the  art  of  |  Pearl  fishery, 
making  the  muscle  secrete  juice  which  Jiardens  into  that  precious  substance.  When 
the  muscle,  coming  up  to  tlie  surface,  opens  its  shell,  a  piece  of  packthread  is  intro- 
duced, to  which  pearl  balls  are  attached;*  according  to  others,  they  introduce  a  piece 
of  brass  wire,  and  the  wounded  animal  covers  these  foreign  substances  with  a  juice 
which  hardens  into  mother-of-pearl,  or  even  true  pearls."]*  Similar  pracitces  were 
not  unknown  to  the  ancients;;];  and  Linnaeus  announced,  half  a  century  ago,  that  he 
had  found  out  tho  secret  of  making  muscles  produce  pearls. § 

The  province  of  Canton  is  separated  from  that  of  Kiang-si  by  the 
great  mountain  called  Mi-Iin,  on  which  a  road  is  formed,  which  goes 
three  miles  along  a  most  frightful  precipice.  There  is  a  temple  in  the  place  conse- 
crated to  tho  memory  of  the  mandarin  under  whose  orders  tliis  work  was  executed. 
The  passage  is  thronged  like  the  streets  of  a  large  city. 

Passing  the  mountains,  wo  discover  beautiful  valleys  and  well  cultivated  fields. 
But  this  fertile  province  produces  scarcely  any  overplus  of  rice  above  what  is  requir- 
ed for  the  support  of  its  numerous  inhabitants.  The  latter  have  the  character  of 
being  rigid  economists,  and  their  mean  avarice  subjects  them  to  the  raillery  of  the 
Chinese  of  the  other  provinces.  The  lakes  and  rivers  are  full  of  salmon,  trout,  and 
sturgeon.  The  mountains  are  either  clothed  with  wood,  or  celebrated  for  their  me- 
dicinal plants,  and  their  mines  of  gold,  silver,  lead,  iron,  and  tin.  Very  fine  stuflTs 
are  manufactured  here,  and  the  rice  wine  of  this  country  is  highly  delicate  in  the 
estimation  of  the  Chinese.  Tho  province  is  principally  celebrated  for  the  fine  porce- 
lain made  at  King-te-tching.  This  place  is  considered  as  a  subordinate  |  Towns, 
town;  yet  the  missionaries  give  it  a  million  of  inhabitants.  They  reckon  not  quite 
so  many  in  Nan-tchang-fou,  the  capital  of  the  province. 

Porcelain  is  the  leading  article  of  commerce  in  this  quarter.     Indeed  j  Poreeiain. 
the  true  porcelain  is  made  no  where  else.     That  which  is  made  at  Canton,  in  the 
province  of  Fou-kien,  and  some  other  places,  is  not  so  much  valued  in  China  as 
common  stone-ware  is  in  Europe. 

The  vast  province  of  Hou-quang  is  in  the  centre  of  the  kingdom:  the  j  province  of 
river  Yang-tse-kiang  passes  through  it.  The  greater  part  of  the  pro-  j  """lu^os- 
vince  is  a  flat  country,  divided  by  lakes,  and  watered  Avith  rivers,  which  are  stocked 
with  immense  quantities  of  excellent  fish,  and  frequented  by  numberless  flocks  of 
aquatic  birds.  The  cattle  which  are  fed  on  the  produce  of  the  fields  are  prodigious 
in  number.  Every  sort  of  grain  and  of  fruit  grows  here,  particularly  oranges  and 
citrons  in  all  their  varieties.  This  province  is  considered  as  the  granary  of  the  em- 
pire. It  has  its  mines  of  iron,  tin,  and  other  metals,  and  gold  is  obtained  from  the 
sand  of  its  mountain  torrents. 

Vou-tchang-fou,  the  capital  of  this  province,  is  almost  the  central  point  ]  Towns, 
of  China.     In  extent  it  comes  near  to  Paris.     It  derives  an  immense  profit  from  its 
manufacture  of  bamboo  paper.     Hang-yang-fou  is  separated  from  Vou-tchang-fou 
by  the  Kiang.     It  also  is  a  large  and  very  commercial  town. 

The  strong  city  of  Kin-tcheou-fou  is  considered  as  one  of  the  keys  of  the  empire. 
It  is  situated  in  the  north-west,  at  the  bottom  of  the  mountains. 

From  this  fortress  we  may  take  an  excursion  northward  into  the  pro- 
vince of  Honan.  The  mildness  of  the  chmate  and  the  fertility  of  the  soil 
render  this  province  a  delightful  country,  and  the  Chinese  call  it  the  garden  of  their 
empire.  They  believe  that  this  was  the  proWnce  in  which  Fo-Hi,  the  founder  of 
their  monarchy,  established  his  court.  The  air  is  certainly  both  temperate  and  salu- 
brious. Productions  of  all  kinds  come  forward  in  the  greatest  abundance.  Fields 
of  wheat  and  rice,  pastures,  delicious  fruit  trees  of  every  sort,  and  numbers  of  cattle, 

*  Mem.  of  the  Acad,  of  Sciences  of  Stockholm,  xxxiv.  p.  89,  (German  translation.) 
t  Fabricius,  Lettres  Sorites  de  I.ondres,  p.  104. 

t  Philo.strat.  Vit.  Apollon.  iii.  57.  edit.  Olcar.  p.    139,     Tzetzes,  varior.  1,  ii.  segm.  375. 
Gesner,  Hist.  Natur.  iv.  634. 
§  Schloetzcr,  Correspondance,  cah,  xl.  p.  251. 
Vol.  II._L 


Province  of 
Honan. 


Astronomical 
tower. 


Province  of 
Sliansi. 


82  BOOK  FOItTY-TlIlRD. 

form  alipost  the  wliole  scenery  of  this  rich  country,  which  is  ahiiost  all  level  except 
in  the  west,  where  we  find  mountains  that  are  covered  over  with  forests. 
Towns.  I       Cai-song-fou  is  a  large,  wealthy,  and  populous  city  on  the  river  Honan, 

in  a  low  situation,  inferior  to  the  level  of  the  river.  Hence,,  though  dykes  are  built 
to  protect  it  from  inundations,  it  is  very  much  exposed  to  danger.  In  1642,  the  em- 
peror ordered  one  of  the  dykes  to  be  cut,  in  order  to  destroy  a  rebel  prince  who  had 
fortified  himself  in  this  place,  in  consequence  of  which  300,000  persons  were  drown- 
ed. In  former  times  the  Chinese  were  simple  enough  to  consider  Ilonan-fou  as  the 
centre  of  the  world,  because  at  that  time  it  was  in  the  heart  of  their  empire. 

The  city  of  Ting-fou-hien  is  famous  for  the  tower  erected  by  the 

celebrated  Tchou-kong,  where  he  was  in  the  practice  of  observing  the 
phenomena  of  the  heavens.  There  is  still  an  instrument  in  this  place  which  is  said 
to  have  been  used  by  him  for  taking  the  shadow  of  the  sun  at  mid-day,  in  order 
to  find  out  the  elevation  of  the  pole.*  He  lived  nearly  a  thousand  years  before 
the  Christian  era,  and  the  Chinese  ascribe  to  him  the  invention  of  the  mariner's 
compass. 

Let  us  now  examine  the  north-west  portion  of  China.     The  province 

of  Shansi  is  one  of  the  smallest ;  it  is  bounded  on  the  east  by  the  Pe- 
tche-li.  The  great  wall  is  its  boundary  on  the  side  of  Mongolia  on  the  north.  The 
Chinese  history  bears  that  this  was  the  province  in  which  the  first  inhabitants  of 
China  fixed  their  abode.  The  climate  is  pleasant  and  healthy.  The  country,  though 
mountainous,  is  fertile  in  millet,  in  corn,  and  above  all  in  grapes,  of  which  the  Chi- 
nese might  no  doubt  make  excellent  wine  if  they  chose,  but  they  prefer  drying  them 
as  raisins. 

This  province  contains  porphyry,  marble,  jasper  of  various  colours,  and  a  blue 
mineral  with  which  they  colour  their  porcelain.  In  every  quarter  there  are  very 
abundant  mines,  saline  lakes  from  which  salt  is  obtained,  and  mineral  waters. 
Towns,  &c.  I  The  capital,  Tai-yuen-fou,  was  once  a  beautiful  city,  full  of  palaces 
inhabited  by  princes  of  the  imperial  blood  of  Tai-ming-tchao ;  but  these  fine  build- 
ings have  gone  to  ruin.  Carpets  similar  to  those  of  Persia  and  Turkey  are  wrought 
here.  Iron  wares  are  also  made,  and  form  a  prominent  article  of  commerce.  This 
ancient  and  populous  city  is  about  eight  miles  in  circumference.  On  the  neighbour- 
ing mountains  there  are  beautiful  sepulchres  of  marble  and  hewn  stone,  triumphal 
arches,  statues  of  heroes,  and  of  lions,  horses,  and  other  animals;  and  the  whole  is 
encircled  with  a  forest  of  old  cypresses  planted  in  mutually  intersecting  rows. 
Province  of  Shen-si  is  the  largest  province  of  China.     It  is  conterminous  with 

Shen-si.  Mongolia,  the  Kalmuks  of  Noho-Nor,  and  the  Sifans.     The  tempera- 

ture is  mild.  Here  for  many  ages  the  emperors  resided.  The  inhabitants  of  this 
province  are  stronger,  braver,  and  more  handsomely  formed  than  the  other  Chinese : 
its  soldiery  has  always  been  comparatively  formidable.  It  produces  many  medicinal 
plants.  A  great  quantity  of  cattle,  and  particularly  of  mules,  feed  on  its  mountains. 
Wheat  and  millet  grow  with  such  promptitude,  that  in  winter  the  farmers  turn  in  the 
sheep  upon  the  corn-fields  to  keep  down  its  luxuriance,  and  their  growth  is  renewed 
with  fresh  vigour  in  the  spring.  In  the  neighbourhood  of  Lin-tao-fou,  and  about  the 
fountain  of  the  Sifans,  are  found  wild  oxen,  and  according  to  report,  a  species  of  the 
tiger.  I 

Towns,  &c.  I  Si-ngan-fou,  the  capital  of  that  province,  is,  next  to  Pekin,  one  of  the 
finest  and  largest  cities  of  China.  Its  walls  are  eleven  miles  in  extent.  Some  of 
the  gates  are  magnificent  and  uncommonly  lofty.  An  old  palace  is  still  to  be  seen, 
which  was  the  residence  of  its  ancient  kings.     In  this  city  the  principal  Mantchoo 

troops  destined  to  the  defence  of  the  north  of  China  are  stationed.     In 

1685,  there  was  found  in  the  neighbourhood,  in  digging  the  foundations 
of  a  house,  a  marble  slab  containing  an  inscription  in  Chinese  characters,  together 
with  words  in  the  Syriac  language,  and  a  cross  carved  on  the  top.  Several  of  the 
learned  have  laboured  to  discover  the  meaning  of  the  words  and  figures.     There 

*  Mailkii  Hist,  de  la  Chine,  i.  319.  compare  with  De  Guignes,  junr.  in  the  Annates  des  Voy- 
ages, etc.viii.  165.  f  Duhalde,  i.  p.  212. 


Nestorian  mo- 
nument. 


l')istriet  of 
KiuitcliL'uu. 


Province  of 
S^Ccliucu. 


CHINA.  83 

are  sixtj-tvvo  marks  in  Chinese  cljaractcrs,  divided  into  twenty-uine  columns ;  they 
consist  of  a  treatise  on  articles  of  faith,  together  with  some  points  of  church  disci- 
phne.  It  contains  at  the  same  time  the  names  of  emperors  or  kings  wlio  favom-ed 
the  preaching  of  Christianity  when  introduced  in  the  year  of  Christ  C35,  by  Nesto- 
rian  missionaries  from  Persia  and  Syria.*  Tliese  Nestorians  had  still  many  churches 
in  China  in  the  time  of  Marco  Polo,  about  the  year  1300.| 

The  extremity  of  the  province  of  Shcn-si,  which  advances  to  the  north-west  in  a 
peninsular  form  between  the  country  of  the  Mongols  and  that  of  the  Kalmuks  of 
Iloho-Nor,  is  called  the  district  (in  Chinese /o«)  of  Kantcheou  or  Kan- 
sou.  The  missionaries  scarcely  mention  it,  but  Sir  George  Staunton 
makes  it  a  province. 

Directing  our  course  to  the  south-west  we  enter  S^tchuen.  This  pro- 
vince yields  to  few  others  in  the  empire  either  in  size  or  rich  produc- 
tions :  it  was  at  one  time  desolated  by  the  wars  of  the  Tartars,  but  it  has  been  sub- 
sequently re-improved.  The  great  river  Yang-tse-kiang  passes  through  it  and  dif- 
fuses fertility  on  every  hand.  The  inhabitants  cultivated  silk,  wine,  w  heat,  and  fruit 
in  abundance.  It  contains  iron,  tin,  lead,  and  quicksilver.  It  is  famous  for  its  am- 
ber, its  sugar  canes,  its  excellent  magnets,  and  luzulites  of  the  finest  blue.  Its  horses 
are  in  request,  being  very  handsome  and  spirited,  though  small. 

Tching-tou-fou,  the  capital  of  the  province,  was  one  of  the  finest  cities  |  Towns,  Etc 
of  the  empire,  but  having  been  destroyed  in  the  civil  wars  of  1646,  along  with  whole 
provinces,  it  has  lost  much  of  its  ancient  splendour ;  yet  it  is  a  very  populous  and 
"thriving  place  of  trade.     Its  position  is  delightfully  situated  on  an  island  formed  by 
several  rivers. 

Long-ngan-fou  has,  in  consequence  of  its  situation  on  the  frontier  of  Tartary, 
always  been  considered  as  one  of  the  most  important  places  in  the  province.  It  is 
defended  by  several  fortresses,  more  necessary  in  former  times  than  now. 

On  the  south-east  we  come  to  a  province  which  is  acknowledged  to 
be  ill-peopled  and  ill-cultivated.  It  is  filled  with  inaccessible  mountains, 
which  have  long  served  as  a  retreat  to  independent  hordes  called  Scng-miaosse.  The 
emperors  have  at  different  times  attempted  to  people  this  province,  by  sending  to  it 
whole  colonies  ;  but  these  efforts  seem  to  have  been  hitherto  unavailing  :  the  tribes 
belonging  to  it  are  unable  to  supply  the  necessities  of  the  numerous  garrisons  esta- 
blished in  the  country  ;  and  the  court  is  obliged  to  supply  them  from  the  imperial 
treasury.  The  mountains  contain  mines  of  gold,  silver,  copper  tin,  and  mercury. 
The  copper  of  which  the  small  current  coin  of  the  empire  is  made,  is  partly  ob- 
tained from  this  quarter.  It  produces  the  best  horses  in  China.  It  has  no  silk,  but 
that  defect  is  supplied  by  stuffs  made  from  a  plant  resembling  hemp,  which  are  well 
adapted  for  summer  wear. 

Koei-yang-fou,  the  capital  of  this  province,  is  one  of  the  smallest  |  Towns,  Stc- 
cities  in  China,  being  only  about  two  miles  in  circumference.  The  houses  are  partly 
of  earth  and  partly  of  brick.  Se-tchou-fou  is  a  town,  the  inhabitants  of  which,  though 
the  least  rude  of  any  in  the  same  province,  live  in  profound  ignorance  of  the  Chinese 
branches  of  knowledge.  They  go  barefooted,  and  walk  over  the  rocks  with  surprising 
celerity. 

To  the  south  of  this  wild  province,  wc  find  that  of  Quang-si,  which  is 
not  one  of  the  best  peopled  in  China.  It  produces  rice  in  such  abund- 
ance that  the  province  of  Canton  is  supplied  from  it  for  six  months  in  the  year.  Yet 
it  is  only  raised  advantageously  in  the  plains  of  the  south,  where  the  air  is  mildest. 
The  north  presents  nothing  to  the  view  but  an  uncultivated  soil,  and  mountains 
covered  with  thick  forests. 

In  jthis  province  there  are  mines  of  all  sorts  of  metals,  particularly  of  gold  and 
silver,  but  the  policy  of  the  government  prolribits  individuals  from  opening  them.  It 
produces  cinnamon  of  stronger  and  sweeter  flavour  than  that  of  Ceylon. 

Quei-ling-fou,  the  capital,  is  situated  on  the  Eta.  In  this  country  are  found  the 
best  stones  employed  by  the  men  of  letters  in  making  their  ink.     Marco  Polo  says 

•  Alvarez  de  Semedo,  Hlstoria  de  la  China.     Lecomte,  Mdmoir.  i.  143.  Duhalde,  &c. 
t  Marco  Polo,  de  Reb.  Orient,  ii.  61,  64.  i.  62. 


Province  of 
Koeitcheou. 


Province  of 
Quang-si. 


Province  of 
Yunnan. 


84  BOOK  FOHTY-FOURTII. 

tliat  ho  saw  in  that  country  birds  which  instead  of  feathers,  had  hair  Uko  that  of  the 
eat.*     These  are  the  birds  called  the  silk  bird. 

The  people  of  Quan-si  are  reckoned  barbarians  by  the  Chinese,  because  their 
manners  have  a  certain  uncouthness  very  different  from  the  mild  and  ceremonious 
deportment  of  the  rest  of  the  nation. 

In  the  south-west  corner  we  find  the  province  of  Yunnan,  one  of  the 
richest  in  the  empire,  adjoining  the  kingdoms  of  Ava,  Pegu,  Laos,  and 
Tonquin.  It  is  all  intersected  by  rivers,  and  the  air  is  extremely  temperate.  The 
mountains  contain  mines  of  gold,  silver,  tin,  and  precious  stones,  especially  rubies, 
and  the  marble  called  figure  stone,  which  when  polished  represents  in  varied  colours 
scenery  of  mountains,  flowers,  trees,  and  ruins.  It  produces  small  but  vigorous 
horses,  and  deer  no  larger  than  our  common  dogs.  Perhaps  these  are  the  Cervus 
axis.  The  inhabitants,  though  hardy  and  stout,  are  mild  and  affable,  and  have  a  re- 
Nation  of  l^o-  markable  aptness  in  learning  the  sciences.  The  nation  which  formerly 
'"'•  took  the  lead  in  this  province  was  called  the  Lo-los,  and  was  governed 

by  various  sovereigns.  After  long  wars  undertaken  for  the  purpose  of  subduing  it, 
the  Chinese  adopted  the  plan  of  conferring  on  the  Lo-Ios  nobility  all  the  honours  of 
Chinese  mandarins,  with  the  right  of  hereditary  succession,  on  condition  of  their 
acknowledging  the  authority  of  the  Chinese  governor  of  the  province,  receiving 
from  the  emperor  title-deeds  to  their  estates,  and  doing  no  public  act  without  his 
consent.  The  Lo-los  are  not  inferior  in  stature  to  the  Chinese,  and  are  more  inured 
to  fatigue  ;  they  speak  a  diflerent  language  ;  and  their  writing,  as  well  as  their  reli- 
gion, resembles  that  of  the  bonzes  of  Pegu  and  Ava.  These  bonzes  have  built  in 
the  north  of  Yunnan  large  temples,  different  from  those  of  the  Chinese.  The  nobi- 
lity of  the  Lo-los  claim  absolute  authority  over  tlie  people,  who  behave  towards  them 
with  the  most  profound  submission. 

Towns,  &c'  I  Wo  have  little  knowledge  of  the  towns  of  Yunnan.  It  is  asserted 
that  the  capital,  Yunnan-fou,  built  on  the  banks  of  a  broad  and  deep  lake,  has  long 
been  the  residence  of  a  prince  subject  to  the  Chinese.  It  contains  manufactures  of 
satin  and  of  carpets.  Its  trade  in  metals  is  necessarily  great.  Tching-kiang-fou  is 
another  place  on  the  side  of  a  lake,  in  a  picturesque  situation.  Vouting-fou  is  one 
of  the  frontier  bulwarks  of  tlie  empire. 


BOOK  XLIV. 
CHINA. 


PART  III. 

Political  and  General  View  of  the  J^aiion. 

A  MOST  extensive  field  would  still  remain,  if  we  wished  to  enter  into  all  the  re- 
searches which  are  requisite  for  a  complete  description  of  the  political  state  of  China. 
But  these  details,  however  well  adapted  for  a  monographic  or  statistical  work,  arc 
not  suited  to  the  narrow  compass  of  a  compendious  universal  system  of  geography. 
This  is,  besides,  a  subject,  which  has  too  often  exercised  the  sagacity  of  Europeans 
without  ultimate  satisfaction.  We  do  not  flatter  ourselves  with  the  hope  oi,  being 
able  to  solve  questions  by  which  even  those  who  have  visited  this  singular  country 
find  themselves  embarrassed.  For  this  double  reason  we  shall  confine  ourselves  to 
a  very  summary  view. 

Pliy5iof;nomy 


ofth 


lie  Chinese. 


In  features,  and  the  shape  of  the  bones  of  the  head,  the  Chinese  ap- 
proach to  tlie  great  race  of  the  Mongols.     The  head  is  almost  quadran- 

*  Marco  Polo,  de  Keb.  Orient.  li.  68. 


CHINA.  85 

gular,  the  noee  short  without  heing  flattened,  the  complexion  yellow,  the  beard  thin; 
the  oblique  direction  of  the  eyes  is  more  particularly  characteristic  of  the  Chinese 
and  their  colonies,  such  as  the  Japanese  and  Coreans.  A  residence  for  many  ages 
in  a  milder  climate  has  conferred  on  this  race,  since  their  arrival  from  Central  Asia, 
a  particular  character,  and  rendered  their  countenances  handsomer,  though  it  has 
weakened  their  expression.  There  is,  undoubtedly,  a  great  difference  between  the 
southern  and  the  northern  Chinese,  between  the  inhabitants  of  the  mountains,  those 
of  the  plains,  and  those  of  the  maritime  districts.  In  colour  we  know  there  are  great 
varieties;  but  we  have  not  sufficient  information  to  enable  us  to  trace  the  successive 
shades  by  which  the  rough  Kalmuk  is  separated  from  the  polished  inhabitant  of 
Canton. 

A  Chinese  female  becomes  vain  of  her  beauty  in  proportion  to  the  Chinese 
smallness  of  her  eyes,  the  protuberance  of  her  lips,  the  lankness  and  beauty, 
blackness  of  her  hair,  and  the  extreme  smallness  of  her  feet.  This  lust  qualification 
completes  the  idea  of  beauty.  In  order  to  confer  on  them  this  high  perfection,  their 
feet  are  carefully  swathed  as  tight  as  possible  in  their  youth,  so  that  when  grown  up 
they  seem  to  totter  rather  than  to  walk.*  Among  the  men,  corpulence,  as  a  symp- 
tom of  an  easy  life,  commands  a  certain  degree  of  respect,  and  men  of  thin  forms 
pass  for  persons  void  of  talent.|  People  of  quality  allow  the  nails  of  their  fingers  to 
grow.     The  hair  of  the  head  and  of  the  beard  is  stained  black. 

Considered  in  a  moral  point  of  view,  we  soon  perceive  that  the  Chi-  |  Despotism, 
nese  possess  the  usual  virtues  and  vices  of  the  slave,  the  manufacturer,  and  the  mer- 
chant. A  despotism  of  the  most  absolute  kind  has  either  acquired  or  preserved  for 
China  the  external  forms  of  patriarchal  goverment.  But,  the  sovereigns  having  ne- 
glected military  discipline,  frequent  revolutions  occurred  in  former  times,  till  at  last 
the  country  fell  under  the  power  of  foreign  conquerors,  the  Mantchoos.  From  that 
period  tho  whip  of  the  Tartar  has  been  conjoined  with  the  paternal  rod  by  which 
China  was  previously  governed.  The  only  institution  tending  to  limit  the  royal 
power,  is  one  by  which  the  mandarins  and  the  tribunals  are  allowed  sometimes  to 
make  very  humble  remonstrances  to  the  emperor  on  the  errors  of  his  government. 
Under  a  virtuous  prince,  this  liberty  has  often  been  followed  by  the  most  salutary 
consequences. — The  emperor  is  styled  the  sacred  son  of  heaven,  sole  ruler  of  the 
earth,  the  great  father  of  his  people.  Offerings  are  made  to  his  image  Adoration  of 
and  to  his  throne;  his  person  is  adored;  his  people  prostrate  them-  the  sovereign, 
selves  in  his  presence ;  the  noblemen  of  his  court,  when  addressed  by  him  and  re- 
ceiving his  orders,  must  bend  the  knee ;  every  thing  around  him  participates  in  the 
idolatry  which  is  lavished  on  his  person.  His  numerous  concubines,  and  the  eunuchs 
to  whose  charge  they  are  committed,  not  unfrequently  reign  in  his  name.  When 
this  demi-god  goes  abroad,  all  the  Chinese  take  care  to  shut  themselves  up  in  their 
houses.  Whoever  is  found  in  his  way  is  exposed  to  instant  death,  unless  he  turns 
his  back,  or  lies  flat  with  his  face  on  the  ground.  All  the  shops  by  which  the  empe- 
ror is  to  pass  must  be  shut,  and  this  prince  never  goes  out  without  being  preceded 
by  two  thousand  lictors  carrying  chains,  axes,  and  various  other  instruments  charac- 
teristic of  eastern  despotism. 

The  different  civil  and  military  appointments  are  filled  by  nine  classes  |  Mandarins, 
of  ofiicers  which  the  Europeans  call  mandarins.  The  power  of  the  mandarin  is 
fully  as  absolute  as  that  of  the  sovereign  from  whom  he  derives  his  authority.  An 
officer  of  this  description  entering  a  city,  can  order  any  person  whom  he  chooses  to 
be  airested,  and  to  die  under  his  hand,  and  no  one  can  venture  to  undertake  his  de- 
fence. He  is  preceded  by  a  hundred  executioners,  who  with  a  sort  of  yell,  an- 
nounce his  approach.  Should  any  one  forget  to  retire  to  the  side  of  the  wall,  he  is 
j|  mauled  with  whips  of  chains  or  rods  of  bamboo.  The  mandarin  himself,  however, 
^  in  his  turn,  is  not  secured  against  the  punishment  of  flogging.     For  the  slightest 


prevarication  the  emperor  will  order  the  bastinado.^ 

These  mandarins  are  far  from  being  what  Voltaire  represents  them, 
philosophers  occupied  with  contemplations  on  the  beauties  of  natural 

•  Macartney,  ii.  239,  Atlas,  pi.  11.  f  De  Guignes,  I.  397.  II.  157, 159. 

:t,  De  Guignes,  ii.  445.    Meia  des  Mission,  viii.  41.— 34S. 


Mistakes  on 
the  Chinese 
government. 


Steadiness  of 
the  laws. 


Tyranny  and 
slavery. 


86  )300K  FORTY-FOUllTH. 

religion,  who,  raised  above  human  passions,  watch  with  fatherly  care  over  the  frailer 
virtue  of  their  brethren.  They  are  not  a  set  of  patriots  who  guard  with  integrity, 
and  defend  with  energy,  the  sacred  trust  of  liberty  and  public  justice.  They  are 
nothing  else  than  the  sateUites  of  an  absolute  despot.  Badly  paid,  they  support 
themselves  by  the  produce  of  their  vexatious  exactions. 

The  pretended  wisdom  of  the  Chinese  laws  may  be  characterized  in 
few  words.  It  consists  in  good  regulations  of  police,  and  fine  discourses 
on  morality.  The  emperor  never  alters  the  laws,  because  they  leave  the  absolute 
power  in  his  hands.  The  mandarins  have  equally  little  inclination  to  alter  them, 
because  they  invest  them  with  absolute  authority  over  the  people.  There  are  courts 
where,  in  point  of  form,  complaints  may  be  brought  against  superiors,  but  under  the 
full  certainty  of  the  complainer  being  punished  for  his  audacity.  There  is  no  disu- 
nion among  the  aristocracy,  because,  while  they  hold  the  rod  over  the  heads  of  the 
multitude,  they  see  the  imperial  lash  waving  over  their  own.  The  des- 
potism of  the  Mantchoo  sovereign  keeps  that  of  the  grandees  in  order, 
and  obliges  them  to  remain  united.  There  is  no  resistance  on  the  part  of  the  people ; 
they  have  no  courage,  though  much  cunning ;  they  find  it  safer  to  preserve  a  part  of 
their  precious  property  by  grovelling  at  the  feet  of  their  masters,  than  to  risk  the  loss 
of  the  whole  in  order  to  obtain  their  liberty.  Besides,  they  have  scarcely  a  motive 
to  rebel ;  though  robbed  by  their  superiors,  they  are  suffered  to  rob  in  their  turn,  by 
using  false  weights,  and  disguising  their  goods.  Justice  is  ill  administered,  but  that 
is  only  to  those  who  are  foolish  enough  to  neglect  paying  the  expected  price.  Thus 
the  rich  man  is  content,  and  the  poor  is  kept  down.  It  often  happens  that  the  pea- 
santry, on  the  point  of  starving,  betake  themselves  to  highway  robbery.  These, 
unless  too  strong  to  be  overpowered,  are  hung.  When  they  beat  the  armies  sent 
against  them,  negociations  and  stipulations  follow,  or  they  are  left  independent  in 
their  haunts.  From  this  source  the  governors  sometimes  derive  a  little  revenue.  In 
short,  all  the  notions  of  a  Chinese  from  his  infancy  are  directed  to  a  single  point, 
Ceremonies.  |  obedience.  The  sacred  nature  of  social  rank  is  perpetually  impressed 
on  his  mind  by  innumerable  ceremonies  :  at  every  step  he  makes  a  bow ;  every 
phrase  that  he  utters  must  be  a  compliment.  Not  a  word  can  he  address  to  a  supe- 
rior without  caUing  to  mind  his  own  utter  insignificance.  But  the  great  secret  of 
Chinese  policy,  and  the  very  basis  of  the  empire,  is  to  be  found  in  an  institution 
which  in  some  measure  deprives  the  inhabitants  of  the  power  of  forming  new  thoughts, 
by  depriving  them  of  the  liberty  of  expressing  them  by  means  of  external  characters 
Written  cha-  Corresponding  to  the  words  of  their  language.  Such  is  the  effect  of  the 
racters.  Chinese  mode  of  writing.     It  has  been  compared,  though  not  with 

much  propriety,  to  the  hieroglyphical  or  figured  language  of  the  Egyptians.*     It 
can  only  be  compared  to  those  systems  of  pasigraphy,  or  universal  character,  by 
which  some  wrong-headed  persons  in  Europe  have  brought  on  themselves  universal 
ridicule.     If  all  the  fundamental  or  generally  necessary  ideas  are  arranged  in  a  cer- 
tain order ;  if  under  these  generating  ideas  all  those  others  are  classed  which  are 
furnished  by  common  language,  or  which  occur  to  the  judgment  of  the  contriver  ; 
if  each  of  the  leading  ideas  has  a  representative  sign  ;  if  this  sign  is  arbitrary,  rude, 
and  whimsical ;  if  these  signs,  elevated  to  the  rank  of  the  true  keys  of  the  Ian-  ^ 
guage,  are  made  the  constant  basis  of  signs  equally  abstract  and  arbitrary  to  denote    ^ 
the  subordinate  idea ;  this  system  will  give  us  a  perfect  picture  of  the  learned  Ian-  T^ 
guage  of  China.     Its  keys,!  214  in  number,  and  its  derivative  signs,  amounting  to   ** 
80,000,  do  not  express  words  but  ideas.     They  are  addressed  solely  to  the  eye  and 
the  memory.     They  never  excite  the  imagination  ;  and  not  a  hundreth  part  of  them 
have  any  corresponding  vocal  expression.     The  beauty  of  a  Chinese  poem  consists 
in  not  admitting  of  being  read  aloud  ;J  and  the  eminent  literati  of  that  country  con- 
duct their  disputes  by  describing  in  the  air,  with  their  fans,  characters  which  do  not 
correspond  to  any  word  in  the  language  which  they  speak. § 

*  Fourmont,  Meditat.  Sinlcs,  p.  73. 

t  Bayer,  Museum  Sinicum.  Petersb.  1730.  Fourmont,  Gramm.  Paris,  1742.  Tracts  by  De- 
shantesraies,  Hager,  Montucci,  de  Guignes  father  and  son ;  but  in  preference  to  these,  Messrs. 
Jules,  Klaproth  and  Abel-Remusat. 

♦  Barrow,  ii.  13.  §  Remusat,  Essai  sur  la  Langue  Chinoise,  p.  33. 


CHINA.  87 


Chlnete  oral 
language. 


The  spoken  language  of  the  Chinese  is  composed  of  monosyllables, 
and  scarcely  contains  350  terms  which  a  European  can  distinguish  from 
one  another;  but  the  Chinese  can,  by  various  inflections  of  the  voice,  distinguish  a 
much  greater  number.  Thus  the  word  tcJioon,  varied  by  intonation,  signifies  "  a 
master,"  "  a  pig,"  "  a  kitchen,"  "  a  pillar,"  "  an  old  woman,"  "  a  slave,"  "  a  pri- 
soner," "  liberal,"  or,  "  to  profane."  Notwithstanding  this  contrivance,  the  very 
same  sound  often  answers  to  several  characters  and  several  ideas  ;  pe  short,  for  ex- 
ample, signifies  "  north,"  "  white,"  "  cypress,"  "  a  hundred,"  and  many  things  be- 
sides. The  syntax  also  is  barbarously  meagre;  declensions  and  conjugations  are 
wanting,  and  their  place  is  supplied  by  puerile  circumlocutions.  The  written  or  learn- 
ed language  rejects  these  aids  entirely;  it  places  a  number  of  characters  together, 
and  leaves  the  reader  to  judge  of  their  mutual  relations.  This  obscure  brevity,  dry- 
ness, monotony,  and  poverty,  which  render  the  language  in  a  literary  point  of  view 
so  contemptible,  prove  at  the  same  time  its  antiquity  and  its  purity.  It  might,  with- 
out much  improbability,  be  regarded  as  the  piimitive  origin  of  the  Thibetian  and 
Annamitic  languages. 

This  institution,  not  singular  in  the  end  at  which  it  aims,  but  altogther  unique  in 
its  method  of  proceeding,  perpetuates  that  eternal  infantine  imbecility  of  intellect  by 
which  the  Chinese  are  degraded,  and  almost  rendered  inferior  to  nations  immersed 
in  the  savage  state.  The  spoken  language,  in  the  first  place,  is  left  in  a  deficient 
state.  The  ideas  of  the  people  receive  no  enlargement,  because  the  ]  influence  of 
higher  classes  cannot  express  their  thoughts  except  in  a  language  totally  |  *'*^  'an&uage. 
distinct,  and  only  understood  by  the  select  few.  The  information  of  the  privileged 
class  has  no  means  of  becoming  disseminated  by  speech,  where  the  signs  for  repre- 
senting ideas  have  no  corresponding  words.  This  information  must  become  obscure 
or  utterly  extinct  even  among  those  to  whose  care  it  is  confided;  for  a  dumb  lan- 
guage of  this  sort,  which  excites  no  feeling  of  the  heart,  and  gives  no  picture  to  the 
imagination,  is  a  mere  barren  repository  in  which  reflection  and  memory  alone  are 
concerned.  The  human  mind  has  many  faculties,  all  of  which  require  to  be  deve- 
loped; and  the  thinking  being  is  formed  and  rendered  fit  for  his  office  only  by  the 
joint  harmonious  operation  of  his  different  powers.  If  every  thing  is  sacrificed  to  a 
single  faculty,  the  subHme  machine  of  thought  will  have  its  equilibriimi  deranged, 
and  its  activity  relaxed  and  weakened.  This  stupid  fixedness  of  mind,  which  holds 
the  Chinese  in  a  state  of  eternal  childhood,  bears  an  exact  resemblance  to  that  nul- 
lity of  sentiment  and  of  judgment  which  the  exclusive  study  of  a  single  science  is 
sometimes  observed  to  produce  on  geometricians,  on  grammarians,  and  on  natural- 
ists of  classification  and  nomenclature. 

It  is  almost  a  profanation  of  the  name  of  science  to  apply  it  to  the  ]  sciences, 
childish  notions  which  the  Chinese  preserve  as  a  precious  inheritance  from  their  an- 
cient sages  and  legislators.  The  interests  of  mankind  are  foreign  to  this  people. 
The  great  theatre  of  nature  does  not  rouse  them  to  those  bold  researches,  in  which 
the  science  of  Europe  engages  with  such  keen  delight,  though  sometimes  involving 
itself  in  error.  Then-  vaunted  moral  philosophy  is  almost  confined  to  the  doctrine  of 
obedience  to  the  laws,  and  the  minute  code  of  humble  compliments  and  ridiculous 
civilities  which  constitutes  their  notion  of  politeness.  They  have  no  conception  of 
the  principles  which  constitute  the  beautiful  in  literature,  the  reijidar  in  architecture, 
or  nature  in  painting.  If  they  have  discovered  a  sort  of  beauty  in  the  arrangement 
of  their  gardens  and  the  distribution  of  their  grounds,  it  is  because  they  have  copied 
with  exactness  nature  in  a  strange  though  picturesque  form.  Projecting  chinesegar- 
rocks,  as  if  threatening  every  moment  to  fall,  bridges  hung  over  deeps,  ''^"'" 
stunted  firs  scattered  on  the  sides  of  steep  mountains,  extensive  lakes,  rapid  torrents, 
foaming  cascades,  and  pagodas  raising  their  pyramidal  forms  in  the  midst  of  this 
confusion  :  such  are  the  Chinese  landscapes  on  a  large  and  their  gardens  on  a  small 
scale.*  The  Chinese  perform  arithmetical  operations  with  incredible  celerity,  though 
in  a  different  manner  from  Europeans.     Before  the  latter  landed  in  their  country, 

•  Chambers,  Dissertation  on  Oriental  Gardening.   London,  1772.   DeGuignes,  i.  377',ii.406, 
409.     Renouard  de  Saint-Croix,  iii.  156. 


88  BOOK  FORTY-FOURTH. 

they  were  ignorant  of  mathematics,  and  all  the  arts  which  depend  on  them.  They 
had  no  convenient  method  of  making  astronomical  observations.  The  metaphysical 
knowledge  which  existed  among  them  was  confined  to  the  philosophers.  The  arts 
introduced  by  the  Jesuits  flourished  among  them  only  for  a  short  time,  and  disap- 
peared under  Canghi,  the  contemporary  of  Charles  II.  and  Louis  XIV.,  nor  is  there 
any  likelihood  of  their  reviving.  It  is  generally  believed  that  they  knew  the  art  of 
Printing.  I  printing  before  the  Europeans,  but  that  applies  only  to  engraved  plates; 
they  never  knew  any  thing  of  cast  moveable  types,  the  invention  of  which  belongs 
to  the  Dutch  or  to  the  Germans.  The  Chinese,  however,  had  almanacs  printed  in 
the  block  way  many  centuries  before  printing  was  known  in  Europe. 
Industry.  |  Mechanical  talent  alone  has  met  with  encouragement  among  the  Chi- 
nese ;  their  industry  in  the  manufacture  of  stuffs,  of  porcelain,  of  lacquered  work, 
and  other  sedentary  productions,  is  astonishing,  and  can  be  compared  to  nothing  in 
the  world  but  their  own  labours  in  the  fields,  as  the  construction  of  canals,  the  level- 
ling of  mountains,  and  the  formation  of  gardens.  Yp.t  in  many  of  these  same  ope- 
rations we  find  many  proofs  of  the  impossibility  of  a  nation  of  slaves  carrying  even 
the  mechanical  arts  to  perfection. 

Navigation.  |  Wc  havc  mentioned  the  great  inferiority  of  the  locks  on  their  canals. 
Their  navigation  is  equally  little  entitled  to  our  praise,  although  they  had,  previously 
Tiie  compass,  j  to  oursclves,  remarked  the  polarity  of  the  magnet.  The  compass  is  in 
general  use  among  the  Chinese.  The  needle  which  they  employ  is  hung  with  ex- 
treme delicacy,  and  is  singularly  sensible,  changing  its  position  with  the  least  change 
of  the  direction  of  the  box.  The  name  which  the  Chinese  give  to  their  compass  is 
tin^man-ching,  or  *'the  needle  of  the  south;"  and  they  have  a  distinguishing  mark 
for  its  south  pole  as  we  have  for  the  north.* 

Vessels.  |       Their  ships  are  enormous  machines,  some  of  them  a  thousand  tons 

burden.  The  two  ends  are  prodigiously  raised,  presenting  an  extensive  surface  to 
the  wind.  More  than  one  half  of  them  are  wrecked ;  for  when  once  aground  they 
cannot  be  raised.  Their  anchors  are  made  of  wood.  Their  pilots  are  not  better 
instructed  than  the  meanest  cabin  boy.  On  their  voyage  to  Japan  they  are  regulated 
by  the  stars  like  the  rudest  savage,  and  those  who  sail  to  Batavia,  Malacca,  or  Que-  , 
da,  never  go  out  of  the  sight  of  land. 

Gondolas.  |  But  the  elegance  of  their  sampans  is  deserving  of  commendation. 
That  species  of  gondola  is  employed  on  the  rivers.  They  are  painted  with  a  beau- 
tiful yellow  varnish.  The  sails  are  made  of  very  handsome  mats,  but  stiff  and 
heavy.  The  cordage  by  which  the  yachts  are  towed  is  of  bamboo  bark,  and  appears 
very  good  for  hauling,  though  for  any  other  purpose  they  could  not  be  substituted 
for  hemp  and  flax  ropes,  which  are  also  made  of  excellent  quality  in  China. 

The  monuments  of  the  Chinese  have  been  too  much  extolled.  But  we  cannot 
help  admiring  some  of  their  great  roads,  their  one-arched  bridges,  their  pyramidal 
Great  wall,  |  towers,  and  their  Strange  but  sumptuous  triumphal  archcs.  The  Great 
Wall,  in  a  most  particular  manner,  cannot  be  beheld  without  astonishment.  This 
celebrated  rampart  of  China  passes  over  high  mountains,  crosses  deep  valleys,  and 
extends  from  the  province  of  Shen-si  to  Wang-hay,  or  the  Yellow  Sea,  in  a  line  of 
1240  miles.  In  many  places  it  is  only  a  simple  rampart;  in  others  it  has  foundations 
of  granite,  and  is  built  of  brick  and  mortar. 

Antiquity  of  Sir  Gcorgo  Stauutou,  with  Duhalde,  considers  the  antiquity  of  this 

ment'"""''  grcat  wall  as  undoubted. "f  Duhalde  informs  us  that  it  was  built  215 
years  before  the  Christian  era,  by  the  orders  of  the  first  emperor  of  the  dynasty  of 
Tsin.  In  another  part  of  his  work  he  refers  the  founding  of  it  to  the  second  empe- 
ror of  the  same  dynasty,  which  makes  its  epoch  137  before  Christ.  Mr.  Bell,  a 
well  informed  traveller,  says  that  it  was  not  built  till  the  year  1160.  Among  the 
eastern  geographers,  those  who  are  more  than  300  years  old  make  no  mention  of  the 
wall.t  Marco  Polo  in  the  thirteenth  century  knew  nothing  of  it,  though  he  resided 
long  in  Cathay,  or  the  north  of  China  and  Mongolia.     It  is  probable  that  this  wall 

•  De  Guigncs,  "li.  202,  207.    Barrow,  i.  64, 101.  t  Macartney,  lii,  225. 

4  Muller,  Dissert,  de  Chataia,  p.  32. 


Public  festi- 
vals. 

thcrwise  be 


CHINA.  89 

has  been  rebuilt,  neglected,  and  allowed  to  go  to  ruin  more  than  once,  according  to 
tho  state  of  political  necessities ;  so  that  the  present  wall  is  not  of  very  high  antiqui- 
ty, and  its  preservation  presents  no  subject  of  surprise. 

Wo  shall  not  tire  our  readers  with  a  minute  examination  of  the  do-  |  Houses, 
mestic  manners  of  tho  Chinese.  The  houses  are  of  brick  and  hardened  clay,  and 
very  often  of  wood.  In  general  they  have  only  one  story.  Those  of  the  merchants 
have  an  upper  story,  which  is  used  as  a  storehouse.  The  exteriors  of  the  buildmgs 
are  adorned  with  columns  and  galleries ;  their  appearance  is  improved  by  small 
flower-pots,  in  which  tho  Chinese  take  great  delight,  presenting  an  agreeable  mixture 
of  verdure  with  the  varied  colours  of  their  numerous  blossoms.  Each  house  stands 
by  itself,  surrounded  with  gardens  and  spacious  court-yaids.  The  rooms  are  kept 
clean,  with  very  little  decoration.  Even  glass  is  not  very  liberally  used,  though  that 
species  of  ornament  might  seem  likely  to  please  the  taste  of  a  vain  and  childish 
people.  The  Chinese  dress  themselves  in  long  robes  with  wide  sleeves,  |  Dress, 
and  flowing  silk  girdles.  The  shirt  and  drawers  are  different  at  difierent  seasons. 
Furs  are  every  where  seen  in  winter,  varying  in  quality  from  sheepskin  to  erAiine. 
Tho  Chinese  wear  a  small  funnel-shaped  hat,  which  varies  with  the  dignity  of  the 
individual,  and  is  mounted  with  a  large  button  of  coral,  crystal,  or  gold.  The  ma- 
terials of  which  this  button  is  made,  and  its  colour,  mark  the  difierences  of  rank  in 
tho  wearer.  The  general  dress  is  simple  and  uniform.  The  only  article  which 
distinguishes  the  emperor  himself  from  his  courtiers  is  a  large  pearl  with  which  his 
head  is  adorned. 

In  the  public  festivals  of  the  Chinese,  displays  of  fire-works  make  the 
most  conspicuous  figure.  In  these,  the  Chinese  are  said  to  excel;  but 
it  is  in  broad  day  that  they  exhibit  them,  as  if  afraid  that  they  could  not  o 
seen.  Their  theatre,  so  much  praised  by  Lord  Macartney,  seems  not  (  Theatre. 
to  have  given  equal  pleasure  to  M.  Guignes.*  The  Shakespeares  of  Pekin  never 
observe  unity  of  time  or  place ;  rules  which  are  not  quite  essential  in  themselves,  but 
•which  arise  out  of  another  rule,  important  in  the  eyes  of  all  nations,  that  which  pre- 
scribes for  every  production  of  human  genius  a  unity  of  interest  and  of  thought  as  an 
indispensable  condition,  founded  in  the  moral  and  intellectual  nature  of  man.  In  a 
Chinese  tragedy,  the  actor  is  often  supposed  to  traverse  immense  local  distances  in 
the  twinkling  of  an  eye ;  and  it  often  happens  that  the  same  who  in  the  first  act  is  an 
infant,  becomes  an  old  man  before  the  piece  is  concluded. 

In  the  Chinese  operas,  spirits  make  their  appearance  on  the  stage; 
birds  and  other  animals  speak  as  well  as  walk.  "  On  our  return  from 
Pekin,"  says  M.  Guignes,|  "  tho  mandarins  had  the  politeness  to  cause  the  piece 
called  the  '  Tower  of  Sy-hoi'  to  be  acted  before  us.  The  scene  was  opened  by  genii 
mounted  on  serpents,  and  taking  an  airing  by  the  side  of  the  lake.  A  bonze  of  the 
neighbourhood  fell  in  love  with  one  of  the  goddesses,  and  paid  his  addresses  to  her. 
The  latter,  unmoved  by  her  sister's  remonstrances,  listened  to  the  proposals  of  the 
young  man,  married  him,  became  pregnant,  and  was  deUvered  on  the  stage  of  a  child, 
who  in  a  few  minutes  was  able  to  walk.  Enraged  at  this  scandalous  conduct,  the 
genii  dismissed  the  bonze  from  his  priestly  functions,  and,  in  the  end,  struck  the 
tower  with  lightning,  by  which  it  was  reduced  to  that  dismantled  state  in  which  tlie 
tower  of  that  name  actually  is." 

If  to  these  incongruities  we  add,  that  an  actor  is  often  in  the  presence  of  another 
actor  without  being  supposed  to  see  him:  that,  in  order  to  intimate  that  one  enters  a 
room,  it  is  enough  to  pretend  to  open  a  door,  and  to  raise  the  foot  in  order  to  step 
over  the  threshold,  though  no  trace  of  door  or  threshold  is  exhibited,  and  that  a  man 
who  holds  a  whip  in  his  hand  is  supposed  to  be  on  horseback,  we  shall  form  a  tole- 
rably just  idea  of  the  dramatic  art  among  the  Chinese. 

Those  who  have  frequented  the  Chinese  sea-ports  have  been  struck 
with  the  total  absence  of  probity  in  the  inhabitants.  Perhaps  in  places 
where  the  temptation  less  frequently  occurs,  this  vice  is  less  prominent.     There  are 

*  Macartney,  iii.  p.  359.     De  Guignes,  ii.  322,  &c, 
t  De  Guignes,  ii.  322,  &c. 
Vol.  II.— M 


Chinese  ope* 
ras. 


Vices  of  the 
Chinese. 


90  BOOK  FORTY-tOUUTH. 

others  which  seem  to  pvevnil  universally;  indolence  in  the  upper  classes,  and  sloven- 
liness in  the  lower.  The  rich  will  not  even  give  themselves  the  trouble  to  eat  with- 
out assistance ;  they  have  slaves  to  put  their  victuals  in  their  mouths.  The  poor  eat 
every  thing  they  can  find;  all  sorts  of  animals,  and  even  such  as  have  died  by  dis- 
ease. In  so  populous  a  country,  that  practice  may  find  the  excuse  of  necessity.  To 
the  same  cause  is  to  be  attributed  their  exposure  of  children,  a  very  ancient  practice,* 
yet  far  less  prevalent  among  them  than  prejudiced  travellers  have  beUeved.  The 
dead  bodies  of  children  which  the  police  of  Pekin  collect  in  the  streets,  are  those  of 
infants  who  have  died,  and  which  have  been  thus  disposed  of  by  their  indigent  parents 
to  avoid  the  expenses  of  burial."}" 

The  Chinese  are  a  set  of  subjugated  and  disciplined  barbarians.  Seldom  do  they 
lay  aside  the  humble  insinuating  air  of  a  slave  anxious  to  please.  They  rarely  be- 
Food.  I  tray  the  slightest  appearance  of  rudeness  or  of  passion.    This  character 

partly  arises  from  the  total  abstinence  which  they  observe  from  heating  diet  and  ine- 
briating liquors.  The  use  of  tea  is  very  general  among  them.  A  large  vessel  of  it 
is  prepared  in  the  morning  for  the  use  of  the  family  through  the  whole  day.  Chi- 
nese dishes  seem  shocking  to  every  European,  but  it  is  not  owing  to  any  want  of 
art  or  care  in  their  cookery.  Chinese  dinners  are  rendered  insufferably  tedious  by 
the  ceremony  with  which  they  are  accompanied.  In  those  given  by  the  emperor  of 
China  to  the  Dutch  ambassadors,  and  at  which  M.  de  Guignes  was  present,  many 
salutations  and  genuflexions  were  made  before  the  guests  could  touch  such  plates  as 
were  supposed  to  come  from  the  hand  of  the  monarch.  One  day  a  large  and  fine 
sturgeon  was  brought  to  these  travellers;  their  appetite  was  keen;  but,  before  pro- 
ceeding to  use  any  freedoms,  they  were  under  the  necessity  of  comphmenting  the 
august  fish  for  a  quarter  of  an  hour. 

Marriagej.  |  Polygamy  is  allowed  to  the  grandees  and  mandarins.  The  emperor 
keeps  a  well  appointed  seraglio,  J  Marriages  depend  on  the  pleasure  of  the  parents. 
In  order  to  obtain  a  wife,  presents  must  be  made  to  her  family.  Her  husband  can- 
not see  her  till  the  marriage  ceremony  is  over.  The  sex  is  kept  in  a  sort  of  slavery ; 
the  Chinese  peasant  yokes  his  wife  and  his  ass  together  to  his  plough. § 

The  graves  are  judiciously  placed  without  the  town  on  barren  hills,  where  there  is 
no  risk  of  the  dead  ever  being  disturbed  by  agricultural  operations.  White  is  the 
colour  used  for  mourning;  the  soiling  which  it  so  easily  contracts  is  considered  as  an 
Worship  of  the  expression  of  sorrow  and  of  a  neglect  of  the  ordinary  concerns  of  life, 
tombs.  The  famiUcs  offer  a  sort  of  worship  at  the  tombs  of  such  members  as 

have  fallen  under  the  stroke  of  death.  They  assemble  round  the  sepulchral  monu- 
ment on  certain  days  consecrated  to  the  memory  of  the  deceased.  The  spirits  of 
their  ancestors  seem  indeed  to  be  reverenced  as  a  sort  of  household  gods ;  an 
affecting  illusion,  which  shows  that  the. heart  has  not  lost  all  influence  even  among 
the  Chinese. 

Religion.  |  The  primitive  religion  of  China  appears  to  have  been  a  branch  of  sha- 
manism, the  principle  of  which  is  the  worship  of  the  heavenly  bodies  and  other  re- 
markable objects  in  nature.  This  ancient  religion  has  been  smothered  under  the 
Philosophy  of  numcrous  sects  which  have  been  grafted  on  it.  Among  these  is  the  sect 
Confucius,  &c.  of  Confucius,  often  compared  to  the  Stoical  system  of  the  Greeks  and 
Romans.  Like  the  latter,  it  has  obtained  the  preference  among  men  of  condition, 
who  perhaps  once  hoped  to  convert  it  into  a  kind  of  political  religion.  But  the  books 
of  Kong-fu-tse,  or  Confucius,  are  full  of  superstitious  ideas.  The  sect  of  Lao-kiun 
or  of  Tao-tse  resembles  that  of  Epicurus.  Its  founders  are  fond  of  a  tranquil  and 
contemplative  life  ;  but  they  admit  astrology  and  magic  into  their  creed ;  they  have 
their  monasteries  and  a  sort  of  worship. 

Dissatisfied  with  these  abstract  reveries,  the  multitude  listened  with  ardour  to  the 
apostles  of  brahminism  who  came  from  India  about  the  sixty-fifth  year  of  the  Chris- 
wonhipof  Fo.  I  tian  era.     Their  doctrine,  modified  under  the  name  of  the  religion  of  Fo, 

•  Marco  Polo,  de  Reb.  Orient,  ii.  53. 

t  Compare  Barrow,  i.  281,  &c.     BelJ,  iii.  323.    De  Guignes,  ii.  285—290. 

+  De  Guignes,  ii.  283,  etc.  §  Neuhof,  Embassy,  Part  ii.  p.  50,  a  plate. 


CHINA.  91 

has  become  that  of  the  majoiity  of  the  Chinese.  It  is  filled  with  their  superstitions, 
self-accusations,  apprehensions,  and  mortifications,  suited  to  the  timid  pusillanimous 
character  of  most  eastern  nations.  The  priests  of  Fo  are  called  bonzes.  Their 
number  is  prodigious ;  it  is  said  that  there  is  a  full  million  of  them  in  the  empire. 
Ail  of  them  live  by  alms.  These  holy  mendicants  conceal  under  a  sober  garb  a  suf- 
ficient stock  of  pride  and  of  avarice.  Perhaps  the  Ncstorians  who,  in  the  eighth 
century,  were  disseminated  in  China,  introduced  some  ceremonies  of  the  Christian 
worship  which  have  intermingled  themselves  with  the  observances  of  the  bonzes. 
The  bells,  the  lamps,  the  salutations,  and  several  other  characteristics  of  the  Chi- 
nese ritual,  seem  to  favour  this  opinion.  But  it  is  a  remarkable  suigularity  in  the 
Chinese  worship,  that  the  bonzes  never  suppose  that  they  give  the  least  otlence  to 
their  idols  by  spreading  their  breakfast  tables  on  each  side  of  their  altars.  Nothing 
is  more  common  in  China  than  to  see  in  a  temple  the  good  people  drinking  their  tea, 
or  partaking  of  other  refreshments,  while  the  little  pieces  of  sweet  smelling  wood  are 
burning  under  the  nostrils  of  their  god. 

The  religion  of  the  emperor  of  the  Mantchoo  dynasty  is  that  of  the  DelaY- 
Lama.  These  emperors  give  powerful  protection  to  that  pontiff;  and  in  order  to 
secure  the  collection  of  his  revenues,  they  have  now  caused  Thibet  to  be  occupied 
with  Chinese  troops. 

In  so  vast  an  empire,  the  trade  between  the  different  provinces  must  j  Trade, 
be  of  large  amount,  but  we  arc  unacquainted  with  its  nature;  and,  if  we  knew  it,  we 
should  probably  feel  little  interest  in  the  matter.     The  trade  which  they  carry  on 
with  foreign  nations  is  not  proportioned  to  the  size  and  opulence  of  the     Exportation 

.  11  r  &nu  imports.* 

empire.  In  1806,  China  exported  about  forty-five  millions  of  pounds  tion. 
weight  of  tea,  thirteen  millions  of  which  were  sold  to  the  Americans,  one  million  to 
the  Danes,  and  the  rest  to  the  British;  ten  millions  of  pounds  of  sugar,  21,000 
pieces  of  nankeen,  three  millions  of  pounds  of  tutenague,  besides  copper,  borax, 
alum,  quicksilver,  porcelain,  lacquered  ware,  tin,  vermilion;  300,000  pounds  of  cin- 
namon, rhubarb,  musk,  and  various  other  drugs.  A  hundred  and  twenty-two  Euro- 
pean vessels,  of  which  eighty  were  English,  thirty-three  American,  (if  a  geographer 
can  be  pardoned  for  once  calling  these  European,)  and  three  Danish,  exported  these 
goods.  They  had  brought  with  them  rice,  (tliirty-six  million  pounds  weight,)  cotton, 
linen,  woollen  stuffs,  glass,  beavers,  otters  and  foxes  skins,  sandal  wood,  catechu, 
benzoin,  and  various  other  drugs  and  spices.*  These  vessels,  and  those  which  landed 
in  the  harbour  of  Fou-kien,  where  the  Spaniards  of  Manilla  go  for  nankeens  and 
napery,  had  imported  into  China  3,360,000  hard  dollars. f  If  it  is  considered  that 
the  tea  alone  amounted  to  3,333,333/.  Sterling,  and  that  the  rest  of  the  exportation 
could  not  be  valued  at  less  than  2,083,333/.,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  drain  of  specie 
from  the  western  world  is  much  less  considerable  than  is  generally  supposed.  In 
1804,  5,  and  6,  it  suffered  a  progressive  diminution.  The  trade  with  the  Europeans 
at  Canton  is  in  the  exclusive  possession  of  twelve  privileged  merchants  called  han- 
nists.  These  merchants  make  immense  profits ;  but  a  set  of  greedy  |  The  Hannistj. 
mandarins,  expert  custom-house  officers,  and  wily  interpreters,  are  supported  at  the 
joint  expense  of  the  hannists  and  the  Europeans.  These  different  classes  of  per- 
sons, and  the  people  of  Canton,  reap  the  profits  of  a  trade  the  extinction  of  which 
would  probably  be  a  matter  of  indifference  to  the  greater  part  of  China. 

China  might  undoubtedly  dispense  with  a  great  part  of  her  army,  |  Army, 
which  travellers  tell  us  is  innumerable.  Some  call  it  1,462,590,  others  1,800,000, 
We  shall  not  attempt  to  contradict  either  of  these  statements.  It  is  |  Fleet, 
equally  certain,  according  to  the  Chinese,  that  the  imperial  fleet  consists  exactly  of 
9999  ships.  All  this  is  sufficiently  moderate  for  an  empire  which  contains  333 
millions  of  inhabitants,  as  his  excellency  Tchou-ta-tzin  officially  assured  Lord 
Macartney. 

But  what  degree  of  confidence  can  we  place  in  these  enormous  statements,  when 

•  De  Guignes,  i.  267,  400.  ii.  351,  360,369,  IH.  45. 

t  Renouard  de  Sainte-Croix,  Voyage  aux  Indea-Orientales,  t.  iii.  p.  152, 160.    Compare  witfs 
Humboldt,  Essai  aur  le  Mexique,  v.  p.  151. 


Critical  refleC' 
tion  on  the  ad 
mirers  of  Chi 
na. 


92  BOOK  FORTY-FOURTH. 

we  find  that  a  statistical  account,  composed  by  command  of  the  emperor  Kien-Long,* 
only  half  a  century  ago,  made  the  number  of  peasants  who  were  Uable  to  the  ma- 
norial tax  amount  only  to  twenty-five  milliong  ;  when  we  find  old  censuses,  which 
Population.  |  for  fifteen  centuries  make  the  population  of  China  fluctuate  only  between 
forty-eight  and  sixty-millions  ;'|"  and  when,  on  comparing  the  tables  of  population  of 
1743,  given  by  Father  AUerstein,  with  those  of  Lord  Macartney  for  the  year  1795, 
an  increase  of  three  or  four-fold  is  found  to  have  taken  place  ;  j  when,  in  fine,  we 
may  see  that  each  of  these  estimates  labours  under  evident  error,  some  of  the  num- 
bers being  literal  repetitions  of  others,  and  other  sums  out  of  all  proportion  ? 

Cool  and  impartial  men  rate  the  population  of  China,  properly  so  called,  at  150 
ivfiiitary  disci-  millions.  The  army,  which  may  amount  to  500,000  or  600,000  regular 
phne.  troops,  and  a  miUion  of  nomades  of  military  habits,  has  nothing  formi- 

dable but  its  numerical  amount.  Bad  artillerymen,  ignorant  of  the  art  of  military 
evolution,  and  what  is  worst  of  all,  destitute  of  courage  and  the  miUtary  spirit,  the 
Chinese  would  probably  yield  as  easily  to  a  moderate  European  force,  as  they  have 
formerly  so  often  fallen  under  the  invasions  of  the  hordes  of  central  Asia. 

The  picture  which  we  have  now  drawn  is  conformable  to  the  ideas  of 
La  Perouse,  of  Krusenstern,  of  Barrow,  and  of  De  Guignes,  and  is  sup- 
ported by  the  acknowledgments  of  the  missionaries  ;  yet  it  is  con- 
demned by  a  number  of  persons  who  from  the  heart  of  Europe,  raise  encomiums  on 
China.  In  the  last  century,  China  found  her  interested  and  ardent  panegyrists  in 
two  powerful  parties.  The  French  philosophers  and  the  Jesuits  vied  with  each 
other  in  extolling  the  laws  and  the  happiness  of  that  country.  The  philosophers 
knew  nothing  of  the  subject  on  which  they  pronounced  a  judgment:  the  Jesuits 
knew  a  great  deal.  But  those  who  reason  with  impartiality  will  never  prefer  the  na- 
tural religion  of  Confucius  to  Christianity  ;  nor  will  the  free  and  high-minded  nations 
of  Europe  admire  the  arrangements  of  a  tyrannical  police,  the  annoyance  of  a 
childish  etiquette,  and  "the  great  walls"  which  have  been  erected  for  interrupting  the 
communications  of  the  human  mind. 

In  the  midst  of  these  opinions,  dictated  by  enthusiasm  and  party 
spirit,  we  must  particularize  those  which  relate  to  the  pretended  anti- 
quity of  the  Chinese  empire.  We  know  that  the  enemies  of  the  Christian  religion 
have  made  it  an  important  object  of  research  to  discover  a  people  whose  records  are 
more  ancient  than  Noah's  flood,  and  more  ancient  than  even  the  common  term  as- 
signed as  the  epoch  of  the  Mosaic  creation.  The  pretended  antiquity  of  the  Egyp- 
tians and  Babylonians  having  been  reduced  to  its  proper  value,  they  recurred  tolhat 
of  India  and  of  China.  The  wonders  of  distant  countries  were  fitted  to  inspire  a 
greater  degree  of  veneration.  China  was  represented  as  a  highly  civilized  and  flou- 
rishing empire  4500  years  before  Christ,  and  if  due  time  is  allowed  for  the  formation 
of  such  an  empire,  it  must  have  existed  for  a  period  often  or  twenty  thousand  years. 
Some  ill-informed  missionaries,  wishing  from  motives  of  vanity  to  display  the  an- 
tiquity of  an  empire  of  which  they  pretended  to  have  a  spiritual  conquest,  went 
blindly  into  the  same  system,  without  being  aware  of  the  consequences  to  which  it 
A.  2955  before  led.  A  bad  historical  compilation,  translated  from  the  Chinese,  ||  tells  us 
^'*"'*-  that  Fohi  founded  the  empire  of  China  about  3000  years  before  Christ, 

and  that,  three  centuries  after  this,  Hoang-Ti  reigned  over  flourishing  states,  which 
were  1660  miles  long  and  1100  broad. 

f^eliin  this  Unfortunately  for  such  narratives,  China  herself  luis  produced  his- 

amiquity.  torians  candid  enough  to  reject  all  the  fables  concerning  Fohi  and  Ho- 

ang-Ti. They  do  not  even  venture  to  vouch  for  the  traditions  respecting  the  reign 
of  lao,  probably  an  allegorical  person,  whose  era  is  fixed  twenty-three 
centuries  before  Christ.     Let  us  consider  in  what  the  great  actions  of 


Pretended  an^ 
tiquity  of  the 
empire. 


Before  Chr. 
2537. 


*  Day-sin-y-tundshi,  translated  from  the  Chinese  into  Russian,  and  thence  into  German. 
Busching's  Mag.  Geog.  xiv. 

t  De  Guignes,  Observations  sur  le  D^nombi'ement  de  la  Chine.    Journ.  des  Savans.    Mars, 
1780,  p.  155,  8cc. 

*  See  the  tables  subjoined  to  this  Rook. 

S  L'Histoire  GcneraJe  dc  la  Chine,  en  12  vol.  trad  par  le  T.  Mailla  et  I'abbii  Grosier. 


CHINA.  93 


Ancient  condi- 
tion ut'  China. 

Before  Chr- 

1401. 


Astronomicsl 
observations. 


Cannibalism, 
A.  n.  1300. 


lao  consisted.  He  drained  marshes,  he  hunted  down  wild  beasts,  he  cultivated  a 
desert  country,  and  so  narrow  were  the  dimensions  of  his  territory  that 
he  surveyed  the  whole  four  times  in  the  year.*  Ten  centuries  after  this, 
we  find  the  princes  of  China  moving  from  province  to  province  accom- 
panied by  all  their  subjects  nomadic  like  themselves,  and  living  all  alike 
either  in'caves  of  the  rocks  or  in  cabins  of  earth. t  In  the  time  of  Confucius  the 
whole  of  China  south  of  the  Blue  River  was  still  a  desert.  J  Nothing  Before  ci.r. 
in  the  Chinese  annals  of  that  period  affords  any  evidence  of  a  great  na-  *"'• 
lion.  There  is  no  authentic  monument  to  attest  the  power  of  those  who  erected  it. 
The  books,  written  on  very  brittle  paper  and  very  frequently  recopied,  can  give  no 
information  worthy  of  our  confidence.  And  we  further  knuw  that,  two  centuries  be- 
fore the  Christian  era,  a  barbarous  monarch  caused  all  the  writings  then  in  existence 
to  be  destroyed.  We  must  then,  with  the  learned  among  the  Chinese,  give  the  his- 
tory of  China  no  farther  extension  than  eight  or  nine  centuries  at  most  before  Christ.§ 
The  hypothesis  which  finds  it  entitled  to  any  higher  antiquity  owes  its  origin  to  the 
caprice  of  some  modern  literati,  and  the  vanity  of  the  emperors.  || 

But  we  may  be  told  that  astronomical  observations,  allowed  by  M.  de 
la  Place  to  be  exact,^  are  as  ancient  as  1100  before  Christ.  Laying 
aside  the  objections  to  which  the  authenticity  of  these  observations  is  liable,  admit- 
ting that  they  are  not  composed  by  modern  Chinese,  they  only  prove  that  1100  years 
before  Christ  a  civilized  tribe  and  town  existed  which  produced  men  of  science. 
Eastern  Asia  may,  like  Europe,  have  had  her  Greeks  and  her  Athenians.  There  is 
a  great  difference  between  that  and  the  formation  of  an  immense  empire.  From 
1100  to  2300  there  is  also  a  long  space  of  time.  A  shorter  interval  witnessed  the 
rise,  the  civiUzation,  and  the  extinction  of  Greece  and  of  Rome. 

Even  subsequent  to  the  commencement  of  our  era  China  has  often 
been  divided  into  small  states;  and,  if  her  civilization  is  of  more  ancient 
date,  it  must  oftener  than  once  have  perished ;  for  in  the  tliirteenth  century  the  inha- 
bitants of  the  province  of  Fou-kien  in  Mangi  or  southern  China,  ate  with  avidity  the 
flesh  of  their  fellow  creatures,  nicely  preferring  that  of  persons  in  good  bodily  con- 
dition ;  drank  the  blood  of  their  prisoners  of  war ;  and  marked  their  skins  with  hot 
irons  like  the  most  savagS  nations.**  The  person  who  relates  these  facts  had  the 
management  of  a  district  of  the  country.  It  is  a  remarkable  circumstance  that  from 
Marco  Polo  to  M.  de  Guignes,  all  who  have  seen  China  have  observed  facts  so  uni- 
versally tending  to  assuage  the  enthusiasm  of  those  who  cherislicd  at  a  distance  an 
admiration  of  China.  We  may  praise  the  character  of  her  policy  in  some  particu- 
lars. The  politician  of  Europe  may  contemplate  with  mixed  admiration  and  disap- 
pointment the  unyielding  conviction  entertained  by  the  government  of  SMmraarycon- 
the  hazard  of  giving  access  to  the  influence  of  our  political  intrigues  ;  i^'"*'"'"- 
and  the  moral  philosopher  may  admire  the  cool  and  considerate  theories  by  which 
they  explain  and  account  for  the  errors  both  of  one  another  and  of  other  nations,  so 
favourably  contrasted  with  the  mysterious  reprobation  of  crime  and  boastful  displays 
of  forgiveness  which  have  so  often  rendered  European  and  especially  Spanish  mani- 
festos ridiculous,  and  he  may  view  with  approbation  the  firmness  with  which  they 
execute  such  acts  as  appear  expedient  for  the  safety  of  the  state  and  social  order.  Plow 
have  they  acquired  a  tone  so  dignified,  and  so  unlike  tliat  barbarous  incapacity  for 
thinking  which  in  other  particulars  they  betray,  and  that  inhumanity  which  marks 
many  parts  of  their  practical  proceedings'?  What  arc  the  means  by  which  the  more 
respectable  materials  of  the  national  character  admit  of  being  improved,  and  incor- 
porated into  a  consistent  system  of  social  felicity  1     By  what  means  can  a  condition 

•  Ue  Guignes  fils,  Keflections,  Sec.  Annales  des  Voyages,  viii.  176.  Le  P.  Ko  (Chinois) 
Mem.  des  Missionaries,  i.  p.  213.     Amyot  ibid.  xiii.  p.  171,  311,  &c. 

f  Chy-King,  Mem.  des  Missionaries,  i.  p.  108.  Le  P.  Cibot,  ibid.  xv.  p.  34.  De  Guignes, 
Voyage  a  Pekin,  i.  p.  73. 

t  Mem.  des  Mission,  xiii.  311. 

§  Le  P.  Premare,  preface  du  Clion-King,  p.  55.     Lc  P.  Ko,  Mem.  des  Miss.  i.  p.  240. 

H   Le  P.  Gaubil,  Obs.  Matheni.de  Souciet,  ii.  p.  16,  17. 

•J  Systeme  du  niondc,  p.  398,  405,  trois  edit,  •*  Marco-Polo,  de  reb.  Orient,  ii.  67. 


n 


BOOK  FORTY-FOURTH. 


thus  formed  become  secure  against  the  ambitious  intermeddlings  of  other  powers, 
consistently  with  a  liberal  interchange  of  social  advantages  1  and  finally,  By  what 
steps  might  such  materials  be  adopted  by  those  who  at  present  value  nothing  so  much 
as  original  genius  in  its  free,  romantic,  and  impassioned  exercises,  without  weaken- 
ing their  mental  vigour  t  These  are  problems  of  great  interest  to  the  citizen  of  the 
world,  who  flatters  himself  that  some  Utopian  state  of  society  is  within  the  reach  of 
his  species,  while  he  is  solicitous  to  exclude  from  his  contemplations  the  reveries  of 
idle  imagination.  Such  a  person  can  have  nothing  in  common  with  those  who  enter- 
tain a  spirit  of  bitter  animosity  towards  the  Chinese,  and  speak  and  write  as  if  it 
were  somewhat  unfortunate  that  so  singular  a  nation  ever  had  existence.  Yet  a  candid 
Avish  to  acknowledge  their  virtues  need  not  be  suffered  to  generate  a  blind  credulity  in 
the  ridiculous  pretensions  which  have  so  often  been  urged  in  favour  of  this  nation. 


Table  of  the  Population  and  Revenue  of  China  Proper,  from  the  Chinese  Geography , 

Daisin-y-tundshi. 


Number    of    Peasants 

Tribute   of   Wheat  in 

Tribute   of  Silver  in 

Provinces. 

subject  to  contribu- 

Chinese  bushels   or 

lana.f 

tion. 

dan.* 

Pe-tche-li    .     . 

3,340,544 

118,162 

2,422,128 

Kiangnan   . 

4,256,712 

189,124 

5,327,614 

Shansi  .     . 

1,799,895 

110,054 

2,973,242 

Shan-ton      .     . 

2,431,936 

1,271,494 

3,463,221 

Ho-nan  .     . 

2,527,456 

249,476 

2,605,191 

Shen-si  .     . 

2,262,438 

191,955 

1,450,711 

Kan-tcheoo 

451,693 

520,618 

300,506 

Tche-kiang 

3,124,798 

1,363,400 

2,856,719 

Kiang-si 

337,069 

942,065 

1,975,711 

Hon  quan    . 

752,970 

609,501 

1,308,769 

Sy-tchooen  . 

650,208 

**•'"%• 

656,426 

Foo-kien 

1,528,607 

297,462 

1,030,712 

Quan-long  . 

1,201,320 

114,579 

1,286,198 

Quang-si     . 

220,690 

67,755 

375,974 

loun-nan 

237,965 

227,626 

209,582 

Quoi-lcheoo 

41,089 

123,015 

118,094 

25,165,390 

6,396,286 

28,360,800 

Old  Statements  of  the  Poptdation  of  China. 


Census  in  the  first  century 

A.  D.  740,  under  the  Tang  dynasty   .... 

A.  D.  1393,  under  Hong-Voo 

A.  D.  1491,  under  Hiao-Tsong 

A.  D.  1578,  under  Van-Lie 

Families. 

Mouths.t 

12,233,062 
8,412,800 

16,052  860 
9,113,446 

10,621,436 

59,594,978 
48,143,600 
60,545,812 
53,281,158 
60,692,856 

•  The  dSn  is  equal  to  12,070  cubie  inches  French. 

t  The  lana,  according  to  some,  is  equal  to  709  Dutch  as,  and,  accordiner  to  others,  to 
772  or  781. 
t  The  term  used  technically  in  China  in  these  statements,  as  souls  is  in  Europe, 


THIBET. 


JV[odern  Statements  of  the  Population  of  China. 


According  to  Allerstein,  1743. 

Macartney,  1795. 

Mouths. 

Fong-tien 

•                 •                 •                 • 

668,852 

« 
... 

Pe-tehe-li 

•                 •                 •                 • 

15,222,940 

38,000,000 

Kiang-nan,  divided  into 

Gan-hoei 
andKian-soo 

22,761,030^ 
23,161,409  3 

45,922,439 

32,000,000 

Kian-si    .... 

•                     •                    •                    • 

11,006,604 

19,000,000 

Tche-kiang     . 

•                    •                    •                    • 

15,429,690 

21,000,000 

Fou-kien 

•                     •                    •                     • 

8,063,671 

15,000,000 

Hoo  quang,  divided  into 

Hoo-pee 
and  Honnan 

8,080,603  > 
8,829,820  S 

16,910,423 

27,000,000 

Shan-ton 

25,180,734 

24,000,000 

Ho-nan 

16,332,507 

25,000,000 

Chan-si 

9,768,189 

27,000,000 

Cl^en-si,  divided  into  Si-ngs 

in          ... 

7,287,443 

18,000,000 

and  Kan-soo 

7,412,014 

12,000,000 

Se-tchoon 

2,782,976 

27,000,000 

Kooang-tong  . 

6,782,975 

21,000,000 

Kooang-si 

3,947,414 

10,000,000 

Yoon-nan 

2,078,892 

8,000,000 

Koei-tcheoo    . 
Total 

1 

3,402,722 

9,000,000 

98,213,713 

333,000,000 

^ 


# 


*  -i 


vj-i 


BOOK  XLV. 


THIBET. 


The  northern,  the  central,  and  the  eastern  regions  of  Asia  have,  in  the  twenty  pre- 
ceding books,  passed  before  us  in  successive  review.  Its  southern  parts  still  remain, 
the  countries  of  the  Indus,  the  Ganges,  the  Braniapootra,  and  the  Irawaddy.  All 
these  rivers  have  been  thought  to  descend  from  a  plateau  possessing  a  (  General  view, 
southern  inclination,  but  separated  by  immense  mountains  from  the  rest  of  southern 
Asia.  This  plateau  is  Thibet.  Here  we  approach  a  mysterious  and  sacred  country, 
the  cradle  of  more  than  one  system  of  religion,  and  in  the  bosom  of  which  the  seat  of 
perpetual  winter,  the  throne  of  superstition  has  been  erected.  But  we  must  wait  for 
a  time  till  geographical  investigation  shall  be  admitted  to  profane  that  holy  land 
where  the  pretended  vicegerent  of  the  Almighty  holds  his  sway  amidst  rocks,  forests, 
and  convents. 

Thibet,  known  to  us  since  the  thirteenth  century,|  continued  long  in-     S^JJ?p^°Jf'„V 
accessible  to  European  travellers.     Marco  Polo  did  not  enter  the  coun-     Thibet. 


•  This  province  being  in  Tartary,  is  not  included  separately  in  the  last  enumeration. 
t  It  is  calisd  Tt/Jimr  and  Touttxt  in  the  Byzantine  history.     Wahl,  Ostinden,  i.  187. 


r" 


96  BOOK  FOHTY-FIf'TH. 

try;  yet  he  has  given  a  Very  curious  description  of  it.  According  to  him,  Tebeth 
contained  eight  kingdoms ;  part  of  it  had  been  devastated  by  the  armies  of  Kublai- 
Khan.  It  abounded  in  wild  animals;  and  travellers,  in  order  to  protect  themselves 
from  their  attacks,  set  fire  to  the  forests  of  large  reeds,  (L  e.  bamboos)  with  which 
the  country  was  covered.  In  the  inhabited  parts  several  strange  customs  prevailed, 
stranse  '^^®  natives  did  not  choose  to  marry  women  who  had  preserved  the 

practice.  treasure  which  in  other  countries  husbands  so  highly  prize.     They  en- 

treated strangers  to  initiate  their  young  women  in  impure  gallantry,  and  to  leave 
with  them  trifling  presents,  as  memorials  of  their  transitory  intercourse.  The  fe- 
males hung  these  trophies  round  their  necks ;  and  the  greater  the  numbers  were  in 
which  they  could  display  them,  the  more  certain  were  they  of  establishing  themselves 
by  marriage.     The  country  yielded  gold,  musk,  and  coral.* 

Proviiicej  On  tho  wost  of  Tebeth,  Marco  Polo  placed  the  province  of  Canicloo, 

m!po1Io.'^  '  or  Gauicloo,  where  there  was  a  lake  rich  in  pearls.  It  contained  many 
of  the  musk  animals,  which  they  called  gaddery,  mines  of  turquoises  and  of  gold, 
and  several  aromatic  plants.  This  country  seems  to  answer  to  that  of  Gang-Desh 
mentioned  in  the  Zenda-Vesta  and  in  Ferishta,  and  was  once  considered  as  the 
country  of  the  Ganges  from  its  sources  to  its  cataracts. "f  It  is  terminated  on  the 
east  by  the  river  Brius,  which  is  probably  the  Bramapootra,  or  Brihmapootre,  which 
carried  down  gold  dust  mingled  with  its  sand.  Beyond  that  river  lay  the  province  of 
Caraiam,  the  capital  of  which  was  called  lacy.  That  country,  rich  in  horses,  in-gold, 
and  in  rice,  was  infested  by  enormous  serpents.  The  inhabitants  spoke  a  peculiar 
language;  they  drank  a  spirit  distilled  from  rice.  The  great  khan  made  war  on  the 
king  of  Mien  {u  e.  Ava)  and  of  Bangala  (Bengal)  for  the  country  of  Caraiam.  He 
took  possession  of  it  as  well  as  of  Botia  immediately  adjoining.J  Botia  was  evi- 
dently the  modern  Bootan;  and  this  Caraiam,  which  commentators  have  hitherto 
carried  as  far  west  as  Little  Bukharia,  must  be  the  country  of  Asham  with  its  ancient 
capital  Azoo.  Perhaps  the  name  of  Caraiam  has  some  relation  to  that  of  the  Gar- 
row  mountains.  In  a  neighbouring  province  called  Ardondam,  or  Arcladam,§  or 
Paternal  incu-  I  Caridi,||  the  men  confined  themselves  to  bed  for  forty  days  after  the  de- 
bation.  j  livery  of  their  wives,  and  had  the  care  of  the  infant  committed  to  them. 

The  only  objects  of  their  worship  were  the  spirits  of  the  ancestors  of  their  respective 
families.  Gold  abounded  to  such  a  degree  that  every  man  wore  a  small  plate  of  that 
metal  as  a  cover  to  his  teeth ;  and  they  exchanged  it  for  an  equal  weight  of  silver, 
which  was  brought  to  them  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  country  of  Mien,  and  was  not 
found  at  all  in  that  of  Caridi.  Their  sorcerers  pretended  to  cure  the 
sick  by  magic  songs,  to  which  they  danced  with  hideous  contortions,  till 
one  of  them,  seized  with  the  influence  of  the  demon,  fell  down  and  declared  by  what 
sort  of  sacrifices  it  was  necessary  to  concihate  the  good-will  of  the  spirit  who  dictat- 
ed his  words.  These  are  exactly  the  juggleries  of  the  present  Shamans.  The  ca- 
pital of  the  province  of  Caridi  was  Nokian.lT  This  is  the  name  of  a  great  river  which 
runs  from  Thibet  into  Ava.  Thus  the  country  of  Caridi  is  the  south-east  point  of 
Thibet,  and  perhaps  the  country  of  the  nation  of  the  Kariaines  which  is  spread  over 
Ava.  Marco  Polo  also  mentions  the  town  of  Ciangloo,  or  Cangloo,**  which  seems  to 
be  the  Dsanclo  of  the  map  of  the  missionaries. 

Progress  of  in-  |  Such  is  the  substaucc  of  the  interesting  account  of  Marco  Polo,  treat- 
since  M.  Polo.  I  ed  at  the  present  day  with  undue  contempt..  It  is  more  instructive  than 
that  given  by  Father  Andrada  in  1626;  and  it  was  not  till  the  first  half  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century  that  the  missionaries  of  Pekin  collected  more  certain  information. 
Horatio  Delia  Pinna,  a  capuchin,  spent  eighteen  years  in  the  capital  of  Thibet,  but 
his  observations  were  not  judiciously  directed.  |f     Two  rapid  visits  of  the  English, 

•  Marci  PauU  de  Reb.  Orien.  lib.  ii.  cap.  36,  37.  edit.  Muller.  cap.  85.  edit.  1508. 

t  Wahl,  p.  239—242. 

^  M.  Polo  de  Reb.  Or.  lib.  ii.  cap.  39,  40,  42,  43,  Muller.  edit. 

§  Ibid.  cap.  41.  _  i  Ibid.  edit,  of  1508,  cap.  89. 

^  Edition  of  1508,  Unchian  in  Muller. 

**  Edition  of  1508,  Cangloo  in  MuUer. 

tt  Horatio  della  Pinna,  Relazeone  della  missione  del  Thibet,  Rome,  1742,  (4to.) 


Sorcerers,  or 
Shamans, 


THIBET.  97 

sent  out  on  an  embassy  to  one  of  the  ecclesiastical  princes  of  southern  Thibet,  that 
of  Mr.  Boyle  in  1774,  and  that  of  Captain  Turner  in  17S4;  some  information  derived 
from  manuscripts  in  the  language  of  Thibet  found  among  the  Kalmuks,*  and  some 
verbal  accounts  given  by  Russian  subjects  professing  the  religion  of  the  Dalai-Lama;| 
these  constitute  all  the  soiuccs  of  our  information  concerning  this  singular  country, 
so  interesting  both  in  its  physical  and  its  moral  aspect. 

Under  the  name  of  Thibet  we  comprehend  all  the  countries  which  Boumiaries  of 
lie  to  the  north  of  Indostan,  to  the  east  of  Great  ]5ukharia,  to  the  south  Thibet, 
of  Little  Bukharia,  to  the  south-west  of  Tiingoot,  (taking  this  name  in  its  strictest 
acceptation,)  to  the  west  of  China,  and  to  the  norlh-wcst  of  the  Birman  empire.  In 
this  wide  range.  Little  Thibet  and  the  state  of  Ladaak  in  the  west,  as  well  as  Bootan 
in  the  soudi,  may  be  considered  as  separate  countries.  The  south-east  boundary  is 
little  known,  and  in  the  north  there  feeem  to  be  provinces  respecting  which  we  are 
altojretlier  ionorant. 

D'Anville  makes  Thibet  terminate  at  the  35th  degree  of  latitude,  but  the  Jesuit 
Tiefrenthaler,J  positively  assures  us  that  Great  Thibet  lies  on  the  north-east  of 
Cashmere,  and  Little  Thibet,  on  the  north-west.  The  shortest  road  to  Cashgar 
would  be  to  go  through  Great  Thibet,  but  that  not  being  permitted,  they  go  through 
Little  Thibet,  the  capital  of  which,  Eskerdon,  is  eight  days  journey  from  the  northern 
boundary  of  Cashmere.  Beyond  it  is  Shakar.  Fifteen  days  journey  beyond  this, 
passing  through  thick  forests,  we  arrive  at  the  frontier  of  Little  Thibet.  The  cara- 
vans take  other  fifteen  days  to  reach  Cashgar.  From  these  facts  the  result  seems 
to  be,  that  we  may  with  confidence  place  Thibet  two  degrees  at  least  more  to  the 
north  than  it  is  situated  on  d'Anville's  maps.  The  Moos-Tag,  or  "Snowy  Moun- 
tains," form,  according  to  the  Russian  accounts,  the  northern  boundary  of  Thibet, 
and  these  mountains  are  in  latitude  38°.  But  perhaps  these  countries,  without  be- 
longing properly  to  Thibet,  are  inhabited  by  small  nomade  hordes  dependent  on  the 
sovereigns  of  that  country.  This  seems  to  have  been  the  opinion  of  the  missiona- 
ries. §  Perhaps  these  countries  form  what  d'Anville  has  marked  Turk-endh  on  his 
maps;  perhaps  also  Turk-bend  and  Little  Thibet  are  the  same.  Turk-hend  seems 
to  mean  "Turkestan  on  the  Indus." 

The  general  name  of  these  countries  is  equally  uncertain  as  their 
boundaries.  The  inhabitants  call  them  Pont  or,  Bhout,  or  adding  the 
termination  signifying  country,  BJwut-yid,\\  which  appears  to  mean  "the  country  of 
the  god  Boodha."  The  name  of  Thebet,  Thibet,  or  Tobbat,  known  to  the  Persians 
and  Arabians,  does  not  seem  to  be  used  in  the  country  itself.  Perhaps  it  is  only  a 
corruption  of  the  Thibetian  words,  Ten-boot,  "kingdom  of  Boot."1T  The  Chinese 
call  it  Dshan;  the  Mongols  Baran-Tcda,  or,  "the  country  on  the  right,"  and  some- 
times include  it  under  the  name  of  Tangoot.** 

Geographers  have  spoken  with  admiration  of  the  stupendous  chain  |  Mountains, 
of  mountains  of  Thibet,  but  we  have  not  been  able  to  procure  a  geograpiiical  de- 
scription of  their  direction  or  extent.  Those  of  the  south-west  and  south  are  at 
first  very  higli  and  very  steep.  They  were  till  lately  considered  as  the  sources  of 
the  great  river  Ganges,  but  it  has  now  been  found  that  the  rivers  formerly  supposed 
to  run  into  the  Ganges,  are  tributaries  of  the  Indus.  Behind  these  mountains  seve- 
ral valleys  and  plateaux  are  extended,  partly  included  in  Indostan.  These  are  the 
Himmaleh  mountains,  the  Imaus,  and  the  Hcmodus  of  the  ancients ;  they  seem  to 
bend  in  a  semi -circular  form  in  the  south-east  direction  from  the  sources  of  the 
Ganges  to  the  frontiers  of  Asham.  To  the  norlli  of  the  river  Sampoo  a  parallel 
chain  rises ;  and  still  farther  north  there  are  several  large  lakes.  The  chief  elevation 
seems  to  be  in  the  centre  to  the  south  of  lake  Terkiri.  It  is  called  Koiran,  a  name 
which  may  be  extended  to  tlie  whole  chain,  although  that  of  Kantel  is  given  to  the 
western  part.     Here  our  present  knowledge  ends.     We  do  not  know  if  these  chains 

•  Georgil  Ei-emitrc  Alphabitum  Thibetanum,     Koma,  1762,  (4to.) 
t  I'allas,  Noiiv.  M^m.  da  Nord.  i.  p.  201,  .^c.  iv.  p.  271,  SiC. 
i  Descriplion  de  I'lnde,  ii.  p.  18.  §  Dulialde,  iv.  p.  464. 

II   Wald,  Ostindicn.  i.  188.  «i   (^eorgii,  Alphab.  Thibet. 

•*   Pallas,  I.e.  i.  202. 
Vol.  II.— N 


Various 
names. 


98  BOOK  FOllXy-FlFTII. 

bear  the  Indian  and  Chinese  name  of  Kantaisse  or  Kantaiskan,  and  the  Tartar  name 
of  Mus-Tag;  these  mountains  are  perhaps  detached  groups,  and  Thibet,  communi- 
cating all  along  with  the  Kalmuks  and  Mongols,  perhaps  gradually  passes  into  the 
plateau  of  central  Asia.  The  principal  valleys  of  this  system,  of  mountains  lie  east 
and  west,  and  are  generally  open  only  on  the  south-east.  Great  natural  features  of 
this  sort  are  worthy  of  our  attention,  even  to  prepare  us  for  forming  a  true  theory  of 
the  earth.  Chumularia,  near  Phari,  on  the  frontier  of  Bootan,  is  one  of  the  most 
elevated  peaks.  On  the  west  is  the  peak  of  Langoor,  which  seems  to  be  an  extin- 
guished volcano.* 

Rivers.  The  chief  river  of  Thibet  is  the  Bcrhampootcr,  or  Brahmapootra, 

tia!  '"^'""^  '<  the  river  of  Brahma,"  wliich  receives  numerous  tributaries  in  Thibet, 
and  among  others  the  Sampoo.  Its  course  is  first  east,  then  south-east  for  a  space 
of  nearly  a  thousand  miles,  to  the  confines  of  Thibet  and  Asham,  where  it  takes  a 
turn  to  the  south-west,  and  seems  to  suffer  a  distortion,  in  order  to  flow  into  the  sea 
close  by  the  mouth  of  the  Gangei';,  with  which  it  is  apparentl}!  confounded  ;  this 
lower  part  of  its  course  is  nearly  400  miles  long. 

The  Hoan-Ho  and  the  Kian-Ku  also  derive  their  origin  from  the  eastern  confines 
of  Thibet.  The  Irawaddy,  the  May-Kian  of  Laos,  the  great  river  of  Cambodia, 
and  the  Nookian,  which  falls  into  the  sea  near  Martaban,  in  the  Gulf  of  Pegu,  de- 
rive their  sources  from  the  eastern  part  of  Thibet. 

Lakes.  I       Tliese  mountainous  regions  contain  numerous  lakes.     The  largest  is 

the  Terkiri,  about  seventy  miles  long  and  twenty-five  broad.  The  Chinese  lamas, 
to  whom  we  owe  the  only  map  that  we  have  of  Thibet,  have  placed  several  other 
lakes  in  the  northern  parts  of  the  country.  We  know  for  certain  that  there  is  a  very 
singular  one,  which  furnishes  tincal  or  crude  borax.  Another  to  the  south  of  I^assa, 
and  called  Palto  or  Yambro,  is  in  another  respect  equally  extraordinary.  The  greater 
part  of  its  area  is  occupied  witli  an  island.  It  is,  in  fact,  a  large  ditch  or  canal,  five 
miles  and  a  half  broad,  surrounding  an  island  about  a  hundred  miles  in  diameter. "j" 
The  smaller  lakes  even  in  the  southern  part  of  Thibet  are  frozen  in  winter  to  a  great 
depth. 

Climate.  j  The  seasons  in  this  country  observe  a  great  uniformity  both  in  their 
Temperature,  j  respective  temperatures,  duration,  and  periodical  return.  They  seem  to 
follow  the  same  divisions  as  those  of  Bengal.  The  spring  from  March  till  May,  is 
remarkable  for  great  changes  in  the  atmosphere,  powerful  heats,  and  the  frequency 
of  thunder.  The  rainy  season  lasts  from  June  to  September  ;  heavy  rains  then  fall 
witliout  intermission,  the  rivers  become  enlarged,  run  with  great  rapidity,  and  swell 
the  inundations  of  Bengal.  From  October  to  March,  the  sky,  constantly  serene,  is 
rarely  darkened  by  mists  or  by  clouds.  For  three  months  of  that  season  the  cold  is 
perhaps  more  rigorous  than  in  any  part  of  Europe.  It  is  of  a  dry  and  piercing 
quality  ;  and,  though  in  a  latitude  of  26°  on  the  confines  of  the  torrid  zone,  it  vies 
with  that  of  the  Alps  under  the  parallel  of  46°. 

This  rude  and  frozen  climate  becomes  milder  to  the  south   of  the 
Himmaleh.     Turner  assures  us  that  Bootan,  notwithstanding  its  shape-, 
less  and  irregular  mountains,  is  covered  with  a  perpetual  verdure,  and  adorned  with 
forests   consisting  of  trees  of  astonishing  size.     The  sides  of  the   mountains  are 
levelled,  laboured,   and   sown  by  the   industrious  inhabitants,    and    covered   with 
orchards,  cornfields,  and  villages.     Thibet  Proper,  on  the  contrary,  presented  to 
Captain  Turner's  view  nothing  but  low  hills  bristled  with  rocks  affording  no  appear- 
ance of  vegetation, — or  dry  plains  of  uniform  and  gloomy  aspect.   The  cold  obliges 
the  inhabitants  to  seek  for  shelter  in  the  hollow  valleys  and  in  caverns. 
Vegetation.      |       The  vegctation  of  Thibet  is  little  known;  the  most  scientific  account 
that  we  have  embraces  only  the  southern  part  between  the  parallels  of  27°  and  29°.  J  ' 
Agriculture.     |  Its  agriculture  has  great  physical  obstacles  to  contend  with.     At  the  ap- 
proach of  winter  the  valleys  are  generally  underwater;  yet  the  rays  of  an  ardent 
sun  soon  bring  the  grain  to  maturity.     The  autumn  being  clear  and  serene,  the  far- 

•  AIpliab.Thibel.p.447'.  f  Alphah.  Thibet,  p.  '151. 

i  Saunders,  in  the  Philosophical  Transactions,  vol  Ixxix.  p.  79-106. 


Climate  uV 
Boot&ii. 


T111J5ET.  99 

trier  spreads  his  corji  on  tlic  <j;roiiiul  to  dry,  then  employs  oxen  (o  (road  it.  The  com- 
mon species  of  grain  are  wheal,  pease,  and  barley.  Rico  grows  only  in  the  southern 
parts.  Turnips,  pumpkins  and  cucumbers  are  abundant.  The  greater  part  of  the 
plants  which  travellers  have  noticed  are  such  as  are  met  with  also  in  Europe  and  in 
Bengal.  At  the  foot  of  the  mountains  are  forests  of  bamboos,  bananas,  aspens, 
birches,  cypresses,  and  yew-trees.  The  ash  is  remarkably  large  and  beautiful,  but 
the  firs  small  and  stunted.  On  the  snow-clad  mountains  grows  the  Rheum  undulalum, 
which  the  natives  use  for  medicinal  purposes.  The  country  contains,  both  in  a  wild 
and  cultivated  state,  peaches  and  apricots,  apples,  pears,  oranges,  and  pomegranates. 
Among  the  plants,  shrubs,  and  luider-shrubs,  Saunders  mentions  the  Arbidus  uva 
ursi,  the  Vitis  idona,  or  common  whortlc-berry,  the  Daliirafcrox,  or  Chinese  whortle- 
berry, which  is  common  to  China  and  Thibet,  and,  like  our  species  the  Slrmiionium, 
a  powerful  narcotic.  There  is  a  species  of  Lamms  which  produces  the  root  called 
the  bastard  cinnamon.  Marco  Polo  mentions  this  production,  which  is  common 
in  every  part  of  Thibet,  under  the  name  of  zenzero  or  ginger.  The  Cacalia  Sa- 
racenica  serves  for  the  manufacture  of  ckong,  a  spirituous  and  slightly  acid  liquor. 

Bootan  possesses  {gw  wild  animals  except  monkeys;  butThibet  swarms  |  Animals, 
with  them.  The  musk  animal  sports  among  these  icy  Alps.  He  becomes  the  prey 
of  the  ounce,  and  various  other  species  resembling  the  tiger;  but  it  is  not  probable 
that  the  true  tiger  often  removes  into  so  cold  a  country.  The  bear,  the  wild  horse, 
and  the  lion,  are  still  mentioned  among  the  animals  of  the  country.*  According  to 
Marco  Polo,  there  are  some  dogs  as  large  as  asses.  The  tame  horses  are  small, 
but  full  of  spirit  and  restive.  The  cattle  are  only  of  middling  height.  There  arc 
numerous  flocks  of  sheep,  generally  of  a  small  breed.  Their  heads  and  legs  are 
black,  their  wool  fine  and  soft,  and  their  mutton  excellent.  It  is  eaten  in  a  raw  state, 
after  having  been  dried  in  the  cold  air,  and  seasoned  with  garlic  and  spices.  The 
goats  are  numerous,  and  celebrated  for  their  fine  hair,  which  is  used  in  the  manu- 
facture of  shawls.  This  grows  under  the  coarser  hair.  We  must  not  omit  the 
yak  or  grunting  ox,^\^  which  nature  lias  furnished  with  long  and  thick  hair,  and  a 
tail  singular  for  its  silky  lustre  and  undulating  form.  In  all  the  cast  this  last  is  an 
article  of  luxury. 

Marco  Polo  had  already  mentioned  that  fish  are  abundant  in  the  lakes  |  risii,  &c. 
or  Thibet;  the  fact  is  confirmed  by  modern  travellers,  and  the  particulars  which  they 
give  lead  us  to  think  that  several  of  them  are  species  not  hitherto  known  to  our  ich- 
thyologists.    This  author  says  that  the  lakes  also  contain  coral. 

Since  the  visit  paid  to  this  country  by  Turner,  we  are  in  possession  of  |  Mines. 
a  more  extensive  acquaintance  with  its  mineralogy.  In  Bootan  this  traveller  only 
found  iron  and  a  small  quantity  of  copper.  Thibet  Proper,  on  the  contrary,  contains 
wealthy  mines;  gold  is  found  in  large  (piantity,  as  was  stated  by  Polo,  sometimes  in 
the  form  of  a  powder  in  the  beds  of  the  rivers,  at  other  times  in  large  masses  or  ir- 
regular veins,  in  a  gangue  of  hornstonc  or  quartz.  There  is  a  lead  mine  two  days 
journey  from  Teshoo-Lomboo;  the  ore  is  galena,  and  seems  to  contain  silver.  The 
Thibetans  work  cinnaliar  mines,  which  aro  rich  inV|ni(-ksilvor;  and  they  employ  that 
metal  as  a  specific  hi  the  same  diseases  for  which  it  is  used  in  Europe.  There  are 
some  strong  a[)pcarances  of  copper  mines.  Hock  salt  is  very  common;  but  in  gene- 
ral the  want  of  fuel  operates  as  a  discouragement  to  tiie  working  of  metals 

Mineral  waters  arc  abundant.  \Vc  must  take  particular  notice  of  that 
production  which  is  peculiar  to  Thibet,  tinkal  or  crude  borax.  Accord- 
ing to  Mr.  Saunders,  who  accompanied  Captain  Turner,  the  lake  from  which  tiukal 
and  rock-salt  arc  obtained  is  fifteen  days  journey  north  from  Tcshoo-Ijomboo.  Sur- 
rounded on  all  sides  by  rocky  mountains,  it  receives  no  rivulets,  but  is  fed  by  brackish 
springs  rising  from  the  bottom  of  the  lake  itself.  The  tinkal  is  found  crystalhzed  in 
the  lake,  and  is  taken  up  in  large  masses,  which  arc  then  broken  for  the  convenience 
of  carriage,  and  exposed  to  dry.  This  article,  though  gathered  for  a  considerable 
length  of  time,  has  no  appearance  of  sufiering  diminution,  and  most  probably  is  con- 

•  Alphabet.  'I'liibet.  p.  450. 

t  Sec  a  plute  of  this  animal  in  Captain  Turner's  Account  of  Thibet. 


IS. 

Tinkal  or 
borax. 


100  BOOK  FORTY-FIFTH. 

tinually  formed  anew.  The  lake  is  said  to  be  at  least  twenty  miles  in  circumference. 
For  a  part  of  the  year  it  is  frozen  over.  la  Thibet  tinkal  is  employed  for  soldering, 
and  as  a  flux  for  promoting  the  fusion  of  gold  and  silver.  At  some  future  period  a 
number  of  natural  curiosities  will  undoubtedly  be  found  in  these  mountainous  regions. 
A  large  harvest  awaits  in  this  quarter  both  the  painter  and  the  naturalist.  From 
what  we  know  already  of  Thibet,  it  seems  to  be  another  Switzerland  on  a  larger 
scale.  On  the  north  of  Tassisudon,  Mr.  Saunders  observed  a  singular  rock,  which 
in  the  front  view  formed  six  or  seven  pilasters  of  large  circumference,  and  nearly  a 
hundred  feet  in  height.  The  mass,  partially  detached  from  the  mountain,  projects  in 
a  manner  highly  picturesque  over  a  large  waterfall. 

Geographical  '^^^^  geographical  divisions  of  Thibet  are  enveloped  in  much  obscu- 

divisions.  rity.     The  terms,  "high  Thibet,"  "middle  Thibet,"  and  "low  Thibet," 

seem  to  be  arbitrary  and  vague.  Father  Georgius*  mentions  the  following  pro- 
vinces: Latak,  a  kingdom  to  the  west,  in  v/hich  he  includes  little  Thibet;  the  king- 
dom of  Nagari;  Hor,  with  lake  Terkiri,  Kiang,  Daum,  and  the  principality  of  Ka- 
hang.  These  four  are  in  the  north: — Amdoa  (the  Ard-Andam  of  M.  Polo,)  a  king- 
dom to  the  east;  Brediong  or  Bramasiong,  a  kingdom  to  the  south;  together  with 
Tacpoo,  the  Bootin  of  the  English  travellers,  and  Combo  or  Concpo ;  in  the  centre 
of  the  province  of  Ou,  the  Wey  of  the  Chinese  geography,  and  that  of  Szang  or 
Chang.  But  several  questions  may  be  asked  relative  to  these  alleged  provinces. — 
Doubts  regard.  ^^  Latak  a  detached  sovereignty,  as  some  have  maintained  ?*f  Are  not 
ing  them.  the  provinces  of  Hor  and  Kiang  subdivisions  of  the  kingdom  of  Na- 

gari? That  of  Daum  seems  to  be  subject  to  Kahan;  that  of  Combo  probably  to 
Tac-po.  By  these  unions  we  may  reduce  the  number  of  divisions  to  eight  kmg- 
doms,  in  conformity  with  the  account  of  M.  Polo.  But  the  mixture  of  Chinese, 
Thibetian,  and  Mongolian  names,  together  with  the  extreme  imperfection  of  the 
maps  constructed  by  the  Chinese  lamas,  render  any  discussion  of  these  points  as  use- 
less as  it  would  be  tedious. 

We  have  but  little  information  concerning  the  towns  of  Thibet.  The 
greater  part  of  the  places  marked  on  the  map  seem  to  be  nothing  more 
than  villages,  or  groups  of  cabins  each  surrounding  some  temple.  According  to 
the  official  Chinese  geography,  the  whole  of  Thibet  contains  sixteen  towns.  J  Las- 
sa  or  Dsassa,  the  capital,  is  situated  in  the  province  of  Ou,  in  a  large  plain.  It  is  a 
small  city,  but  the  houses  are  built  of  stone,  very  spacious  and  very  lofty.  It  is  the 
seat  of  the  Thibetian  government,  and  of  the  Chinese  mandarins  who  are  appointed 
as  overseers.  It  is  inhabited  by  merchants  and  artisans.  The  famous  mountain 
seven  miles  to  the  east  of  Lassa,  on  which  is  the  palace  of  the  Great  Lama,  is  called 
Puta-La,  or  "  the  holy  mountain."  According  to  the  Chinese,  this  is  only  the  name 
of  the  palace,  while  the  mountain  is  called  Mar-Buli.  This  palace  or  Temple,  crown- 
ed with  a  gilt  dome,  is  sixty-two  Chinese  fathoms  in  height.  The  exterior  is  said  to 
be  decorated  with  numberless  pyramids  of  gold  and  silver,  and  the  ten  thousand  rooms 
of  the  interior  contain  an  immense  number  of  idols  of  the  same  precious  materials. 
Sera  is  a  monastery,  with  a  town,  at  a  short  distance  from  Lassa.  In  it  we  may  re- 
cognize Sera  the  metropolis,  mentioned  by  ancient  writers. §  Teshoo-Lomboo,  a 
monastery  in  which  the  second  Lama  resides,  contains  three  or  four  hundred  apart- 
ments inhabited  by  monks,  besides  temples,  mausoleums,  and  the  palace  of  the  La- 
ma. The  buildings  are  all  of  stone,  with  flat  roofs,  and  parapets  of  heath  and  small 
boughs.  Capt.  Turner  also  gives  a  description  of  some  other  palaces  and  strong 
Bridges.  |  castlcs.     The  forms  of  the  bridges  are  varied  and   romantic.     Some- 

times they  are  formed  of  chains  extending  from  one  precipice  to  another:  in  other 
cases  they  are  of  beams,  with  one  end  fixed  in  the  bank  on  each  side,  while  the  other 
ends  advancing  with  a  certain  elevation  support  a  small  platform,  exhibiting  alto- 
gether the  upper  section  of  an  octagon. 

Different  I  Tassisudon  in  the  south  is  the  residence  of  the  prince  of  Bootan,  a 
towns.  J  y^ggg^j  jq  I|-jq  Lfij^a  of  Tc sho 0-Lo mb 0 0 .     Latak  in  the  west,  the  capital 

•  Alphab.  Thibet,  p,417. 

t  Desideri,  Lettrcs  edifantes,  t.  xv.  Astley's  Collection  of  Travels,  t.  Iv.  p.  453. 

*  Dai-sin-y-tundshi,  in  fine.  §  Pallas,  Mem.  du  Nord,  i.  206. 


'I'owns, 
houses,  and 
buildings. 


Remarks  on 
the  country  of 
the  lieloot- 
Tag. 


THIBET.  101 

of  the  kingdom,  is  said  to  be  a  large  town.  We  have  mentioned  Cianglu  or  ])san- 
cloo  from  Marco  Polo.  The  same  traveller  mentions  a  town  called  Sook  or  Sookoor, 
near  wliicli  the  true  rhubard  grows.  Forster  considers  this  as  belonging  to  Thibet.* 
We  have  already  mentioned  it  in  speaking  of  Tangoot,  as  well  as  that  of  Selim  or 
Serin,  a  trading  place  frequented  by  the  Chinese. 

Little  Thibet  seems  to  be  a  country  physically  and  politically  distinct  |  Little  Thibet, 
from  Great  Thibet,  and  is  situated  to  tiie  north-west  and  north  of  Cashmere.  As- 
cardo  or  Eskerdon  is  its  capital.  The  two  leading  streams  which  form  the  Indus 
take  their  rise  in  this  country,  or  at  least  flow  through  it,  one  from  the  north-west, 
and  another  from  the  south-east,  and  meet  in  a  point,  and  the  river  form.ed  by  their 
union  runs  along  way  in  a  westerly  course,  passing  through  the  range  of  the  Hindoo- 
Coosh,  retaining  the  same  direction  for  a  great  w  ay  before  it  assumes  its  principal 
direction,  which  is  south  and  a  very  little  west.  The  geogiaphy  of  the  upper  part  of 
the  Indus  has  been  only  of  late  understood  ;  the  stream  which  runs  from  the  south- 
east, being  formerly  only  known  in  the  upper  part  of  its  course,  was  supposed  to  be 
one  of  the  sources  of  the  Ganges,  and  thus  we  find  it  delineated  in  many  maps. 
The  city  of  Ladak  is  situated  at  the  confluence  of  the  two  rivers,  the  one  from  the 
north-west,  and  the  other  from  the  south-east.  In  some  maps  we  find  another  river 
farther  south,  running  from  the  south-east  parallel  to  the  one  last  mentioned,  and 
joining  the  united  river  forn)cd  by  the  two  last ;  and  this  parallel  stream  receives  the 
name  of  the  Indus.  The  Sutledge  is  another  river,  which  rises  near  the  mutual 
boundary  of  Great  and  Little  Thibet,  crosses  the  Himmaleh  range  about  two  degrees 
and  a  half  to  the  south  of  Cashmere,  and  sends  its  waters  across  the  Punjaub  to  fall 
into  the  Indus.  Merchants  from  Cashmere  repair  regularly  to  Yarkand 
in  Little  Bukharia,  passing  through  Little  Thibet.  They  rendezvous  at 
Ladak,  from  which  they  travel  chiefly  along  the  north-west  tributary  of 
the  Indus. t 

Little  Thibet  seems  to  include  several  provinces  famous  for  their  ancient  connec- 
tions. The  country  of  the  Beloor,  situated  to  the  east  of  Badakshan  or  Balascia, 
contains  mountains  covered  with  eternal  snow.  Some  savages  wander  in  the  midst 
of  immense  forests ;  but  between  these  chains  of  mountains  a  wide  plain  was  de- 
scribed as  opening,  in  which  a  number  of  streams  met  to  form  a  magnificent  river 
bordered  with  rich  meadows,  in  which  flocks  of  antelopes  bounded ;  and  where  a 
horse,  previously  emaciated,  would  recover  his  vigour  in  a  few  days.  This  plain 
was  called  Pamer,  or  rather  Panir,'^  "  the  country  of  rills. "§  In  this 
description  of  M.  Polo,  we  can  scarcely  fail  to  recognize  the  north- 
west extremity  of  Little  Thibet,  where  one  of  the  streams  which  form  the  Indus 
takes  its  rise.  We  find  in  this  country,  but  on  the  opposite  side,  Pares-  |  Parestan,&c. 
tan  with  the  town  of  Pader,||  where  we  have  placed  the  Padcvi  of  Herodotus,  and 
the  Pvriani  of  Mela.  The  name  of  Baltistan,T[  or  in  Sanscrit  Bahideshan,**  which 
seems  to  include  the  whole  of  Little  Thibet,  reminds  us  of  the  Bijllcv  of  Ptolomy. 
This  whole  country  belongs  to  India  as  known  to  the  Persians,  to  Herodotus,  and 
to  Ctesias.  It  has  been  considered  as  the  Scrica  of  a  later  period,  though  Mr. 
Murray  gives  strong  arguments  to  show  that  Serica  must  have  been  situated  much 
farther  to  the  east.ft 

It  is  very  probable  that  many  of  the  customs  described  by  Marco  Polo  are  still 

•  Forster,  Voyng'es  au  Nord,  t.  ii.  p.  382. 

t  The  account  of  the  rivers  given  in  the  original  is  somewhat  different,  and  the  author  re- 
fers to  Wilford  in  the  6tli  volume  of  the  Asiatic  Kesearclies.  More  prtcise  information  has 
now  been  obtained  by  the  researches  of  various  British  officers.  See  Mr.  Klpliinstone  on  tlie 
kingdom  of  Caubul,  and  Mr.  Hugh  Murray's  Historical  Account  of  Discoveries  and  Travels  in 
Asia. — Tr. 

+  MS.  quoted  by  :Mtiller,  in  M.  Polo,  de  lieb.   Orient,  i.  37. 

§  From  I'an  or  Panir,  water,  or  spring  in  Sanscrit,  (Vand  in  Danish.)  The  country  called 
Vamla-bmula  by  I'tolemy  perhaps  derives  its  n;ime  from  the  union  ofivutcra.  The  Paropamiius 
of  the  ancients  is  Para-panis,"  \.\\e  movmtain  of  springs  or  rills." 

II  Map  of  Cashmere,  of  Le  Gentil.  Aycn  Akberti,  ii.  p.  152.  Tiefcnthaler,  i.  50.  (in  Ger- 
man, f  Lettrcs  cdifiantcs  xv.  188. 

••  Exoorvedam,  ii.  118.  ff  See  note  23. 


Pill  in  of  Pa- 
mer. 


102  UOOK  FORTY-FIFTH. 


preserved  in  the  vast  provinces  of  Thibet.  Modern  accounts  contain  notliing  but 
ciiaractcrof  insulutcd  and  imperfect  remarks  on  the  subject.  Captain  Turner  de- 
theTiiibetians.  gcnbes  the  Thibetians  as  a  mild  and  open  set  of  people.  The  men  are 
stout,  and  have  a  little  of  the  Mongol  features.  The  complexion  of  the  women  is 
brown,  but  enlivened  by  a  mixture  of  fresh  red.  The  clear  atmosphere  of  the  moun- 
tains keeps  them  in  good  health. 

Marriages.  j  Marrifiges  are  concluded  without  much  preliminary  ceremony  :  if  the 
proposal  of  the  lover  is  approved  of  by  the  relations  of  the  female,  the  latter  repair 
along  with  their  daughter  to  the  house  of  their  intended  son-in-law.  The  friends 
and  acquaintances  of  the  parties  form  the  marriage  train.  Three  days  are  passed 
in  the  amusements  of  dancing  and  music;  and  when  these  have  elapsed,  the  mar- 
riage is  considered  as  concluded.  The  priests,  debarred  from  every  kind  of  trans- 
actions with  females,  have  no  share  in  tlie  celebration  of  marriages  ;  but  the  conjugal 
union  is  considered  as  indissoluble.  The  husband  has  not  the  power  of  discarding 
a  wife  who  is  disagreeable  to  him,  nor  a  wife  that  of  leaving  her  husband,  unless  the 
same  consent  which  created  the  union  authorizes  the  separation,  and  in  that  case, 
neither  of  the  parties  is  allowed  to  form  a  fresh  connexion.  One  singularity  of  Thi- 
piuraiityof  bet  is,  that  polygamy  is  allowed  in  this  country  in  a  sense  the  reverse 
of  that  which  is  customary  in  other  parts  of  the  eastern  world.  Here 
the  women  are  allowed  a  plurality  of  husbands.  The  eldest  brother  of  a  family  has 
the  privilege  of  choosing  his  wife  ;  but  she  becomes  the  common  property  of  all  the 
brothers,  whatever  be  their  number.  This  system,  necessarily  so  unfavourable  to 
population,  existed  also  among  the  Nabathean  Arabs,  although  Pallas  calls  the  fact 
m  question.* 

Rubruquis  says  that  the  Thibetians  once  practised  the  abominable  custom  of  eat- 
Funerah,  |  ing  the  bodies  of  those  relations  who  died  of  old  age,  and  that  this 
when  given  up  was  replaced  by  that  of  drinking  out  of  the  skulls  of  their  ancestors. 
The  moderns  make  no  mention  of  either  of  these  customs.  They  tell  us  that  the 
mortal  remains  of  the  Great  Lama  are  preserved  in  a  large  shrine  ;  that  the  bodies 
of  the  subordinate  priests  are  burned,  and  their  ashes  preserved  in  small  hollow 
images ;  while  the  bodies  of  the  unconsecrated  multitude  are  thrown  out  to  bp  de- 
voured by  birds  of  prey,  in  large  enclosures  encircled  with  walls. 
Language.  |  The  common  Thibetian  language  resembles  in  its  numerous  mono- 
syllables and  the  absence  of  particles  and  inflexions,  the  wretched  idiom  of  the  Chi- 
nese. Like  the  latter,  the  Thibetians,  in  order  to  communicate  their  thoughts,  are 
obliged  to  describe  figures  in  the  air  or  in  sand.  The  Thibetian  writings  which  have 
been  found  among  the  Kalmuks  are  nowhere  to  be  paralleled  for  obscurity. "f  Their 
Written  cha-  v/orks  ou  religion  are  written  in  a  sacred  language,  approaching  to  the 
racierj.  Sanscrit.     Rubruquis  had  mentioned  previously  to  Capt.  Turner,  that 

the  Thibetians  write  like  the  Europeans  from  left  to  right.+  They  give  the  name 
of  uchen  to  the  characters  which  are  employed  for  printed  works  ;  those  which  are 
employed  for  correspondence  and  other  ordinary  purposes  are  called  min.  Both  are 
alphabetical  letters,  but  accompanied  with  numerous  contractions  which  give  them 
something  of  a  syllabic  nature. §  The  Thibetian  year  is  lunar,  and  the  month  con- 
sists of  29  days. 

Industry.  |  Tlic  industry  of  this  people  finds  exercise  in  the  manufacture  of  shawls 
or  woollen  stuffs.  The  elegant  goat's  hair  of  which  the  shawls  arc  made  is  mostly 
exported  in  a  raw  state  to  Cashmere.  Tlic  Chinese  jirocure  from  Thibet  pale  gold 
dust,  coral,  lamb's  skins,  musk,  and  woollen  stuffs.  They  sell  their  tea  and  their  por- 
celain to  the  Thibetians.  To  Nepaul  Thiljct  sends  rock  salt,  tinkal  or  crude  borax, 
and  gold  dust;  and  receives  in  exchange  silver  coin,  copper,  rice,  and  coarse  cotton 
stufls.  Through  the  medium  of  Nepaul,  Thibet  formerly  carried  on  a  trade  with 
Bengal  in  gold  dust,  borax,  and  musk;  the  returns  consisting  of  draperies,  spices, 
veils,  emeralds,  sapphires,  lai)islazuli,  and  jet.     The  jealous  and  timid  policy  of 

•  Duhalde,  iv.  572. .    rallus,  i.  217. 

■j-  Muller,  De.script.  Taiigut.  in  Sibir.  rcpertis  1747,  Petersb.  Uayer,  Mils.  Sin.  Trcf.  p.  109. 
Georf^ii  Alpliab.  'I'liibet.  i  Iviibrufinis,  ch.  o7. 

§  Gassiano  Bcllgutti,  Alphubetum  Tangulan.  s.  Tlab«tan.  Uoni.  177u. 


Distinction  be- 
tween Sha- 
manism, Brali- 
minism,  and 
Lamaism. 

ly,  and  the 


THIBET.  103 

China,  however,  has  now  excluded  foreign  merchants  from  this  country.  No  money 
is  coined  in  Thibet,  being  fo  bidden  by  the  principles  of  the  cstabHshed  religion,  and 
the  adulterated  coin  of  iNepaul  is  the  common  medium  of  exchange. 

The  leading  feature  of  Thibet  as  a  country,  is  that  of  being  the  chief  |  Religion, 
seat  of  a  religion  which  prevails  over  central  Asia,  and  the  spiritual  head  of  which, 
the  Dalai-Lama,  is  also  the  legal  sovereign  of  the  country,  and  collects  its  revenues, 
though  the  Chinese  emperors  have  got  absolute  command  of  them  by  a  military  oc- 
cupation of  the  chief  places,  under  the  pretext  of  a  pious  protection.  The  supersti- 
tions of  Central  Asia  arc  divided  into  three  principal  branches,  Shamanism,  Brahmin- 
ism,  and  liamaism.  Shamanism  has  the  honour  of  being  the  most 
ancient  of  the  three  creeds.  It  is  mentioned  by  Strabo,  Clement  of 
Alexandria,  and  Porphyry.  Strabo  gives  the  professors  of  it  in  his  time 
the  name  of  Ghcrmans,  Clement  that  of  Sarmans,  and  Porphyry  that  of 
Samaneans.  The  Shaman  priesthood  cultivated  the  study  of  philosop 
Brahmins  allow  that  they  owe  to  them  all  their  scientific  information.  The  latter 
still  read  the  few  books  of  the  Shamans  which  are  in  their  possession  with  the  same 
respect  which  we  show  to  the  writings  of  the  Greeks  and  Latins.  But  the  ancient 
Brahmins  accused  the  Shaman  priests  of  idolatry;  persecuted  and  expelled  them 
from  Indostan.  This  object  they  only  accomphshed  by  degrees;  but  in  the  end  they 
obtained  such  complete  success,  that  for  six  hundred  years  none  of  tlie  Shaman 
priests,  nor  any  followers  of  their  doctrines,  have  been  found  to  the  west  of  the  Gan- 
ges.* The  ancient  Shamans  established  no  succession  in  their  numberless  gods  in 
time  or  place,  and  no  order  of  generation.  The  theogony  of  the  Lamaists,  on  the 
contrary,  teaches  that  by  means  of  a  mysterious  operation  executed  in  the  person  of 
the  Grand  Lama,  the  same  divinity  subsists  eternally  in  this  supreme  pontiff  under 
different  human  forms  which  he  deigns  successively  to  assume. 

Shamanism  has  given  rise  to  the  superstitious  opinions  and  practices 
which  constitute  the  religion  of  the  ancient  Mongols,  who,  deprived  of 
the  use  of  written  language,  have  preserved  it  by  tradition.  To  this  system  we  must 
still  refer  the  belief  of  the  idolatrous  nations  of  Siberia,  such  as  the  Booriaites,  the 
Yakoots,  and  some  Tartars  who  are  neither  Mahometans  nor  Christians.  The  cele- 
brated idol  of  the  Siamese  and  Peguans,  the  same  which  is  also  worshipped  by  other 
races  under  different  appellations,  is  called  Sommonakodom.  In  the  Tartar  and 
Persian  languages,  the  termination  kodom  is  the  word  for  a  god.  In  the  first  part  of 
the  name,  therefore,  Sommon,  we  see  the  resemblance  to  Shaman.  The  Mongols 
call  this  idol  Chichimooni,  and  the  Kalmuks  Chakamoona;  in  Thibet  it  is  called 
Mahamooni,.  a  Sanscrit  term,  signifying  "  the  great  saint."  It  is  the  famous  Chaka 
of  the  Chinese,  called  Fo  after  he  was  deified. t 

"  Fo,"  says  the  learned  Fischer,'!.  "  seems  to  us  to  be  the  Bod  or 
Budha  mentioned  by  St.  Jerome.  Bod  seems  to  mean  deity  in  general  ; 
and  Bod-et-tan  or  Boodistan,  the  name  given  to  the  kingdom  of  Thibet, 
signifies  '  the  divine  country.'  "  My  opinion  is  that  the  B  has  been  changed  into  F 
by  the  Chinese  ;  for  neither  the  Thibetians  nor  the  Mongols  have  this  last  letter  in 
their  alphabet.  The  word  Bod  makes  its  appearance  in  diOcrent  ways  in  India  and 
Mongolia.  PaooU-Ziat  (which  signifies  lord  Paooti)  is  still  a  name  frccpiently  given 
to  the  idol  Soromona-kodom.  Be  is  the  name  which  the  Booriaites  give  to  tlicir  wise 
men  or  sacrificing  priests.  On  the  banks  of  tlie  Ganges  the  term  Boodha  is  used 
to  express  the  day  \\hich  corresponds  to  the  third  of  our  week.  Boodlia  Farran  is 
the  term  applied  to  it  in  Sanscrit ;  and  the  expressions  Boodda-Iedina,  Fan-Paoot, 
Booda-Kiroomei,  signify  the  same  thing  among  the  people  of  Candi  in  Ceylon,  of 
Siam,  and  of  Blalabar.  From  these  circumstances  it  appears  that  Sommona-kodom, 
Chighimooni  or  Chichimooni,  Chakchimona,  Chaka,  Fo,  and  Boodda,  arc  the  same 
deity  under  difierent  names. 

La  Loubere,  a  judicioiis  writer  and  enlightened  scholar,  maintains 


Extension  of 
Shamaniim. 


Its  identity 
witli  llie  reli- 
jjion  ofFoanO 
(it  liudha. 


that  the  word  Sliaman  is  derived  from  the  Fahli  language,  or   that  in 

*  Petis  dc  la  Croix,  Ilistoirc  tin  Cliristianisnic  dans  I'fnde,  liv.  6. 

j  Pallas,  Mcni.  sur  Ics  pciiplcs  Mongols,  ii.  j).  6. 

t  Fischer,  Hisloire  de  la  Sibcrie,  extrait  par  Stolk-nwerck. 


F.lymolopy  of 
tilt.-  word  slia- 
man. 


Origin  of  the 
Dalsu-Lama. 


Nestorians 
tpread  over 
Central  Asia. 


104  BOOK  FORTY-FIFTH. 

which  the  sacred  books  of  the  Siamese  are  written,  and  signifies  a  hermit.  This 
etymology  is  in  conformity  with  the  following  passage  of  Clement  of  Alexandria  on 
the  Sarmans  :  "  There  are  hermits  which  do  not  live-  in  towns  or  even  in  houses  ; 
they  clothe  themselves  with  the  bark  of  trees,  live  on  the  spontaneous  produce  of 
the  earth,  and  drink  water  out  of  the  palm  of  the  hand." 

The  opinion  of  D.  Ka^mpfer  does  not  differ  very  widely  from  this.  He  says  that 
Shaman  signifies  a  man  exempt  from  passions.*  J3csides  this,  the  denominations 
of  Shaman  and  Talapoin  have  the  same  meaning :  the  first  belonging  to  the  Pahli 
language  ;  the  second  to  the  common  colloquial  languages  of  Siam. 

Fischer  gives  a  modern  origin  to  the  religious  system  which  prevails 
in  Thibet,  or  Dalai'-Lamaism ;  he  finds  in  it  a  mixture  of  Buddism  with 
the  corrupted  Christianity  of  the  Nestorians.  The  Thibetians  themselves  do  not 
trace  their  authentic  history  farther  back  than  the  year  790.  The  travellers  of  the 
thirteenth  century  knew  nothing  of  the  Dalai-Lama.  Rubruquis  seems  to  have  had 
some  knowledge  of  him,|  but  he  speaks  chiefly  of  the  fanaticism  of  some  Nesto- 
rians, to  whom  he  gives  a  spiritual  head,  whose  residencej  was  in  a  town  of  China 
called  Seghin.  He  also  mentions  another  worship  practised  among  the  idolaters, 
whom  he  calls  Tou'inians,  and  whom  he  at  the  same  time  considers  as  Manichees.§ 
Marco  Polo  mentions  a  Chinese  town  called  Zun-Ghoui,  the  inhabitants  of  which 
he  considers  as  Nestorian  Christians. 

Carpin  takes  the  Oigoors  for  Christians  who  followed  the  Nestorian  heresies, || 
and  the  Jesuit  Gaubil,  adopting  the  same  opinion  asserts  the  Eygoors  or  Ooigoors 
to  be  Christians.  Tf 

Many  other  writers  assert  that  the  Christian  religion  is  spread  through 
Tangoot,  China,  and  the  countries  occupied  by  the  MongoHan  nations, 
and  has  had  its  zealous  partisans  in  the  bosom  of  the  reigning  dynasties.  Yet  ac- 
cording to  all  accounts  in  which  the  present  state  of  these  countries  is  described,  no 
traces  of  Christianity  subsist  among  them,  with  the  exception  of  China,  were  that 
religion  was  preached  anew  by  the  modern  missionaries  of  the  church  of  Rome. 
Lamaismsub.  ^he  reliffion  of  the  Dalai-Lama  on  the  contrary,  is  preserved,  extended, 
Nestorianism.  and  established  among  the  people  of  Tangoot,  in  Mongolia,  in  the  Kal- 
muk  country,  in  certain  kingdoms  of  India,  and  even  in  China.  Might  it  not  be 
supposed,  says  Fischer,  that  Nestorianism  was  anciently  introduced  into  upper  Asia; 
and  that  the  priests  who  propagated  this  heresy,  and  their  proselytes,  deprived  at  so 
great  a  distance  of  all  intercourse  with  societies  really  Christian,  departed  farther 
and  farther  from  Christianity,  and  gave  themselves  up  to  the  superstitious  practices 
of  the  people  among  whom  they  lived,  till  every  trace  of  the  Christian  character  was 
efiaced  1 

According  to  this  hypothesis,  which  we  consider  as  demonstrated,  Lamaism  can- 
not boast  of  an  ancient  origin.  It  is  made  up  of  ideas  taken  from  the  doctrine  of 
the  ancient  Shamans,  and  usages  belonging  to  the  more  modern  worship  of  the  Chris- 
tians. From  the  former  it  adopts  the  opinions  relative  to  Fo,  and  the 
transmigration  of  souls ;  from  the  latter  its  rites  and  observances.  La- 
maism and  Christianity,  (at  least  the  Christianity  of  the  church  of  Rome,) 
have  striking  features  of  mutual  resemblance. 

"  As  for  the  rites  and  ceremonies  of  Thibet,"  says  Captain  Turner,  "  so  far  as  I 
have  been  able  to  judge,  they  differ  essentially  from  those  of  the  Hindoos.  The 
Thibetians  meet  in  chapels  for  their  religious  services;  there  they  sing  alternately 
and  in  chorus,  accompanied  by  noisy  instruments.  Indeed  I  never  have  been  pre- 
sent at  their  worship  witliout  being  struck  with  the  resemblance  which  it  bears  to 
that  which  I  have  seen  and  heard  in  Romish  churches."  Their  monks  go  with  the 
head  shaved.  They  have  their  female  nunneries.  The  dress  of  the  Gilons  has  a 
great  resemblance  to  that  of  European  priests.     These  resemblances,  which  some 

•  Hist,  du  Japon,  1.  p.  46.  edit.  d'Amsterdam,  1732,  in  16mo. 

f  Voyage  du  Hubruquis,  ch.  26.  +  Id.  cii.  28,  47.  §  Id.  cli.  48. 

i]  Voyage  de  Carpin,  art.  5.  p.  40. 

^  Observations  Mathcmatiques,  &c.  edit  du  P.  Souciet,  i.  p.  224. 


Mixture  of 
Christian  doc 
trines  and 
rites. 


Civil  and  ec- 
clesiastical 
government. 


THIBET.  *  105 

have  employed  as  arguments  against  the  divine  origin  of  Christianity,  ought  all  to  be 
regarded  as  traces  oi'  Ncstorianism. 

Thibet  resembles  Home  also  in  another  particular.  It  was  subject 
tor  some  time  to  secular  princes  called  Tsan-Pa;  the  Lama  resided  at 
Lassa,  with  a  power  resembling  that  of  the  spiritual  prince  of  Japan.  The  Eleuth 
Kalmuks  subdued  this  secular  prince,  and  transferred  his  power  to  the  Lama.*  Dif- 
ferences arose  between  the  old  or  red  lamas  and  the  yellow  lama,  who  by  the  influ- 
ence of  China  obtained  the  ascendancy.  In  1792,  the  people  of  Nepaul  having 
committed  great  ravages  in  tliis  country,  tlie  Emperor  of  China  sent  an  army  to  the 
assistance  of  the  Grand  Lama ;  since  which  period  a  chain  of  military  posts  prohibits 
all  intercourse  between  Bengal  and  Thibet,  to  the  great  disappointment  of  the  Eng- 
lish nation  and  of  geographers. 

The  Lama  was  in  the  practice  of  naming  a  tipa  or  secular  ruler,  who  is  now  re- 
placed by  a  gioon-wan  or  prince  governor  sent  by  China.  The  laws  of  Thibet,  like 
its  religion,  have  a  great  conformity  with  those  of  the  Hindoos.  There  |  Population, 
is  no  census  to  show  the  population  of  the  country.  The  Chinese  reckon  33,000,000 
of  inhabitants,  probably  ten  times  the  real  number.  The  population  ought  constanly 
to  diminish,  if  it  is  truo  that  the  number  of  men  exceeds  that  of  women.  If  we 
may  form  an  opinion  from  the  facility  with  which  the  Kalmuks  conquered  Thibet, 
we  should  suppose  that  this  country  cannot  raise  an  army  of  50,000  |  Army, 
men.     Its  revenues  may  be  concluded  to  bo  in  proportion  to  the  poverty  of  the  people. 

But  this  prince,  whose  temporal  power  is  so  limited,  is  the  visible  di-  ef.'"|''X'  ''"* 
vinily  of  a  great  part  of  Asia.  lie  is  the  Fo,  the  Budha  himself,  clothed  Grand  Lama, 
with  the  human  form.  The  divine  spirit  is  supposed  after  quitting  one  body  to  enter 
a  new  one;  and  thus  under  a  succession  of  forms  the  head  of  tlie  church  keeps  up 
the  miracle  of  his  perpetual  existence.  It  is  said  tliat  a  heavenly  odour  is  cxiialed 
from' his  whole  body;  that  flowers  grow  beneath  his  footstt^ps;  and  tluit  in  tlie  most 
parched  desert  springs  flow  at  his  word  of  command.  It  is  a  certain  fact  that  the 
refuse  excreted  from  his  body  is  collected  with  sacred  solicitude  to  be  employed  as 
amulets  and  infallible  antidotes  to  disease.  I" 

This  mysterious  personage  appeared  to  many  of  the  learned  to  have 
some  connexion  with  the  tlimous  Prester  John,  whose  celestial  and 
immortal  kingdom  so  much  occupied  the  attention  of  the  geographers  and  historians 
of  the  middle  age.  The  plausible  reasons  by  which  these  views  are  supported  are 
the  following:  Three  travellers,  Carpin,  Rubruquis,  and  Marco  Polo,  have  spoken  of 
Prester  John,  and  each  in  his  own  way.  Carpin  represents  him  as  king  of  India.J; 
Rubruquis  gives  him  the  same  title,  and  assigns  to  him  the  horde  of  the  Naimans 
as  his  spiritual  kingdom,  which  horde,  he  says,  professes  the  (Christian  religion. § 
Marco  Polo  agrees  with  the  Franciscan  monk  in  giving  this  prince  the  denomination 
of  t)onk-Kliun,||  and  in  making  him  a  Christian.  Oonk-Klian  seems  to  signity  "a 
great  prince"  in  Chinese.  This  name  has  been  given  in  a  particular  manner  to  a 
Kalinuk  prince  celebrated  for  his  conquests,  but  to  whom  none  of  the  received  no- 
tions of  Prester  John  or  Prete-Ianni  are  at  all  ap|>lii'able.  This  word,  which  by  the 
meaning  which  it  appeared  to  express  in  the  Italian  or  French  language  led  the  tra- 
vellers into  an  error,  ought  undoubtedly  to  be  reforred  to  some  oriental  language. 
Of  all  the  etymologies  which  have  been  contrived,  one  of  the  most  plausible  is  that 
of  Scaliger,ir  who  considers  the  name  as  of  Indian  origin,  and  with  some  alteration 
representing  the  words  presleii'.glma,  (preslf-ghiani  or  Jiiani,)  which  signify  the 
"universal  messenger,"  the  "apostle  of  the  world." 

It  is  well  known**  that  the  Nestorian  patriarchs  assumed  the  title  of 
catholic  or  ecumenical,  a  title  which  in  somci  measure  coiresponds  to  the 
last  mentioned  interpretation  of  Prester  John.      If  therefore  we  suppose 

•  Diihalde,  t.  iv.  p.  50. 

f  "  II  est  hors  de  doute  que  le  contcnu  de  sa  chaise  pcrc(;e  est  dcvoiemcnt  recueilli;  les 
parties  solides  sont  dislribuccs  comme  des  amiilettes  qu'on  poi-te  au  cou  j  Ic  liquide  est  pris 
int^rieurement  comme  une  medecine  infallible."     See  I'allas,  i.  212. 

+  Carpin,  art.  5.  p.  42.  §  lUibruquis,  cli.  xix.  p.  .S6, 

It    iVIarco-I'olo,  liv.  vi.  ch.  61,  et  6i.         ^   Scalit^erde    Kmendatione  Temporum,  p.  627. 

••   Hcnandoi,  Ancicns  Itclalions  de  I'Inde  et  de  la  Chine,  p.  238,  Sic. 
Yor.  II.— O 


Is  lie  tlie  Pre«- 
ter  .loliii  of 
iravelleri  ? 


H-.ive  llie 
Nislorian  |ia> 
triari'ht  any 
siiccrssiOr? 


106  BOOK  FOKTY   FIFTH. 

(and  what  well  informed  man  would  dispute  the  point?)  that  the  Nestorian  missiona- 
ries penetrated  a  very  great  way  into  the  high  regions  of  Asia,  we  shall  be  led  by  the 
analogy  of  the  names  to  consider  the  chief  of  tliesc  sectaries  as  the  pretended  sove- 
reign pontifl' of  Marco  Polo  and  of  Rubruquis ;  and,  as  all  writers  testify  that  Prester 
John  presided  over  a  Christian  community,  the  inference  will  be  that  he  was  the 
patriarch  of  the  Nestorian  church,  or  else  a  bishop  delegated  by  this  patriarch,  who, 
exercising  a  supreme  power  at  a  distance  from  the  head  on  Avhom  he  was  dependent, 
received  or  claimed  the  proud  title  of  Universal,  Catholic,  and  Ecumenical,  though 
not  due  to  his  rank.  We  arc  tempted  to  consider  this  Nestorian  patriarch  as  the 
same  person  with  the  Dalai-Lama.  It  is  only  since  the  reign  of  Kaiuk-Khan, 
grandson  to  the  celebrated  conqueror  Genghiz,  that  we  hear  at  all  of  the  word  Lama, 
or  Dalai-Lama*  in  Mongolia,  the  country  in  which  Prester  John  is  said  to  have  held 
his  double  empire. f  Father  Andrada  was  (in  1624)  the  first  European  who  made 
mention  of  the  Dala'i-Lama ; J  and  Bernier  speaks  of  him  as  an  extraordinary  per- 
sonage who  was  imperfectly  known. 

It  remains  to  be  observed,  that  the  writers  of  past  ages  who  treated  of  the  Nes- 
torians  and  Prester  John  say  nothing  of  the  high-priest  of  the  Lamaists ;  and  we 
perceive,  on  the  other  hand,  that  in  proportion  as  this  last  personage  begins  to  pro- 
duce a  sensation,  (he  Nestorian  name  begins  to  be  forgotten  among  the  inhabitants 
of  Mongolia  and  Thibet.  What  conclusion  are  we  to  draw  from  all  these  conside- 
Conciusion.  |  rations?  Only  that  a  universal  patriarch  attracted  a  sort  of  veneration 
and  renown  under  a  foreign  name,  or  most  probably  under  his  proper  title  translated 
into  another  language.  The  expression  of  universal  patriarch,  Pretre-Jehan  and 
Dela'i-Lama,  may  then  denote  the  same  person  and  the  same  dignity.  But  as  Ru- 
bruquis and  Marco  Polo  place  the  kingdom  of  Prester  John  on  the  track  which  they 
traversed,  and  consetpiontly  in  Mongolia,  and  at  a  great  distance  from  Thibet,  it 
appears  still  more  natural  to  recognise  in  this  sovereign  pontiff  only  a  momcntry 
object,  a  Nestorian  bishop  who  by  his  talent  held  a  great  ascendency  over  some 
tribe  of  the  Mongols.  Fame,  which  exaggerates  every  thing  conspicuous,  may  be 
allowed  to  have  created  the  remainder. 

caufiristan.  |  On  the  wcst  of  Little  Thibet  we  find  a  small  country  which  merits 
our  notice  chiefly  on  account  of  the  singularity  of  its  inhabitants  in  manners  and 
opinions. §  They  seem  to  be  independent,  but  they  are  more  naturally  connected 
with  the  suliject  of  the  present  book  than  with  any  other.  The  country  has  received 
from  the  Bukharians  and  Afghans  the  name  of  Caufiristan,  and  the  people  that  of 
Caufirs,  a  term  which  signifies  infidel,  and  is  intended  to  distinguish  them  from  the 
believers  of  the  Koran. 

Caufiristan  occupies  a  great  part  of  the  range  of  Hindoo-Coosh  ad- 
joining Afghanistan,  and  a  portion  of  Beloot-Tag.  It  is  bounded  on  the 
)y  Kaushkar,  (a  different  country  from  Cashgar  in  the  Kalmuk  country,) 
on  the  north  by  Badakshan,  and  on  the  west  and  north-west  by  Balk.  On  the  east, 
it  extends  for  a  great  distance  towards  the  north  of  Cashmere,  where  its  boundary  is 
not  exactly  known.  It  is  an  Alpine  country,  composed  of  snowy  mountains,  deep 
pine  forests,  and  small  but  fertile  valleys  which  produce  large  quantities  of  grapes, 
and  feed  flocks  of  sheep  and  herds  of  cattle,  while  the  hills  are  covered  with  goats. 
The  grain  is  inferior  both  in  quality  and  abundance.  The  common  kinds  are  wheat 
and  millet.  The  roads  arc  only  fit  for  travellers  on  foot,  crossed  by  many  torrents, 
which  are  passed  by  means  of  wooden  bridges,  or  swinging  bridges  made  of  ropes 
of  osier.  The  villages  are  built  on  the  slopes  of  hills,  the  roof  of  one  row  forming 
the  street  of  the  row  above.  The  valleys  are  well  peopled.  Camdaish,  the  capital 
of  the  Caumojee  tribe,  consists  of  500  houses;  and  the  tribe  has  ten  villages. 
Inhabitants.  |  The  people  have  no  general  name  for  their  nation.  The  Mussulmans 
distinguish  them  into  the  Seaposh  (t.  e.  black  vested)  or  Tor  (black)  Caufirs,  and 
Speen  or  white  Caufirs,  epithets  taken  from  their  dress.   All  of  them  are  remarkable 

•  Bubruquis,  ch.  19.  Ararco-Polo,  liv.  i.  ch.  51.  t  Gaubil,  p.  105,  et  154  a  la  note. 

+  Duhalde,  t.  iv.  p   176. 

§  See  Mr.  Elphinstone's  Account  of  the  Kingdom  of  Caubul,  Appen.  p.  617. 


Aspect  of  the 
country. 

north-east 


TIIIBKI'.  107 

for  fair  and  beauliful  complexions,  but  those  of  the  largest  division  wear  a  Test 
of  black  ^oat-skill,  while  the  others  dress  in  white  cotton.  Thej  have  several  lau- 
j^uagcs,  all  allied  to  the  Sanscrit.  They  have  all  one  peculiarity,  that  of  counting 
by  scores,  which  they  sciuaro,  cube,  and  multiply  constantly  by  twenty  as  high  as 
they  have  occasion,  in  the  same  manner  as  we  form  hundreds,  thousands,  and  higher 
numerical  powers  by  multiplying  ten  successively  by  itself.  These  circumstances 
are  adverse  to  an  opinion  which  has  had  some  currency,  that  they  are  ^ende^from 
descended  from  the  Greeks,  and  were  left  in  this  country  by  Alexander,  the  Greeks? 
The  only  feature  favourable  to  that  hypothesis  is,  that  they  make  use  of  raised  seats, 
and  cannot  sit  in  the  manner  of  the  other  Asiatics.  The  most  general  and  credible 
account  of  them  is,  that  they  were  expelled  by  the  Mussulmans  from  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Kandahar,  and,  after  a  frequent  change  of  abode,  settled  finally  in  their 
present  territory. 

They  believe  in  one  God,  whom  they  call  Imra,  or  Dagun,  but  venc-  |  Kcligion. 
rate  numerous  idols  of  stone  or  wood,  which  represent  great  men  deceased.  They 
attach  the  utmost  importance  to  the  virtues  of  liberality  and  hospitality ;  these  con- 
stitute among  them  tiie  highest  claims  to  future  happiness  and  even  deification  after 
death,  while  the  opposite  vices  are  threatened  with  hell.  They  have  solemn  saciifices 
and  long  ceremonies  and  prayers,  not  failing  to  pray  for  the  extirpation  of  the  INlus- 
sulmans,  whom  they  regard  with  invincible  aversion.  Their  men,  young  and  old, 
are  honoured  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  Mussulmans  whom  they  |  customs, 
have  killed  or  lamed.  They  have  hereditary  priests,  who  possess  but  little  influence 
in  their  community.  When  a  child  is  born,  it  is  carried  with  its  mother  to  a  house 
built  for  the  purpose  without  the  village,  there  to  remain  for  twenty-four  days,  dur- 
ing wliich  period  the  mother  is  considered  as  impure.  The  women  are  separated  in 
a  similar  manner  at  certain  other  periods.  The  marriage  ceremonies  are  conducted 
without  any  function  of  the  priesthood.  The  women  are  not  concealed;  their  im- 
moralities are  punished,  but  not  deeply  reprobated.  They  have  slaves  both  male 
and  female  of  their  own  people.  They  do  not  enslave  such  Mahometans  as  they 
take  in  war,  the  glory  of  killing  them  being  much  more  highly  valued.  It  is  in  the 
course  of  violent  contests  among  the  Caufir  tribes  themselves,  and  in  cases  of  op- 
pression practised  by  the  strong  against  the  weak,  that  they  are  made  slaves.  Per- 
sons in  the  servile  condition,  however  arc  not  ill  treated.  They  have  some  peculiar 
customs  connected  with  their  funerals.  A  strange  account  is  given  of  their  ceremo- 
nies of  condolence :  A  person  paying  a  visit  to  another  who  has  lost  one  of  his  rela- 
tions, throws  his  cap  on  the  ground  when  he  enters  the  house,  then  draws  his  dagger, 
and  seizing  the  hands  of  the  afilicted  person,  makes  him  rise  and  join  him  in  dancing 
for  some  time  round  the  apartment. 

It  is  uncertain  whether  they  have  any  acknowledged  magistrates:  if  |  Government, 
there  are,  they  possess  very  little  power,  every  thing  being  done  by  consultations 
among  the  rich  men.     The  rich  are  called  khans,  a  word  which  they  have  borrowed 
from  their  neighbours;  but  they  have  no  titles  properly  their  own.     Tlicir  dress  con- 
sists of  goat  skins  with  the  hairy  side  outermost,  or  cotton  robes.     Some  |  DrcH. 
have  a  cotton  shirt  under  their  other  dress,  and  they  wear  cotton  trowsers  worked 
over  with  flowers  in  red  and  black  worsted.     The  women  have  their  hair  plaited, 
fastened  over  the  crown  of  tlic  head,  and  covered  with  a  small  cap  and  turban.    They 
also  wear  silver  ornaments,  and  cowrie  shells.     Their  virgins  wear  a  red  fillet  round 
the  head.     Both  sexes  have  ear-rings,  bracelets,  and  rings  round  tjie  neck,  which 
are  sometimes  of  silver,  but  oftener  of  brass  or  pewter.     With  the  men  these  orna- 
ments are  assumed  after  the  ago  of  manhood,  with  much  ceremony  and  expensive 
feasting.     They  are  laid  aside  on  occasions  of  mourning.     The  houses     Houses, 
are  of  wood,  with  cellars  for  the  family  stores.     Their  food  consists  of    ruod- 
dairy,  fruits  and  flesh,  which  they  prefer  almost  raw.     They  wash  their  hands  before 
eating,  and  generally  begin  with  some  kind  of  grace.     All  persons  of  both  sexes 
drink  wine  to  great  excess,  but  they  do  not  become  (puirrelsome  in  their  cups.    Their 
arms  are  a  bow  with  barbed  and  sometimes  poisoned  arrows,  and  a  dag-  |  wars, 
ger.     They  have  lately  learned  the  use  of  fire-arms  and  swords.     They  generally 
fight  by  ambuscade.     The  Mahometan  nations  are  those  with  whom  they  are  most 


108  BOOK  FORTY-SIXTH. 

habitually  at  war.  When  pursued  they  unbend  their  bows,  and  use  them  as  leaping 
poles,  by  which  they  bound  with  the  utmost  agility  from  rock  to  rock.  The  Maho- 
metans of  Afghanistan,  and  others  have  sometimes  confederated  to  make  a  ferocious 
exterminating  invasion  of  their  territory,  and  have  met  in  the  heart  of  it,  but  have 
been  obliged,  by  the  harassing  and  destructive  mode  of  warfare  practised  by  the 
Caufirs  to  abandon  the  enterprise.  When  taken  apart  from  these  cherished  and  bit- 
ter antipathies,  the  Caufirs  are  a  kind-hearted,  social  and  joyous  race. 
Kaushkar.  |  The  couutry  already  mentioned  lying  on  the  north-east  of  Caufiristan, 
and  called  Kaushkar,*  must  be  carefully  distinguished  from  Cashgar  near  Yarkand. 
If  the  names  are  not  originally  diflerent,  the  same  name  is  applied  to  totally  dilTerent 
countries.  Kaushkar  is  high  and  cold.  The  inhabitants  live  chiefly  in  tents.  They 
are  at  present  Mahometans,  and  subject  to  four  petty  despotisms. 


BOOK  XLVL 

INDOSTAN. 


Knowledge  of 
this  country 
possessed  by 
the  ancients. 


PART  I. 

Physical  Description. 

In  our  preceding  pages,  we  have  oftener  than  once  had  occasion  to  glance  at  this 
finest  portion  of  Asia,  which  we  are  now  about  to  describe.  In  riches,  population, 
and  importance,  India  exceeds  one  of  the  great  divisions  of  the  world.  Hero  a  na- 
tion, a  language,  and  a  religion,  distinguished  for  the  most  venerable  antiquity,  per- 
manently maintain  their  ground  amidst  the  fall  of  many  successive  empires.  India 
has  been  known  to  every  period  of  geography  since  the  age  of  Herodo- 
tus. The  writings  of  this  father  of  history,|  those  of  Strabo,+  of  Pliny,§ 
and  of  Ptolemy,  II  exhibit  the  knowledge  which  the  Romans  possessed  of 
India,  or,  to  speak  more  accurately,  their  acquaintance  with  its  sea-coasts,  and  with 
the  banks  of  the  Indus  and  the  Ganges.  The  account  of  Cosmas,  though  not  merit- 
ing on  its  own  account  a  conspicuous  place  in  the  history  of  geography, IT  serves  as 
an  intermediate  link  to  connect  the  geography  of  the  classic  writers  with  that  of  the 
Arabians,  whose  notions  were  feeble  and  detached**  like  those  furnished  by  the  cele- 
brated Marco  Polo-ll  In  fine,  the  voyages  and  enterprises  of  the  Portuguese,  which 
are  amply  detailed  in  our  history  of  geography,  make  a  brilliant  figure  in  that  depart- 
ment of  geographical  study.  They  render  us  familiar  with  its  later  features.  They 
bring  as  it  were  the  shores  of  India  into  contact  with  those  of  Europe,  and  by  facih- 
tating  our  comprehension  of  the  materials  presented  for  the  study  of  the  present  con- 
dition of  that  country,  have  the  efl^ect  of  rendering  our  review  so  much  the  more  easy. 
Name  of  Under  the  classical  appellation  of  India,  the  ancients,  and  most  of  the 

India.  moderns,  have  comprised  three  great  regions  of  southern  Asia.     The 

first  is  that  which  is  watered  by  the  Indus,  the  Ganges,  and  their  tributaries,  called 
at  present  Indostan,  in  the  strictest  acceptation  of  this  term.  On  the  south  of 
the  river  Nerbuddah  begins  that  large  triangular  region  sometimes  called  by  Euro- 

•  See  Elphinstone's  Account  of  Caubul,  Appendix,  p.  629. 

t  See  our  History  of  Geop^rapiiy,  Uook  iii.  viii,  ^  Ibid.  I'.ook  viii. 

§  Ibid.  The  whole  of  Book  xi.  ||   ibid,  llouk  xiv. 

1   Hist,  of  (Jcog.  Books  xi.  and  xv.  *•  ibid.  Book  xvi. 

tl^  Ibid.  ]]ook  xix.  (Oderlc  de  Porlcnau,  I.  xx.  'IGG.) 


Sanscrit 
names. 


INDOSTAN.  109 

peans  the  peninsula  on  this  side  of  the  Ganges,  and  by  the  Indians  the  Deccan,  or 
"country  of  the  south."  To  this  the  island  of  Ceylon,  and  the  Maldives,  though 
separated  by  an  arm  of  the  sea,  from  natural  appendages.  The  other  peninsular 
projection,  which  comprehends  the  Birman  empire,  the  kingdoms  of  Tonquin,  Co- 
chin-China,  Cambodia,  Laos,  Siam,  and  Malacca,  has  at  present  no  general  name  in 
universal  use.  Sometimes  it  is  vaguely  denominated  "the  peninsula  beyond  the 
Ganges."  Several  geographers  have  called  it  "  external  India."  We  shall  afterwards 
allot  a  separate  portion  of  our  work  to  that  region,  under  a  name  which  appears  to  us 
more  appropriate;  and  in  the  present  book,  and  the  four  which  follow  it,  we  shall 
limit  our  descriptions  to  the  two  former  divisions,  which,  both  in  their  physical  and 
political  character,  have  much  in  common  that  does  not  belong  to  the  third  mention- 
ed region. 

It  is  to  these  countries  that  the  Sanscrit  names  o^ Djamboo-Dwyp,  or  the 
"peninsula  of  the  tree  of  life,"  has  been  applied :  also  that  o£  JMedhiami  or 
JVIedhia-hlmmi,  "the  middle  dwelling,"  and  Bharatkand,  or  the  "kingdom  of  the  Bharat 
dynasty."*  The  country  is  too  extensive  to  have  received  one  general  name  in  the  indi- 
genous languages.  But  from  the  river  which  waters  its  western  boundary  having  the 
name  of  Smd  or  Hind,  which,  like  the  name  JVijl-JJb,  is  derived  from  its  blue  colour,  the 
adjoining  country  received  among  the  Persians  the  name  of  Hindoostan,  and  the  in- 
habitants were  called  Hindoos."]"  From  the  Persian  language  these  names  passed 
into  the  Syrian,  Chaldec,  and  Hebrew  .J  they  were  imitated  in  the  appellations  given 
by  the  Greeks  and  Romans ;  but  in  the  writings  of  the  Indians,  the  name  Sindhoostan 
denotes  exclusively  the  countries  on  the  river  Sind. 

The  oriental  writers  subsequent  to  the  Mahometan  era  have  admitted  a  distinction 
between  the  name  Sindh,  taken  in  the  acceptation  now  mentioned,  and  Hind,  Avhich 
they  apply  to  the  countries  situated  on  the  Ganges.  This  application  of  terms  is 
equally  foreign  to  the  national  geography  of  the  Indians,  with  the  appellation  of  Gcn- 
toos,  which  the  English  apply  to  the  Hindoos,  and  which  comes  from  the  Portu- 
guese term  Gentios,  signifying  Gentiles  or  Pagans. 

The  natural  boundaries  of  India,  on  the  north,  are  the  Himalah  moun-  |  noimdaries. 
tains,  (the  Imaus  and  Eomdiis  of  the  ancients,  j  which  separate  Bengal,  Oude,  Delhi, 
Lahore,  and  Cashmere  from  Thibet.  On  the  Indian  side  of  the  loftiest  range,  a 
stripe  of  mountainous  but  inhabited  country  intervenes  between  Thibet  and  the  re- 
spective countries  now  mentioned,  but  these  are  considered  as  belonging  to  Indostan. 
On  the  east  the  river  Brahmapootra  seems  to  be  the  natural  boundary.  But  beyond 
this  river,  some  Indian  hordes  have  estabhshed  themselves  in  the  mountains  of  Anu- 
pectumiu,  a  region  scarcely  at  all  known  to  us.  On  the  south,  Indostan  is  bounded 
by  the  ocean.  On  the  west,  the  river  Indus  is,  in  the  opinion  of  some  learned  men, 
its  proper  limit,  although  the  oriental  geographers,  finding  that  many  Indians  live  in 
Baloochistan  and  Mekran,  often  include  these  countries  in  their  Sinde  or  Sindistan.§ 
The  former  is  that  which  we  shall  adopt,  and  which  seems  to  be  conformnble  to  the 
nomenclature  of  the  natives  on  both  sides  of  the  river.  When  Mr.  Elphinstone 
crossed  the  Indus  at  Attock,  in  returning  from  Peshawer  in  Afghanistan,  his  Afgliau 
companions  told  him  he  was  now  in  India,  although  it  is  seldom  that  such  a  river 
marks  an  immediate  transition,  physical  or  political.  Hence  some  Indian  i)rovinces, 
under  the  Afghan  sway,  have  been  already  touched  upon,  and  in  their  relation  to  the 
rest  of  India,  they  will  again  require  to  be  mentioned  while  wc  complete  our  survey 
of  this  country. 

We  are  not  yet  in  possession  of  exact  data  for  determining  the  s\iper- 
ficial  extent  of  all  India.  The  Indian,  Arabian,  and  Persian  authors, 
differ  considerably  in  their  calculations  on  this  point ;  a  circumstance  which  partly 
depends  on  the  uncertainty  of  the  lineal  road  meastnes,  especially  the  coss  or  mile, 
which  is  subject  to  great  variations  in  the  different  provinces.  ||  The  European  tra- 
vellers are  also  discordant  in  their  estimates.     Tiefenthulcr  rates  the  whole  superfi- 

•  Eznor-Vedam,  JMahnbhanU.  See  Wilforl,  Asialic  Uesearclies,  torn.  viii.  and  the  Ediu- 
burj^li  Review,  V.  xii.  p.  44,  &.C.  f  W:ilil   Ostiiidici),  ii.  210— 237.  i:  Esther,  i  1. 

§  Ibii  Uaiikui,  OriciituI  (leoijrapliy,  Iraiiblatcd  by  Ousely,  US— 141.  14J. 
1   Wahl,  i.  y.     Tielciilhukr. 


Sii|>rrficial  cs. 
tent. 


110  BOOK  FOllTY-SIXTH. 

cial  extent  of  India  at  155,250  square  geographical  miles,  although  he  supposes  the 
peninsula  to  be  of  equal  breadth  through  its  whole  extent.  Pennant  is  guilty  of  the 
same  error :  but  he  thinks  that  India  does  not  extend  so  far  to  the  north  as  geogra- 
phers have  believed,  and  he  rates  the  whole  surface  of  that  country  at  nearly  173,890 
square  French  leagues.*  Major  Rennel  contents  himself  with  saying  that  Indostan 
Proper  is  equal  to  France,  Germany,  Bohemia,  Hungary,  Switzerland,  Italy,  and 
the  Netherlands  :  and  he  compares  the  size  of  the  Deccan  to  that  of  the  British 
isles,  Spain,  and  European  Turkey,  united,  which  would  amount  to  120,000  square 
leagues ;  66,780  for  upper  Indostan,  and  53,076  for  the  Deccan.  Mr.  Hamilton 
makes  it  1,280,000  British  square  miles. | 

Monntaini.  |  Those  stupendous  mountains  which  lie  on  the  south  of  Thibet,  and 
on  the  north  of  Indostan,  have  already  come  into  view  in  our  account  of  Thibet.  It 
is  only  of  late  that  we  have  obtained  accurate  notions  of  their  extent,  their  altitude, 
and  the  territories  in  their  immediate  vicinity,  and  our  information  still  labours  under 
imperfections.  They  form  one  of  those  interesting  chains  by  which  the  central  pla- 
teau of  Asia  is  encircled.  All  the  mountains  of  these  regions,  and  the  mass  of  ele- 
vated land  included  by  them,  are  called  in  Hindoo  mythology  by  the  names,  Meroo, 
Soomeroo,  and  Kailassam  ;J  names  so  renowned  in  the  east,  that  their  fame  reached 
the  Greek  and  Roman  authors.  These  names  designate  the  Indian  Olympus,  the 
native  dwelling  of  gods  and  of  men.  These  mountains  and  elevated  plains,  rich  in 
the  precious  metals,  furnished  in  the  time  of  Herodotus  and  of  Ctesias,  that  quan- 
tity of  native  gold  and  of  auriferous  sand  which  gave  rise  to  the  fables  concerning 
pismires  which  industriously  amassed  stores  of  this  precious  metal^  and  fountains 
from  which  it  bubbled  up.§  These  golden  mountains  of  the  Indians  bear  an  equi- 
valent name  among  the  Mongols  and  the  Chinese.  || 

The  Himatah  That  part  which  forms  the  northern  boundary  of  India,  is  a  conlinua- 

mountains.  ^.j^j^  ^jj'  jj^^  Same  range  with  that  to  the  west  of  the  Indus,  known  among 
the  Afghans  under  the  name  of  Hindoo  Coosh.  To  the  east  of  that  river,  it  increases 
in  height,  and  assumes  a  character  of  additional  grandeur,  both  from  that  circum- 
stance and  from  its  great  extent  in  every  direction.  It  forms,  in  fact,  one  of  the  sub- 
limest  features  in  the  structure  of  the  old  continent  and  of  the  globe.  Here  a  long 
range  of  summits,  covered  with  perpetual  snow,  presents  itself  to  the  Hindoo,  who 
has  in  all  ages  raised  towards  it  an  eye  of  religious  veneration.  All  the  names  by 
which  it  is  distinguished  are  derived  from  the  Sanscrit  term  Hem,  signifying  snow. 
Hence  have  arisen  the  name  Imaus  and  Emodus  among  the  ancients,  and  the  Ilima- 
lah,  Himadri,  Himachal,  and  Himalaya,  of  the  modcrns.1T  The  river  Indus  passes 
through  a  series  of  narrow  defiles  in  lat.  65°,  which  scarcely  ofler  any  interruption 
to  the  mountain  chain.  The  direction  of  the  mountain  is  eastward,  as  far  as  the 
north-east  point  of  the  valley  of  Cashmere  :  from  tliis  point,  its  direction  is  to  the 
south-east,  extending  along  the  sources  of  all  the  rivers  wliich  run  across  the  Pun- 
jab to  fall  into  the  Indus,  with  the  exception  of  the  Sutledge,  which,  like  the  Indus 
itself,  rises  on  the  north  side  of  the  range,  and  takes  its  passage  across  its  breadth. 
Pursuing  the  same  direction  the  Himalah  mountains  cross  the  heads  of  the  Jumna, 
the  Ganges,  and  their  numerous  tributary  rivers.  Farther  east,  they  seem  to  be 
penetrated  by  several  rivers,  as  the  Gunduk,  the  Arum,  the  Teesta,  the  Cosi,  and 
the  Brahmapootra.  The  geography  of  the  countries  to  the  east  of  this  last  river  is 
so  little  known,  that  it  is  a  question  whether  the  same  mountain  range  is  continued 
any  farther.  It  seems  agreed  that,  if  it  is  continued,  its  height  ceases  to  be  e(|ually 
great ;  it  is  probable,  however,  that  a  continuation  of  it  extends  along  the  northern 

•  I'ennant's  View  of  Hindostan,  i.  3. 

t  Hamilton's  Description  of  llinflostan,  vol.  f.  Iiitrod.  p.  xxxvii. 

♦  See  a  Hindoo  map  of  llie  world  in  Maurice's  Indian  Anli([ullies,  and  Paulino's  Systcnia 
Brahmanicum. 

§  See  our  History  of  CiCORrapliy,  ISooksiii.  and  viii. 

n   JlUni-.'llin-Tupit,  and  Kin-Shan. 

1  This  old  Indian  root  also  biins^s  to  mind  tlie  Ilniiua  of  Tluacc,  the  lliimcttiir,  of  Allica,  flic 
J\Ious  Inucus  of  Italy,  and  the  diil'erent  mountains  called  Ihmmd  in  Saxony,  Jutland,  and  otlicr 
countries. 


IXDOSTAX.  Ill 

tVontier  of  the  provinces  of  Quang-si  and  Quang-tong  all  the  way  to  the  Chinese 
sea,  declining  gradually  as  it  advances  to  the  east. 

It  is  only  of  late  that  the  height  of  the  Himalah  mountains  on  the  |  Their  height, 
north  of  India  has  been  appreciated.  In  1802,  Col.  Crawford  made  some  measure- 
ments, which  gave  a  much  greater  altitude  to  these  mountains  than  had  been  ever 
before  suspected,  and  Col.  Colebrooke,  from  the  plains  of  Rohilcund,  made  a  series 
of  observations,  which  gave  a  height  of  22,000  feet.  Lieut.  Webb,  in  his  journey 
to  the  source  of  the  Ganges,  executed  measurements  on  the  peak  of  Jamunavatari, 
which  gave  upwards  of  25,000  feet.  The  same  officer,  in  a  subsequent  journey, 
confirmed  his  former  observations.  This  conclusion  was  objected  to  on  account  of 
a  difference  of  opinion  on  the  allowance  which  ought  to  be  made  for  the  deviation  of 
the  light  from  a  straight  direction,  on  which  all  conclusions  drawn  from  the  measure- 
ment of  the  angles  must  depend.*  In  a  subsequent  journey,  however,  this  same 
officer  confirmed  his  conclusions  by  additional  measurements,  and  by  observing  the 
fall  of  the  mercury  in  the  barometer,  at  those  heiglits  which  he  himself  visited. | 
It  was  found  by  these  last  observations,  that  the  lower  limit  of  perpetual  snow  is  con- 
siderably higher  than  it  ought  to  have  turned  out  under  that  latitude,  by  the  applica- 
tion of  the  principles  laid  down  by  Humboldt  and  Professor  Leslie.  By  the  indica- 
tions of  four  good  barometers,  compared  with  a  barometrical  journal,  kept  by  Capt. 
Ilardwick  at  Dumdum,  about  fifty  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  he  found  the 
elevation  of  the  Niti  Ghaut  to  be  16,814  feet,  yet  there  was  no  snow  on  it,  nor  on 
the  clilTs  300  feet  above  it.  The  line  of  perpetual  snow,  therefore,  does  not  begin 
till  at  least  17,000  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  The  banks  of  the  Sutledge,  at 
an  elevation  of  nearly  15,000  feet,  afforded  pasturage  for  cattle,  and  yielded  excel- 
lent crops  of  Ooa  or  mountain  wheat.  This  mild  temperature,  at  so  great  an  eleva- 
is  confined  to  the  northern  side  of  the  Himalah.  At  Kedar-Nath  and  other  points 
on  the  southern  side,  perpetual  snow  commences  not  much  higher  than  12,000  feet. 
This  probably  depends  on  the  greater  height  of  the,  whole  territory  on  the  north  side, 
in  consequence  of  which,  the  heat  which  the  earth  receives  from  the  solar  ray,  and 
which  warms  the  air  immediately  superincumbent,  is  not  so  much  expended  by  the 
time  the  ascending  air  reaches  these  greater  elevations,  as  in  that  which  has  ascended 
from  a  much  lower  country.  Mr.  Fraser,  in  a  later  journey,  inferred,  that  the  lofti- 
est peaks  of  the  Himalah  varied  from  18,000  to  22,000,  or  at  most  23,000  feet,  about 
4000  less  than  the  preceding  estimate.  But  he  had  no  instruments  with  him  for  mea- 
suring the  altitudes,  and  no  barometer,  and  he  probably  did  not  make  the  due  allow- 
ance for  the  extraordinary  height  of  the  snow  line.  He  considers  that  part  of  the 
range  whicii  lies  between  Bhagirath  and  the  valley  of  Nepal  as  its  most  elevated 
part,  the  mountains  decreasing  in  height  both  to  the  west  and  to  the  east.  The  fol- 
lowing are  the  heights  of  some  of  the  peaks  which  have  been  ascertained : 

Dhawalagivri,  or  the  White  Mountain,  near  the  sources  of  the  Gunduk 

river,  above  the  level  of  the  sea,    -----.-  26,862 

Jamootri,        ---.-----_.  25,500 

Dhaiboon,  seen  from  Catmandoo,      - 24,768 

Another  Peak  seen  from  the  same  capital,         -----  24,625 

Another  near  to  the  preceding,  ----...  23,262 

A  third  in  the  same  vicinity, --  23,052 

Peak  St.  George,  estimated  at  the  same  place  by  Capt.  Hodgson,  -  22,240 

Thus  the  Himalah  mountains  exceed  in  elevation  the  Andes  of  America ;  that  of 
Chimborazo,  the  highest  of  the  latter,  not  exceeding  21,470  feet  above  the  sea. 
Through  this  stupendous  chain  there  are  different  passes,  but  all  of  them  laborious 
to  travel,  and  some  iiighly  dangerous.  One  of  the  most  practicable  is  that  which 
in  its  upper  part,  follows  the  bed  of  the  river  Sutledge.  To  tlic  east  of  this,  there 
are  some  practicable  only  at  a  favourable  season,  and  where  the  traveller  still  runs 
the  hazard  of  being  caught  in  a  fall  of  snow,  or  otherwise  perishing  with  cold. 
Through  the  whole  mountainous  tract,  and  even  before  ascending  much  above  the 

•  Quarterly  Review,  vol.  xvi.  f  Ibid.  Vol.  xvH, 


Mountains  of 
the  west. 


112  BOOK  rORTY-SIXTH. 

inhabited  parts,  the  traveller  is  liable  to  be  attacked  with  an  alarming  failure  of  re- 
spiration, I'rom  the  great  rarity  of  the  air,  an  aftection  attributed  by  the  natives  to 
various  fanciful  and  sometimes  superstitious  causes.  Some  of  the  most  difficult 
passes  are  occasionally  traversed  by  marauding  parties  from  the  one  side  of  the 
Himalah  to  carry  off  the  property  of  the  inhabitants  on  the  other.  Such  passes 
exist  between  Nepal  and  Thibet,  or  that  stripe  lying  close  to  the  north  side  of  the 
Himfdah,  which  is  inhabited  by  Bhootees,  and  may  probably  come  under  the  name 
of  Bootan,  a  name  of  which  we  are  not  at  present  able  to  assign  the  exact  local 
extent.  Plere  there  are  also  one  or  more  easier  passes  chiefly  along  the  beds  of  the 
rivers  Gunduk,  Arun,  and  Teestu.  Hence  armies  have  crossed  from  Nepal  to 
attack  the  territory  of  Thibet,  and  a  Chinese  army  has  in  return  invaded  and  sub- 
jugated Nepal.  The  difficulty  of  access  to  these  regions,  heightens  the  ardour  of 
the  admiring  Hindoo,  actuated  in  some  degree  by  curiosity,  but  much  more  by 
superstition,  to  bathe  himself  in  the  icy  streams  which  give  origin  to  the  Ganges  or 
its  mighty  tributaries;  to  contemplate  the  mystic  rock,  which  so  closely  resembles 
the  hind  quarters  of  a  bullock,  and  is  reputed  to  have  been  the  result  of  a  holy  trans- 
mutation of  a  divine  being,  a  scene  where  it  is  reckoned  a  merit  to  make  a  voluntary 
sacrifice  of  life,  by  precipitating  the  body  over  the  fatal  crag.  Superstition  has  in 
many  instances  chosen  to  cherish  its  propensities  in  localities  signalized  as  the 
origin  of  large  and  fertilizing  rivers.  Nowhere  is  this  carried^  so  far  as  in  this 
mountainous  tract,  and  it  must  be  confessed,  that  in  no  locality  is  the  sublime  cha- 
racter of  the  scenery  so  much  in  unison  with  such  feelings.  In  the  Hindoo  Pantheon, 
Himalah  is  defined,  and  is  described  as  the  fatlicr  of  the  Ganges,  and  of  her  sister 
Ooma,  the  spouse  of  the  destroying  power  Siva,  the  favourite  object  of  propitiatory 
adoration. 

Had  we  extended  India  to  the  west  of  the  Indus,  we  should,  in  that 
quarter,  have  taken  the  Soliman  range  as  a  boundary,  partici|iating  of 
the  character  of  the  northern  boundary  in  being  mountainous,  thougli  far  from  being 
equally  stupendous.  These  have  come  under  review  in  our  account  of  Afghiinistan. 
The  territory  lying  along  the  western  bank  of  the  Indus,  between  the  river  and  the 
mountains,  is  Indian  both  in  its  aspect  and  population,  thougli  Afghan  in  its  poHtical 
relations,  and  therefore  will  be  entitled  to  a  glance  in  the  passing,  while  we  treat  of 
Indostan. 

The  Ghauts.  .|  Another  system  of  mountains  is  that  of  the  Ghauts,  ?*.  e.  the  "  passages, 
or  gates."*  This  is  considered  as  commencing  at  Cape  Comorin:  yet  the  southern 
chain,  or  Malayala  mountains']"  form  a  separate  group,  terminating  in  the  district  of 
Coimbetore,  at  the  great  valley  in  which  the  forts  of  Palikadery  and  Annamaly  are 
situated. 

The  eastern  |  The  Ghauts  begin  separately  on  the  north  of  these  plains,  forming 
Ghauts.  j  j^yQ  branches,  one  running  to  the  east,  and  the  other  to  tiie  west  of 

north.  The  eastern  Ghauts  extend  seventy  miles  beyond  Madras,  forming  the 
boundaries  of  the  Carnatic,  and  to  the  north  of  that  country  divide  into  several 
branches,  in  which  the  mountains  are  subjected  to  interruptions,  being  separated  by 
valleys  covered  with  thick  forests. J  But  the  principal  chain  is  divided  by  no  hollow 
grounds,  except  narrow  defiles,  which  are  well  lined  with  fortresses.  To  tlie  natives, 
this  chain  is  known  by  the  name  of  Ellacooda,  orXlie  "White  Mountains."  It  then 
rims  along  the  northern  margin  of  the  Circars,  forming  an  uninterrupted  series  of 
mountains  so  close  as  to  affijid  none  but  two  military  passes.  At  the  ])lace  where 
the  Ghauts  separate  the  Circars  from  tiic  province  of  Berar,  the- mountains  become 
almost  inaccessible,  and  there  is  only  one  passage  for  carriages  and  for  horses,  viz. 
that  of  Salarghaut,  which  leads  to  Behar.  Nothing  is  seen  on  every  hfind  but 
masses  of  rock,  rising  perpendicularly  to  the  clouds,  and  leaving  apparently  no  out- 
let for  the  intimidated  traveller.     All  the  summits  of  this   chain  are  composed  of 

•  Very  analogous  to  the  Swedish  Gata,  the  Danish  Gade,  the  Dutch  Gait,  and  the  English 
Gate. 

f  Malayala  signifies  mountains. 

i  Lcnnon  on  tlie  roads  into  the  Ciimbenand-fjmlapah  countries.  Mackenzie  on  the  roads 
from  Nellore  to  the  western  passes,  in  Dairymple's  Oriental  Uepertory,  p.  53. 


"Western 
Gliauts. 


Vindbia  moun- 
tains. 


INDOSTAN.  113 

granite,*  and  it  eveiy  where  presents  one  picture  of  total  barrenness  and  utter  na- 
kedness. Yet  large  trunks  of  trees  in  a  state  of  petrification,  are  found  here,  and 
most  particularly  in  the  ravines  created  by  the  torrents,  where  trunks,  projecting 
from  the  steep  sides  of  the  rocks,  sometimes  serve  for  bridges. "f 

The  western  chain  of  the  Ghauts  extends  along  the  west  coast  to  a 
distance  of  seventy  miles,  and  acquires  a  greater  elevation  than  the 
eastern  chain.  Its  height  has  not  yet  been  ascertained  by  barometrical  observations, 
but  it  is  generally  believed  to  amount  to  three  or  four  thousand  feet.  The  chain 
then  crosses  Kanara  and  Sunda,  passes  near  to  Goa,  enters  the  Mahratta  country, 
and  divides  into  several  branches.  The  closeness  of  the  forests,  the  depth  of  the 
precipices,  and  the  rapidity  of  the  torrents,  render  these  mountains  very  difficult  to 
cross,  and  the  passage  is,  in  many  places,  fifty  or  sixty  miles  long.  J  They  are  de- 
scribed as  containing  much  limestone,  and  some  basaltic  rocks,  but  no  one  has 
deliberately  studied  the  position  and  materials  of  the  difierent  strata.  Towards  the 
sea-coast,  the  western  Ghauts  present  a  magnificent  amphitheatre  of  rocks  and 
verdure,  enlivened  with  towns  and  villages.  The  highest,  or  at  least  the  steepest 
part  to  the  east  of  Surat,  goes  under  the  name  of  the  Bala-Ghauts,  which  is  some- 
times extended  to  the  whole  of  the  western  Ghauts,  while  the  eastern  chain,  to- 
gether with  the  intermediate  plateau,  is  called  the  Paian-Ghauts. 

About  the  sources  of  the  river  Godavery,  some  lower  chains  are  sent  oflf  from  the 
mass  of  the  western  Ghauts,  pass  through  the  interior  of  the  peninsula,  and  join  the 
mountains  of  Berar  and  Gundwana. 

The  central  chains  which  run  parallel  to  the  course  of  the  Nerbud- 
dah  river,  one  on  its  north  side,  and  the  other  on  the  south,  generally 
pass  under  the  Sancrit  name  of  the  Vindhias  ;  the  extent  which  this  name  embraces 
appears  somewhat  arbitrary  to  our  most  learned  eastern  geographers.  But  Arrow- 
smith  more  positively  confines  it  to  the  mountains  immediately  adjoining  the  Nerbud- 
dah.  It  is  also  in  these  central  countries  that  the  Hindoos  place  their  Sanyah  and  their 
Sookhian  mountains,  though  they  have  been  mistaken  for  the  western  Ghauts. 

With  the  exception  of  the  point  of  Diu  on  the  west,  and  Cape  Co-  outlines  of 
morin  in  the  south,  India  has  no  great  promontories.  The  peninsula  of  ^"'^'^' 
Guzerat  presents  a  projection  altogether  singular,  and  without  which,  India  would 
form  the  oblique  quandrangle  to  which  it  was  compared  by  the  ancients.  The  bays 
of  Cutch,  on  the  north,  and  of  Cambay  on  the  south  of  Guzerat,  are  the  only  bond- 
ings of  the  coast  which  merit  the  name  of  gulfs.  The  western  coast  of  the  Dec- 
can,  though  indented  by  numerous  creeks,  road-steads,  and  mouths  of  rivers,  has, 
on  the  whole,  one  uniform  direction. 

From  Cape  Comorin  to  the  coast  of  Bengal,  there  is  not  a  single  na- 
tural harbour,'and  the  vessels  have  no  retreat  excepting  the  roads  belong- 
ing to  the  commercial  stations  ;  and  even  in  these  the  merchant  vessels  are  obliged 
to  ride  at  a  distance  of  a  mile  and  a  half  from  the  shore,  and  ships  of  war  at  two 
miles.  At  that  distance,  the  depth  does  not  exceed  ten  or  twelve  fathoms.  So  gra- 
dual is  the  declivity  of  the  bottom,  that  at  a  distance  of  twenty  miles  from  land,  the 
depth  does  not  exceed  fifty  fathoms.  The  great  number  of  sand  banks,  renders  it 
necessary  to  employ  in  landing,  boats  of  a  particular  construction,  invented  by  the 
natives. 

The  fertility  for  which  India  is  distinguished  is  in  a  great  measure 
derived  from  the  numerous  rivers,  streams,  and  torrents,  by  which  it  is 
watered.  The  imposing  character  of  these  has  commanded  the  admiration  both  of 
ancients  and  moderns.  Here  all  the  phenomena  which  the  course  of  a  river  can 
combine,  are  presented  on  the  most  magnificent  scale.  First  falling  in  foaming  tur- 
bulence, and  frequent  cataracts,  from  immense  heights,  fed  by  all  the  snows  of  the 
mountains  of  central  Asia,  the  Indian  rivers  already  rival,  in  the  volume  of  their  wa- 
ters, the  largest  that  are  to  be  found  on  the  European  continent,  even  before  they 
have  laid  aside  the  impetuous  rapidity  of  our  mountain  torrents.  In  the  successive 
junctions  of  these  rivers,  the  momentum  of  matter  moving  from  two  different  direc- 

•  Buclianan's  Journey  to  the  Mysore.  f  Sonnerat,  i.  23. 

t  Dirom's  Narrative  of  the  Champaigns  of  India. 
Vol..  II.— P 


Coasts. 
Sliallows. 


Rivers. 
Their  majestic 
appearance. 


114  BOOK  FOKTY-SIXTH. 

tions,  produces  in  its  mutual  shock  and  violent  intermixture,  an  encounter  like  that 
of  two  immense  armies,  whicli  strikes  the  beholder  with  feelings  at  once  the  most 
animating,  and  the  most  sublime.  When  farther  advanced,  and  now  arrived  in  the 
level  country,  these  enormous  currents  excavate  beds  for  themselves  which  are 
several  leagues  in  breadth.  Scarcely  does  the  mariner's  eye  descry,  at  any  one 
time,  the  two  opposite  banks,  which  are  covered  with  palm  trees,  temples,  and 
palaces  ;  the  transparent  waters,  like  those  of  the  ocean,  have  a  surface  smooth  as 
a  mirror,  except  when  ruffled  by  the  winds.  A  force,  resistless  but  impercejjtible, 
hurries  along  the  myriads  of  barks  with  which  their  surface  is  covered.  The  tides 
of  the  great  ocean,  entering  with  freedom  the  wide  expansion  of  their  beds,  repel 
the  river  waves,  and  sometimes  the  retrograde  current  is  rapid  and  violent.  At  the 
place  of  meeting,  navigation  becomes  apparently  hazardous,  from  the  mountainous 
elevation  of  the  waves,  and  the  powerful  whirl  generated  by  the  mutually  opposing 
streams. — These  great  and  numerous  currents  of  water  do  not,  however,  entirely 
neufralizo  the  parcliing  influence  of  the  tropical  temperature.  Many  districts  of 
India,  between  the  Indus  and  the  Ganges,  exhibit  a  scene  of  the  most  frightful  ste- 
rility. Hundreds  of  villages  forming  the  same  neighbourhood,  depend  for  subsist- 
ence on  the  waters  derived  from  immense  tanks,  or  reservoirs,  which  have  been 
formed  at  an  enormous  expense. 

The  iiidiis.  I  We  shall  begin  our  delineations  with  the  river  earliest  known  to  the 
western  world,  tlie  Indus.  The  sources  of  this  river  have  not  yet  been  fully  ex- 
plored. But  our  information  extends  higher  in  its  course  than  it  did  a  few  years  ago. 
W^e  have  been  enabled,  at  least,  to  correct  the  error  of  mistaking  this  river,  or  some 
of  its  eastern  tril)utaries,  for  the  source  of  the  Ganges,  an  error  which  we  find  adopted 
in  the  construction  of  maps  till  a  very  recent  period.  The  commencement  of  this 
river  is  fixed,  by  the  most  probable  conjecture,  in  the  northern  declivity  of  the  Cailas 
brand)  of  the  Ifimalah  mountains,  about  lat.  31°  30'  N.  and  long.  80°  30'  E.  not  far 
from  Ihe  town  of  Gortop  in  the  Undes,  a  territory  now  under  the  dominion  of  China, 
and  within  a  few  miles  of  the  lake  Rawanshcad  and  the  sources  of  the  river  Sut- 
ledge.  It  is  supposed  to  flow  for  400  miles  in  a  N.  N.  W.  direction,  then  assuming 
a  S.W.  course,  comes  to  Di-ass,  a  town  of  Little  Thibet;  here  it  is  seventy  yards 
broad,  and  excessively  rapid,  and  it  receives  another  large  branch,  called  the  Ladak 
river,  which  flows  past  tlie  town  of  Ladak.  It  is  only  below  Drass  that  its  course  is 
known  with  certainty,  the  difllcult  and  desolate  nature  of  the  country  having  checked 
inquiries  in  its  higher  parts.  From  Drass,  the  Indus  pursues  its  solitary  course  for 
above  200  miles,  through  a  rude  and  mountainous  country  to  Mullai,  where  it  receives 
the  Abasseen,  penetrates  the  highest  Hindoo  Coosh  range,  passes  for  fifty  miles 
through  the  lower  parallel  ranges,  to  Torbaila,  where  it  enters  the  valley  of  Chuch, 
spreading  and  forming  innumerable  islands.  About  forty  miles  lower  down,  it  receives 
tlie  Caubul  river  from  tlic  west,  and  soon  after  rushes  through  a  narrow  opening  into 
the  midst  of  the  branches  of  the  Soliman  range  of  mountains.  Its  stream  is  ex- 
tremely turliulent,  and  sounds  like  a  stormy  sea.  When  its  volume  is  increased  by 
the  melting  of  the  snow,  a  tremendous  whirlpool  is  created,  and  the  noise  is  heard 
to  a  great  distance.  Here  boats  are  frequently  sunk,  or  dashed  to  pieces.  There 
arc  two  black  rocks  in  this  part  of  the  river,  named  Jellalia  and  Kemalia,  which  are 
pointed  out  by  the  inhabitants  as  the  transformed  bodies  of  the  two  sons  of  Peercc 
Taruk,  (the  Apostle  of  Darkness)  founder  of  the  Kooshenia  sect,  who  were  thrown 
into  the  river  by  Akhoond,  the  opponent  of  their  father.  At  the  town  of  Attock,  the 
river,  after  having  been  widely  spread  over  a  plain,  becomes  contractied  to  260  yards, 
but  is  much  more  deep  and  rapid.  When  its  floods  are  highest  it  rises  to  the  top  of 
a  bastion  about  fhirty-seven  feet  high.  At  Neelab,  fifteen  miles  below  Attock,  it 
becomes  still  narrower.  From  this  it  winds  among  the  hills  to  Calabag,  passes 
through  the  salt  range  in  a  clear,  deep,  and  placid  stream,  and  then  pursues  a  sou- 
therly course  to  the  ocean,  without  any  interruption,  or  confinement  from  hills.  It 
expands  into  various  channels  which  separate  and  meet  again.  Below  Attock  it 
receives  the  Toe  and  other  brooks  from  the  west.  At  Kaggawala,  the  Koorum,  astream 
of  considerable  magnitude  from  the  Soliman  mountains,  falls  into  it.  The  only  one  to 
t!ic  south  of  this  point  which  it  receives,  is  the  Arul,  which  supplies  very  little  water, 


INDOSTAX.  115 

being  r»ioslly  drawn  off  for  irrigation  in  the  north  of  Daniiuni.  At  Kiilierce,  the  In- 
dus, Avhen  at  its  lowest,  is  1000  yards  in  breadth,  and  rather  shallow,  being  diminished 
by  tlui  separation  of  some  branches  from  it.  At  Mittenda  it  receives  the  Punjnud, 
formed  by  the  union  of  live  large  tributaries.  This  immense  stream  previously  flows 
parallel  to  the  Indus  for  seventy  miles  ;  at  Ooch,  which  is  fifty  miles  up,  the  distance 
across,  from  the  Indus  to  the  Punjnud,  is  not  more  than  ten  miles.  In  July  and  Au- 
gust, this  whole  space  is  completely  flooded.  The  most  of  the  villages  contained  in 
it  are  temporary  erections,  a  few  only  being  situated  on  si)ots  artificially  elevated. 
The  whole  country  which  it  traverses  is  of  the  same  description,  all  the  way  to  Hy- 
derabad, the  capital  of  Sinde.  On  the  left  bank,  are  some  considerable  towns  and 
villages,  with  canals  for  agricultural  purposes.  Tliough  the  Indus  gives  olf  lateral 
streams  as  it  approaches  the  sea,  it  does  not  Ibrm  a  Delta  exactly  analogous  to  that 
of  Egypt.  Its  waters  enter  the  sea  in  one  volume,  the  lateral  streams  being  absorbed 
by  the  sand  without  reaching  the  ocean.  It  gives  ofF  an  easterly  brancli  called  the 
Fullalce,  but  tliis  returns  its  waters  to  the  Indus  at  a  lower  point,  forming  in  its  cir- 
cuit the  island  on  which  Hyderabad  stands.  From  the  sea  to  Hyderabad,  the  breadth 
of  the  Indus  is  generally  about  a  mile,  varying  in  depth  from  two  to  live  fathoms. 
The  tides  are  not  perceptible  in  this  river  higher  up  than  sixty  or  sixty-five  miles 
from  tlie  sea.  The  laud  near  the  mouth  does  not  possess  the  fertility  of  the  Delta 
of  the  Nile,  or  the  Ganges.  The  dry  {)arts  exhil)it  only  short  underwood,  and  the 
remainder  arid  sand,  putrid  salt  swamps,  or  shallow  lakes.  From  the  sea  to  Lahore, 
a  distance  of  760  geographical  miles,  the  Indus  and  its  tributary  the  Ravey  are  navi- 
gable for  vessels  of  200  tons.  In  the  time  of  Aurengzebe,  a  considerable  trade 
was  carried  on  by  means  of  this  navigation,  but  from  the  political  state  of  tlie  coun- 
try it  has  long  ceased. 

From  Attock  to  Mooltan,  this  river  is  called  by  the  natives  the  At-  |  Names, 
lock,  and  further  down  it  has  the  name  of  Soor,  or  Shoor,  but  among  the  Asiatics,  it 
is  generally  known  by  the  name  of  Sinde.  Though  one  of  the  largest  rivers  in  the 
world,  the  Indus  has  never  obtained  such  a  reputation  for  sanctity  as  many  inferior 
streams  in  Indostan,  a  circumstance  which  may  proceed  from  the  barren  and  unin- 
teresting character  of  the  country  through  which  it  flows. 

The  five  eastern  tributaries  which  by  their  union  form  the  Punjnud, 
arc  celebrated  for  having  been  the  scene  of  some  events  conspicuous  in 
history.  The  most  northerly  in  the  Jylum,  or  Hydaspcs,  the  IJahut  ol' 
Abul  Fazel,  which  takes  its  rise  in  the  mountains  on  the  south-east  side 
of  the  valley  of  Cashmere,  where  it  is  called  the  Vedusta.  Proceeding  westward, 
through  that  celebrated  valley,  it  passes  the  capital,  where  it  is  joined  by  a  small 
stream  from  the  Ouller  lake.  Twelve  miles  further  down,  it  is  joined  by  the  Little 
Sinde,  still  runs  straight  west,  through  the  hills  and  valleys  adjoining  Cashmere,  in- 
creased by  numerous  rivulets  and  torrents  in  its  way.  IJefore  it  turns  south,  it  re- 
ceives the  Kishengunga,  coming  from  the  northward,  in  its  course  through  the  hills. 
This  river  is  extremely  rapid,  and  from  iOO  to  600  yards  broad.  It  in  never  fordable, 
but  only  fifteen  or  twenty  yards  of  its  breadth  arc  so  deep  as  to  require  swimming. 
It  flows  southward  450  miles  till  it  joins  the  Clien'd)  at  Tremmoo,  100  miles  above 
Mooltan.  The  Chenab  or  ./Icesincs,  the  second  tril)utary,  antl  the  larg-  tlc ciunab, 
est  of  the  five,  arises  in  tile  Himulah  mountains,  near  the  south-cast  cor-  "^  -<«""«• 
ner  of  Cashmere,  in  the  Alpine  district  of  Kishtewar.  Due  north  from  the  city  of 
Lahore,  this  river  is  300  yards  wide  iii  the  dry  season,  but  a  mile  and  three  furlongs 
when  swelled  by  the  rains.  Like  tlie  Jylum,  it  is  not  fordable,  yet  easily  crossed  in 
consequence  of  a  small  portion  of  its  width  reijuiring  to  be  swum  over.  Its  junction 
with  the  Jylum  is  accompanied  with  great  noise  and  violence;  a  circumstance  no- 
ticed both  by  the  historians  of  Alexander  and  of  Timoor.  Fifty  miles  below  their 
junction,  these  united  streams  receive  the  Ravey. 

The  Ravey  or  Hydraolcs  is  the  third  of  the  Punjab  rivers.     It  issues  |  The  Ravey. 
from  the  mountainous  district  of  liahore,  but  its  sources  have  not  been  explored. 
Flowing  to  the  south-west,  it  enters  the  plahis  near  Rajepoor,  from  which  the  canal 
of  Shahnehr  was  formerly  drawn  to  Lahore,  a  distance  of  eighty  miles,  though  now 
filled  up.    It  supplied  the  city  with  water,  by  keeping  it  at  a  higher  level  in  the  dry 


Rivers  of  tlie 
Punjftb. 

The  Jylum,  or 


116  BOOK  FORTY-SIXTH. 

season,  when  this,  hke  most  of  the  Indian  rivers,  is  twenty  or  thirty  feet  below  its 
banks.     Here  it  is  fordable  in  dry  weather,  being  only  four  feet  deep.     It  has  many 
banks  and  quicksands ;  its  sides  are  low  and  well  wooded.     It  enters  the  united 
streams  of  Jylum  and  Chenab  forty  miles  above  the  city  of  Mooltan.     This  is  the 
least  of  the  five  rivers.     Its  length  probably  does  not  exceed  580  miles. 
The  Beyah.      |       The  fourth  is  the  Beyah,  or  Hyphasis,  rising  in  the  mountains  of  Keloo 
in  the  pergunnah  of  Sultanpoor.     It  is  shallow  and  fordable  in  dry  weather,  but 
abounds  in  quicksands.     This  and  the  fifth,  or  Sutledge,  meet  before  either  has  pro- 
ceeded more  than  a  fifth  part  of  the  diameter  of  the  Punjab  country;  and  their  united 
stream  flows  the  rest  of  the  distance,  to  complete  the  conflux  called  the  Punjnud. 
The  Sutledge.  |       Tlie  Sutledge  rises  in  the  Undes  to  the  north  of  the  great  Himalah 
range,  within  the  territory  claimed  by  the  Chinese;  proceeds  almost  due  west;  then 
gradually  bends  to  the  south  in  crossing  the  subordinate  mountains.     It  is  the  Hesu- 
drus  of  Phny,  the  Zaradrus  of  Ptolemy,  and  the  Saranges  of  Arrian.     It  exhibits 
stripes  of  fertility  along  its  banks,  in  the  midst  of  a  cold  and  dreary  though  sublime 
region,  forming  the  western  hmit  of  the  hilly  territory  which  the  British  lately  wrested 
from  the  power  of  the  Ghoorkas.     Whether  it  rises  from  the  celebrated  and  sacred 
lake  Manasarovara,  or  not,  is  a  point  not  satisfactorily  ascertained ;  and  the  precau- 
tionary policy  of  the  Chinese  government  will  probably  long  prevent  us  from  acquir- 
ing a  more  correct  knowledge  of  geography  in  that  direction.     The  Sutledge  seems 
to  be  the  largest  river  within  the  Himalah  range,  between  the  Indus  and  the  Brahma- 
pootra.    From  its  origin  to  its  junction  with  the  Beyah,  it  runs  about  500  miles. 
The  united  Beyah  and  Sutledge  are  called  the  Kehra  or  Gavra,  which  flows  for  more 
than  300  miles  before  it  forms  the  Punjnud,  which  contains  the  waters  of  the  whole 
five,  and  carries  them  to  the  Indus. 

The  union  of  all  the  five  rivers  into  one  before  they  reach  the  Indus,  was  a  point 
in  geography  maintained  by  Ptolemy ;  but,  owing  to  the  obscurity  of  modern  accounts, 
prompted  by  the  splittings  of  the  Indus,  and  the  frequent  approximation  of  streams 
running  in  parallel  courses,  we  had  been  taught  to  correct  this  as  a  specimen  of  that 
author's  deficiency  of  information,  till  very  recent  and  more  minute  inquiries  have  re- 
estabhshed  that  questioned  point,  and  along  with  it  the  merited  credit  of  the  ancient 
geographer. 

The  Ganges.  [  The  Ganges  is  called  by  the  Hindoos,  Padde,  and  Boora  Gonga,  or 
"the  river,"  by  way  of  eminence.  This  mighty  river  was  long  supposed  to  have  its 
Its  source.  |  origin  on  the  north  side  of  the  Himalah  mountains,  till  the  fact  came  to 
be  doubted  by  Mr.  Colebrook;  in  consequence' of  which  Lieut.  Webb  being  sent  in 
1808  by  the  Bengal  government  to  explore  its  sources,  ascertained  that  all  the  differ- 
ent streams  above  Hurdwar,  which  form  the  Ganges,  rise  on  the  south  side  of  the 
snowy  mountains.  At  some  places  above  the  confluence  with  the  Jumna,  the  Gan- 
ges is  fordable ;  but  its  navigation  is  never  interrupted.  At  a  distance  of  600  miles 
from  the  sea,  the  channel  is  thirty  feet  deep  when  the  river  is  at  its  lowest.  This 
depth  it  retains  all  the  way  to  the  sea,  where,  however,  the  settling  of  sand  by  the 
neutralization  of  the  current,  from  the  meeting  of  the  tide  with  the  stream  of  the  river, 
produces  bars  and  shallows  which  prevent  the  entrance  of  large  vessels.  The  ac- 
cessions which  the  Ganges  receives  in  the  spring  by  the  melting  of  the  mountain 
snow  are  not  considerable.  At  any  great  distance  from  the  sources,  as  at  Patna, 
any  cause  affecting  these  sources  produces  little  comparative  effect.  About  200 
miles  from  the  sea,  the  Delta  of  the  Ganges  commences  by  the  dividing  of  the  river. 
Two  branches,  the  Cossimbazar,  and  the  Jellinghy,  are  given  off' to  the 
west.  These  unite  to  form  the  Iloogly,  or  Bhagirathy,  on  which  the 
port  of  Calcutta  is  situated.  It  is  the  only  branch  commonly  navigated  by  ships,  and 
in  some  years  it  is  not  navigable  for  two  or  three  montlis.  The  only  secondary 
branch  which  is  at  all  times  navigable  for  boats,  is  the  Ciiandah  river.  That  part  of 
the  Delta  which  borders  on  the  sea  is  composed  of  a  labyrinth  of  creeks  and  rivers 
called  the  Sunderbunds,  with  numerous  islands,  covered  with  the  profuse  and  rank 
vegetation  called  jungle,  affording  haunts  to  numerous  tigers.  These  branches  oc- 
Overflowings.  |  cupy  an  extent  of  200  miles  along  the  shore.  The  Ganges,  though  so 
littlo  affected  by  the  melting  of  the  snows,  owes  part  of  its  increase  to  the  rains  which 


Division  i«to 
branches. 


Volume  of  its 
waters. 

ne  average 


INDOSTAN.  117 

fall  in  the  mountains.  Hence  it  rises  fifteen  feet  by  the  end  of  June,  when  the  rainy 
season  in  the  low  country  is  scarcely  begun.  The  remainder  of  its  rise,  which  is  in 
all  thirty-two  feet,  is  occasioned  by  the  rain  which  falls  in  Bengal.  By  the  end  of 
July  all  the  lower  parts  of  the  country  adjoining  the  Ganges,  as  well  as  the  Jirahma- 
pootra,  are  overflowed  for  a  width  of  100  miles,  nothing  appearing  but  villages,  trees, 
and  the  sites  of  some  villages  which  have  been  deserted.  A  stripe  along  each  bank 
of  the  river  remains  tor  some  time  uncovered,  that  part  being  highest  in  consequence 
of  the  more  abundant  deposition  of  mud  at  the  river's  edge,  where  the  quantity  held 
in  suspension  is  the  largest  and  contains  the  heaviest  particles.  Between  August 
and  November  it  decreases  from  four  inches  to  two  per  day,  and  after  that  till  April 
continues  decreasing  at  a  daily  rate  of  half  an  inch.  The  difference  of  elevation  of 
the  waters  always  diminishes  as  the  river  approaches  to  tlic  sea.  At  Lucki-poor  it 
is  only  six  feet,  at  Dacca  fourteen,  and  at  Custee  thirty  one.  This  last  place  is  240 
miles  from  the  sea,  and  the  surface  of  the  river  in  the  dry  season  is  eighty  feet  above 
that  of  the  ocean.  The  Ganges  is  calculated  to  discharge  in  the  dry  season  80,000 
cubic  feet  of  water  in  a  second;  and,  as  its  water  has  double  the  volume 
when  at  its  height,  and  moves  with  a  greater  velocity  in  the  proportion 
of  five  to  three,  it  must  at  that  time  discharge  405,000  cubic  feet.  T 
for  the  whole  year  is  reckoned  180,000.  The  deposition  of  slinre  is  sometimes  ex 
tremely  rapid,  so  as  to  fill  up  deep  beds,  or  form  extensive  islands.  In  other  parts 
the  river  extends  its  width  in  particular  lateral  directions,  forming  steep  banks  of  soft 
soil,  which,  from  their  liability  to  tumble  in,  are  dangerous  of  approach  by  land  or 
by  water. 

That  line  of  the  Ganges  which  lies  between  Gangootree,  or  the  worship  paid 
source  of  the  leading  stream,  and  Sagor  island,  below  Calcutta,  is  held  '°  "• 
particularly  sacred.  The  main  body  which  goes  east  to  join  the  Brahmapootra,  is 
not  regarded  with  equal  veneration.  Certain  parts  of  the  line  now  mentioned  arc 
esteemed  more  sacred  than  the  rest,  and  are  the  resort  of  numerous  pilgrims  from 
great  distances  to  perform  their  ablutions,  and  take  up  the  water  to  be  employed  in 
their  ceremonies.  Wherever  the  river  happens  to  run  from  south  to  north,  coulrary 
to  its  general  direction,  it  is  considered  as  peculiarly  holy.  The  places  most  super- 
stitiously  revered  are  the  junctions  of  rivers,  called  Prayags,  the  principal  of  which 
is  that  of  the  Jumna  with  the  Ganges  at  Allahabad.  The  others  are  situated  among 
the  mountains.  Hurdwar,  where  the  river  escapes  from  the  mountains,  and  Sagor 
island,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Hoogly,  are  also  sacred.  The  water  of  the  Ganges  is 
esteemed  for  its  medicinal  virtues,  and  on  that  account  drunk  by  Mahometans,  as  well 
as  Hindoos.  In  tlie  British  courts  of  justice,  the  water  of  the  Ganges  is  used  for 
swearing  Hindoos,  as  the  Koran  is  for  Mahometans,  and  the  gospels  for  Christians. 

The  waters  of  the  Ganges  are  augmented  by  many  successive  tributaries,  some 
of  which  are  very  largo  rivers.  On  its  right  bank  it  receives  the  Jumna,  which  has 
a  previous  course  of  780  miles  from  tlie  lower  range  of  Himalah  between  the  Sut- 
ledge  and  the  Ganges,  and  falls  into  the  latter  at  the  fortress  of  Allaliabad.  It  is 
said  to  receive  at  the  same  point  a  rivulet  under  ground,  on  which  account  the  junc- 
tion is  called,  according  to  Tiefcnthalcr,  Trebeni,  or  the  confluence  of  three  rivers. 
Lower  down  it  receives  the  Soane,  which  arises  in  the  table  land  of  Amcrkoontook, 
in  the  mountains  of  Gundwana,  and  falls  into  the  Ganges  a  little  above  Patna.  On 
its  left  it  receives  the  Ilamgonga,  from  the  mountains  of  Kcmaoon  ;  and  the  Goomty, 
which,  arising  in  the  same  hills,  crosses  the  province  of  Oude,  from  north-west  to  south- 
east, passing  Lucknow,  and  falls  into  the  Ganges  below  Benares.  The  Gogra,  after 
forming  the  eastern  boundary  of  the  British  district  of  Kcmaoon,  which  it  separates 
from  the  Goorkha  tcrrhory,  passes  near  Fizabad,  and  joins  the  Ganges  in  Berar, 
where  it  is  called  Dewa,  being  one  of  the  longest  tributaries  which  the  Ganges 
receives.  The  Gunduk  is  supposed  to  rise  near  the  great  Himalah  peak  called 
Dhawala  Giri,  or  the  "  White  Mountan."  Some  conjecture  it  to  come  from  the  pla- 
teau of  Thibet.  In  its  higher  parts  it  is  called  Salgrami,  from  the  number  of  ammo- 
nites contained  in  the  schistous  rocks  over  which  it  passes,  which  are  objects  of 
worship  among  the  Hindoos  under  the  name  of  Salgrams,  being  considered  as  visi- 
ble traces  of  the  divine  Vishnu.     It  joins  the  Ganges  opposite  to  Patna.     The  Cosi 


118  BOOK  I'OUTy-SlXTII. 

arises  in  the  Nepul  hills  near  Catmandoo,  receives  the  Arun,  (which  is  supposed  to 
rise  tioni  the  north  side  of  the  great  mountain  ridge,  and  penetrate  between  its  snowy 
peaks,)  and  joins  the  Ganges  in  Bengal,  after  a  course  of  300  miles.  The  Teesta 
has  not  been  explored  by  Europeans,  but  is  said  by  the  Nepaleseto  arise  in  Thibet, 
and  cross  the  great  mountains.  It  formed  till  lately  the  eastern  boundary  of  the 
Nepal  territory,  separating  it  from  the  dominions  of  the  Deb  Raja  of  Bootan.  It 
joins  the  Pudda,  or  great  body  of  the  Ganges,  after  a  course  of  400  miles. 
The  Brahma-  The  Brahmapootra  is  the  largest  river  of  India,  though  among  the 

pootra.  jgj^gj.  sacred.     Its  sources,  though  never  yet  explored,  seem  to  be  situ- 

ated near  lake  Manasarovara  in  Thibet,  near  those  of  the  Indus  and  the  Sutledge. 
It  flows  eastward  through  Thibet,  where  it  is  known  under  the  name  of  Sanpoo,  or 
"  the  river."  It  passes  near  to  Lassa,  the  residence  of  the  great  Lama,  also  to  the 
north  of  Teshoo  Lomboo,  the  seat  of  the  Teshoo  Lama,  occupying  a  widely  ex- 
panded bed,  and  forming  numerous  islands.  Its  principal  channel  near  this  place  is 
narrow,  deep,  and  never  fordable.  It  receives  various  rivers  from  the  south,  and 
probably  also  from  the  north.  After  a  long  easterly  course,  in  which  it  is  conjectured 
to  approach  within  220  miles  of  Yunan,  a  province  of  China,  it  makes  a  vast  circuit 
round  the  mountains,  where  it  is  lost  to  European  knowledge.  Making  a  sudden 
curve  to  the  south,  it  re-appears  in  Assam,  into  which  country  it  is  supposed  to  de- 
scend by  a  series  of  cataracts,  and  up  to  which  it  is  said  to  be  navigable.  On  reach- 
ing Assam,  it  turns  nearly  due  west,  receiving  a  copious  augmentation  from  numer- 
ous mountain  tributaries.  During  this  direction  of  its  course,  it  separates  into  two; 
the  southern  branch  being  distinguished  from  the  northern  or  main  body  by  the  name 
Kolong.  These  meet  again  after  enclosing  an  island  five  days'  journey  in  length 
and  one  in  breadth.  About  Goalpara,  the  British  frontier  town,  the  expanse  is  mag- 
nificent and  the  scenery  grand,  but  the  water  is  dirty  and  oftensive.^  During  floods 
it  carries  before  it  logs  of  wood  and  vast  floats  of  reeds,  together  with  dead  bodies 
of  men,  deer,  and  oxen.  In  its  rise  and  fall,  it  follows  periods  nearly  coinciding 
with  those  of  the  Ganges.  Its  navigation  is  rendered  difficult  by  shifting  sand-banks 
and  trunks  of  trees  sticking  in  its  bed.  Its  banks  and  islands  within  the  British  ter- 
ritories undergo  continual  changes.  After  entering  Bengal,  the  Brahmapootra  makes 
a  circuit  round  the  western  point  of  the  Garrow  mountains,  then  runs  southward 
through  the  Dacca  province,  is  joined  by  the  Megna,  which,  though  a  comparatively 
small  river,  now  gives  its  name  to  the  united  stream,  which  is  regularly  four  or  five 
miles  wide.  The  course  of  the  Brahmapootra  has  a  length  of  1650  miles,  but  passes 
through  a  rude  climate  and  a  barren  soil,  differing  in  this  respect  widely  from  the 
Ganges.  Rising  from  opposite  sides  of  the  same  mountains,  these  rivers  separate 
to  a  distance  of  1200  miles,  but  are  destined  to  meet  again  at  Luckipoor  in  Bengal, 
where  they  form  a  wide  gulf*  communicating  with  the  ocean. 

Tne  Nerbud.  I  The  Ncrbuddali  is  one  of  the  largest  rivers  which  have  their  rise  in 
*"*''•  the  interior  of  India.  It  conies  down  from  the  plateau  of  Amcrkoontook, 

close  to  the  source  of  the  Soane,  and  runs  in  a  solitary  course,  scarcely  receiving 
any  other  river,  its  waters  being  augmented  by  very  small  streams.  It  flows  directly 
west  to  the  Gulf  of  Cambay,  where  it  falls  into  the  ocean  near  to  the  city  of  Broach. 
In  the  dry  season  it  may  be  crossed  on  foot. 

Tiie  Tiiptee.  |  The  Tuptcc  also  runs  from  east  to  west,  rising  in  Gundwana  near  the 
village  of  Batool,  and  flows  into  the  sea  at  a  distance  of  a  few  leagues  from  Surat. 
The  mouths  of  both  these  rivers  are  greatly  obstructed  with  sand  banks. 

The  peninsula  of  the  Dcccan  is,  like  the  more  northerly  parts  of  India,  well  wa- 
tered with  rivers,  the  greater  part  of  which  descend  from  the  western  Ghauts,  run 
from  west  to  east,  and  fall  into  the  Bay  of  liengal.  Beginning  in  its  northern  part, 
we  have  first  the  Mahanady,  or  Kuttak,  rising  in  the  mountains  of  Bundelkund,  and 
crossing  the  province  of  Berar  with  many  sinuosities,  where  it  receives  numerous 
rivers;  near  to  the  city  of  Kuttak  it  divides  into  several  branches,  one  of  which  falls 
into  the  lake  Chilka,  while  the  others  continue  their  course  to  the  Bay  of  Bengal, 
forming  a  delta  of  islands  covered  with  jungle  and  wild  thickets. 

*  Dr.  1\  Buchanan,  Truacr,  Kennel,  Sic 


INDOSTAN.  119 


Tlie  Goda- 
vtry. 


Climate. 
Seasons, 
Dry  season. 


The  Godavcry,  descending  from  the  western  Ghauts,  waters  the  Ni- 
zam territory  and  Berar,  is  joined  by  the  Wurda,  the  Silair,  and  the 
EluiifTonwa,  and  divides  into  two  branches  at  Rajamundry,  wliich  afterwards  form 
more  numerous  streams,  and  fall  by  so  many  mouths  into  the  bay.  Tliis  river  is  held 
very  sacred  by  the  superstitious  Hindoos.  It  is  sometimes  named  the  Ganges,  and 
its  source,  like  that  of  the  great  Ganges,  "  The  Cow's  Mouth." 

Tho  Krishna,  farther  to  the  south,  has  a  similar  origin  with  the  pro-  |  The  Krishna, 
ceding,  crossing,  like  it,  almost  the  whole  peninsula;  receives  tho  waters  of  the 
Beema,  the  Gutpurba,  the  Malpurba,  and  the  Tomboodra,  crosses  tho  Soobah  of  the 
Deccan,  and  falls  into  Bengal  Bay,  to  the  south-west  of  Masulipatam.  This  river 
is  another  object  of  worship;  its  namo  signifies  black,  that  being  supposed  to  be  the 
colour  of  Vishnu  under  his  ninth  incarnation.  Like  the  Ganges  it  has  its  periodical 
floods. 

Among  the  various  streams  of  less  note  in  the  south  of  the  Deccan  is  |  TheCavery. 
the  Cavery,  which  comes  from  the  mountains  of  Coorg,  crosses  the  Mysore,  which 
it  fertilizes,  and  the  Carnatic  below,  which  owes  its  chief  productions  to  the  water 
which  it  distributes.  It  is  the  most  useful  river  in  the  south  of  India.  Opposite  to 
Trichinopoly  it  separates  into  two  branches,  and  forms  the  island  of  Seringham.  The 
southern  branch  runs  at  the  highest  level,  and  is  very  much  drawn  ofl'  by  canals  for 
agricultural  purposes.  The  northern,  which  is  called  the  Coleroon,  runs  in  a  low  bed. 
It  approaches  the  other  about  thirteen  miles  below  their  place  of  separation,  and 
mounds  are  formed  to  prevent  the  waters  of  the  Cavery,  or  southern  branch,  from 
falling  down  into  it.  The  coming  of  the  fresh  water  from  the  interior  is  celebrated 
by  the  natives  with  joyous  festivity.  The  river  is  adored  as  one  of  their  most  bene- 
ficent deities,*  and  the  anniversary  of  the  marriage  of  the  goddess  of  the  river  to 
the  god  Renganaden,  is  held  annually  by  the  worshippers  of  Vishnu. 

Only  two  seasons  are  known  in  India,  the  dry  and  the  rainy,  pro- 
duced by  the  south-west  and  north-west  monsoons.  In  the  dry  season, 
vegetation  universally  labours  under  a  deadly  languor,  most  especially  if  the  rains 
are  unusually  late  in  setting  in ;  but  a  rain  of  one  night's  duration  transforms  into  a 
verdant  meadow,  a  plain  which  on  the  preceding  day  was  a  spectacle  of  utter  aridity, 
where  not  one  leaf  of  herbage  could  be  found.  In  the  interior  and  western  parts  of 
India,  the  rainy  season  commences  in  April  or  May,  and  continues  to  the  end  of 
October.  On  the  Coromandel  coast  it  begins  later,  as  the  clouds  which  are  brought 
by  the  south-west  winds  are  detained  by  the  Ghauts. 

While  this  season  lasts,  it  is  a  rare  thing  to  see  the  rays  of  the  sun  pe-  |  Rainy  season, 
netrating  the  dense  vapours  with  which  the  atmosphere  is  loaded.  In  Bengal,  it 
rains  incessantly  for  many  days.  Twenty,  or  twenty-two  inches  depth  of  water  are 
computed  to  fall  in  a  month.  The  rivers  overflow  their  banks,  and  cover  the  whole 
country,  except  places  which  are  on  elevated  situations,  or  protected  by  dykes.  On 
the  Malabar  coast,  the  sudden  heavy  showers,  storms,  and  hurricanes,  are  more  vio- 
lent than  on  that  of  Coromandel.  If  the  rain  does  not  come  on  at  the  ordinary  time, 
or  if  it  is  not  in  sufficient  quantity,  dismal  effects  follow  for  the  whole  year,  often 
amounting  to  the  most  destructive  famine.  In  1793,  so  great  was  the  scarcity  occa- 
sioned by  the  drought,  that  parents  sold  their  children  for  a  few  pounds  of  rice.  The 
conclusion  of  the  rainy  season  is  marked  by  changes  of  wind  and  storms  of  the  most 
violent  description.  Bernier  has  remarked  that  the  rain  does  not  come  from  the 
same  quarter  of  the  heavens  in  all  parts  of  India;  that  about  Delhi  it  almost  always 
comes  from  the  east;  in  Bengal,  and  on  the  Coromandal  coast,  from  the  south;  and 
on  the  coast  of  Malabar  from  the  west."!" 

The  climate  of  India  is  that  of  a  country  chiefly  situated  within  the  |  Temiierature. 
torrid  zone,  and  at  the  same  time,  adjoining  a  boundless  mass  of  icy  mountains.  In 
the  greater  part  of  this  extensive  country  snow  and  ice  are  unknown;  but  every  other 
disadvantage  of  weather  is  incident  to  it  in  a  temporary  manner.  No  where  do  hur- 
ricanes rage  with  greater  fury.     No  where  are  the  lightnings  and  peals  of  thunder 

•  "Wilks,  Heyne,  etc. 

t  Bernier,  Voyage,  edit.  Amsterd.  1709,  toni.  ii.  p.  319.     Kennel's  Memoir. 


120  BOOK  FORTY-SIXTH. 

more  appalling.     No  where  is  the  husbandman  more  liable  to  the  threatened  ravages 
of  protracted  drought  or  drenching  floods  of  rain.     It  might  be  interesting  to  deter- 
mine the  general  laws  on  which  the  local  variations  of  the  seasons  in  different  parts 
of  India  depend.     Why  do  the  rains  last  for  eight  months  in  the  Circars,  and  only 
two  in  the  Carnatic,  as  has  been  asserted,  these  countries  both  lying  on  the  Coro- 
mandel  coast?  But  Europeans  have  sometimes  exaggerated  the   prominent  features . 
of  the  climate,  by  giving  way  to  first  impressions.     Bengal  has  received  a  bad  cha- 
racter for  insalubrity,  and  certainly  it  is  in  an  eminent  degree  exposed  to  a  succession 
of  violent  extremes  and  vicissitudes;   at  one  time  to  excessive  rain,  at  another  to 
storms;  then  to  scorching  heat,  and  frequently  to  thick  fogs;  yet  the  English  have, 
by  dint  of  prudent  regimen,  accommodated  themselves  to  the  climate.*     The  shores 
of  Coromandel  experience  more  violent  heat  and  drought  than  those  of  Malabar;  yet 
the  narrow  valleys  and  thick  forests  of  this  latter  country  comprehend  many  unheal- 
thy situations.     The  waste  lands  situated  between  the  two  chains  of  the  Ghauts,  the 
countries  lying  between  the  Jumna  and  the  Ganges,  the  territories  forming  the  Pun- 
jab, or  lying  in  its  neighbourhood,  derive  from  their  moderate  elevation  above  the  sea, 
from  their  wooded  hills,  and  their  numerous  streams,  a  temperature  less  oppressive, 
and  a  purer  and  healthier  air,!  except  where  forests,  marshes,  or  arid  deserts  give 
rise  to  local  disadvantages.    The  great  desert  situated  on  the  south-east  of  the  Indus, 
and  to  the  north  of  the  Guzerat,  exhibits  all  the  horrors  of  the  deserts  of  Arabia, 
while  the  valleys  of  Cashmere  and  Serinagur,  Gorkhah,  and  Nepal,  encircled  witli 
alpine  heights,  experience,  in  succession,  the  rigours  of  a  real  winter,  the  delights  of 
a  lengthened  spring,  and  a  healthy  summer. 
Reputed  Ion-  It  was  in  the  Punjab,  and  these  other  elevated  countries,  that  the  an- 

fiTtvity  of  the  .  .  , 

Indians.  cients  collected  numerous  examples  of  Indian  longevity-^     The  Cyrni, 

and  the  subjects  of  Prince  Musicanus  often  lived  to  the  age  of  130,  or  200  years. 
The  moderns  have  gone  still  farther.  The  Portuguese  historian  Faria  states,  that 
an  inhabitant  of  Diu  attained  the  age  of  three  full  centuries;  and  he  adds  that,  ac- 
cording to  the  accounts  of  the  natives,  several  individuals  of  200  were  to  be  found 
in  Guzerat.  Extreme  simplicity  of  diet  and  perfect  tranquillity  of  mind  may  procure 
for  some  of  the  Fakirs  a  lengthened  period  of  existence;  but,  taken  at  an  average, 
this  is  a  climate  in  which  the  force  of  vitality  receives  a  quick  development,  and  is 
Endemic  dis-  subjected  to  Speedy  exhaustion.  Acute  diseases  carry  off  numerous 
eases.  victims  by  sudden  death.     One  of  the  most  formidable  is  the  bilious 

colic,  known  on  the  coast  of  Coromandel  by  the  name  of  mordekshim,  transformed 
by  Sonnerat  and  other  French  writers,  with  more  humour  than  truth,  into  mort  de 
chien,  "  the  death  of  a  dog."     The  hill  fever,  which  prevails  in  the  higher  part  of 
the  Circars  in  the  districts  of  Grandjam  and  Viragapatam,  is  ascribed  to  the  stagnant 
air  of  the  forests,  and  the  narrow  shaded  valleys.     Other  fevers,  no  less  pernicious, 
operate  as  a  scourge  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  Carnatic,  known  by  the  name  of  the 
o-endchi  fevers.  §     Leprosies  assume  a  dreadful  character  in  the  warm  and  moist 
districts :  the  most  terrible  form  of  the  Arabian  leprosy,  that  in  which  the  limbs  drop 
off  joint  by  joint,  extends  its  ravages  among  the  more  indigent  classes.  ||     It  differs 
Eiepiiantiasis.  |  from  the  elephantiasis  of  modern  physicians,  which  seems  to  be  a  kind 
of  diopsy  accompanied  with  cutaneous  eruption.     This  last  disease,  which  prevails 
on  the  coast  of  Cochin,  where  the  water  is  of  bad  quality,  derives  its  name  from  the 
enormous  enlargement  of  the  patient's  limbs,  which  resemble  those  of  an  elephant. TT 
But  among  the  ancients,  the  term  was  applied  to  a  leprosy  distinguished  by  white 
wrinkled  blotches  on  the  skin.     The  Europeans,  who  generally  escape  these  dismal 
visitations,  are  not  exempt  from  the  slow  influence  of  a  hot  temperature,  and  a  con- 
tinual excessive  perspiration.     They  contract  a  sallow  complexion,  and  are  early 

•  OladwAn's  Narrative  of  the  Transactions  in  Bengal,  p.  27,  &.c. 

f  Forstei's  Journey  from  ]$eng-al  to  Petersbvn-g'h.     Ruchanan's  Travels  u>  the  Mysore. 
i  Strab.  xv.  701,  Amelov.     Farla  y  Soiisa,  Asia  Portugueza. 
§  Anqueti],  Voyage. 

II  The  Djosaam  of  the  Arabs;  also  the  Daa-el-arad,  or  lion's  disease;  the  Movrua-t;  of  the 
Greeks. 
•|!  Ives,  Yo3age,  i.     See  M.  Allard's  work  on  a  disease  resembling  elephantiasis. 


INDOSTAN.  121 

.subjected  to  the  inilimltics  of  old  age.  A  slow  iunammcilion,  or  disorganization  of 
the  liver,  is  the  most  common  complaint  atnong  them.*  But,  with  all  these  partial 
disadvantages,  India  contains  in  its  cultivated  parts  the  most  healthy  climates  to  be 
found  in  Asia. 

The  fertihty  of  the  soil,  and  the  nature  of  the  productions,  are  as  va-  |  Fertility, 
rious  as  the  temperature  and  climate.  India  is  traversed  by  large  chains  of  rocky 
mountains,  and  by  hills  of  sand.  Both  of  these  are  found  in  the  province  of  Sinde. 
A  series  of  rocky  mountains  reaches  from  the  confines  of  Mooltan  to  Tatta,  and  a 
series  of  sandy  hills  from  Ootcli  to  Guzerat.  We  have  also  sandy  dc-  |  Deserts, 
serts  where  the  burning  south  wind  carries  before  it  clouds  of  dust,  in  which  it  buries 
houses  and  cultivated  fields.  There  is  another  twenty  miles  long  between  Rooder- 
poor  in  Delhi  and  Almora,  covered  with  thorny  briars  and  resinous  shrubs. |  The 
northern  provinces  contain  numerous  savannahs.  At  the  mouths  of  the  great  rivers 
the  soil  is  usually  marshy.  In  some  instances  the  marshy  land  extends  along  a  great 
part  of  the  banks  of  the  rivers  in  the  interior.  But,  with  the  exception  of  these  un- 
cultivated parts,  India  presents  on  all  hands  beautiful  meadows,  rich  pastures,  fields 
loaded  with  abundant  harvests,  which  are  gathered  twice  in  the  year,  tmd  valleys 
filled  with  every  useful  and  every  beautiful  product  of  vegetation. 

Rice,  the  chief  food  of  the  frugal  Indian,  abounds  in  most  of  the  pro-  Alimentary 
vinces.  The  varieties  of  that  plant  are  reckoned  twenty-seven  in  num-  p'^"^'* 
ber.  Rice  in  the  husk  is  called  ncllu,  and  when  shelled  arissi.  Tanjore,  on  the 
coast  of  Coromandel,  supplies  the  whole  island  of  Ceylon.  Arrack,  the  spirit  ob- 
tained from  rice,  is  mentioned  by  the  ancients.  India  also  produces  those  species  of 
grain  which  are  most  common  in  Europe — as  wheat,  barley,  maize,  and  millet.  Se- 
veral species  of  Holcus  are  cultivated,  as  the  holcus  sorg-heuvi  of  Linnoeus,  (the  Ai- 
dvopogon  sorghum  of  Dr.  Roxburgh,)  commonly  called  tcJior  and  dourra,  and  the 
Holcus  spicaius,  or  badchcra,  a  common  food  among  the  people,  particularly  the 
Mahrattas.  Our  leguminous  species,  as  peas,  beans,  lentils,  together  with  many 
which  do  not  grow  in  Europe,  such  as  moong,  (the  Phaseohis  mungo,)  murlius,  (the 
Cijnosurus  coracanus,)  the  grain  of  which  is  small  like  mustard  seed,  and  is  used  for 
cakes  ;  ianna,  a  very  productive  grain,  requiring  httle  or  no  trouble  in  cultivation  ; 
lour,  (the  Cytisus  cajan,  which  is  sown  at  the  beginning  of  the  rainy  season  ;  and, 
lastly,  (oil,  a  shrub  the  produce  of  which  is  a  sort  of  pea,  and,  next  to  rice,  the  most 
favourite  fbod  of  seamen.  Melons  and  pine  apples  are  quite  common;  also  the  lotus, 
or  sea  lily  :  the  roots  of  this  plant  are  used  in  different  ways.  Its  red  flowers  and 
round  leaves,  sprinkled  with  drops  of  water  glittering  like  diamonds,  adorn  the  sur- 
faces of  the  pools.  Instead  of  our  potato,  the  Indian  has  the  halchil,  a  root  black 
on  the  surface,  and  white  in  the  interior  ;  the  igname,  which  often  weighs  several 
pounds,  and  the  Jlrachis  hypogcca  or  moogjyhully. 

Here  the  kingdom  of  Flora  is  arrayed  in  all  her  glory.  Cashmere  |  Flowers, 
salutes  the  sense  with  the  perfume  of  its  roses,  from  which  the  highly  valued  ottar 
is  obtained.  The  fine  white  rose,  called  koondja,  scents  the  vales  of  Delhi  and  Se- 
rinagur;J  the  kadinmcdigu,  or  large  flowering  jessamine  ;  the  Banistcria  bengcdensis, 
or  atimuca,  which  is  equally  elegant ;  and  the  tchambaga,  which  the  Indians  use  for 
adorning  their  hair,  and  perfuming  their  clothes.  We  must  also  particularize  the 
Mussaanda,  which  displays  so  fine  a  contrast  of  white  leaves  and  blood-red  flowers  ; 
the  Ixoru,  which,  from  boughs  six  feet  in  height,  exhibits  its  scarlet  and  yellow  tufts 
of  flowers,  like  so  many  bright  flames,  enlivening  the  foliage  of  the  woods ;  the  sin- 
drimal,  whose  flowers  open  at  four  in  the  evening,  and  close  at  four  in  the  morning; 
the  nyctanthes  sambac,  with  which  the  Indians  perfume  their  hair  before  going  to  bed; 
the  nagatalli  or  Pcrgularia  tomcntosa,  which  creeps  along  the  walls,  covering  them 
over  with  its  foliage, — a  plant  poisonous  to  the  serpent  tribe. 

India  produces  many  of  those  plants  which  are  subservient  to  indus-     punts  used  in 
try  and  commerce  ;  as  flax,  hemp,  tobacco,  indigo,  jalap,  sarsaparilla,     *  ^  ""'• 
datura,  cotton,  anise,  betel,  saflion,  sesamum,  opium,  many  dyes,  besides  various 


*  rciinaiit's  View  of  ludostaii.  t  Tiefentlialer,  i.  p.  102. 

^  llardwick,  in  tlie  Asiatic  liegistcr,  1800.     Miscellaii.  Tracts,  p.  270. 
Vol.  il Q 


122  BOOK  lORTY- SIXTH. 

reeds  and  canes.  The  hilly  covnitrics  of  Oudc,  and  those  at  tlic  foot  of  the  Ghauts, 
produce  large  crops  of  cardamom  ;  the  best  comes  from  the  coast  of  Malabar  ;  here 
also  all  kinds  of  pepper  grow  abundantly,  so  that  the  Arabians  call  it  Belad-el-folfol, 
or  the  "  pepper  country."  It  is  also  produced  in  the  island  of  Ceylon,  in  Bengal,  and 
in  Bahar.  The  Pajyaver  oricntale,  from  which  the  indolent  natives  obtain  opium, 
thrives  in  almost  all  the  provinces  ;  the  opium  in  most  esteem  is  from  Bengal  and 
Bahar.  The  Indian  sesamum  furnishes  an  oil  knov.'n  to  antiquity  as  an  article  of 
commerce.  The  cotton  tree  grows  on  all  the  Indian  mountains,  but  its  produce  is 
coarse  in  quality  ;  the  herbaceous  cotton  prospers  chiefly  in  Bengal,  and  on  the  Co- 
romandel  coast,  and  there  the  best  cotton  goods  are  manufactured.  Next  to  these 
two  provinces,  Madure,  Marawar,  Pescaria,  and  the  coast  of  Malabar,  produce  the 
finest  cotton.  The  ancients  seem  to  have  got  their  muslins  from  the  banks  of  the 
Indus,  since  they  called  them  Sidones.  India  is  the  native  country  of  the  betel  or 
tambol,  a  plant  which,  like  the  ivy  and  the  hop,  twines  round  trees  and  poles ;  its 
leaves  are  chewed  along  with  areca  nuts,  spices,  and  tobacco. 

Bamboo  A  great  part  of  the  soil  of  India  is  covered  with  forests  of  bamboo, 

forests.  This  spccics  of  rccds,  which  sometimes  attains  a  height  of  sixty  feet, 

is  an  article  of  great  use  to  the  Hindoos  in  the  erection  of  their  slight  habitations. 
The  indurated  juice  of  this  plant  called  tabasheer,  has  been  used  in  medicine,  and 
in  the  eyes  of  the  scientific,  is  a  curious  object  as  a  vegetable  secretion,  being  what 
chemists  call  a  hydrate  of  silica,  i.  e.  flint  in  union  with  consolidated  water.*  Vari- 
Sugar.  I  ous  other  reeds,  as  the  Jlrvndo  calamus,  abound  every  where.     The  su- 

gar cane,  common  through  the  whole  of  India,  is  cultivated  in  Bengal,  particularly 
at  Rajamundry  and  Grandjam,!  and  a  million  of  quintals  of  sugar  are  annually  ex- 
indigo,  I  ported  thence  to  Europe,     Indigo  grows  spontaneously  in  the  province 

of  Guzerat,  and  this  plant  is  cultivated  on  a  large  scale  in  Bengal,  Bahar,  Oude,  and 
Agra.  A  tree  belonging  to  the  genus  JYerinm  has  been  discovered  in  the  Circars, 
which  yields  a  vegetable  blue  dye.  J 

Palms.  I       India  contains  all  the  different  species  of  palms,  from  which  are  ob- 

tained fruits,  liquors,  a  sort  of  paper,  oils,  meal,  cordage,  and  other  useful  articles. 
Thejaggari.  |  The  cocoa  tree  is  undoubtedly  the  most  valuable  of  this  tribe.  The  jag- 
gari,  or  black  sugar,  obtained  from  the  cocoa,  is  used  at  Tranquebar,§  at  Madras,  || 
and  in  Pegu, IT  to  form,  along  with  white  of  eggs,  lime,  and  burnt  sheels,  a  cement 
which  resists  moisture  and  the  solar  heat,  and  is  susceptible  of  a  fine  polish  by  friction. 
This  cement  has  been  successfully  employed  in  Holland.  The  Jlreca  nuts,  the 
fruit  of  the  cabbage  palm,  and  bananas,  are  also  to  be  added  to  the  vegetable  riches 
of  India.  The  small  fruited  banana,  or  JSIusa  sapientitm,  has  in  all  ages  been  the 
food  of  the  philosophers  and  the  priests  of  Brahma.  The  Indian  fig,  or  banyan 
tree,  stretches  its  immense  branches  and  its  holy  shade,  not  only  over  the  pagodas, 
and  the  cJioidtries,  or  caravanseras,  but  also  over  serpents  and  other  venomous  crea- 
tures,— an  emblem  of  the  eternal  power  of  nature,  which  cherishes  both  useful  and 
hurtful  beings.  It  is  a  variety  of  the  Budha  tree,  which  is  revered  in  the  various 
countries  between  Indostan  and  China.  Hence  it  is  called  by  Linnceus  the  Ficus 
religiosa. 

Fruit  trees.  |  Our  fruit  trees,  such  as  the  apple,  the  pear,  the  plum,  the  apricot, 
peach,  walnut,  almond,  orange,  and  mulberry,  thrive  in  the  north  of  India,  while  the 
southern  parts  abound  in  bread-fruit,  guavas,  jambos,  and  mangos  ;  but  the  mangos- 
teen  of  the  Sunda  islands  cannot  be  reared  even  in  Coromandel. 
Forest  trees.  |  Our  tall  forcst  trccs,  such  as  oaks,  pines,  cypresses,  and  poplars,  as 
well  as  myrtles  and  tamarinds,  are  found  in  every  part  of  the  country.  But  the  fo- 
rests chiefly  consist  of  species  unknown  to  our  climates,  such  as  the  teak,  a  hard  and 
almost  incorruptible  timber,  fitted  to  supply  the  place  of  the  oak  in  ship-building,  the 

•  See  Dr.  Brewster's  optical  experiments  on  llie  substance  In  the  Philosophical  Transactions. 

t  Roxburgh,  Asiat.  Register,  1800.   Miscell.  Tr.  p.  7— 15. 

±  See  the  Alfred  newspaper,  24th  May,  1811. 

§  Accounts  of  Danish  Missionaries,  ii.  p.  1050.  iii.  p.  22.  241. 

11  Pipe  in  Phil.  Trans.  No.  422,  Art.  3.  H  Vincent  Ltblanc,  Voyages  i.  p.  201  and  226. 


INDOSTAN.  123 

ponna,  (the  Uvaria  altissima  of  KcEnig,  and  the  Veleria  iiidica  of  the  Hortus  Mala- 
bai'icus,)  an  ever-green  which  produces  excellent  masts  ;  the  koru  or  sacoo,  a  tree 
vaguely  mentioned  by  Tiefenthaler  as  forming  whole  forests  in  the  northern  parts, 
and  which,  with  the  djissoo  (a  species  of  Picrocarjms)  furnishes  small  buildino-  tim- 
ber ;  the  JVagassa,  or  iron  wood,  various  Robinias,  the  azedarach,  and  other  species 
less  known.  The  Indian  ebony,  extolled  by  Virgil,  is  found  in  the  island  |  Ebony, 
of  Ceylon,  and  according  to  some  on  the  banks  of  the  Ganges,  at  Allahabad  ;*  yet 
it  is  probable  that  the  ancients  received  their  ebony  from  the  eastern  coast  of  Afiica, 
then  included  under  the  name   of  India. "j"     The  agreeable  odour  which  that  wood  is 
said  to  have  diffused  inclines  us  to  doubt  if  it  was  obtained  from  the  tree  which  we 
now  call  ebony.     The  red  sandal  tree,  or  dragon's  blood,  gum  lac,  and  |  Gums, 
gamboge,  grow  in  the  Deccan  and  in  Ceylon,  also  the  Guilandina  moringa,  which 
produces  a  red  gum.     Among  the  species  of  laurel  which  abound  in  the  southern 
part  of  the  peninsula,  and  in  Ceylon,  we  find  those  which  produce  mace,  cassia,  and 
camphor,  and  above  all,  the  cinnamon  tree,  vainly  claimed  by  Arabia  as  a  native,  on 
the  testimony  of  the  Greeks,J  and  now  transplanted  from   Ceylon  to  the  northern 
Circars.§     Other  trees  of  more  diffusible  fragrance  perfume  the  forests,  while  they 
adorn  them  with  their  splendid  blossoms.    Such  are  the  Bignonias  and  the  Pandaniis 
odoratissima. 

Among  the  numberless  treasures  of  a  Flora  imperfectly  known,  are  some  produc- 
tions which  were  in  high  celebrity  among  the  ancients,  though  now  not  found  or  not 
recognised  with  certainty.  The  number  of  dissertations  written  for  idcnti-  |  Amomum. 
fying  the  true  amomum  is  almost  ridiculous.  ||  We  must  not  blame  the  indefatigable 
patience  of  the  modern  learned,  but  the  vagueness  and  obscurity  of  ancient  science. 
The  Indian  JVard,  or  spikenard,  is  probably  the  species  of  valerian  known  by  the  Hin- 
doos under  the  name  o{  Jalamansi,^  although  there  is  a  gramineous  species  figured  and 
described  as  the  true  nard.**  JMalabaihrum,  the  produce  of  a  species  of  |  Maiabatiirum. 
laurel,  which  was  purchased  by  the  Romans  at  a  high  price,  was  probably  a  compound 
extract  of  a  number  of  plants  with  odoriferous  leaves,  such  as  the  laural  called  in  Mala- 
bar Tamcda,  and  the  mjmphea  called  Tamara  in  Sanscrit ;  the  termination  bathrum  being 
from  patra,  the  Indian  word  for  leaf.  Perhaps  further  researches  may  discover  more 
of  the  productions  which  were  so  highly  prized  by  the  ancients.  The  |  Bdellium. 
Bdellium  of  Pliny,  probably  a  myrrh  or  odoriferous  resin,  was  known  to  the  author 
of  the  book  of  Genesis,  under  the  name  of  Bdolach,'\]  and  the  Stpachora,  \  sipachora. 
the  fruit  of  which  conferred  a  longevity  of  200  years,  as  Ctesias  and  Ehan  gravely 
assure  us,  may  be  known  from  a  species  of  worm  which  burrows  in  it,  and  which 
furnishes  a  purple  dye.     Gumlac  is  doubtless  a  production  of  the  JMimosa  cinerea. 

Though  the  mineralogy  of  India  has  not  been  thoroughly  explored,  |  Minerals, 
it  is  certain  that  in  mineral  wealth  it  is  one  of  the  richest  countries  in  the  world.    The 
ancients  say  that  the  gold  was  heaped  up  by  the  ants  in  India.    Whatever  |  Meuu. 
meaning  we  attach  to  such  traditions,  we  find  that  the  ancients  are  strictly  correct 
when  they  speak  of  the  auriferous  rivers  of  this  country.  J;[;  The  rivers  of  the  Dec- 
can,  of  Orissa,  and  of  Berar,  still  carry  down  gold  in  considerable  quantities.     In 
the  Punjab  and  in  Cashmere,  the  Ayen  Akl)eri  mentions  several  rivers  with  golden 
Gand,  a  proof  of  the  abundance  of  that  metal  in  the  great  Imaiis.     Mr.  Fraser  in 
his  Highland  Tour,  mentions  the  Sutledge  and  other  streams  in  its  neighbourhood 
as  at  this  day  affording  grains  of  gold,  which  are  obtained  by  washing.     Rich  mines 
both  of  gold  and  of  silver  also  occur  in  Golconda,  the  Carnatic,  Assam,  and  Bengal. 
There  are   copper  mines  in   the  mountains  of  Kumaoon  and   in  the  provinces  of 
Badrikshan,  Agra  and  Adjemere.     Iron  is  found  in  almost  every  province  of  India. 

•  Ayen  Akberi,  ii.  p.  36. 

t  Voss,  Commentary  on  Virgil,  Georg.  ii.  116.  iv.  290.     .Slneid,  iv.  794. 
t  Beckman  ad  Antigonii  Caristii,  Histor.  Mirab.  p.  87,  Id.     Litteralur  der  lieisin,  i.  562. 
§  Pennant's  View,  i.  222. 

II  Breinius  de  Amomo  Arabum,  in  the  Miscell.  Curios,  medico-physic.  1681.     Obs.  191.  Sal- 
mas.  Kxercit.  PUn.  p.  283,  &c. 

H  Sir  W.  Jones  on  the  Spica  Nardi  in  the  Asiat.  Researches. 

••  Philos.  Transactions,  1790,  vol.  Ixxx.p.  284. 

tl  Plin.  sii.  19,  should  be  read  Bdellium  sive  Bdolchon.  ++  Tiefenthaler,  i.  222—274, 


Precious 
stones. 


124  imOK  FOUTY-SIXTII. 

The  kingdom  of  Asnam  is  rplol>rateil  for  ils  iron  nnrl  stenl  niinp.s.     There  are  whole 
mountains  of  magnetic  rock  in  the  neiglibourhood  of  Iloa  in  the  province  of  Agra, 
from  which  a  quantity  of  iron  is  extracted.     The  same  countries  whicli  contain  silver 
mines  furnish  also  large  quantities  of  lead,  such  as  the  kingdom  of  Assam,  and  the 
mountains  of  Kumaoon.     Some  mines  of  tin  are  worked  near  Zamvar,  in  the  pro- 
vince of  Adjemerc,  and  in  the  Punjab;  zinc  is  quite  common  in  India,  and  a  quantity 
is  exported  to  Europe,     Quicksilver  and  antimony  are  found  in  a  few  places. 
Diamonds.        |       In  no  part  of  the  world  are  diamonds  so  numerous  or  so  beautiful  as 
in  India,  especially  in  the   provinces   of  Bengal,  'Bundclkund,   Allahabad,   Orissa, 
Berar,  Visapoor,  Golconda,  and  the  Carnatic.     Those  of  Golconda  and   Orissa, 
especially  those  of  Sumboolpoor  on  the  banks  of  Mahanady,  the  river  Mamas  of 
the  ancients,  are  considered  as  much  superior  to  those  of  Parna  in  Allahabad.    Here 
also  are  found  rock  crystals,  rubles,  sapphires,  amethysts,  onyxes,  and 
other  precious  stones.     After  heavy  rains,  the  rivers  detach  them  from 
the  recesses  of  the  mountains,  and  drag  them  along  in  their  course.    The  Mahanady, 
or  Cuttac,  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  for  containing  diamonds  in  its  channel. 
One  in  the  kingdom  of  Ghoorkha  is  mentioned  as  furnishing  a  great  many.*    Lapis 
lazuli,  which,  in  its  perfect  form,  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  productions  of  nature, 
and   which  is   with  great  probability,  consided  as  the  sapphire  of  the  ancients, f  is 
chiefly  found  in  the  mountains  on  the  jiorth-west  of  India,  the  Hindoo  Coosh  and 
The  onyx.        |  Beloot  Tag.     The  Indian  onyx,  which  was  probably  the  shoham  of  the 
Jewish  high  priests,  came  from  a  chain  of  mountains  mentioned  by   Ctesias,  and 
which  seems  to  correspond  to  the  Bala  Ghaut  hills.  J     Almost  every  mountain  in 
India  contains  quarries  of  marble  and  alabaster.     Those  of  Adjemere  contain  white, 
black,  and  green  marbles.     Bahar  is  rich  in  alabaster.     Rock  salt  is  found  in  several 
mountains.     In  Adjemere,  and  on  the  coast  of  Coromandel  there  are  large  salt 
lakes.     The  Guzerat  has  plains   covered  with  salt.     In  every  quarter  this  useful 
article  is  carefully  worked.     Several  provinces,  especially  Bahar  and  Bengal,  furnish 
saltpetre,  and  a  considerable  quantity  is  exported  to   Europe,  Tartary,  and  China. 
Sulphur,  coal,  naphtha,  and  other  inflammable  minerals,  are  found  in  several  districts, 
both  of  Upper  Indostan  and  the  Deccan.     Impregnations  of  sulphur,  nitre,  and 
other  mineral  substances,  are  said  to  be  contained  in  some  rivers,  such  as  the 
Gunduk. 
Animal  Thc  animal  kingdom  is  equally  rich  in  species  as  the  two  preced- 

kiiigilum.  inf. 

Monkeys.  Among  the  Mammalia  are  monkeys,  which  make  their  appearance 

every  where  in  troops.  On  the  coast  of  Malabar,  thousands  of  them  come  to  the 
very  centre  of  the  towns:  they  are  of  all  species.  Gibbons  are  found  chiefly  in 
Bengal,  and  on  the  Coromandel  coast;  the  beautiful  long-tailed  maudis  in  the  Dec- 
can.  There  are  tillows,  vellakurangas,  or  little  white  monkeys;  and  koringurangas, 
or  large  black  apes.  Ourang-outangs  are  found  in  Bengal,  in  the  Carnatic,  and  on 
the  coast  of  Coromandel.  The  radjakada  ape,  with  the  red  face  and  black  beard,  is, 
in  the  eyes  of  the  superstitious  Hindoos,  a  representative  of  their  god  Hanooman, 
the  Indian  Fan,  who,  having  assumed  that  form,  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  an 
army  of  monkeys,  for  the  assistance  of  the  god  Rama,  and  materially  contributed 
to  the  discomfiture  of  Ravan,  king  of  the  giants,  and  master  of  Ceylon.  §  It  seems 
a  certain  fact  that,  in  former  times,  monkeys,  in  consequence  of  the  respect  paid  to 
them  from  superstitious  impressions,  peopled  India  in  myriads.  Alexander's  army 
met  v.ith  a  body  of  them  so  enormously  numerous  that  they  took  them  for  a  hostile 
nation,  and  prepared  to  give  them  battle.  In  those  places  where  the  power  is  in  the 
hands  of  the  Brahmins,  the  Hindoos  allow  these  animals  the  enjoyment  of  perfect 
liberty:  hence  tlicy  devastate  the  fields,  plunder  the  orchards,  and  commit  ravages  in 

*   Gladwyn's  Hist,  of  Iiulostaii,  i.  p.  34. 

f  Baier,  Dissert,  de  Sapphire.     Beckmann,  History  of  Inventions,  iii.  182,  &c.  (in  German.) 
i  Veltheiin,  M^moire  sur  les  Montagnes  a  onyx  de^Ctcsias.     Heeren,Iddes  sur  la  Politique, 
le  Commerce,  he.  136—816.  2d  edit. 

§  Ramayana,  an  Indian  poem,  partly  translated  by  Mess.  Carey  and  Marshman. 


Rats,  mice, 
ike. 


Reai-s,  liyxnas. 


INDOSTAN.  125 

the  hoart  of  the  towns.  Those  philosophers  who  maintain  that  animals  are  endowed 
with  improveable  intellects,  though  kept  down  by  the  human  species,  should  tell  us 
why  the  apes  of  Malabar,  respected  and  caressed,  have  never  contrived  to  found  a 
political  community. 

The  southern  provinces  are  infested  with  bats  of  all  shapes  and  sizes.  |  Bats. 
The  most  remarkable  is  the  vampire,  or  flying  cat,  which  often  devastates  the  fruit 
trees  of  Guzerat,  and  the  coast  of  Coromandel.  Squirrels  are  equally  destructive, 
especially  the  mahannan,  which  lives  in  flocks  on  the  highest  trees  on  the  Malabar 
coast;*  the  large  Indian  squirrel,  which  attaches  itself  particularly  to  the  cocoa  tree; 
and  the  yellow  squirrel,  which  lives  in  a  gregarious  state  in  the  Guzerat.  The  Malabar 
coast  produces  many  porcupines,  one  of  which,  the  pangolin,  is  often  kept  tame  in 
houses.  In  Bengal,  and  along  the  eastern  shore,  is  found  the  two-toed  sloth ;  and 
in  Bahar  there  is  a  variety  of  this  species  which  has  a  considerable  resemblance  to 
the  bear,  is  called  by  naturalists  Bradypns  i(rsiformis,1[  and  lives  on  ants 

India  has  several  species  of  rats  and  mice,  as  the  striped  mouse,  the 
musk  rat,  and  the  jerboa  or  jumping  rat.  These  animals,  numerous 
and  bold,  bid  defiance  to  the  cats.  It  is  by  dogs  and  professional  rat-catchers  that 
their  breed  is  from  time  to  time  kept  down.  There  arc  hares,  rabbits,  and  martins, 
particularly  in  the  northern  provinces ;  civets  of  two  varieties,  badgers,  racoons, 
immgos  or  ichneumons,  which  are  capable  of  being  tamed,  and  vigorously  hunt  the 
rats,  the  bats,  and  even  the  large  serpents. 

The  mountain  bear,  more  terrible  than  the  tiger,  and  which  inhabits 
the  Ghauts,  according  to  a  tolerably  well  informed  traveller,  Paulin  de 
S.  Bartholome,  is  perhaps  a  large  hyaena ;  but  the  true  bear  makes  his  appearance 
in  the  forests  of  Oude,  Orissa,  the  Carnatic,  and  Coromandel.  Wolves  are  seen, 
particularly  in  the  Ghauts,  the  Carnatic,  Malabar,  and  Guntoor.  The  jackals  are 
ibrmidable  in  the  interior  of  Indostan.  The  hyaenas  are  very  numerous  in  the  king- 
dom of  Orissa,  and  on  the  coasts  of  Malabar  and  Coromandel.  Bengal  produces 
a  fox  of  a  particular  species,  small  in  size,  and  possessed  of  great  agility.;]; 

Mr.  Pennant,  the  Indian  zoologist,  has  taken  much  pains  to  distinguish  the  dif- 
ferent species  of  ferocious  animals  of  the  cat  kind,  that  inhabit  this  country.  Ceylon 
and  Bengal  have  two  varieties  of  the  tiger-cat.  The  serwal,  or  panther-cat  of  the 
Deccan,  which  is  little  known,  extends  as  far  as  Thibet.  The  lynx  lives  in  the 
northern  provinces  ;  the  caracal,  a  black-eared  variety  of  the  lynx,  makes  his  ap- 
pearance in  Bengal.  This  is  also  the  true  country  of  the  royal  tiger.  Tigers,  pan- 
known  to  the  ancients  by  the  name  of  the  Ganges  tiger.  This  formi-  '^*'"'  ^'^" 
dable  animal  reigns  in  company  with  the  rhinoceros  on  the  marshy  uninhabited  ex- 
tremity of  the  Ganges,  called  the  Sunderbunds.  Here  he  even  attacks  the  boats 
as  they  pass  through  his  domain.  Ceylon,  and  the  Ghaut  mountains,  contain  only 
the  common  tiger,  the  size  of  which  is  less  majestic.  The  Asiatic  panther  of  Pen- 
nant seems  to  be  a  variety  of  the  tiger,  with  spots,  instead  of  stripes.  The  blackish 
variety,  with  black  spots,  is  peculiar  to  Indostan. §  The  leopards,  which  have  dark 
blotches  on  a  white  ground,  vary  considerably  in  size  and  colour.  The  ounce, 
which  is  the  panther  of  Pliny,  is  found  in  all  the  central  part  of  the  Deccan,  and  in 
Guzerat.  The  gueparde  of  I3uflbn,  the  great  j)arda}is  of  Oppian,  is  less  known  ;  it 
is  called /c/w7«,||  After  all  the  trouble  Mr.  Pennant  has  bestowed  on  the  subject, 
it  is  not  yet  divested  of  obscurity. 

At  present  the  lion,  at  least  the  African  species,  distinguished  from 
the  lion  of  Babylonia  by  his  long  mane,  is  unknown  in  India.  But  Terry 
says,  he  saw  them  in  Malwah.     From  the  old  Indian  writings,  we  are  led  to  believe 
that  the  lion,  called  si)i2;h,  was  formerly  spread  over  the  whole  of  India. 

The  Indians  make  liltle  use  of  horses  :  the  kinds  peculiar  to  their 
country  are  the  tattoo  in  Bengal,  a  very  small  horse,  but  an  excellent 


Is  the  lion 
round  in  India? 


Hones  and 
asses. 


*  Sonnerat,  Voyage  aux  Indes,  tab.  ii.  87.     Pennant,  Indian  Zoology,  tab.  i.  View  of  Indos- 
tan, i.  137—202.  t  Pennant's  View,  ii.  258—260.  ^ 

*  Pennant's  Hist,  of  Quadrupeds,  No.  170.  §  Pennant's  View,  ii.  153. 

II  Pennant's  Hist.  Quad.  No.  184.  Synopsis,  p.  174.  tab.  18.  fig.  1.  View  of  Indostan,  ii.  246. 
Asiat.  Reg.  1800.    I^Iisc.  Tracts,  p.  338—342. 


126  BOOK  rOIlTY-SIXTH. 

runner  ;*  the  f!;oot  or  £fim/  in  the  north  of  Indostan,  and  the  tchcing-tcy,  which  comes 
from  the  province  of  BaKy.  The  best  horses  to  be  seen  in  India  are  of  foreign  im- 
portation, chiefly  from  Arabia  and  Tartary.  Asses  and  mules  are  not  in  general 
use.  In  the  north,  and  even  in  the  Deccan,  wild  ones  are  found  which  have  de- 
scended from  the  high  lands  of  Thibet.  The  Hindoos,  like  the  Europeans,  attach 
an  idea  of  great  meanness  to  the  use  of  asses  for  riding.  The  koolan  and  the  djif- 
ghetai  of  Tartary  travel  down  to  pass  the  winter  in  the  forests  of  India.  Among  the 
Indian  dogs,  those  used  in  the  chace  were  famous  in  antiquity :  they  hunted  the  wild 
boar,  and  even  the  lion  and  the  tiger,|  and  many  of  them  were  exported  to  Persia 
and  Babylon.  The  best  comes  from  the  north,  and  from  Afghanistan-^  Camels 
Camels.  |  and  dromedaries,  the  only  beasts  of  burden  in  eastern  countries,  are 

found  in  great  numbers  in  the  Guzerat,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Patna  and  of  Man- 
ghir,  in  Mooltan,  and  in  Tatta.  In  this  last  province,  the  author  of  the  Ayen  Ak- 
beri  saw  flocks  consisting  of  some  thousands.  The  camel,  with  two  humps,  lives 
in  a  state  of  natural  liberty  in  the  northern  provinces. 

Varieties  of  The  Indian  sheep  is  distinguished  from  the  European  race  by  his 

sheep.  reverted  horns,  and  the  silkiness  of  his  wool.     This  breed  is  found  all 

over  India,  excepting  towards  the  extremity  of  the  peninsula.  Ctesias  was  cicquainted 
widi  the  riches  of  northern  India  in  the  article  of  wool.  When  he  assures  us  that 
the  sheep  of  these  countries  were  as  large  as  the  Grecian  asses,  and  that  they  were 
employed  as  beasts  of  burden,  he  speaks  of  the  sheep  so  common  in  Cashmere,  and 
which  the  inhabitants  call  hundoo.§  The  true  Cashmerian  sheep,  a  delicate  animal, 
furnishes  the  fine  wool  used  in  the  manufacture  of  shawls.  In  Mooltan  the  bhara, 
or  thick-tailed  sheep,  is  also  found,  and  the  Thibet  sheep,  so  highly  prized  for  the 
quality  of  his  wool.  This  precious  article  consists  of  the  interior  or  shorter  hair. 
In  the  kingdom  of  Assam,  the  rams  have  four  horns.  Finally,  India  contains  also 
Goats,  &c.  I  the  Argali,  or  wild  sheep,  the  capra  cimmon  of  Pennant.  |)  The  Guzerat 
and  Cootch  contain  many  goats,  both  wild  and  tame  :  the  Cashmere  goat  furnishes 
very  fine  wool  for  shawls.  In  the  mountains  and  forests  of  Orissa,  Telinga,  Berar 
and  Malabar,  the  goat  is  met  with  from  which  bezoar  is  obtained,  a  morbid  concre- 
tion formed  in  the  intestines,  presenting  the  appearance  of  a  mineral,  and  valued  in 
Asia  for  certain  supposed  medicinal  qualities.  Pigs  and  wild  boars,  stags  and  deer, 
Antelopes.  |  make  their  appearance  in  great  numbers.  Flocks  of  antelopes  are  seen 
in  Bengal,  and  the  rest  of  India.  Besides  the  species  common  to  Persia  and  Tar- 
tary, we  find  the  nylgau,  or  blue  antelope  with  white  feet,  called  also  «-os,ir  and  a 
small  white  species  called  dirdhagen  by  Mr.  Gladwyn,  the  male  of  which  has  four 
horns,  and  reminds  us  of  the  four-horned  oryx  of  the  ancients.**  The  elk  is  fre- 
quently seen  in  the  island  of  Ceylon  ;  but  it  may  be  questioned  whether  it  is  the  elk 
which  we  know,  or  merely  a  species  nearly  allied  to  it. 

Oxen.  I       The  ox  and  cow  are  treated  with  as  much  religious  veneration  in  India 

as  they  were  in  ancient  Egypt.  Considered  as  the  symbols  of  the  productive  ener- 
gies of  nature  ;  emblems  of  the  sun  and  moon  ;  these  living  monuments  of  history 
and  civilization  are  believed  to  attend  the  great  god  Chiva,  and  the  goddesses  Par- 
vadi  and  Lakshmi,  the  one  the  Cybele  and  the  other  the  Ceres  of  the  Hindoos.  The 
touch  of  a  cow  purifies  the  individual  from  all  his  sins.  Only  forty  or  fifty  years 
ago,  a  king  of  Travancore,  that  he  might  make  atonement  for  his  cruelties,  caused  a 
colossal  golden  cow  to  be  made,  passed  through  the  body  of  this  image  with  the  pro- 
foundest  humility,  and  after  this  dated  his  edicts  from  the  epoch  of  "  his  passage 
through  the  cow."  This  sainted  species,  which  is  very  handsome  in  the  Guzerat, 
Malwah,  and  Bengal,  is  distinguished  from  the  European  breed  only  by  a  fatty  pro- 
tuberance on  the  back.     It  is  the  zebu  or  Bos  Indicus  of  naturalists.     In  Ceylon 

*  Solvyns,  les  Hindous,  t.  ili. 

f  iElian,  Hist.  An.  iv.  c.  10.  viii.  c.  1.  compare  with  Heeren,  Ideen.  i.  p.  818. 

*  Ayen  Akberi,  i.  303. 

§  In  the  German,  Danish,  Swedish,  and  English  languages,  hu7id  (or  hounds)  signifies  a  dog. 
II  Pennant's  Hist,  of  Quadrupeds,  p.  45.  h. 

H  Hunter,^Phil.  Trans.  1771,    Asiat.  Ueg.  1800.  Miscall.  Tr.  p.  285.    Pennant's  Hist,  of 

*•  iEIian,  Hist.  Anim.xv.  c.  14. 


Mode  of 
catching. 


The  Ainoce- 
ros. 


IXDOSTAN.  127 

and  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Svnat,  there  are  oxen  no  hirgcr  than  mastiirs.*  ■  The 
buffalo  is  spread  over  the  whole  of  southern  India.  The  yak  is  found  in  tlie  most 
northern  provinces.  The  animal  which  the  Indians  call  the  arni  has  |  The  ami. 
more  resemblance  to  the  buffalo  than  to  the  urus  ;  he  is  said  to  be  six  feet  in  height, 
with  horns  of  enormous  length,  and  lives  among  the  Ghaut  mountains  and  the 
Himalah. 

The  greatest  forests  and  the  marshy  districts  are  peopled  with  ele-  |  Eiephanu. 
phants.  In  the  forests  of  the  Ghauts  there  are  flocks  of  two  or  three  hundred. 
Those  which  are  caught  in  the  province  of  Tiperah  and  on  the  banks  of  the  Brahma- 
pootra are  highly  valued;  but  the  most  docile  and  handsome,  though  smaller  in  size, 
come  from  the  island  of  Ceylon.  These  gigantic  animals,  once  formidable  in  the 
field  of  battle,  are  now  only  employed  to  drag  cannon  and  carry  ammunition,  to  set 
heavy  engines  in  motion,  or  to  carry  on  their  broad  backs  the  purple  tent  w'here  a 
nabod  reposes  on  his  gilded  cushions,  a  being  sometimes  of  inferior  intelligence  to  the 
noble  animal  by  which  he  is  carried.  Elephants  are  caught  in  large  en- 
closures formed  of  strong  poles,  into  which  they  are  driven  by  the  sound 
of  drums  and  the  glare  of  flambeaus,  from  which  their  fears  make  them  retire ;  the 
animal  is  sometimes  allured  into  these  enclosures  by  means  of  a  tame  female  placed 
there.  He  is  secured  by  closing  the  gates.  Connected  v.ith  this  enclosed  space  is 
a  long  alley  by  which  the  animal  is  flattered  with  the  prospect  of  making  his  escape, 
and  here  he  is  finally  caught  by  means  of  beams  laid  across.  He  is  now  led  forth 
bound,  under  the  care  of  tamed  elephants,  who  soon  teach  him  to  obey  his  masters.| 
The  rhinoceros  lives  in  Bengal,  particularly  in  the  islands  at  the  mouths 
of  the  Ganges,  where  he  is  frequently  seen  in  company  with  the  tiger. 
The  tiger  finds  in  the  herbage  and  underwood  of  the  marshes  the  coarse  aliment  on 
whicli  he  lives,  while  the  rhinoceros  seeks  amidst  mud  and  water  a  protection  from 
the  scorching  heat:  these  savage  animals  are  thus  brought  together  by  a  union  of 
physical  circumstances,  though  they  have  no  instincts  for  mutual  association. 

India  swarms  with  serpents.  They  are  found  in  the  forests,  in  the  |  seri>ents. 
plains,  in  the  gardens,  and  even  in  the  interior  of  the  houses.  Numerous  are  tlie 
species  distinguished  by  Malabaric  and  Portuguese  names.  The  most  dreaded  are 
the  cobra  manilla,  a  little  blue  serpent,  one  foot  long;  the  rubdira  mandali,  a  large 
serpent,  the  bite  of  which  causes  blood  to  proceed  from  the  pores  of  the  skin;  and 
the  cobra  de  capello,  the  Coluber  naja  of  Linnaeus,  which  is  capable  of  being  tamed, 
though  its  bite  is  so  extremely  dangerous.  Paulin  de  S.  Bartholome  seriously  pre- 
tends that  he  saw  serpents  with  two  heads;  they  were  amphisbsenas,  which  have  a 
head  and  a  tail  equal  in  size  and  of  similar  appearance,  and  which  the  Portuguese  call 
cobra  de  diias  cahegus.  The  royal  serpent  or  boa,  one  of  which,  forty  feet  in  length, 
was  killed  by  M.  Anquetil,  is  treated  with  divine  honours.  One  of  them,  -worship  of 
which  resided  in  a  grotto  at  Sumboolpoor,  was  within  these  fcAv  years  serpents, 
consulted  as  an  oracle. t  Even  the  sea  which  washes  the  Indian  shores  is  filled  with 
serpents,  the  bite  of  which  is  dangerous.  There  is  a  particular  tribe  of  Indians  that 
make  the  conjuring  of  serpents  their  trade,  and  teach  these  animals  tricks  of  a  most 
astonishing  nature. § 

Almost  all  the  rivers  and  even  the  lakes  and  marshes  of  Indostan,  in-  |  nept.ies. 
eluding  the  Deccan,  give  birth  to  crocodiles  larger  than  those  of  Egypt,  but  in  other 
respects  scarcely  differing  from  them.  There  is  a  smaller  variety,  which  is  particu- 
larly venerated  as  a  consecrated  animal.  ||  They  are  sometimes  maintained  in  the 
ditches  of  fortified  places  as  contributing  to  their  defence.  Lizards  are  extremely 
common  in  all  these  provinces.  Among  the  Ghaut  mountains  there  are  some  of  pro- 
digious size.  The  island  of  Bombay  and  some  other  places  swaru)  with  frogs  and 
toads.  Turtles  are  common  on  the  sea-coasts  and  in  the  rivers.  The  best  tortoise 
shell  is  from  the  Orissa  shore. 

•  Pennant,  Hist.  Quadrup.  i.  tab.  3. 

t  See  tlie  plate  in  Valenlyn,  oud  and  nleuw  Ostindien,  viii.  Ecschryving  van  Ceylon,  p.  47. 
Asiat.  Keseaiclies,  iii.  229.  it  Motte,  in  Asial.  Misccll.  ii.  No.  1. 

§  Nouv.  rapports  des  mission,  de  Halle,  cab.  43.  p.  648 — 656. 
3  I'ennunl's  View,  ii.  L'07. 


128  BOOK    FOllTY-SIXTII. 

Fiih.  I       Such  is  the  cibundancc  of  lish  on  the  coast  of  Corouiandcl,  Malaljar, 

and  other  coimtries,  that  domestic  animals,  as  pigs,  dogs,  and  even  horses,  are  fed 
on  them.  There  are  few  European  species  that  are  not  found  in  India  :  the  most 
conniion  are  the  sahnon,  the  pilchard,  the  eel,  the  carp,  and  the  tunny.  The 
mango,  {i\\e  polymmus  paradisms  of  Linnaeus,)  a  beautiful  sea-fish  of  an  orange  co- 
lour, ascends  the  Ganges.  Shining  multitudes  of  gold  coloured  fishes  adorn  the 
surface  of  the  waters.  Here  also  is  found  that  singular  species,  the  flying  fish,  which, 
.though  capalilc  of  taking  a  temporary  flight  through  the  air,  as  wefl  as  of  gliding 
tlu'ough  tlie  water,  is  so  persecuted  by  enemies  in  both  elements,  that  his  double 
faculty  proves  iasuflicient  to  secure  him  from  their  pursuit.  The  electrical  torpedo, 
and  gyumotus  sometimes  gives  a  shock  to  the  unwary  swimmer. 
Insects.  I       In  this  vvami  climate  the  insects  display  a  brilliance  unknown  in  tem- 

perate zones  :  but  they  are  often  highly  destructive.  Here,  as  in  some  of  the  other 
countries  which  have  fallen  under  our  view,  locusts  sometimes  settle  in  whole  clouds 
on  the  devoted  fields.  Here  many  bees,  almost  all  of  thcin  in  a  wild  state,  prepare 
a  rich  aromatic  honey.  The  ants,  black  and  wliite,  form  one  of  the  severest  scourges 
of  the  country.  Spiders,  large  and  small,  scorpions,  cray  fish,  butterfles  of  all  colours, 
and  silk  worms,  are  to  be  numbered  among  the  insects.  But  here,  as  in  other  coun- 
tries, the  insects  exceed  in  the  numbers  of  species  the  plants  tliemselves,  though 
we  reckon  the  list  of  Flora  somewhat  formidable  to  those  who  attempt  to  recount  or 
to  remember  the  whole.  The  shells,  the  corals,  and  the  polypi,  present  lists  equally 
overwhelming,  and  far  surpassing  any  such  enumeration  as  could  be  admitted  into 
the  present  work. 

Silkworms.  |  We  may,  however,  remark,  that  the  common  silk  worm,  the  phakma 
mori,  is  not  the  only  insect  which  provides  the  inhabitants  of  India,  as  it  did  those 
of  the  ancient  Serica,  with  a  valuable  flax.  There  are  other  two  species,  the  pha- 
lamn  atlas,  and  the  pliakma  ricini,'^  which  give  different  kinds  of  silk,  and  were  un- 
doubtedly comprehended  under  the  bombijx  of  the  ancients.  The  fisheries  of  cowries 
and  of  pearls  will  be  found  in  another  place. 

Binis.  1       As  for  birds,  it  is  in  the  north  of  India  that  the  finest  eagles,  vultures, 

and  fiilcons  are  found.  They  descend  in  pursuit  of  their  prey  from  the  same  moun- 
tains from  which  India  has  been  often  visited  by  her  ruthless  conquerors.  The 
griffin  vultures  and  the  bearded  vultures  are  common  in  Siberia.  The  Mongolian 
princes  keep  multitudes  of  these  animals  for  the  purposes  of  falconry.t  In  the 
Parrots.  |  Dcccan  thcrc  are  more  than  fifty  kinds  of  parrots.     That  bird,  sacred 

in  the  eyes  of  the  Brahmins,  was  in  ancient  times  in  great  request  among  the  Greeks 
and  Romans,  who  borrowed  from  the  Persians  the  names  which  they  gave  to  it.t 
The  rooks  and  ravens  are,  among  the  Hindoos,  symbols  of  the  human  soul,  in  a 
state  of  separation  from  the  body,  and  are  plenteously  fed  by  the  hand  of  supersti- 
tious charity.  The  ardigigas,  are  believed  to  be  inhabited  by  the  souls  of  Brahmins. 
On  the  coast  of  Malabar,  owls  form  flocks  consisting  of  some  thousands. 
Peacocks.  |  India  is  the  country  of  the  peacock.  The  forests  in  every  part  of  it 
are  inhabited  by  enormous  flocks  of  them  in  a  wild  state.  But  the  turkey,  according 
to  the  most  received  opinion  is  originally  from  America.  Yet  this  animal  is  called 
in  German,  the  "  cock  of  Calicut,"  and  the  question  of  its  origin  appears  deserving 
of  fresh  examination.  §  In  this  country  arc  found  almost  all  the  birds  of  our  climates. 
Among  those  which  are  peculiar  to  it,  are  the  mango,  which  lives  on  the  fruit  of  the 
same  name  ;  the  little  bird  of  paradise,  which  is  common  in  the  Ghaut  mountains 
and  in  Malabar  ;  the  white  ibis,  whose  feathers  are  used  in  India  in  ornamental 
dress  ;  the  black-headed  ibis,  or  butor  ;  and  the  blue  bird,  called  porphyrio  by  the 
ancients,  and  in  the  Malabaric  language  pidaramholi.  In  all  the  forests  bottle-shaped 
nests  arc  seen  suspended  from  the  boughs  by  a  slender  thread,  and  vacillating  in  the 

•  Shaw's  Nutiu-alist's  Miscellany,  plate  ii.     Sir  W.  Jones,  Letter  to  Mr.  Anderson. 

t  AycMi  Akljeri,  i.  oOf).  .  .  ,    ,  ,    ,•        -i-    i  i 

I  11  is  called  /2/TTdt«oc  by  Ctcsis,  iiom  liidak  in  Persian ;  and  I'siltucus  is  probably  Irom  1  eUalc 
or  Tiilak  in  llie  same  languaj^e. 

§  Bcckman,  Littcralurder  Keisen,  i.p.  26— 447 — S^7. 


INDOSTAN.  129 

wind.     These  are  the  aboJes,  us  well  as  the  ingenious  workmansliip  of  the  Loxta 
phili]yjnna. 

Were  we  to  give  a  complete  view  of  the  physical  features  of  India,  we  should 
far  exceed  the  limits  prescribed  to  the  present  work.  We  must  therefore  pass  on 
from  this  copious  subject  to  other  details  which  the  geographical  reader  is  led  more 
particularly  to  expect. 


BOOK  XLVir. 

INDIA  CONTINUED. 

Topograjyhical  View  of  the  Countries  on  the  Indus  and  Ganges. 

After  the  account  which  we  have  given  of  the  general  geography  of  India,  we 
niust  now  take  a  vicAV  of  its  different  provinces  in  succession.  We  shall  first  turn 
our  attention  to  those  which  are  watered  by  the  Sinde  and  its  tributaries,  next  to  the 
Guzerat,  and  Adjemere,  or  the  Rajepoot  states  ;  then  proceed  to  the  basin  of  the 
Great  Ganges,  and  take  a  view  of  the  regions  watered  by  that  river  and  its  tributa- 
ries. This  will  occupy  the  present  book.  In  the  one  following  we  shall  take  a  view 
of  the  Deccan,  or  peninsula,  and  afterwards  of  the  island  of  Ceylon  and  the  Mal- 
dives. 

In  our  account  of  Afghanistan,  the  empire  of  the  king  of  Caubul,  we  included  the 
territory  on  the  west  of  the  Indus,  and  at  the  mouth  of  that  river,  and  also  the  val- 
ley of  Cashmere,  these  being  Indian  provinces  of  that  empire. 

We  shall  now  begin  with  the  province  of  Lahore,  consisting  of  two  Province  of 
parts,  the  one  of  which  is  the  mountainous  tract  in  the  north-east,  ^^'^^^- 
stretching  south  and  east  from  Cashmere  ;  and  the  other  the  flat  country  known  by 
the  name  of  the  Punjab,  a  name  sometimes  applied  to  the  whole  province,  and  de- 
rived from  the  five  celebrated  rivers  by  which  it  is  intersected,  and  which  were  de- 
scribed in  the  preceding  book.  Hence  the  climate  of  this  province  varies,  the  hills 
and  northern  parts  having  winters  not  unlike  those  of  the  middle  of  Eu-  |  Hiijy  part, 
rope.  The  mountainous  tract,  which  includes  the  origin  of  four  of  the  five  rivers, 
(the  other  rising  in  Cashmere,)  is  rugged  and  thinly  peopled.  It  contains  several 
principalities,  the  chiefs  of  which  are  Rajahs  of  Hindoo  descent,  who,  as  well  as 
their  subjects,  have  adopted  the  Mahometan  religion,  but  retain  their  Hindoo  title. 
In  manners  and  language  the  inhabitants  resemble  the  Cashmerians,  with  a  mixture 
of  the  more  southern  nations.  Many  pines  grow  on  the  face  of  the  mountains,  the 
resinous  parts  of  which  are  cut  into  slips,  and  used  as  lamps,  but  the  extraction  of 
tar  and  turpentine  is  not  practised.  The  climate  of  the  northern  parts  seems  unfa- 
vourable to  fruits,  being  too  hot  for  the  Persian  productions,  and  too  cold  for  those 
of  India.  The  mountains  contain  large  beds  of  fossil  salt.  Their  sides,  where 
they  are  cultivated,  produce  w  heat  and  other  grains.  They  are  cut  into  a  succession 
of  flat  terraces,  supported  by  buttresses  of  loose  stones.  A  small  quantity  of  rice 
is  produced  in  the  narrow  valleys. 

The  flat  part  of  the  province  more  properly  called  the  Punjab,  is  by  |  The  Punjab, 
far  the  most  productive,  but,  except  in  the  inunediate  vicinity  of  the  rivers,  it  is  much 
less  fertile  than  Bengal,  or  even  the  British  provinces  in  the  higher  parts  of  Indos- 
tan,  the  soil  being  of  a  sandy  texture.  Of  the  four  divisions  of"  the  Punjab,  east  of 
the  Hydaspes,  or  Jylum,  the  two  nearest  to  this  river  are  quite  flat,  and  chiefly  pas- 
tured by  herds  of  oxen  and  buffaloes,  the  cultivation  is  scanty,  and  the  trees  tew; 
that  which  lies  to  the  cast,  towards  the  Sutlcdge,  has  an  undulated  surface,  and 
though  naturally  the  most  sterile,  is  the  best  cultivated.  It  contains  many  fine  vil- 
VoL.  II.— R 


130  BOOK   FORTY-SEVENTH, 

lages,  and  some  large  towns:  but  the  latter,  with  the  exception  of  Amritsir,  the  holy 
city  of  the  Seike,  are  in  a  decUning  condition. 

TheSeiks.  The  Seik  nation,  which  rules  the  greater  part  of  this  country,  holds  a 

Their  history,  conspicuous  place  among  the  inhabitants  of  India.  The  term  Seik  sig- 
nifies a  disciple.  Their  founder,  Nanac,  was  born  in  an  obscure  station  in  a  village 
to  the  north  of  Lahore,  A.  D.  1419.  Devoted  to  a  religious  life,  he  becanne  emi- 
nent as  a  teacher,  inculcated  a  mild  philosophic  system,  and  endeavoured  to  connect 
(he  contending  factions  of  Mahomedans  and  Hindoos,  by  fixing  their  attention  on 
the  great  principle  on  which  they  were  agreed,  the  unity  and  perfection  of  God,  and 
making  them  view  their  external  observances  as  comparatively  insignificant.  The 
worship  of  Brahma,  Vishnu,  and  Maliadeva,  the  three  chief  divinities  of  the  Hin- 
doos, and  the  use  of  images,  were  rejected.  When  he  died,  others  succeeded.  One 
successor,  Arjoonmal,  distinguished  himself  by  compiling  the  Adi-granth,  or  sacred 
book  of  the  Seiks,  and  thus  gave  a  consistent  form  and  order  to  their  religion,  but 
he  was  treacherously  put  to  death  by  tlie  Mahometans.  This  event  turned  the 
thoughts  of  the  Seiks  to  warlike  objects.  Hurgovind,  his  son,  was  a  military  priest, 
who  urged  the  Seiks  to  vengeance,  and  headed  them  in  a  series  of  desperate  attacks 
on  the  Mahometan  chiefs  in  the  Punjab,  which,  however,  were  suppressed  by  the 
vigour  of  the  Mogul  government.  The  execution  of  Teg  Bahadar,  a  priest  who 
lived  in  obscurity  at  Patna,  by  the  Mogul  government  in  1675,  gave  a  final  turn  to 
the  destiny  of  the  Seiks.  Gooroo  Govind,  the  son,  eminent  both  as  a  preacher,  an 
author,  and  a  warrior,  new-modelled  the  whole  government  of  the  Seiks,  and  con- 
verted them  into  a  band  of  ferocious  soldiers.  Steel  became  the  watchAvord  of  the 
state,  and  even  the  object  of  their  worship.  The  supreme  deity  was  denominated 
by  them,  "  All  Steel."  This  bold  innovator  extinguished  all  the  distinctions  of  caste 
among  his  followers,  urged  them  to  unite  in  the  career  of  military  glory,  and  having 
collected  them  amid  the  mountains  of  Serinagur,  rushed  furiously  down  on  the  west- 
ern provinces.  He  had,  however,  too  potent  an  enemy  in  the  celebrated  Aurengzebe, 
was  defeated,  and  his  adherents  dispersed,  and  he  is  said  to  have  died  insane  in  the 
Deccan. 

After  this  they  never  again  acknowledged  any  spiritual  head.  But,  on  the  death 
of  Aurengzebe,  in  1707,  they  enrolled  themselves  under  Banda,  a  military  leader, 
committed  dreadful  ravages,  and  treated  the  places  of  worship  and  burial  grounds  of 
the  Mahometans  with  every  species  of  indignity.  But  they  were  again  defeated  and 
destroyed  in  great  numbers,  and  Banda  was  put  to  death  at  Delhi  with  every  species 
of  insult  and  torture,  which  he  endured  with  unshaken  fortitude.  After  the  expedi- 
tion of  Nadir  Shah,  they  issued  from  their  fastnesses,  harassed  his  retreating  rear, 
and  plundered  the  baggage  of  his  army ;  they  now  assumed  an  attitude  of  independ- 
ence and  defiance,  and,  after  many  contests  with  the  Afghans  and  Mahrattas,  they 
Pieient  state.  \  have  obtained  possession  of  the  Punjab.  Amritser  is  their  spiritual  capi- 
tal, to  which  they  resort  in  pilgrimage,  and  to  reach  which,  while  in  possession  of  their 
enemies,  they  sometimes  braved  the  dangerof  death.  This  is  also  the  scatof  their  coun- 
cil, where  the  chiefs  on  some  occasions  meet  to  take  oaths  of  union  and  mutual  fidelity, 
on  their  sacred  books  the  Granths.  Notwithstanding  this  practice,  they  are  gene- 
rally in  a  state  of  dissension,  and  therefore  unable  to  make  head  against  a  formida- 
ble enemy  ;  so  that  they  owe  their  possession  of  their  present  territory  chiefly  to  the 
weakness  and  distraction  which  prevail  among  their  neighbours,  and  the  balancing 
management  of  British  policy. 

Manners  and  The  prosclytcs  belonging  to  the  Seiks  are  mostly  from  the  Hindoos, 

character.  ^y|^Q^  ^j^  joining  them,  are  permitted  to  retain  all  their  former  obser- 

vances, in  so  far  as  they  imply  no  positive  infringement  of  the  tenets  of  Nanak,  and 
are  very  strict  on  the  subject  of  diet  and  intermarriages.  The  Mahometan  converts, 
on  the  contrary,  are  prohibited  from  following  any  of  the  observances  of  their  original 
creed,  are  not  allowed  to  practise  circumcision,  and  are  obliged  to  eat  pork.  The 
Seiks  abstain  from  several  of  the  sensual  indulgences  to  which  the  Mahometans  arc 
addicted.  They  do  not  allow  themselves  the  use  of  tobacco,  but  indulge  in  opium 
and  spirituous  liquors  to  great  excess.  They  are  a  well  made  people,  and  have  the 
countenance  of  Hindoos,  though  distinguished  from  them  by  their  long  beards.  Thoy 


Population 
and  trade. 


INDOSTAN.  131 

have  all  the  activity  of  the  Mahrattas,  to  which  they  unite  a  greater  degree  of  bodily 
strength,  derived  from  their  more  favourable  climate.  They  are  very  courageous, 
and  when  animated  by  religious  fanaticism,  quite  desperate.  Their  mode  of  address 
is  bold  and  somewhat  rough  ;  their  habitual  tone  of  voice  loud  and  bawling.  Their 
language  is  chiefly  Hindostanee,  with  a  slight  intermixture  of  Persian.  Their  con- 
duct towards  women  resembles  that  of  the  Hindoos  and  Mahometans,  but  is  somewhat 
more  relaxed.  They  prohibit  the  self  immolation  of  widows  on  'the  death  of  their 
husbands  ;  though  some  of  their  women  so  far  break  the  law  as  to  take  an  opportu- 
nity for  committing  suicide  when  they  become  widows.  Their  chief  military  force 
consists  of  cavalry.  They  use  matchlocks  and  sabres,  entertaining  for  the  latter 
weapon  a  veneration  almost  religious.  One  soldier  often  keeps  a  plurality  of  horses. 
On  these  they  set  a  high  value,  and  entertain  for  them  sentiments  of  alfection.  When 
one  of  their  companions  dies,  they  rather  express  joy  than  grief;  but  cry  bitterly  on 
the  loss  of  a  horse.  Their  force,  at  the  end  of  the  last  century,  was  said  to  amount 
to  248,000,*  but  this  must  have  been  an  enormous  exaggeration.  They  used  to  boast 
that  they  could  raise  100,000  horse  ;  but  it  is  not  practicable  to  bring  every  horse- 
man belonging  to  them  into  the  field,  llunjeet  Singh  is  the  only  Scik  chief  who  can 
bring  forward  4000  effective  men ;  and  oven  this  prince's  force  did  not,  in  1S05, 
amount  to  8000.  He  has  subjugated  almost  all  the  country  north  of  the  Sutledge, 
while  those  to  the  south  are  under  British  protection. 

The  Lahore  province  includes  a  territory  of  70,000  square  miles,  but 
the  population  probably  does  not  exceed  four  millions.  There  is  now 
scarcely  any  regular  trade  between  this  country  and  the  rest  of  Indostan  ;  but  petty 
merchants  can  generally  obtain  passports  through  the  Scik  territories,  and  a  trifling 
commerce  is  in  that  manner  carried  on.  The  exports  to  Afghanistan  and  Persia  are 
sugar,  rice,  indigo,  wheat,  and  white  cotton  cloths :  the  imports  are  swords,  horses, 
fruit,  lead,  and  spices.  From  Cashmere  they  import  shawls,  cloths,  fruits,  and 
saffron.  Commerce  is  much  obstructed  by  heavy  duties,  though  of  late  greater 
encouragement  than  formerly  is  given  to  it. 

The  chiefs  generally  claim  one  half  of  the  land  produce ;  but  they  ]  Revenuei. 
treat  the  cultivators  with  great  indulgence,  and  this  revenue  is  seldom  levied  to  the 
full  extent. 

The  chief  city  in  this  province  is  Lahore,  the  capital  of  Ruiijet  Singh.  |  ciiyofLahore. 
It  is  situated  on  the  south  side  of  the  river  Ravey,  on  the  great  road  bordered  v  ith 
plane  trees  which  leads  from  Delhi  to  Afghanistan.     It  has  lost  much  of  its  an- 
cient splendour,  but  still  contains  fine  buildings  and  elegant  gardens,  though  its 
liableness  to  warlike  reverses  has  deterred   wealthy  individuals  from  residing  in  it. 
It  contains  the  beautiful  fortified  palace  of  the  ancient  Mongul  sovereigns,  one  of 
the  finest  and  most  sumptuous  in  the  world.     It  was  founded  by  Akber,  and  greatly 
enlarged  by  his  successors.     When  beheld  from  the  opposite  side  of  the  river,  with 
its  varied  terraced  gardens,  it  looks  like  a  scene  of  enchantment,  suited  to  the  ideas 
formed  of  the  palace  of  Semiramis,  or  of  one  of  the  faries  of  the  Arabian  tales. 
The  terraced  roofs  are  adorned  from  one  end  to  the  other  with  a  thousand  species 
of  the  finest  flowers  native  to  a  country  which  is  the  abode  of  eternal  spring.     The 
interior  of  this  magnificent  building  is  ornamented  with  gold,  lapis  lazuli,  porphyry, 
and  fine-grained  red  granite.     The  hall  where  the  throne  is  placed,  and  its  gallery, 
are  most  of  all  admired, — the  walls  and  ceiling  being  covered  with  fine  rock  crystal, 
and  a  trellice  of  massive  gold  running  along,  adorned  with  figures  of  grapes  exe- 
cuted in  pearls  and  precious  stones,  vying  with  one  another  in  brilliance.  The  bathing 
room  contains  a  bath  in  the  form  of  a  boat,  which  is  made  of  oriental  agate,  adorned 
with  plates  of  gold;  this  used  to  be  filled  with  eight  hogsheads  of  rose  water.    Across 
the  river,  and  two  miles  north  from  Lahore,  at  Shah  Durra,  stands  the  celebrated 
mausoleum  of  Jehangheer,  within  a  wall  of  nearly  600  yards  square.  |  Runjeet  Singh. 
Runjeet  Singh,  the  chief  who  resides  at  Lahore,  well  skilled  both  in  war  and  intrigue, 
has,  between  the  years  1S05  and   1812,  subjugated   almost  all  the  Rajahs  of  the 
Punjab,  and  now  rules  the  country  with  considerable  mildness,  maintaining  a  good 

•  Franklin,  History  of  Shall  Alum,  p.  75. 


North-west 
parts. 


The  different 
Doabs. 


132  BOOK  FORTY-SEVENTH, 

understanding  with  the  British  authorities,  of  whose  intentions  he  has  been  taught 
by  experience  to  entertain  no  apprehension ;  very  different  from  the  Ghoorkas  of  the 
more  easterly  parts,  who,  by  their  oppressions,  rendered  themselves  odious  to  the 
tribes  which  they  subdued,  and  brought  down  on  themselves  the  repressing  hand  of 
British  power. 

Several  parts  of  this  country,  adjoining  the  Afghan  territory,  are  more 

or  less  subject  to  the  Afghan  power,  such  as  Puckely  in  the  north-west 
corner,  the  Peiikelaotis  of  the  ancients,  containing  some  of  the  descendants  of  the 
troops  left  in  it  by  Timour  as  a  garrison.  Nortli  of  this  is  Turnaul,  inhabited  by 
the  Swaties;  ami  Muzzifferabad,  a  town  belonging  to  the  Mahometan  tribes  of 
Bumbas  and  Cukkas,  whose  country  forms  the  lino  of  communication  between 
Caubul  and  Cashmere.  The  valley  and  district  of  Chuch,  at  the  north-west  corner 
of  Lahore,  is  inhabited  by  Mahometan  Hindoos,  named  Goochers.  Near  this  is 
the  Afghan  fortress  of  Attok,  which  derives  its  name  from  a  prohibition  under  which 
the  Hindoos  lie,  against  crossing  the  river  under  the  penalty  of  degradation.  It  was 
here  that  Alexander,  Tamerlane,  and  Nadir  Shah  entered  India  with  their  armies. 
Hussein  Abdaul  is  a  beautiful  valley  on  the  eastern  border  of  Chuch.  It  has  its 
name  from  that  of  a  devout  saint  whose  tomb  it  contains.  Rawil  Pindee  is  a  larae 
and  populous  Seik  town,  sixty-eight  miles  east,  consisting  of  handsome  terraced 
houses.  Here  a  kind  of  native  newspapers,  detailing  the  transactions  of  the  neigh- 
bouring princes,  and  called  the  north-western  Akbars,  are  usually  dated,  but  tliey 
are  careless  and  idle  miscellanies,  of  no  authority  whatever. 

Between  the  Indus  and  the  Jylum,  the  whole  country  was  once  in 

possession  of  the  Goocher  tribe,  who  occasioned  much  trouble  both  to 
the  Moguls  and  the  Afghans,  but  have  been  expelled  by  the  Seiks,  though  they  still 
retain  a  high  military  reputation.  Their  country  abounds  in  grapes.  At  Manicyala, 
Ancient  mo-  One  of  their  villages,  there  is  a  solid  building  resembling  a  cupola,  seventy 
Dument.  f-g^,^  ]^jgl^  ^^^  jqq  paces  in  circumference,  situated  on  the  top  of  a  high 

mound.  The  natives  maintain  that  it  was  built  by  the  gods.  In  architecture,  it  ap- 
proaches to  the  Grecian  style,  and  has  nothing  of  the  Hindoo  character.  Leia  is 
the  name  of  a  town  and  district  near  the  southern  part  of  the  Sinde  Sagor,  or  the 
Doab*  bounded  by  the  Indus  and  Jylum,  belonging  to  the  Afghans.  This  Doab,  in 
general,  is  divided  between  that  power  and  the  Seiks:  the  former  possesses  the  dis- 
trict nearest  to  the  rest  of  their  territory.  The  Doab  bounded  by  the  Jylum  and  the 
Chenab,  belongs  to  the  Seiks,  and  is  not  much  known.  The  next,  called  Doabeh 
Rechtna,  bounded  on  the  east  by  the  Ravcy,  is  fertile  and  extensive,  and  its  popu- 
lation greater  than  that  of  the  preceding,  containing  some  towns  of  note,  as  Bissolec, 
a  fortified  town,  belonging  to  Runjeet  Singh,  Vizierabad,  and  Eminabad.  The 
Doabey  Barry  (from  Bari,  a  residence,)  comprehending  the  low  countries  between 
the  Ravey  and  the  Beyah,  forms  the  centre  of  the  Seik  power,  as  it  contains  the  cities 
of  Lahore  and  Amritsir. 

Araritsir.  |  Amntsir,  formerly  called  Ramdaspoor,  derives  its  present  name  (sig- 
nifying "  the  pool  of  immortality")  from  a  basin  of  135  paces  square,  built  of  burned 
brick,  in  the  centre  of  which  is  a  temple  dedicated  to  Gooroo  Govind  Singh.  (Singh 
signifies  a  lion,  an  appellation  which  the  Seiks,  and  especially  their  chiefs,  adopted 
when  they  assumed  the  character  of  determined  warriors.)  It  was  a  very  ancient 
city,  under  the  name  of  Chak,  and  was  greatly  enlarged  by  Gooroo  Ranidas,  who 
built  the  famous  reservoir  of  Amritsir.  Ahmed  Shah  twice  destroyed  the  temple, 
and  threw  dead  cows  into  the  water  to  pollute  it.  Here  Runjeet  Smgh  has  a  mint 
where  coins  are  struck  in  the  name  of  the  great  saint  and  founder  of  the  Seik  sect, 
Nanak.  The  town  is  unwalled,  the  streets  narrow,  the  houses  well  built,  but  divided 
into  narrow  apartments.  It  is  tlic  chief  emporium  of  the  shawls  and  sallron  of  Cash- 
mere, and  the  various  commodities  which  come  from  the  south  and  cast  of  India.  A 
few  coarse  cloths  and  inferior  silks  are  manufactured  in  the  place.  Being  the  resort 
of  many  rich  merchants,  and  the  residence  of  bankers,  it  is  a  place  of  considerable 

•  Doab  is  a  term  applied  in  India  to  any  tract  of  land  situated  between  two  rivers  above 
their  point  of  junction. 


INDOSTAN.  133 

opulence.*  The  Doabeh  Jallinder,  the  tract  inchuled  between  the  Sutlcdgc  and 
Beyah,  and  bounded  also  by  the  mountainous  district  of  Cahlorc,  is  of  small  dinjcn- 
sions,  but  of  great  political  consequence,  being  the  only  road  by  which  the  territory 
of  Delhi  can  be  entered  by  an  army  from  the  west.  It  is  circumscribed  by  the  moun- 
tains on  one  hand,  and  the  desert  on  the  other.  It  is  under  the  dominion  of  Runjeet 
Singh,  who  holds  the  Doabeh  Singhs  in  subjection.  It  is  the  most  fertile  portion  of 
the  Seik  territory,  and  scarcely  inferior  to  any  province  of  India.  Jallinder  is  it^ 
chief  town,  formerly  a  residence  of  the  Afghans,  and  still  inhabited  by  their  descend- 
ants, subject  to  the  Seiks.  It  contains  also  Noorpoor,  a  town  situated  on  the  top  of 
a  hill  which  is  ascended  by  stone  steps. 

The  Kohistan  (or  hill  country)  of  Lahore  contains  some  small  inde-  [  niii  teniiory. 
pendent  states,  as  Kishtewar,  the  name  of  which  signifies  woody,  and  which  is  inter- 
sected by  the  Chenab.  Jambo  is  sometimes  tributary  to  the  Seiks,  but  has  a  Rajah 
of  its  own.  The  town  of  that  name  was  once  a  place  of  great  and  well  regulated 
commerce.  Khangra  is  a  fortress  which  Akber  besieged  for  a  whole  year,  com- 
manding in  person,  before  he  succeeded  in  reducing  it.  The  Khangra  country  is 
productive  in  rice,  corn,  and  maize.  Here  the  progress  of  the  Ghoorkas  of  Nepal, 
after  the  taking  of  Serinagur,  was  arrested  to  the  westward.  It  was  defended  by  its 
own  Rajah,  who,  however,  afterwards  submitted  to  the  power  of  Runjeet.  The  city 
of  Khangra,  called  also  Nagorkot,  is  ancient,  and  contains  a  magniiicent  temple,  to 
which,  in  the  months  of  September  and  October,  a  great  number  of  pilgrims  from 
every  part  of  India  resort.  Cooloo  is  a  country  bordering  on  the  Siitledge,  the  Ra- 
jah of  which  assisted  in  the  war  of  the  British  against  the  Ghoorkas,  but  he  was 
obliged  in  the  settlement  to  cede  some  places  to  the  east  of  the  Sutledge,  which  he 
had  wrested  from  that  power. 

Mooltan  is  the  lowest  part,  or  angle  of  the  Doab  formed  by  the  Sut-  |  Mooitan. 
ledge,  the  Ravey,  and  the  Chenab.  This  is  the  country  of  the  ancient  J\lulles.  At 
present  it  is  not  much  known  to  Europeans.  The  city  of  Mooltan,  four  miles  from 
the  left  bank  of  the  Chenab  or  ./Icesincs,  which  has  previously  received  the  Ravey  or 
Hydraotcs,  and  the  Jylum  or  Hydaspes,  is  enclosed  by  a  good  wall,  defended  by  a 
citadel  on  a  rising  gi-ound,  and  adorned  with  several  beautiful  tombs.  It  is  noted  for 
its  silks,  and  a  species  of  carpets  much  inferior  to  those  of  Persia.  The  soil  of  the 
country  is  rich  and  well  cultivated.  It  contains  many  ruinous  villages,  and  has  on 
the  whole  an  aspect  of  decay:  but  the  greater  part  is  still  irrigated  by  means  of  Per- 
sian wheels.  This  country  is  unfortunate  in  a  frequent  change  of  masters,  who  de- 
vastate and  pillage  it  in  succession.  In  1818,  it  was  taken  by  Runjeet,  who  probably 
still  holds  it. 

Bahawulpoor  is  a  principality  of  considerable  extent,  the  strongest  |  Baiwwuipoor. 
place  of  which  is  Derawul,  which  owes  its  power  of  resistance  in  cases  of  invasion 
to  the  sterility  of  the  surrounding  sands.  Ooch  is  a  town  in  this  principality,  situated 
at  the  place  where  the  Sutledge  Hows  into  the  stream  formed  by  the  junction  of  the 
four  upper  rivers,  to  complete  the  Punjnud  which  carries  the  waters  of  the  whole 
Punjab  into  the  Indus.  Elphinstone  says,  that  the  Punjnud  flows  into  the  Indus  at 
Ooch,  but  it  is  probable  that  in  the  dry  season  that  confluence  takes  place  nuich  lower 
down.  Ooch  must  have  been  of  more  importance  in  former  times  than  it  is  now, 
as  it  gives  name  to  an  Indian  dialect  considered  as  distinct,  though  akin  to  the  Ben- 
galcse  and  Ilindostance. 

Sinde,  being  tributary  to  the  Afghan  sovereign,  has  already,  in  some  |  sinde. 
measure,  come  under  our  notice,  and  the  nature  of  the  country  has  also  been  de- 
scribed in  the  ])rcceding  volumcf  Its  boundaries  are  Mooltan  and  Afghanistan  on 
the  north,  Cutch  and  the  sea  on  the  south,  the  sea  and  Baloochistan  on  the  west,  and 
Adjemere  on  the  cast.  To  the  cast  of  the  Indus  it  is  quite  level.  It  carries  on  a 
considerable  commerce  with  the  adjoining  parts  of  India,  but  nothing  approaching 
to  what  it  did  in  former  times,  and  it  has  greatly  declined  under  the  present  rapa- 
cious rulers,  the  Ameers.     These  belong  to  the  Sheeah  sect  of  Mahometans,  but 

*  Sir  Joliii  Malculm,  Asiat,  Kegisl.  vol,  x. 
t  See  Vol.  I,  p.  458. 


Chinganes. 
Conjectures 
on  the  origin 
of  the  gypsiesi 


134  BOOK  FOllTY-SEVENTH. 

are  tolerant  both  to  heretics  and  to  inlidels.  The  poi)ulation  consists  chiefly  of  Hin- 
doos, Juts,  (or  converted  Hindoos,)  and  Bcloochcs.  The  Sinde  has  dechned  greatly 
in  population  and  lertility.  An  extraordinary  number  of  tombs  and  burial  grounds 
are  scattered  over  districts  now  in  the  state  of  deserts.  Some  of  the  best  of  the  soil 
is  appropriated  in  large  tracts  as  hunting  ground  by  the  Ameers,  who  are  passion- 
ately fond  of  that  amusement.  The  country  swarms  with  military  adventurers,  and 
furnishes  mercenaries  for  tiie  infantry  of  the  native  Indian  powers.  The  army  of 
the  Ameers  amounts  to  36,000  cavalry.  The  territory  contains  many  wretched  men- 
dicants, and  also  a  set  of  proud  and  arrogant  beggars,  who  pretend  to  be  descendants 
of  the  prophet. 

Cities.  I      Hyderabad  is  the  modern  capital.     The  fortress  stands  on  a  rocky 

hill  on  the  margin  of  the  Fulalec  branch  of  the  river,  and  possesses  great  natural 
strength ;  some  handsome  mosques  arc  contained  in  it.  Talta,  higher  up  the  Indus, 
was  formerly  the  capital  of  Sinde.  Here  the  old  English  factory  still  stands,  and  is 
the  best  house  in  the  whole  province.  The  surrounding  soil  is  rich,  but  the  city  is 
miserably  decayed,  though  once  a  flourishing  place.  It  is  mentioned  in  Mahometan 
history  as  early  as  the  year  92,  of  the  Hegira,  or  A.  D.  677.  Dr.  Robertson  sup- 
poses it  to  be  identical  with  the  ancient  Pattala. 

The  Chinganes,  a  predatory  horde  who  live  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Indus,  have  been  supposed  by  some  modern  authors  to  be  the  original 
stock  of  those  bands  of  wanderers  known  in  Europe  under  the  names  of 
Zingarians,  Bohemians,  and  Gypsies,  who  excite  a  mingled  feeling  of  horror,  curi- 
osity, and  even  tenderness,  by  the  abject  lives  which  they  lead  in  the  bosoms  of  fo- 
rests, their  skill  in  a  few  trades,  their  indolence,  their  noisy  mirth,  their  wild  dances, 
and  their  pretended  knowledge  of  futurity.  We  are  told  that  some  of  them  call 
themselves  Shites.  The  Persians  call  them  black  Hindoos.  In  their  language, 
though  little  known,  there  have  been  found  a  hundred  words  common  to  it  with  the 
Hindoo  languages  of  Mooltan  and  Bengal.*  Pallas  found  the  Indians  who  visited 
Astrachan  to  speak  a  language  which  had  many  words  in  common  with  that  of  the 
Zingarians  or  Gypsies  of  the  Russian  Ukraine. "j"  Another  traveller,  Paulin  de  St. 
Bartholome,  has  compared  the  dialects  of  Tatta  and  the  Guzerat  with  that  of  the 
Bolicmians  of  Italy  and  Hungary..];  Some  have  even  fixed  the  epoch  of  their  emi- 
gration as  coinciding  with  that  of  the  ravages  of  Tamerlane.  It  was  just  half  a 
century  after  this  that  the  wandering  Bohemians  attracted  notice  in  Europe.  This 
hypothesis  has  been  ably  elucidated, §  and  is  received  by  many  of  the  learned  ;  but 
not  by  all.  Some  have  attempted  to  show  that  the  SiQ;ij7i7ies  of  the  Danube,  known 
to  Herodotus, II  or  the  Sindi  of  the  Cimmerian  Bosphorus,  where  the  ancestors  of 
our  modern  Gypsies. IT  Others  lay  great  weight  on  some  Coptic  v/ords  found  in  use 
among  the  Zigeuns,**  and  on  the  term  gypsy,  (or  Egyptian,)  applied  to  them  in  Eng- 
land. Others  lean  to  the  opinion  of  the  Turks,  who  consider  the  Zinguri  of  Cairo 
and  Constantinople  as  having  come  originally  from  Zanguebar  in  south-eastern 
Africa. "f  I  At  all  events,  the  great  number  of  Indian  words  which  they  use  shows 
some  ancient  connection  with  Indostan. 

chaiciikan.  |  Clialchkan  is  a  country  once  considered  as  a  desert,  from  never  hav- 
ing been  explored,  but  now  found  to  contain  many  cultivated  spots,  with  small  chicf- 
doms,  and  fixed  tribes.  On  the  nortli,  it  is  bounded  by  the  province  of  Adjemere  ; 
on  the  south  by  the  great  salt  morass  called  the  Runn,  which  separates  it  from  Cutch, 
on  the  west  by  Sinde,  and  on  the  east  by  the  province  of  Guzerat ;  it  lies  chiefly 
between  the  24th  and  25th  degrees  of  north  latitude.  The  most  powerful  chiefs  in 
this  tract  of  country  are  the  Beloochee  Kosahs,  who  settled  in  it  about  forty  years 
ago,  and  are  named  Siryes  by  the  aboriginal  inhabitants.     They  are  a  set  of  san- 

•  Adelung's  Mithridate,  i.  p.  244,  &c.  f  Neue  Nordische  Beytraege,  iii.  96. 

i  M.  Alter  on  the  Sanscrit,  p.  172. 

§  Grcllman's  Historical  Essay  on  the  Zigeunes.     Richardson,  in  the  Asiatic  Researches  No. 
vii.  II  Xtyuv'M,  lleroil.     S/j/vw/,  Strab.     i'/j-t/^uco/,  Orpli.    i'/juiivo/,  Apoll.  Uhod. 

H  Hasse  on  the  Zigeuns  of  Herodotus,  a  German  work,  published  at  Kcenigsberg,  1803. 
•*  Rami  is  the  word  for  men,  both  in  Coptic  and  the  S^ingar,  or  G)'psy  language, 
ft  A  manuscript  note  of  M.  FauUie. 


INnOSTAN.  135 

guinary  thieves,  who  infest  the  whole  neighbourhood  to  grr^at  distances,  moving  in 
bands  from  100  to  500  strong.  They  are  originally  i'rom  Sinde,  and  to  that  country 
they  carry  their  dead  for  interment. 

Between  Sinde  on  the  west  and  the  Guzerat  on  the  cast,  lies  the  pro-  |  Cuteh. 
vince  of  Cuteh,  along  the  sca-shorc,  140  miles  long  and  95  broad.  Its  geographical 
position  is  rather  singular.  The  hilly  portion  is  not  deficient  in  fertility  and  verdure, 
and  is  productive  wherever  the  government  gives  due  tolerance  to  the  industry  of 
tlie  cultivator.  The  interior  is  studded  with  hills  mostly  covered  with  wild  jungle, 
where  the  chiefs  have  their  strong  holds  and  dens,  and  from  whence  they  either  plun- 
der or  protect  the  intervening  valleys,  as  best  suits  their  purpose.  The  greater  part 
of  the  province,  however,  is  poor  and  barren,  and  the  rains  uncertain.  The  most 
material  part  of  the  cultivation  consists  of  three  cro))s  obtained  by  irrigation.  In 
some  seasons  water  is  extremely  scarce,  and  carried  from  great  distances.  The 
chiefs  boast  of  their  independence,  and  no  country  can  well  be  more  impracticable 
for  an  invading  army.  The  villages  are  all  forlilied,  and  some  in  a  very  respectable 
manner.  Female  infanticide  has  long  been  common,  and  probably  still  |  infanticide, 
is  so  in  this  province.  Prior  to  ISOO,  the  number  of  infants  annually  destroyed 
among  the  Jareiah  tribes  was  supposed  to  be  2000.  Other  accounts  make  it  much 
larger.  The  Government  of  Cuteh  is  extremely  unsettled.  The  Raja  or  Row,  has 
of  late  years  been  superseded  for  the  cruelty  and  absurdity  of  his  conduct,  which 
had  excited  universal  dissatisfaction.  Some  interference  took  place  on  that  occasion 
on  the  part  of  tlie  British,  who  sent  a  force  from  Bombay  which  reduced  Bhoodje 
the  capital.  This  territory  being  inhabited  by  a  warlike  race,  fond  of  independence, 
but  unambitious  of  conquest,  is  considered  as  a  strong  defence  on  the  frontiers  of  the 
British  possessions  against  the  restlessness  of  the  Sindeans  on  the  north,  whose 
attempts  to  enter  Cuteh  have  been  steadily  opposed  by  British  diplomacy.  The 
Mahometan  religion  has  been,  and  probably  stUl  is,  making  great  progress  in  this 
part,  and  the  Hindoo  worship  seems  likely,  in  no  long  time,  to  disappear.  The 
Runn  forms  a  remarkable  feature  in  the  physical  geography  of  Cuteh,  TiieRunn 
being  a  salt  marsh  of.  8000  square  miles,  bounding  that  territory  on  the  "^"''•^s- 
east.  Its  breadth  varies  from  five  to  eighty  miles  across,  between  Cuteh  and  Guzerat. 
It  is  said  to  be  formed  by  the  overflowing  of  the  river  Puddar  and  the  Gulf  of  Cuteh, 
probably  chiefly,  if  not  wholly,  by  the  former,  as  in  December,  during  the  diy  sea- 
son, it  is  quite  dry,  and  in  most  places  hard.  It  is  a  dead  flat,  totally  devoid  of  ver- 
dure and  vegetation,  strewed  with  dead  prawns,  mullets,  and  other  fish,  and  frequented 
by  large  birds.  On  the  Cuteh  side  it  is  visited  by  apes  and  porcupines.  On  the  op- 
posite, the  incrustations  resemble  snow.  In  the  dry  season  it  has  been  crossed  by 
armies  and  embassies.  The  banks  of  the  Runn  are  frequented  by  wild  asses  in 
droves  of  sixty  and  seventy  at  a  time.  Bhoodje,  the  capital  of  Cuteh,  is  a  place  of 
considerable  strength,  both  natural  and  artificial.  Mandavie  is  the  principal  sea-port, 
possessing  an  excellent  harbour,  and  maintaining  an  extensive  trade.  Anjar  is  a 
small  district  of  Cuteh,  which  was  ceded  to  the  British  in  1816.  It  is  in  contem- 
plation to  form  a  number  of  tanks  here  for  extending  the  cultivation  of  the  country. 
Tiiere  is  a  general  law  always  observed  in  Cuteh,  that  every  person  who  chooses  to 
sink  a  well  is  entitled  to  the  possession  of  the  whole  unoccupied  land  which  it  is 
capable  of  irrigating.  The  capital,  Anjar,  was  garrisoned  by  300  Arabs,  when  it 
Avas  taken  in  1816  by  the  detachment  of  Colonel  East.  Janagoor,  is  a  town  with  a 
strong  citadel,  placed  by  Rennel  on  the  river  Banis,  which  runs  in  a  course  parallel 
to  that  of  the  Puddar,  both  being  nearly  dry,  except  in  the  rainy  season. 

The  extensive  province  of  Guzerat — 320  mdes  long  and  180  broad  |  Guzerat. 
— is  chiefly  situated  between  the  21st  and  24th  degrees  of  north  latitude;  and  is 
bounded  on  the  north  by  the  province  of  Adjemere;  on  the  south,  by  the  sea  and  the 
province  of  Aurungabad;  on  the  east,  by  Malwah  and  Kandesh;  and  on  the  west, 
l)y  portions  of  Sinde,  Cuteh,  and  the  sea.  A  considerable  portion  of  this  province  in 
the  interior  is  hilly,  and  much  covered  with  jungle,  which  is  encouraged  by  the  inhabi- 
tants as  a  protection  from  invaders.  Within  these  places,  however,  dwell  many  tribes  of 
professed  thieves,  a  great  proportion  of  whom  are  cavalry,  and  extend  their  depreda- 
tions to  a  great  distance.   The  coasts  of  the  peninsular  portion  of  Guzerat  abound  with 


Different 
classes  of  the 
population. 
The  Grassias. 


136  BOOK  FORTY-SEVENTH. 

creeks  and  little  inlets,  which,  by  furnishing  shelter  from  cruiesrs,  by  reason  of  their 
difficult  navigation,  are  particularly  adapted  to  the  encouragement  of  piracy.  This 
province  is  traversed  by  several  noble  rivers,  as  the  Nerbuddah,  Tuptee,  Mahy,  Me- 
hindry,  and  Sabermatty,  but  in  many  places  a  scarcity  of  water  is  experienced.  In  the 
sandy  soil  to  the  north  of  the  Mahy  river,  the  wells  are  from  80  to  100  feet  deep.  The 
country  is  very  much  intersected  by  ravines,  and  broken  up  by  the  rains,  the  chasms 
being  converted  into  rapid  rivers  in  the  rainy  season.  The  soil  in  general  is  fertile, 
but  little  improved.  The  districts  possessed  by  the  British  are  very  improveable, 
but  their  improvement  has  been  greatly  retarded  by  the  contests  which  have,  till  lately, 
been  maintained  with  the  neighbouring  states.  Here  the  baubul  tree  yields  a  gum 
by  exudation,  which  is  used  as  food  by  the  poor  inhabitants  of  the  jungles.  This 
province  exhibits  a  vast  variety  of  sects,  castes,  and  customs.  The  Gras- 
sias are  a  numerous  class  of  ambiguous  landholders,  belonging  to  no 
particular  caste  or  race  otherwise  distinct.  Their  claims  are  considered 
as  oppressive  and  vexatious,  as  well  as  dubious  in  their  origin,  resembling  the  black 
mail  once  existing  in  Scotland,  a  demand  in  compensation  for  a  forbearance  in  plun- 
der. These  demands  are  prosecuted  by  menacing  means  in  defiance  of  any  fixed 
law.  The  Coolies  are  a  most  untameable  race  of  plunderers,  who  delight  in  blood 
and  nastiness,  and  despise  every  approach  to  civilized  habits.  They  live  chiefly  on 
Bhatts.  I  the  river  Mahy.     The  persons  called  Bhatts,  a  sort  of  rehgious  order, 

abound  most  of  all  in  Guzerat.  Some  are  cultivators  of  the  land,  most  of  them  are 
keepers  of  records,  beggars,  or  itinerant  bards.  Some  of  them  become  securities  in 
the  money  transactions  of  others.  Allied  to  these  are  the  Charons,  a  sect  of  Hin- 
doos, who  possess  great  droves  of  animals  of  burden,  by  which  they  carry  on  a  dis- 
Charons.  (  tant  traffic.  Charons  and  Brahmins  engage  to  protect  travellers.  When 
those  under  their  protection  are  threatened,  their  plan  is  to  take  an  oath  to  die  by 
their  own  hands  in  case  their  protege  is  pillaged,  and  in  such  veneration  are  they  held 
by  these  robbers  that  this  threat  is  almost  in  every  case  sufficient  to  restrain  them. 
The  Bhatts  formerly  acted  as  securities  between  the  Mahratta  government  and  its 
subjects,  the  one  demanding  Bhat  security  for  the  payment  of  the  revenue,  and  the 
other  the  same  against  the  oppressive  treatment  of  the  ruling  powers.  Here,  as  in 
ungreas.  |  other  parts,  are  Ungreas,  or  money  carriers,  who  conceal  in  their  clothes 
the  money  committed  to  their  charge.  They  are  persons  of  athletic  strength,  well 
armed,  and,  though  miserably  poor,  are  entrusted  with  large  sums  with  perfect  secu- 
rity. The  Dheras  or  Pariahs  are  a  degraded  caste,  employed  in  the  vilest  work,  and 
obliged  to  live  in  huts  separated  from  the  rest  of  society.  The  other  Hindoo  castes 
also  exist  here  as  in  the  rest  of  India,  though  under  different  appellations.  The  sect 
of  Jains  is  more  numerous  than  in  any  of  the  adjoining  countries,  and  they  have  many 
beautiful  temples  with  well  wrought  images  of  stone  and  metal, 
rarsees.  |       Bcsidcs  its  uativc  tribes  and  castes,  Guzerat  contains  nearly  all  the 

Parsees  of  India,  the  remains  of  the  followers  of  the  Persian  Zoroaster.  When  the 
Mahometan  religion  gained  the  ascendancy  in  Persia,  they  retired  to  the  mountains 
of  their  own  country,  where  Ihey  remained  till  tlie  overthrow  of  the  monarchy,  and 
Tiieir  history,  j  tlic  dcalli  of  Yt'zdigird,  their  last  sovcreigu.  Finding  themselves  treated 
as  outlaws,  they  wandered  towards  the  port  of  Ormuz,  then  governed  by  a  branch  of 
the  old  royal  family,  where  they  resided  fifteen  years,  and  they  learned  ship  building 
and  navigation.  After  this  they  repaired  to  the  isle  of  l)iu  in  this  part  of  India,  where 
they  remained  nineteen  years;  then,  becoming  too  numerous  for  so  confined  a  place, 
they  sought  a  wider  habitation,  by  going  to  the  Guzerat,  where  they  were  favourably 
received  at  Seyjan  by  Jadu  Bana,  a  Hindoo  prince.  Here  they  first  lighted  up  the 
sacred  fire.  Afterwards  many  of  them  settled  in  various  other  places  in  this  quarter 
of  India,  such  as  Surat  and  Bombay,  where  they  have  increased  rapidly  in  numbers. 
After  their  voluntary  dispersion,  the  Seyjan  chief  requested  their  assistance  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  Sultan  of  Ahmedabad,  a  bigoted  usurper,  who  about  A.D.  1450,  detached 
an  army  of  30,000,  to  levy  trilmte  from  him.  About  1400  Parsees  joined  the  chief  on 
this  occasion,  and  beat  the  Mahometan  Sultan  in  the  first  instance,  though  he  after- 
wards gained  his  object.  This  is  the  only  political  or  military  transaction  in  which 
the  Parsees  have  been  engaged  during  1000  years  that  they  have  resided  in  India. 


INDOSTAN.  137 

They  have,  since  that  time,  Hved  in  difierent  communities,  along  the  ooast,  from  Diu 
to  Bombay.  Their  modern  population  is  divided  into  two  grand  classes,  the  Mobid, 
or  clerical  class,  and  the  Behdeen,  or  laity.  A  Mobid  may  marry  a  Behdeen  female ; 
but  Behdeens  are  not  allowed  to  take  wives  from  Mobid  families.  They  often  bring 
up  other  people's  children,  and  admit  them  among  the  Behdeens ;  and  sometimes 
they  admit  adult  proselytes,  where  they  can  place  confidence  in  their  adherence  to 
the  laws  of  Zoroaster.  These  last  adoptions,  however,  are  rare.  The  |  customs. 
Parsee  females  are,  by  the  laws  of  their  religion,  placed  on  an  exact  equality  with  the 
men,  and  have  long  maintained  a  character  for  unspotted  chastity.  The  children, 
like  those  of  the  Hindoos,  are  betrothed  between  the  ages  of  four  and  nine,  and  the 
marriage  takes  place  within  the  ninth  year  of  the  girl's  age.  If  a  betrothed  girl  dies, 
the  guardians  of  the  boy  look  out  for  a  girl  who  has,  in  like  manner,  lost  her  intended 
husband.  Among  adults,  widowers  only  marry  widows.  They  employ  a  dog  to 
watch  the  corpse  of  a  dead  person,  believing  firmly  that  dogs  see  aerial  beings  which 
are  invisible  to  men,  and  keep  them  off  by  their  bowlings.  They  have  a  great  dis- 
like to  touch  a  dead  animal,  and  especially  a  hare.  They  have  adopted  the  dress 
and  many  of  the  customs  of  the  Hindoos,  and  have  forgot  their  own  language  for  that 
of  their  present  country.  Very  few  think  of  studying  the  language  or  antiquities  of 
their  own  nation.  At  present,  the  young  men  of  their  best  families  arc  taught  to  read 
and  write  the  English  language.  The  opulent  among  them  are  mcr-  |  Empioymentj. 
chants,  ship-owners,  and  land-holders;  the  inferior  classes  are  shop-keepers,  and  exer- 
cise such  mechanic  arts  as  are  not  connected  with  the  use  of  fire ;  but  the  manufacture 
of  metals  is  not  practised  by  any  among  them,  nor  do  they  become  soldiers  or  sailors, 
as  the  use  of  fire-arms  is  contrary  to  their  religious  precepts.  At  Bombay,  many  of 
them  act  as  interpreters  and  domestic  servants  to  Europeans.  The  clerical  tribe  is 
distinguished  by  white  turbans,  but  they  follow  all  kinds  of  occupations,  only  a  few 
of  them  deing  selected  for  the  performance  of  religious  ceremonies.  Some  of  them 
read  and  write  the  Zend  or  Pehlevi  character,  but  their  knowledge  is  extremely  su- 
perficial. The  Parsees,  devoted  to  the  pursuits  of  commerce,  are  not  addicted  to 
any  kind  of  literature.  A  recent  innovation  respecting  the  commencement  of  their 
new  year  has  occasioned  a  separation  of  this  ancient  and  long  united  people  into  two 
sects,  the  one  celebrating  the  new  year  and  their  other  religious  festivals  a  month 
later  than  the  other.  The  places  in  which  they  are  at  present  collected  in  greatest 
bodies  are  Diu,  Cambay,  Broach,  Oclaseer,  Hansoot,  Veriou,  Surat,  Nowsarry,  Da- 
maun,  Bombay,  and  Erdwara.  This  last  place  is  the  chief  residence  of  their  priests, 
and  the  depository  of  the  sacred  fire  which  they  brought  from  Persia.  In  their  ori- 
ginal country,  they  have  been  reduced  by  persecution  to  a  small  number,  who  are 
chiefly  collected  in  the  city  of  Yezd,  where  they  occupy  about  4000  houses.  These 
also  are  a  very  industrious  race,  but  much  oppressed  by  the  Persian  government, 
paying  a  poll-tax  of  twenty  piasters,  and  subjected  to  perpetual  extortions  of  other 
kinds.* 

There  is  a  singtdar  race  in  this  part  of  India  called  Borahs,  professing  |  The  Borahs. 
the  Mahometan  faith,  who  have  Jewish  features,  and  form  every  where  a  distinct 
community,  noted  for  frugality  and  address  in  bargaining.    Boorampoor  in  Khandish 
is  their  chief  place,  and  the  residence  of  their  head  Moollah.     They  go  about  as  ]l 
itinerant  pedlars  in  Guzerat  and  the  adjacent  provinces. 

There  are  numerous  manufacturing  looms  in  this  province,  all  the  |  industry, 
castes,  excepting  Brahmins  and  Banyans,  ocoasionally  following  the  occuj)ation  of 
weaving.  Tiie  Surat  manufactures  are  famed  for  their  excellent  quality  and  mf)de- 
rato  price.  The  trade  of  this  province  is  far  from  being  equally  flourishing  as  under 
the  Mongol  government,  even  in  its  most  turbulent  periods. — It  is  the 
custom,  when  a  merchant  finds  his  affairs  involved,  to  set  up  a  blazing 
lamp  in  his  shop  or  office,  and  abscond  till  his  creditors  have  examined  his  property. 
Till  such  time  as  he  has  obtained  his  discharge,  he  wears  the  tail  of  his  waist-cloth, 
not  hanging  down  as  usual,  but  tucked  up.  Pei-.5ons  who  adopt  these  steps  in  good 
time,  so  as  not  to  do  J:heir  creditors  much  injury,  are  greatly  esteemed,  and  often  be- 

•   A  full  .tccoinit  of  theU"  religious  creed  is  given  in  Malcolm's  History  of  Persia. 
Vol.  II.— S 


Ciiftoms  in 
cases  of  bank- 
ruptcy- 


138  BOOK  rORTY-SRVENTH. 

come  subsequently  more  prosperous  than  they  could  have  otherwise  been  ;  hence 
some  have  even  set  up  the  bankrupt  light  without  necessity,  with  a  view  to  the  future 
patronage  of  the  public.  Guzerat  is  very  thinly  peopled  in  some  parts,  as  the  north- 
west ;  in  others,  as  about  Surat,  it  is  extremely  populous.  The  people  live  in  village 
groups  for  security,  whereas  on  the  Coromandel  coast,  the  dwellings  are  detached. 
The  horrid  practice  of  female  infanticide  was  lately  very  prevalent  among  the  Jare- 
jah  tribe,  to  which  the  chiefs  of  the  Guzerat  peninsula  belong ;  but  the  British  au- 
thorities at  Bombay  have  exerted  themselves  to  suppress  it,  so  that  it  is  not  now 
openly  practised.  Another  crime  of  common  occurrence  was  one  which  went  under 
*rf  the  name  of  Jhansa,  consisting  in  writing  threatening  letters,  and  destroying  the 
property  of  others,  in  order  to  force  compliance  with  some  unjust  demand.  This  is 
now  becoming  less  common  and  less  violent,  from  the  regularity  with  which  civil 

t  justice  is  administered.* 
Revolutions  Guzerat  was  first  invaded  by  Mahmud  of  Ghiznee,  about  A.  D.  1025. 

-      mteTf  Gu-       It  was  subject  to  the  Mongul  power  for  many  years.     In  the  fifteenth 
zerat.  Gcutury  it  bccame  independent  under  a  dynasty  of  Rajepoot  princes, 

who  had  embraced  the  Mahometan  faith.  It  was  again  reduced  by  Akber  in  1572. 
After  the  death  of  Aurengzebe,  in  1707,  it  was  overrun  by  the  Mahrattas,  and  in  a 
few  years  finally  severed  from  the  Mogul  throne.  At  present  the  more  civilized 
parts  are  possessed  by  the  British,  who  occupy  a  considerable  tract  on  both  sides  of 
the  Gulf  of  Cambay,  including  the  populous  cities  of  Surat,  Broach,  Gogo,  Cambay, 
and  Bhownugger.  The  sea  coast  from  this  to  the  Gulf  of  Cutch  is  in  the  hands  of 
several  petty  chiefs,  some  subject  to  the  Guicowar,  and  others  independent,  addicted 
to  piracy,  but  now  restrained  by  the  British,  who  have  a  detachment  of  the  Bombay 
army  cantoned  at  Palyad,  in  the  west  of  the  Guzerat,  for  that  purpose. — The  district 
of  Puttunwar  in  the  north-west,  is  thinly  inhabited,  and  not  thoroughly  explored. 
— Neyer,  adjoining  to  it,  is  remarkable  for  its  fine  horses. — There  is  a  district  at  the 
jtitwar,and  mouths  of  the  rivers  which  flow  into  the  Runn,  called  Jutwar,  being  in 
the  Jut..  ^  particular  manner  the  country  of  that  description  of  people  called  the 

Juts,  who  also  exist  in  Sinde  and  the  Punjab.  They  are  of  Hindoo  extraction,  but 
converted  to  the  Mahomedan  religion.  They  are  professed  and  determined  plunder- 
ers, yet  industrious  among  themselves,  and  some  of  their  settlements  are  remarkably 
populous.  The  Jut  women  exercise  an  influence  over  the  men  which  is  rare  among 
Mahomedans.  A  woman  can,  when  she  chooses,  leave  her  husband,  and  marry 
another.  When  she  wishes  to  take  such  a  step,  she  persecutes  him,  assisted  by  her 
female  acquaintance,  till  he  acquiesces  in  a  separation.  Being  much  respected  by 
the  men,  the  Jut  women  sometimes  act  in  the  capacity  of  protectors  to  persons  and 
their  property. 

Peninsular  It  is  the  penlnsular  part  of  this  province  that  forms  its  leading  geogra- 

projection.  phical  feature,  being  the  only  lateral  projection  of  any  considerable  size, 

by  which  the  smooth  outline  of  the  extensive  coast  of  India  is  diversified.  Its 
length,  from  east  to  west,  is  190  miles,  its  breadth  110.  It  is  sometimes  called  the 
Cattywar,  a  name  given  to  it  by  the  Mahrattas,  probably  in  consequence  of  having 
been  first  opposed  there  by  the  Catties,  one  tribe  of  its  inhabitants.  It  has  several 
small  rivers.  The  mountains  are  few  and  not  high.  The  loftiest  of  those  called 
the  Junaghur  hills  is  sacred.  The  Catties,  Jarejahs,  and  some  other  tribes  in  this 
quarter  are  a  sort  of  imperfect  Hindoos,  believing  in  the  Brahminical  legends.  They 
worship  the  sun,  are  superficially  acquainted  with  the  doctrines  of  their  professed 
creed,  and  relaxed  in  the  observance  of  its  rules  of  diet  and  other  peculiarities.  The 
practice  of  female  infanticide,  which  prevails  among  them,  arises  from  the  difliculty 
of  finding  husbands  for  all  their  daughters,  because  they  will  not  marry  them  to  any 
except  the  respectable  castes  of  Hindoos.  The  illegitimate  daughters  are  not  put 
to  death,  because  they  can  be  married  to  persons  of  impure  caste,  or  to  Mahometans 
Heroism  of  I  indiscriminately.  The  self  immolation  of  women  is  also  common;  and 
concu  ines.  |  |^  j^  remarkable  that  it  is  far  more  frequently  done  by  concubines  on  the 
funeral  piles  of  their  lords  than  by  wives  on  those  of  their  husbands.     Doaraca,  a 

•  Forbes's  Oriental  Memoirs.    Hamilton's  Description  of  Hindostan,  vol.  i.  p.  604. 


INDOSTAK.  139 

small  island,  is  a  place  of  peculiar  sanctity  ig  this  qimiter,  containing  a  Doar«c«- 
temple  much  resorted  to  by  pilgrims,  who,  among  other  ceremonies,  go  sacrwi  usages, 
through  that  of  receiving  a  stamp  on  their  bodies  with  a  hot  iron,  on  which  are  engra- 
ved the  shell,  the  ring,  and  the  lotos  flower,  the  insignia  of  the  gods.  This  privilege 
costs  a  rupee  and  a  half,  or  about  three  shillings.  It  is  frequently  impressed  on 
infants.  A  pilgrim,  besides  his  own  stamp,  sometimes  has  his  body  stamped  for 
the  benefit  of  an  absent  friend.  From  this  place,  the  chalk  is  taken  with  which  the 
Brahmins  mark  their  foreheads  all  over  India;  it  is  reputed  to  have  been  deposited 
there  by  the  god  Krishna.  Numerous  ridiculous  fables  are  connected  with  the  same 
locality.  The  district  of  Soreth  at  one  time  comprehended  a  large  proportion  of  the 
Guzerat  peninsula.  The  ancient  residence  of  its  Rajahs  was  at  lluntella,  but  after- 
wards transferred  to  Junaghur,'a  city  three  miles  round,  at  the  foot  of  mount  Ghirnal. 
On  the  top  of  that  mountain  are  several  pagodas  surrounded  with  grottos  inhabited 
by  Hindoo  hermits  of  different  sects.  The  district  is  exceedingly  fertile.  It  was 
formerly  infamous  for  the  piracies  of  its  inhabitants,  especially  those  connnitlcd  by 
a  Rajepoot  tribe  called  Sangarians,  whose  chief  place  is  Noanagur,  but  these  are 
ke;)t  down  by  commercial  treaties  with  the  government  of  Bombay,  one  article  of 
which  is  to  allow  no  such  lawless  acts.  In  180S,  Colonel  Walker  imposed  a  fine 
of  40,000  rupees  on  Ilamed  Hassan  Balis,  the  Mahometan  chief  of  Soreth,  for  pira- 
cies committed  by  his  sul)jects  and  connived  at  by  himself — The  isle  of  Din,  nt  (he 
south-west  corner  of  the  peninsula,  contains  a  Portuguese  town,  with  a  harbour,  still 
frequented  by  the  Arabs. 

The  ancient  city  of  Cambay  is  remarkable  for  its  subterranean  Hin-  city  of  Cam- 
doo  temples,  formed  since  the  Mahometan  invasion.  The  houses  of  ^^' 
opulent  persons  have  also  subterranean  apartments.  The  city  was  formerly  cele- 
brated for  its  manufactures  of  silk,  chintz,  and  gold  stufls  ;  btit  they  have  gone  to 
decay.  The  neighbourhood  contains  mines  of  rock  salt  and  also  of  agates,  and  the 
manufacture  of  the  latter  into  ornamental  cups  and  vases  forms  a  branch  of  the  hi- 
dustry  of  the  place. 

Surat  is  the  most  conspicuous  trading  city  in  this  province.  It  is  si-  |  city  of  Snfat. 
tuated  on  the  south  bank  of  the  river  Tuptee,  in  latitude  21°  11'  N.  and  longitude 
73°  7'  E.  The  outer  walls  are  seven  miles  in  circumference.  The  inner  town  has 
also  walls  with  twelve  gates,  and  a  number  of  towers  ;  but  all  in  a  ruinous  condition. 
It  is  not  the  policy  of  the  British  government  to  keej)  up  many  fortifications  of  any 
kind.  The  mosques  and  temples,  the  Nabob's  palace,  and  all  the  public  buildings 
are  mean  and  insignificant.  The  most  remarkable  institution  is  the  Banyan  hospital 
for  sick,  wounded  and  maimed  animals  ;  an  institution  dictated  by  the  religious  ten- 
derness which  the  Banyan  sect  cherishes  for  the  animal  creation.  It  is  enclosed  by 
high  walls,  and  subdivided  into  numerous  courts  for  the  accommodation  of  the  dit- 
ferent  species.  In  sickness  they  are  attended  with  the  utmost  assiduity,  and  provided 
with  an  asylum  in  old  age.  In  1772,  it  contained  horses,  mules,  oxen,  sheep,  goats, 
monkeys,  poultry,  pigeons,  and  various  other  birds  ;  also  an  aged  tortoise,  which  mes 
known  to  have  been  there  seventy-five  years.  There  was  even  a  ward  for  rats, 
mice,  bugs,  and  other  noxious  animals,  and  suitable  food  provided  for  them.  This 
city  has  long  been  a  place  of  great  trade,  though  twenty  miles  from  that  part  of  the 
river  where  vessels  are  obliged  to  cast  anchor.  The  harbour  is  not  on  the  whole 
commodious,  though  one  of  the  best  on  this  shore  in  northerly  winds.  It  is  one  of 
the  most  ancient  cities  in  India,  being  mentioned  in  the  Ramayuna,  a  Hindoo  poem 
of  great  antiquity.  In  1800  this  city,  and  the  district  to  which  it  belongs,  fell  under 
the  power  of  the  English  ;  previously  to  which  it  had  been  exposed  to  the  most  de- 
structive contests  between  the  reijrnino;  Nabob  and  the  Mahrattas,  as  well  as  to  all 
the  violence  of  lawless  predatory  bands.  It  used  to  be  a  common  thing  for  the  inha- 
bitants of  the  town  to  hire  bands  of  Coolies  from  the  neighbourhood,  to  plunder  one 
another's  property ; — these  thieves  being  admitted  during  the  night,  and  secreted  in 
cellars  till  their  opportunities  were  matured.  It  is  suspected  that  secret  poisonings 
are  common  among  the  Hindoos  in  this  city,  instigated  by  jealousy,  revenge,  and  the 
cupidity  of  relations  and  heirs.  At  present  no  ofiensive  weapons  are  allowed  within 
the  walls.     In  1796  the  population  was  about  000,000.     It  is  kept  down  by  diseases, 


City  of  Ahrae- 
dabad. 


140  BOOK  FOllTY-SEVENTH. 

especially  the  small  pox.  Vaccination  is  objected  to  both  by  the  Parsees  and  the 
higher  classes  of  the  Hindoos,  as  staining  the  purity  of  their  caste. 

The  city  of  Ahmedabad  was  the  Mahometan  capital  of  Guzerat.  It 
is  situated  on  the  east  bank  of  the  river  Sabermatty,  and  forty  miles  north 
from  Cambay.  It  was  one  of  tlie  largest  capitals  of  the  east,  and  was  one  of  the 
four  cities  which,  in  the  reign  of  Akber,  possessed  a  royal  mint.  It  is  said  to  have 
contained  a  thousand  mosques,  and  to  have  extended  to  Mahmoodabad,  which  is 
now  ten  miles  off.  A  century  ago  it  contained  eleven  great  Hindoo  pagodas,  three 
hospitals  for  animals,  and  streets  beautifully  lined  with  citron  and  cocoa  trees.  At 
present,  its  ruins  occupy  an  area  thirty  miles  in  circumference,  but  its  walls  are  only 
five  miles  and  a  quarter  in  extent.  About  the  middle  of  the  15th  century,  it  was  the 
capital  of  a  flourishing  independent  kingdom.  In  the  early  part  of  the  18th  century, 
the  Mogul  governor  assumed  the  sovereignty.  It  afterwards  fell  under  the  Mahrat- 
tas,  but  in  1779  it  was  stormed  by  the  British,  under  General  Goddard.  Since  that 
time,  the  Peshwa  of  the  Mahratlas  and  the  Guicowar  have  shared  the  sovereignty  by 
an  ill-understood  agreement,  and  it  has  been  subjected  to  much  anarchy. 
Baroda.  |       Baroda,  to  the  east  of  Cambay,  is  the  capital  of  the  Mahratta  prince 

known  by  the  family  name  of  the  Guicowar,  who  is  much  befriended  by  the  English, 
having  sided  with  them  in  most  of  their  disputes,  and  whose  power  is  of  considerable 
extent  in  the  province  of  Guzerat. 

Broach.  |       The  city  of  Broach,  the  Barygaza  of  the  ancients,  forms  with  its  ter- 

ritory part  of  the  English  East  India  Company's  possessions.  The  soil  is  uncom- 
monly fertile.  The  people  are  quiet  and  orderly  compared  to  many  of  their  neigh- 
bours, and  the  administration  of  civil  justice  in  the  hands  of  their  present  rulers  has 
been  remarkably  successful.  The  compactness  of  the  district  has  also  rendered  it 
more  practicable  than  in  most  others  to  give  full  protection  from  marauders  by  the 
establishment  of  patroles. 

Province  of  To  the  north  of  the  Guzerat,  in  an  inland  and  central  situation,  is  the 

Adjemere.  province  of  Adjcmerc  or  Rajepootana;  so  called  from  the  race  of  Raje- 

poots  which  possesses  it,  being  in  an  intermediate  position  between  the  Seiks  and  the 
Mahrattas.*  Its  length  from  north  to  south  is  about  350  miles,  and  its  breadth  about 
200.  It  has  a  sandy  soil,  and  in  general  presents  a  desert  and  dreary  appearance ; 
a  great  portion  of  it  is  a  waved  surface  of  mere  sand,  which  often  rises  in  clouds, 
though  in  winter  it  exhibits  a  little  verdure,  and  becomes  firmer  from  a  vegetation  of 
grass  called  lihoke,  the  thorny  bushes  called  baubul,  and  the  jujube.  The  villages 
consist  of  miserable  straw  huts,  with  low  sides  and  conical  roofs,  surrounded  by 
hedges  of  dry  thorn.  The  thirsty  fields,  which  depend  on  dews  and  periodical  rains, 
are  cultivated  with  the  poorest  kinds  of  pulse,  and  Holcus  spicatus,  called  badjera. 
Water  melons,  however,  grow  in  great  profusion,  and  of  a  large  size.  The  wells 
are  often  300  feet  deep,  and  some  only  three  feet  in  diameter,  lined  with  masonry. 
To  the  east  of  Bahavvulpoor,  the  road  for  the  caravans  is  over  a  hard  and  sounding 
clay,  totally  destitute  of  vegetation.  Near  that  place  the  country  begins  to  be  well 
cultivated.  The  periodical  rains  are  allowed  to  be  absorbed  by  the  sand  immediately 
when  they  fall,  the  state  of  human  industry  being  low  and  helpless.  The  common 
Jauts.  I  inhabitants  arc  Jauts;  the  higher  classes  Rhatore  Rajepoots.     The  for- 

mer are  black,  little,  and  wretched  in  their  appearance.  They  form  a  powerful  sect 
of  Hindoos,  making  part  of  the  fourth  caste,  and  known  in  history  from  the  time  of 
Aurengzebcf"  The  latter  are  stout  and  handsome,  with  hooked  noses  and  Jewish 
features,  haughty  in  their  manners,  and  almost  constantly  intoxicated  with  opium. 
Bullocks  and  camels  constitute  the  live  stock.  The  wild  animals  are, — the  desert 
rat  resembling  a  squirrel,  the  fox,  the  antelope,  and  the  wild  ass.  This  province  is 
almost  destitute  of  rivers.  The  mountain  streams  of  the  more  hilly  parts  quickly 
disappear.  In  the  southern  quarter,  a  portion  of  it  is  watered  by  ditlerent  streams, 
as  the  Chimibul,  which  sends  its  waters  to  the  Ganges,  and  the  Banass,  which  runs 
•west,  and  falls  into  the  great  morass  called  the  Runn.     The  three  chief  divisions  of 

*  See  the  Memoirs  of  Georg'e  Thomas. 

t  See  note  '3d  of  Forster's  Travels,  t.  iii.  p.  104;  and  Wahl,  ii.  p.  385, 


INDOSTAN.  141 

this  province  are, — Odeypoor  in  the  south,  Joodpoor  in  the  middle,  and  Jeypoor  in 
the  north.  The  Rajepoots  Uve  under  a  sort  of  feudal  system.  They  I  xheHaje- 
are  brave,  and  much  attached  to  their  chiefs.  Their  number,  though  not  j  p°°"* 
ascertained,  is  supposed  to  be  little  more  than  three  millions.  This  country  was 
never  completely  subjugated  by  the  Mogul  power,  though  it  paid  tribute,  and  furnish- 
ed a  number  of  mercenaries  to  the  imperial  army.  After  the  death  of  Aurengzebc 
in  1707,  it  continued  nominally  dependent  on  the  throne  of  Delhi;  but  in  1748,  the 
chiefs  assumed  a  state  of  independence.  Since  this  time,  the  country  has  been  a 
scene  of  civil  war  and  plunder,  being  dreadfully  overrun  by  the  Mahratta  armies,  and 
infested  by  various  predatory  tribes.  The  Raja  of  Biccanere  is  the  least  important. 
The  Odeypoor  Raja  is  reduced  in  power,  but  respected  as  the  purest  of  the  race.  In 
1807,  the  Rajas  of  Jeypoor  and  Joodpoor  disputed  for  the  honour  of  marrying  the 
daughter  of  this  high-born  chief,  and  suffered  their  dominions  at  the  same  time  to 
become  a  prey  to  Ameer  Khan,  Holcar,  and  Sindia.  In  this  state  of  constant  un- 
easiness and  wretchedness,  all  the  Rajahs  successively  have  entreated  to  be  connect- 
ed with  the  British  government — a  change  which  took  place  in  1818;  but  is  more 
satisfactory  to  the  people  and  cultivators  than  it  is  to  some  of  the  great  lords,  who 
were  aiming  at  the  possession  of  separate  independence.  Their  armies  were  taken 
into  British  pay,  and  placed  under  British  officers, — their  own  officers  being  pension- 
ed off.  Sir  David  Auchterlony,  by  whose  skill  and  address  these  objects  were  ac- 
complished, enjoys  the  dignity  of  resident  and  commander  of  the  forces  in  Rajepoo- 
tana.  Agriculture,  and  the  other  arts  of  peace,  begin  to  attract  attention,  though 
ferocious  habits  must  retain  some  influence  for  a  time. 

The  town  of  Adjemere,  seven  miles  in  circumference,  was  formerly  Town  of  Ad- 
the  capital,  but  contains  no  trace  of  magnificence  except  the  remains  of  J^"*^'"'^- 
a  palace  built  in  a  garden  by  Shah  Jehan.  The  streets  are  narrow,  the  houses  small 
and  in  a  state  of  decay.  Tiie  principal  attraction  connected  with  it  is  a  tomb  of 
Khaja  Moyen  ud  Deen,  one  of  tlie  most  distinguished  Mahometan  saints  of  India. 
It  is  of  marble,  but  destitute  of  elegance.  To  this  tomb  the  great  Akber  made  a  pil- 
grimage on  foot.  Upwards  of  1100  resident  priests  subsist  on  the  contributions  of 
the  devotees. 

The  north-east  part  of  Adjemere  is  inhabited  by  a  predatory  horde  1  Bhattees. 
called  Bhattees.  They  were  originally  shepherds  and  Rajepoots,  but  are  now  Ma- 
hometans. They  differ  from  other  Mahometans  in  allowing  their  women  to  appear 
in  public.  George  Thomas  says  that  they  could  muster  20,000  men.  In  consc- 
qaence  of  their  insufferable  aggressions  on  the  neighbouring  territory  of  Hurriana, 
on  the  east,  belonging  to  the  British,  they  have  been  reduced,  and  their  forts  de- 
stroyed. Some  of  their  towns  which  had  been  separated  from  Hurriana  were  rean- 
nexed  in  1816. — The  principality  of  Biccanere,  lying  south  from  the  |  ciccanere. 
Bhattee  country,  is  arid  and  barren.  George  Thomas  says  the  force  of  the  Rajah 
amounted  to  8000.  Mr.  Elphinstone,  on  his  mission  to  the  court  of  Caubul,  was 
kindly  received  by  this  prince  on  his  way,  who  offered  him  the  keys  of  his  fort  as  an 
acknowledgment  of  his  submission  to  the  British, — an  ofler  which  the  other  did  not 
accept  of.  At  this  time  his  territory  was  invaded  by  five  different  armies,  in  conse- 
quence of  his  taking  part  in  the  contest  between  the  two  Rajas  already  mentioned. 
The  army  of  the  Raja  of  Joodpoor  was  15,000  strong.  His  mode  of  defence  was 
to  fill  up  all  the  wells  within  ten  miles  of  his  capital.  He  solicited  the  interposition 
of  the  British  mediation,  which  was  not  granted  ;  but  soon  after,  in  consequence  of 
an  application  to  the  resident  at  Delhi,  he  received  back  some  towns  originally  be- 
longing to  him,  which  had  been  taken  by  the  Bhattees.  At  last,  in  1818,  his  sepa- 
rate existence  as  a  prince,  (if  that  can  be  called  independence,)  was  secured  by  his 
being  admitted  within  the  pale  of  British  protection.  Biccanere  the  capital,  and  the 
towns  of  Chooroo  and  Pooggul,  in  this  territory,  have  nothing  in  them  worthy  of 
notice. 

To  the  south  of  this  principality,  and  in  the  west  part  of  the  province,     Jesseimere. 
lies  that  of  Jesseimere.   From  this  Joodpoor  lies  east  and  a  little  south;     Joodpoor. 
an  arid  territory,  containing  lead  mines.     Its  population  is  greatly  diminished  from 
what  it  was  in  former  times.     Their  character  is  said  to  be  frank,  brave,  and  gene- 


142  BOOK  FORTY- SEVENTH. 

rous.  The  capital,  Joodpoor,  is  of  considerable  size,  destitute  of  springs  or  wells, 
and  supplied  with  water  by  a  large  tank  cut  in  a  rock.  It  includes  Marwar,  a  dis- 
trict which,  in  1812,  became  a  prey  to  all  the  horrors  of  famine,  from  the  failure  of 
the  annual  rain  of  the  preceding  year.  The  inhabitants  fled  to  Guzerat,  where  the 
vicinity  of  every  large  town  was  crowded  with  the  dying  and  the  dead,  half  oaten  by 
dogs.  The  Brahmins,  forgetting  the  distinction  of  caste,  sold  their  wives  for  a  few 
rupees.  The  hand  of  charity  was  opened  as  liberally  as  possible,  but  was  quite  un- 
availing to  alleviate  a  calamity  so  extensive,  and  it  is  believed  that  not  one  in  a  hun- 
shekawntties.  |  drcd  lived  to  return  home.  The  Shekawutty  country  is  straight  east  from 
Biccanere.  Bhuil  is  a  considerable  town  belonging  to  it,  situated  on  the  high  road 
from  the  Punjab  to  Biccanere.  Here  the  merchants  are  oppressed  with  severe  exac- 
tions, and  sometimes  entirely  plundered.  Its  tribes  are  considered  as  subject  to  the 
jeypoor.  j  Raja  of  Jeypoor,  but  have  the  character  of  refractory  subjects. — The 
Jeypoor  principaUty  is  situated  in  the  eastern  part  of  Rajepootana.  It  produces  salt, 
copper,  alum,  blue  vitriol,  and  verdigrise.  It  is  compact,  and  comparatively  fertile 
and  populous.  In  1805,  during  the  British  contests  with  Scindia  and  Ilolcar,  the 
Jeypoor  court  kept  on  good  terms  with  both  parties  while  the  struggle  was  doubtful, 
that  it  might  afterwards  join  the  strongest.  In  consequence  of  some  temporary  suc- 
cesses of  Holcar,  the  Raja  joined  him  against  the  British,  and  was  subsequently 
guilty  of  gross  tergiversation  towards  the  latter  ppwer.  A  prejudice  against  the  Bri- 
tish was  strongly  excited,  as  beef-eaters  and  shooters  of  peacocks:  this  induced 
Lord  Lake  to  prohibit  the  slaughter  of  cows  near  any  of  the  sacred  places,  which 
had  the  elFect  of  pacifying  the  minds  of  the  Hindoos.  In  ISIS,  this  was  the  last  of 
the  Rajepoot  states  which  sent  negociators  to  Delhi;  and,  after  much  difliculty,  a 
treaty  was  arranged,  though  some  of  the  chiefs  still  attempted  to  withhold  compli- 
ance with  its  conditions.  Jeypoor,  the  capital,  is  modern,  handsome,  and  regidarly 
built,  and  the  streets  spacious  and  straight.  The  citadel  is  built  on  a  steep  rock, 
which  has  round  it  a  chain  of  fortifications  four  miles  in  circumference.  Near  it 
there  is  an  astronomical  observatory,  provided  with  good  instruments.  To  the  south 
Kotah.  are  some  petty  states,  as  Kotah,  on  the  Chumbul  river.     Bhoondee  is 

Bhoondee.  another,  the  Raja  of  which,  in  1805,  reduced  himself  greatly  by  some 

services  which  he  rendered  to  the  British  army  during  a  disastrous  retreat,  but  was, 
at  a  subsequent  pacification,  scandalously  neglected,  and  left  at  the  mercy  of  the 
Mahrattas.  In  1818,  however,  when  he  was  received  within  the  pale  of  British  pro- 
tection, his  interests  were  attended  to  with  a  laudable  care.  Not  only  was  he,  in 
commoi)  with  the  others,  placed  in  a  state  of  security  highly  gratifying  after  a  long 
experience  of  extreme  wretchedness,  his  country  having  been  the  seat  of  the  most 
savage  war  and  plunder,  but  several  possessions,  of  which  his  enemies  had  deprived 
iiim,  were  restored.  The  hills  where  Boondee,  the  capital  stands,  are  inhabited  by 
Meenas,  a  set  of  robbers,  who,  among  other  enormities,  are  addicted  to  the  steaUng 
of  children,  whom  they  sell  for  slaves. 

odeypoor.  j  Odcypoor,  On  the  southern  boundary  of  Rajepootana,  is  one  of  the 
most  honourable  principalities,  but  miserably  reduced  by  intestine  disorders,  and  the 
oppression  of  the  Mahrattas.  It  is  well  adapted  for  vegetation,  being  hilly  and  well 
watered.  But  its  political  condition  is  greatly  disorganized,  the  Rana  being  weak- 
ened in  his  misfortune,  and  destitute  of  respectable  counsel  or  support  among  his 
subjects.  These  circumstances  are  said  to  be  somewhat  ameliorated,  though  rather 
in  promise  than  by  any  thing  being  actually  established.  The  capital  of  the  same 
name  acquired  in  1818  an  accession  of  several  thousand  inhabitants  on  the  emanci- 
pation of  the  state  from  the  Mahratta  yoke.  It  is  situated  in  a  valley  surrounded 
by  mountains,  and  to  which  the  only  access  is  by  a  narrow  defile.  That  valley  con- 
tains also  some  hundreds  of  villages,  but  has  the  character  of  being  unhealthy.* — 
Fortress  of  Chittorc,  a  town  and  fort  belonging  to  Odeypoor,  is  situated  on  the  top  of 
ciiitiore.  ^  jjjglj  g^j^j  rugged  mountain,  about  eight  miles  in  circumference;  it  is 

reckoned  a  place  of  great  strength.  It  was  for  several  centuries  the  capital  of  a  power- 
ful Rajepoot  principality,  and  much  celebrated  for  its  riches  and  antiquity,  as  well  as 

*  Memoirs  of  George  Thomas. 


Basin  of  the 
Ganges. 

ProTinc*  of 
Malwa. 


IXDOSTAX.  143 

strength,  when  it  was  taken  by  Akber,  in  1567.  It  had  been  in  the  possession  of  the 
Mahometans  at  a  former  period ;  being  taken  first  by  Allah  ud  Deen,  in  1303 ;  but  doea 
not  seem,  on  either  occasion,  to  have  been  permanently  retained.  It  was  taken  and 
plundered  again  by  Azim  Ushan,  the  son  of  Aurengzebe.  In  1818,  when  seen  by 
a  British  detachment,  it  ai)peared  naturally  strong,  but  the  works  neglected  and  de- 
cayed, while  the  surrounding  country,  though  naturally  fertile,  was  in  a  most  miserable 
condition. — Kumulnero  is  one  of  the  strongest  forts  in  Upper  Indostan.  Sarowy 
and  Pertaubghur  are  two  thinly  peopled  and  uncultivated  districts  in  the  south-west. 

Wc  next  proceed  to  the  basin  of  the  Ganges,  to  describe  tiie  countries 
situated  on  this  mighty  river,  and  its  tributaries. 

The  province  of  Malwa  lies  to  the  south  and  a  little  to  the  east  of 
Rajepootana,  chiefly  between  the  22d  and  25th  degrees  of  north  latitude, 
bounded  on  the  west  by  Guzerat,  on  the  south  by  the  Nerbaddah  river,  on  the  cast 
by  the  province  of  Allahabad,  and  on  the  north,  by  Rajepootana,  and  Agra.  It 
contains  the  sources  of  the  rivers  Chumbul,  and  Bctwah,  which  fall  into  the  Ganges. 
It  is  a  central  region  of  considerable  elevation,  with  a  regular  descent  from  the 
Yindhya  mountains  on  the  south,  extending  along  the  north  side  of  the  Nerbuddah. 
But  it  is  more  fertile  than  the  adjacent  provinces;  the  soil  consisting  of  a  black 
mould,  producing  grain,  and  various  vegetables  subservient  to  merchandise.  It  pro- 
duces some  fruits  which  cannot  stand  the  heat  of  the  lower  provinces.  The  trade 
is  conducted  by  land  carriage,  as  the  rivers  are  not  navigable.  The  exports  are, 
cotton,  coarse  cloths,  opium,  and  the  root  of  the  J\Ioyincla  citrifolia.  This  province 
was  subdued  both  by  the  Afghan  and  the  Mogul  sovereigns  of  Delhi.  In  1707  it 
was  overrun  by  the  Mahrattas,  and  in  1732,  they  separated  it  from  the  Mogul  do- 
minions, though  several  landholders,  or  Grassias,  like  those  of  Guzerat,  continued 
to  extort  some  practical  acknowledgment  of  their  rights  by  more  or  less  violence. 

In  the  southern  division,  especially  amidst  the  mountains  contiguous  to  the  Ner- 
buddah and  Tuptee  rivers,  the  savage  phmdering  tribe  called  Bheels,  |  The  Bhcei>. 
live  in  the  jungle  extending  westward  to  Guzerat,  where  they  meet  the  Coolies,  and 
eastward  to  Gundwana,  where  they  come  in  contact  Avith  the  Gonds.  All  these 
races  are  averse  to  regular  industry,  prone  to  rapine,  and  sometimes  employed  by 
native  chiefs  to  desolate  the  territories  of  their  adversaries.  A  few  of  them  are 
cavalry,  but  the  greater  part  infantry,  armed  with  bows  and  almost  naked.  They 
profess  the  Hindoo  religion,  but  from  their  ignorance,  are  careless  of  the  observance 
connected  with  the  Braminical  precepts  of  purity.  They  had  acquired  a  degree  of 
political  consequence  from  their  strength,  when  in  1818  they  were  subdued  by  Sir 
John  Malcolm,  and  their  chiefs  came  under  an  obligation  to  lead  quiet  and  peaceable 
lives,  and  to  protect  the  property  of  others.  After  this,  an  insurrection  of  Arabs  and 
Mekranees,  was  formed  under  an  impostor  boy  named  Krishna,  who  was  made  lo 
personate  the  reigning  Raja.  This  insurrection  was  defeated,  nearly  4000  were  ex- 
pelled, besides  2000  of  Bapoo  Sindia's  Mewatties,  and  Patans. — Chan-  |  chamieree. 
deree,  the  chief  town  of  a  district  of  the  same  name,  is  very  ancient,  and  was  once 
a  place  of  great  splendour.  Abul  Fazel  says  it  contained  14,000  stone  houses,  376 
market  places,  360  inns,  and  2000  mosques.  It  does  not  now  correspond  to  so  high 
a  description,  but  it  contains  a  manufacture  of  fine  cotton  stuffs.  Seronge  |  seronge. 
is  a  large  open  town.  In  the  cold  season,  the  thermometer  here  often  descends  be- 
low the  freezing  point,  and  water  freezes  during  the  night.  It  seems  to  have  been 
formerly  more  populous  than  it  is  now,  though  still  a  flourishing  place.  It  is  one  of 
the  possessions  of  Ameer  Khan,  a  Pindaree  chief,  formerly  a  freebooter,  but  now 
under  obligations  to  abstain  from  that  mode  of  life.  He  has  several  assignments  of 
land,  and  pending  claims  in  Rajepootana  and  the  country  on  the  east  of  the  Chum- 
bul ;  but  Seronge,  and  Tonk  on  tiie  Banas,  are  his  principal  possessions. 

The  district  of  Oojein  is  fertile.  The  vines  bear  a  second  crop  of  grapes  in  the 
rainy  season,  but  they  are  sour.  The  city  of  Oojein,  the  Ozene  of  Pto-  |  Oojein. 
lemy,  situated  in  a  vast  plain,  is  considered  by  some  as  the  capital  of  Malwa.  It 
is  the  modern  capital  of  the  dominions  subject  to  the  Sindia  Mahrattas,  It  is  adopted 
by  Hindoo  geographers  and  astronomers  as  the  first  meridian.  The  modern  town  is 
about  a  mile  to  the  south  of  the  ancient,  which  is  said  to  have  been  destroyed  by  an 


144  1U)0K  FORTY-SEVENTH. 

earthquake  about  the  lime  of  Raja  Vicramaditya,  when  it  was  the  seat  of  arts,  learn- 
ino-,  and  empire.  Remains  of  ancient  walls  and  pillars  are  found  by  digging  in  the 
site  of  the  ancient  city,  and  among  them  some  pieces  of  wood  of  extraordinary  hard- 
ness. The  modern  town  is  six  miles  in  circumference,  surrounded  by  a  stone  wall 
with  round  towers.  The  houses  are  of  brick  with  wooden  frames.  The  chief 
buildings  are  four  mosques,  and  a  number  of  Hindoo  temples.  It  also  contains  an 
f  A  astronomical  observatory.  The  waters  of  the  Sipra,  near  the  city,  are  esteemed 
sacred,  and  Oojein  itself  is  a  place  of  pilgrimage.  Sindia's  palace  makes  a  poor 
fio-ure.  The  popukition  has  diminished  of  late,  in  consequence  of  many  being 
attracted  by  the  neighbouring  town  of  Indore,  where  Holcar  has  fixed  his  court, 
formerly  migratory.  The  officers  and  public  functionaries  are  almost  the  only  Mah- 
ratta  inhabitants  of  Oojein.  It  is,  m  general,  well  supplied  with  provisions,  but  in 
1804,  when  visited  by  a  British  embassy,  several  persons  were  seen  dead  and  dying 
of  hunger  in  the  streets.  These  were  said  to  be  needy  strangers,  and  the  inhabitants 
were  restrained  from  giving  them  relief  by  the  dread  of  the  consequences  of  any 
appearance  of  superfluity.  In  1807,  a  treaty  was  concluded  by  the  British  with 
Sindia,  by  which  he  engaged  to  do  his  utmost  to  effect  the  extermination  of  the  Pin- 
darees,  but  his  conduct  was  always  suspicious  till  the  battle  of  Maheidpoor,  when 
the  power  of  Holcar  was  suddenly  annihilated. 

Indore.  |       Indorc  is  the  capital  of  the  Mahratta  chief  bearing  the  family  name 

of  Holcar,  who  has  of  late  years  made  a  great  figure  in  the  wars  of  India,  having  taken 
Bopaui.  1  Poonah  in  1802,  and  desolated  the  whole  neiglibouring  country. — Bopaul 

is  the  capital  of  a  sjnall  independent  state,  100  miles  east  from  Oojein,  and  near  a  lake 
which  abounds  in  crocodiles.  The  country  is  naturally  fertile,  but  neglected,  and  over- 
run with  jungle,  which  has  been  for  some  years  a  place  of  refuge  for  all  kinds  of  ban- 
ditti, and  the  very  centre  of  Pindaree  influence.  The  town  and  territory  are  occupied 
by  a  colony  of  Patans,  to  whom  they  were  assigned  by  Aurengzebe.  The  town  is  at 
present  deserted  and  ruinous.  Their  Nabob  is  supported  by  British  alliance,  after 
Saiigor.  I  having  been  long  oppressed  by  the  Pindarees  and  Mahrattas.* — Saugor 

was  taken  by  the  British  forces  under  General  Marshall  in  1818,  and  was  found  to 
exhibit  every  appearance  of  an  opulent  and  flourishing  city,  though  in  the  heart  of 
the  Pindaree  country.  This  whole  district  and  neighbourhood  are  naturally  strong, 
and  part  of  the  military  force  required  to  overawe  central  Indostan  is  stationed 
within  the  Hmits  of  the  Saugor  district. 

The  banditti  so  well  known  by  their  predatory  incursions  under  the 
name  of  Pindarees  at  first  occupied  a  small  portion  in  the  south  of  the 
Malwa  province,  but  afterwards  extended  to  the  centre,  and  seemed  in  a  fair  way  of 
soon  absorbing  the  whole.  This  name  was  originally  applied  to  a  body  of  roving 
cavalry  which  accompanied  the  Peshwa's  armies.  When  the  Peshwa  ceased  to  in- 
terfere with  any  territory  to  the  north  of  the  Nerbuddah,  leaving  that  portion  of  the 
Mahratta  empire  to  Sindia  and  Holcar,  the  Pindarees  divided  into  two  parties,  accord- 
ing as  they  attached  themselves  to  the  fortunes  of  one  or  the  other  of  tliese  chiefs. 
All  the  Pindaree  leaders,  and  most  of  the  men,  were  Mahometans,  but  they  admitted 
all  sects  into  their  body,  and  formed  a  general  nucleus  for  vagabond  and  disaffected 
persons,  till  the  elements  of  confusion  and  destruction  were  gradually  so  concen- 
trated as  to  form  a  dreadful  scourge  to  India.  Like  the  early  Mahrattas,  they,  sys- 
tematically prosecuted  a  war  of  plunder  acd  devastation  on  all  their  neighboursfiand 
were  recently  acquiring  the  consolidated  form  of  one  or  more  organized  states. 
Nature  of  their  They  livc  in  socictics  of  onc  or  two  hundred.  When  an  enterprising 
expeditions.  leader  determined  on  a  plundering  expedition,  he  invited  the  neighbour- 
ing Thokdars,  as  the  chiefs  were  called.  The  power  of  the  leader  was  not  heredi- 
tary, but  founded  entirely  on  the  respect  paid  to  his  talent  and  enterprise.  The  sub- 
mission paid  to  him  was  partial,  except  when  in  the  midst  of  an  enemy's  country, 
when  the  safe  return  of  the  party  depended  on  their  implicit  obedience  to  his  orders. 
They  moved  in  some  measure  at  random,  their  previous  information  being  seldom 

•  See  Prinsep's  Narrative  of  the  Political  and  Military  Transactions  of  British  India,  under 
the  administration  of  the  Marquis  of  Hastings,  from  1813  to  1818,  p.  21,  &,c. 


Account  of  the 
Pindarees. 


INIJOSTAN.  145 

correct.  The  only  object  in  the  arrangement  of  their  movements  was  to  keep  toge- 
ther. There  was  nothing  systematic  either  in  the  attacks  which  they  made,  or  in 
the  division  of  the  phmder,  except  that  a  part  of  the  latter  was  set  apart  for  those 
who  were  obliged  to  remain  behind  taking  charge  of  the  horses.  They  were  excellent 
riders  ;  their  arms  were  swords  and  spears  ;  fire  arms,  though  they  esteemed  them 
for  their  execution,  they  disliked  as  too  cumbersome.  Nothing  generous  or  brave, 
but  every  thing  that  was  both  mean  and  desperate,  characterized  their  proceedings. 
To  secure  plunder  by  all  means,  and  when  attacked  to  escape  in  the  securest  manner, 
were  their  only  objects.  They  undertook  long  journeys  of  two  or  three  months, 
through  the  midst  of  armed  enemies.  In  1814,  their  strength  was  estimated  at 
31,000.  In  the  northern  Circars,  the  devastation  which  they  made,  and  the  plunder 
which  they  carried  off,  were  immense.  They  put  thousands  of  individuals  to  the 
most  inhuman  tortures,  to  make  them  disclose  their  treasures,  and  many  were  bar- 
barously murdered.  As  they  were  proceeding  to  convert  the  finest  part  Their  suppiej. 
of  India  into  a  desert,  it  became  the  imperious  duty  of  the  British  go-  '""• 
vernment  to  put  an  end  to  so  formidable  a  series  of  atrocities.  The  Marquis  of 
Hastings  took  the  field  against  them  in  October,  1817,  and  by  a  well  concerted  com- 
bination of  movements,  directed  to  their  native  haunts  as  to  a  centre,  he  expelled 
them  by  the  end  of  November.  In  their  attempts  to  take  refuge,  partly  with  Sindia, 
and  partly  with  some  subordinate  neighbouring  chiefs,  they  were  disappointed.  Ar- 
rangements were  afterwards  made,  by  which  those  of  their  own  chiefs  who  surren- 
dered were  provided  for  as  peaceble  cultivators  or  proprietors,  in  districts  not  fitted 
by  any  natural  strength  to  cherish  their  lawless  habits  ;  and  this  serious  danger  has 
thus  been  crushed.  India  is  a  country  peculiarly  liable  to  these  irregular  marauding 
combinations,  which  from  time  to  time  require  to  be  put  down,  but  it  is  seldom  that 
they  attain  a  strength  so  formidable  as  in  the  instance  of  the  Pindarees,  and  under 
the  preventive  measures  now  adopted  in  that  country,  such  a  power  is  not  likely  again 
to  arise. 

On  the  north  of  Malwah,  between  Rajepootana  on  the  west  and  Oude 
on  the  east,  and  bounded  on  the  north  side  by  Delhi,  is  the  province  of 
Agra.  In  its  western  and  southern  parts,  this  province  is  hilly  and  jung 
is  open,  flat,  and  rather  bare  of  trees.  The  chmate  is,  generally  speaking,  tempe 
rate,  but  in  winter  it  is  really  cold;  and  during  the  hot  winds  of  summer,  though 
these  are  not  of  long  duration,  the  climate  is  unhealthy,  especially  in  the  hills.  The 
Jumna,  the  Chumbul,  the  Ganges,  and  several  smaller  streams,  such  as  the  Sinde 
and  the  Koharry,  flow  through  this  province ;  yet  it  is  not  well  supplied  with  water. 
To  the  north  of  the  Chumbul,  and  on  the  western  frontier,  during  the  dry  season, 
except  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  large  and  permanent  rivers,  water  for  agri- 
cultural uses  is  procured  from  wells.  The  soil  is  well  adapted  for  indigo,  cotton, 
and  sugar,  the  crops  of  which  articles  are  annually  increasing  in  those  portions  which 
are  immediately  under  British  jurisdiction;  in  those  which  remain  subject  to  native 
chiefs,  agriculture  is  far  behind.  The  territory  between  the  Ganges  and  Jumna, 
which  is  called  the  Doab,  is  particularly  fertile,  and  exports  indigo,  sugar  and  cotton. 
It  is  more  thinly  peopled  than  Bengal  and  the  more  flourishing  provinces.  The 
population  may  be  estimated  at  six  millions,  of  which  the  Doabeh  districts  under 
British  rule  comprehend  a  considerable  proportion.  The  natives  are  a  handsome 
and  robust  race.  The  Hindoo  is  the  prevailing  religion,  though  the  Mahometans 
have  ruled  here  since  the  eighteenth  century.  The  language  in  common  use  is  the 
Hindostanee;  the  Persian  is  used  for  public  documents,  and  also  in  conversation 
among  the  higher  classes  of  the  Mahometans.  The  Agra  district  of  this  province  is 
notorious  for  the  frequency  of  highway  robbery,  which  is  believed  to  be  connived  at 
or  encouraged  by  the  Zemindars,  thougli  under  the  British  jurisdiction.  Robbers,  in- 
deed, easily  escape  from  the  latter  into  tlie  territories  of  native  chiefs,  where,  after 
committing  a  robbery,  they  find  a  secure  asylum. 

The  city  of  Agra  occupies  a  wide  plain  on  the  north-west  side  of  the  |  City  of  Agra. 
Jumna,  in  tlie  form  of  a  crescent.     It  is  supposed  to  have  been  the  birth-place  of 
Avatar,  or  incarnation  of  Vishnu,  under  the  name  of  Parasee  Rama,  vhose  conquests 
extended  to  Ceylon.     According  to  Tiefenthaler,  it  is  seven  miles  long  and  three 
Vol.  II.-^T 


Province  of 

Agra. 

y;  the  rest 


146  1300K  FORTY- SEYENTII. 


broad*  It  is  to  the  emperor  Akber  that  it  owes  its  splendour;  he  gave  it  tl»e  name 
Palace  of  Ak-  ^^  Akber-Abad.  Only  a  few  monuments  of  it  are  left,  among  which  is 
ber.  the  palaco  of  Akber,  one  of  the  finest  buildings  in  Asia.     It  stands  on 

an  eminence ;  its  walls  of  red  granite  present  the  appearance  of  a  single  block  of 
stone,!  extending  in  a  crescent  shape  along  the  river  side,  leaving  between  its  walls 
and  the  water,  a  beach  which  is  used  as  a  harbour,  where  numerous  trading  barks 
and  pleasure  boats  are  continually  arriving.  Three  days  in  the  week,  the  great  square 
of  the  palace,  planted  with  several  rows  of  oriental  plane-trees,  is  employed  as  a 
market  place.  Round  this  square  a  fine  gallery  extends,  and  at  regular  distances 
are  six  triumphal  arches  of  entrance,  leading  from  the  same  number  of  spacious 
streets.  The  middle  of  the  square  is  ornamented  with  a  stone  statue  of  an  elephant 
emitting  a  stream  of  water  from  his  trunk.  The  palace  has  two  immense  galleries, 
adorned  with  twenty-four  double  columns  of  white  marble,  with  pedestals  of  blue 
granite  and  capitals  of  yellow  mica.  The  mosque  belonging  to  the  palace  is  entirely 
of  mica,  and  resembles  a  casket  of  precious  pebble.;};  In  the  interior  of  the  apart- 
ments, gold,  marble,  and  sculptures  executed  in  red,  yellow,  and  black  stone,  occur 
every  where  in  the  greatest  profusion.  Round  the  great  palace,  seven  small  marble 
palaces,  for  the  use  of  the  princes,  are  ranged  in  symmetrical  order. — At  a  little  dis- 
The  Mosque.  |  tance  from  the  citadel  is  the  great  mosque  of  Akber,  a  building  superior 
to  the  famous  mosque  of  Soliman  at  Constantinople.  Its  red  granite  walls  are  en- 
crusted with  plates  of  gold,  and  a  cornice  runs  along  the  foundation.  The  mosque 
of  Aurengzebe,  on  the  river  side  is  supported  by  upwards  of  a  hundred  columns. — 
Mausoiea,  &c.  |  Among  the  mausoleums  with  which  this  city  is  adorned  are  those  of  Ak- 
ber and  Shah-Jehan,  of  astonishing  size  and  grandeur;  but  surpassed  by  that  of  the 
father-in-law  of  Jehan,  the  celebrated  Noor  Jehan  Begum.  It  is  kept  in  repair  by 
the  English.  On  every  side  we  meet  with  magnificent  gardens.  In  the  time  of 
Ticfentiialer,  tlrere  was  at  Agra  a  Jesuitical  college,  and  a  Christian  burying-ground, 
with  a  vast  vaulted  building,  the  walls  of  which  were  painted  with  all  sorts  of  flowers, 
while  a  fountain  of  sweet-scented  water  played  by  their  side.  Agra  once  owed 
much  of  its  flourishing  condition  to  the  industry  of  its  inhabitants.  The  city  was 
filled  with  store-houses,  work-shops,  sale-shops,  and  market-places.  Its  trade  has 
greatly  declined,  yet  it  still  contains  a  great  number  of  merchants,  both  native  and 
foreign.  Legoux  de  Flaix  says,  it  may  contain  800,000  inhabitants.  This  must 
be  an  exaggeration,  and  so  indeed  are  the  accounts  given  of  its  present  magnifi- 
cence. The  English  accounts  reduce  it  to  60,000.  The  city  had  the  honour  of 
Family oiAbui  g'^i^g  ^"'th  to  Abul  Fazel,  prime  minister  of  Akber,  and  author  of  the 
Fazei.  Ayeen  Ackbery,  or  Statistical  Account  of  Indostan.     A  lineal  descend- 

ant of  this  meritorious  vizier  resided,  and  probably  still  resides  here,  Mustapha 
Khan,  living  on  a  pension  which  he  has  received  under  the  successive  rulers  of  the 
country.  The  Gallo-Mahrattan  administration  reduced  that  pension  to  fifteen  ru- 
pees, 1/.  105.  per  annum.  In  1813,  the  British  government  assigned  him  fifty  rupees 
per  month. — Agra,  with  the  rest  of  the  province,  fell  under  the  sway  of  Madhajee 
Sindia,  and  continued  in  the  hands  of  the  Mahrattas  till  1803,  when  it  surrendered 
Great  gun  of  ^0  Lord  Lake.  Among  the  artillery  captured  was  one  enormous  piece 
Agra.  called  the  great  gun  of  Agra,  twenty-three  inches  in  caliber,  fourteen 

feet  two  inches  in  length,  tlie  tliickness  of  metal  at  the  muzzle  eleven  and  an  half 
inches;  weight  of  the  gun,  96,600  pounds;  the  ball  of  cast  iron  which  it  received 
weighed  1500  pounds.  In  an  attempt  made  to  convey  it  to  Calcutta,  it  broke 
through  the  raft  and  sunk  into  the  river,  in  the  bed  of  which  it  probably  still 
remains. 

Futtipoor.  j  The  town  of  Futtipoor,  to  the  south-west  of  Agra,  owed  its  lustre  fo 
Akber.  It  has  a  stone  wall  of  great  extent,  which  seems  never  to  have  been  filled 
with  buildings.  The  only  monument  is  the  tomb  of  Shah  Schm  Chcestee,  by  whose 
prayers  the  empress  of  Akber  became  pregnant  of  a  son,  who,  when  born,  was 

*  I.  tab.  7.  No.  2. 

t  ValeiUyn,  Oiul-und-Nieuw  Oslindien,  vi.  205.  (Vie  des  Grands  Mogols. ) 

i  Lcijoux  de  Flaix,  Lssai,  i.  p.  174. 


INDOSTAN.  147 

called  Selim  in  honour  of*  the  Kaiiit,  and,  on  ascending  the  throne,  took  the  name  of 
Jehangeer. 

Matliura,  thirty  miles  N.N.W.  from  Agra,  is  celebrated  as  the  scene  |  Mathura. 
of  the  birth  and  early  adventures  of  Krishna.  It  was  destroyed  by  Mahniood  of 
Ghizrec  in  lOlS.  It  was  afterwards  rebuilt  and  adorned  with  many  rich  temples,  the 
most  magnificent  of  which  was  erected  by  Raja  Beer  Suigh  Deo  of  Oorcha.  This  tem- 
ple was  razed  by  Aurengzebe,  who  erected  a  mosque  with  the  materials  on  the  spot. 
In  the  fort  are  still  to  be  seen  remains  of  an  observatory  built  by  llajah  Jeysingh  of 
Jyenagur.  After  the  dissolution  of  the  Mogul  government,  this  place  experienced 
many  misfortunes,  and,  among  others,  a  general  massacre  of  its  inhabitants  by  the 
orders  of  Ahmed  Shah  Abdalli  in  1756.  At  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  it 
was  the  head  quarters  of  General  Perron,  the  French  commander  of  the  Shidia 
Mahrattas.  It  was  taken  by  Lord  Lake  in  1803.  It  is  a  great  resort  of  Hindoo 
votaries.  Here  a  multitude  of  sacred  monkeys  of  large  size  are  fed  by 
the  hand  of  superstition  at  the  public  expense.  In  1808,  two  young 
English  officers  having  inadvertently  fired  at  one  of  these  revered  proteges,  were 
immediately  assailed  by  an  overwhelming  mob  of  priests  and  worshippers,  and,  in 
making  their  escape  over  the  river  on  an  elephant,  were  drowned.  The  fish  in  this 
part  of  the  Jumna  are  equally  respected,  and  are  said  to  come  to  the  surface  in  ex 
pectation  of  being  fed. 

In  the  Doab,  in  the  district  of  Etawch,  is  the  city  of  Kanoje,  which  (  Kanoje, 
was  a  place  of  great  renown,  and  the  capital  of  a  powerful  empire  at  the  period  of 
the  Mahometan  invasion.  But  it  is  now  completely  fallen.  The  completion  of  its 
misfortunes  was  in  1761,  when  it  was  sacked  by  the  Mahrattas.  It  is  now  a  heap 
of  ruins  concealed  under  rank  jungle,  a  retreat  for  robbers  and  criminals  of  every 
description.  No  buildings  of  any  importance  remain :  the  brick  walls  are  going 
rapidly  to  decay.  Hindoo  coins,  with  the  figures  of  deities,  are  sometimes  found 
among  the  rubbish. 

Furruckabad,  the  capital  of  a  district,  and  the  mercantile  emporium  |  FumicKabad. 


Sacred  mon- 
keys. 


of  the  ceded  districts  of  the  neighbourhood,  contained  in   181 1    a  po 


ndation   of 


Fortress  of 
Gualiur. 


66,800,  which  is  supposed  to  be  greatly  on  the  increase.  Gualior,  about 
seventy  miles  south  from  the  city  of  Agra,  iii  this  district,  is  reckoned 
one  of  the  greatest  fortresses  in  Indostan.  It  is  built  on  a  detached  rock  340  feet 
high,  and  perpendicular  all  round  ;  its  length  is  a  mile  and  a  half,  but  its  greatest 
breadth  not  more  than  300  yards.  A  stone  parapet  extends  all  round  close  to  the 
brow  of  the  hill.  Within  the  summit  of  this  fort,  are  large  natural  caves,  which 
contain  a  never-failing  supply  of  excellent  water.  The  town,  placed  along  the  east 
side  of  the  hill,  is  large,  well  inhabited,  and  contains  many  good  houses  of  stone, 
which  the  neighbouring  hills  furnish  in  abundance.  This  has  always  been  a  place  of 
great  consequence.  Under  the  Moguls  it  was  used  as  a  state  prison,  where  the 
obnoxious  members  of  the  royal  family  were  confined.  It  was  taken  by  the  Ma- 
hometans in  1197  after  a  long  siege,  and  again  by  the  Afghans  in  1235.  In  1519, 
after  having  been  100  years  in  the  possession  of  the  Hindoos,  it  yielded  to  Ibrahim 
Lodi,  emperor  of  Delhi.  In  1582  it  is  described  by  Abul  Fazcl  as  the  head  town 
of  a  district.  It  afterwards  came  under  the  Mahrattas.  It  is  deemed  impregnable, 
yet  has  often  changed  masters.  In  1780  it  was  taken  by  surprise  and  escalade,  by 
the  British  troops  under  Major  Popliam  ;  the  storming  party  being  headed  by  Capt. 
Bruce,  brother  to  the  celebrated  traveller  in  Abyssinia.  It  is  now  in  the  possession 
of  Dowlet  Row  Sindia,  whose  camp,  formerly  itinerant,  was  fixed  at  a  short  distance 
sojLith-west  from  this  fortress,  where  a  second  city  has  consefjuently  risen,  surpassing 
the  old  one  in  size  and  population. 

Bhurtpoor,  thirty-one  miles  N.  by  W.  from  Agra,  is  the  capital  of  an  |  BhuniKwr. 
independent  state  formed  by  the  Jauts,  who  originally  came  from  Mooltan,  and, 
though  of  a  low  caste,  assumed  higher  claims  on  adopting  military  habits.  Tlie 
Bhurtpoor  Raja  owes  his  situation  at  present  to  the  forbearance  of  the  English, 
to  whom  he  has  more  than  once  proved  an  unwilling  observer  of  treaties,  joining 
enemies  from  whom  he  had  no  reason  to  expect  greater  friendship,  or  a  more  respect- 


Province  of 
Delhi. 


148  liOOK  FORTY-SEVENTH. 

able  independent  alliance.  He  is  consequently  less  powerful  than  he  once  was,  and 
pledges  of  his  fidelity,  and  even  testimonies  of  submission,  are  now  exacted. 
MacheiiT-  |  Machcvry  is  a  Raja-ship  adjoining  the  province  of  Delhi.  The  Raja 
has  always  maintained  friendly  relations  with  the  British,  on  whom  he  is  dependent. 
In  1811,  after  being  for  some  time  in  a  state  of  mental  derangement,  he  was  seized 
with  an  unfortunate  propensity  to  persecute  his  Mahometan  subjects  by  the  most 
wanton  acts  of  violence  and  outrage,  destroying  their  tombs  and  places  of  worship, 
and  cutting  off  the  noses  and  ears  of  the  devotees.  This  rehgious  phrenzy  was, 
however,  placed  under  restraint,  and  practical  toleration  re-established  by  British 
interposition.  Bindroban,  or  Bendrabad,  on  the  Jumna,  is  a  place  containing  some 
old  temples,  and  a  tree  held  in  great  reverence  by  the  Hindoos.*  Along  the  river 
there  are  many  small  chapels  inhabited  by  hermits,  and  octagonal  towers  where  the 
pilgrims  assemble  to  bathe.  Among  the  inhabitants  are  many  Beerajes,  or  Indian 
monks,  and  some  female  vestals  :  both  of  them  go  almost  naked,  and  live  in  dark 
straw-roofed  cells,  wearing  three  yellow  stripes  on  their  foreheads. 

Ascending  the  Jumna,  we  enter  the  imperial  province  of  Delhi,  to  the 
north  of  Agra  and  Adjemere,  bounded  on  the  west  by  Adjemere  and 
Lahore  ;  on  the  north  by  Lahore  and  the  mountainous  countries  ;  and  on  the  east 
by  the  same  countries,  and  the  province  of  Oude.  Several  territories  in  this  pro- 
vince were  in  1803  assigned  by  the  British  to  the  support  of  the  decayed  representa- 
tive of  the  Mogul  family,  and  the  revenue  is  collected  under  the  superintedence  of  the 
Enghsh  resident  at  Delhi.  It  has  gradually  increased,  and  after  supporting  the  royal 
household,  a  surplus  remains  applicable  to  general  purposes.  This  province  has  less 
natural  fertility  than  Agra,  but  is  better  cultivated.  It  yields  three  crops  of  rice  in 
the  year.  Much  of  it  is  still  uncultivated,  but  the  places  fully  subjected  to  the  British 
administration  are  rapidly  improving.  It  is  in  contemplation  to  open  a  great  canal 
of  irrigation,  which  formerly  existed,  but  has  of  late  years  been  choked  up.  The 
districts  subject  to  native  chiefs,  though  also  somewhat  improved,  are  comparatively 
neglected,  in  consequence  of  the  feuds  which  prevail  among  them.  The  population 
of  this  province  does  not  exceed  eight  millions,  consisting  of  Hindoos,  Mahometans, 
and  Seiks,  the  latter  religion  being  prevalent  in  the  north  west. 
cityofDeiii..  ]  The  city  of  Delhi  is  in  Lat.  28°  40'  N.  and  Long.  77°  5'  E.  on  the 
west  bank  of  the  river  Jumna.  It  was  called  Indrapraths  prior  to  the  Mahometan 
invasion,  and  was  even  then  a  city  of  great  fame  and  magnitude.  In  the  days  of  its 
splendour  it  occupied  an  extent  of  tAventy  miles.  It  has  only  one  street  in  a  line 
parallel  to  the  river.  In  1738  it  was  sacked  by  Nadir  Shah,  and  spoiled  of  its  trea- 
sures, which  were  valued  at  more  than  ten  millions,  among  which  were  splendid  col- 
lections of  diamonds,  a  throne  of  massive  gold  studded  with  precious  stones,  and 
statues  of  eleph.ants  in  chased  gold.  The  Afghans  and  Mahrattas  have  completed 
its  destruction.  Still  according  to  Legoux  do  P'laix,  it  contained  in  his  time  more 
than  1,700,000  inhabitants,  but  its  population  is  considered  by  its  present  masters  as 
only  between  150,000,  and  200,000.  It  is  divided  into  two  parts,  the  one  inhabited 
by  natives,  called  Idooanee,  the  other  by  Mussulmans,  and  called  Mogolanee  ;  the 
Building?.  latter  is  the  most  handsome.     The  finest  building  contained  in  it  is 

Palace.  the  imperial  palace  on  the  Jumna  ;  it  is  built  of  red  granite  of  a  tasteful 

architecture  ;  its  length  is  1000  yards,  and  its  breadth  600.  It  is  said  to  have  cost 
10,500,000  rupees,  (1,050,000/.)  The  rooms  ghtterwith  gilding,  azure,  and  all  sorts 
of  ornaments.  The  stables  are  capable  of  holding  10,000  horses.  Even  the  kit- 
chens were  like  drawing  rooms.  The  Djenana,  or  palaco  of  the  princesses,  com- 
municated with  that  of  the  emperor  by  a  gallery.  On  the  opposite  side  of  the  river 
was  the  Selimserey  palace,  the  residence  of  the  brothers  and  near  kin  of  the  em- 
peror, kept  in  a  state  of  splendid  imprisonment.  Three  other  sumptuous  palaces 
are  still  to  be  seen  in  the  suburbs,  the  most  remarkable  of  which  is  the  Godaie  Ko- 
telar.  The  walls  of  the  great  saloon  arc  ornamented  with  crystal,  and  a  lustre  of 
black  crystal  of  admirable  workmanship  hangs  from  the  ceiling;  so  that  when  lighted 
up,  the  whole  presents  the  appearance  of  a  conflagration.     Hero  Legoux  tells  us, 

•  Tiefenthaler,  i.  141. 


INDOSTAX.  149 


The  peacock 
throne. 


the  "  peacock  throne"  was  still  preserved.*  This  throne,  says  that 
author,  is  of  an  oval  form,  placed  under  a  palm  tree  which  overshadows 
it  with  its  foliage  ;  a  peacock,  perched  on  one  of  the  large  pahnatted  leaves,  stretches 
its  wings  to  cover  the  personage  who  is  seated  on  the  throne.  The  palm  tree  and  pea- 
cock are  of  gold  ;  so  thin  and  delicate  are  the  feathers  and  the  leaves,  that  they  seem 
to  wave  and  tremble  with  the  slightest  breath  of  wind.  The  tail  and  wings  of  the 
peacock  glitter  with  superb  emeralds.  The  fruit  of  the  palm  is  partly  executed 
in  Golconda  diamonds,  and  is  an  exact  imitation  of  nature.  Modern  Delhi  contains 
many  good  houses,  mostly  of  brick.  The  observatory  is  in  its  vicinity.  It  was  built 
in  the  reign  of  Mahomed  Shah,  but  has  been  repeatedly  plundered. — Among  the  most 
splendid  memorials  of  the  taste  and  magnificence  of  Shah  Jehan  is  the  well  belonging 
to  the  Juirma  Mojccd  or  mosque.  The  v.ater  is  raised  by  complicated  machinery, and 
a  succession  of  reservoirs,  to  the  area  of  the  mosque.  It  becomes  an  object  not  only  of 
great  convenience,  but  sometimes  of  necessity  to  the  whole  inhabitants  of  the  city. 
The  consequences  of  its  having  gone  into  disrepair  were  very  distressing  du'rin"-  the 
hot  season  in  1S09,  and  it  was  subsequently  put  in  order  at  the  expense  of  the  British 

fovernment. — Such  is  the  veneration  with  which,  from  political  habit,  the  city  of 
)elhi  is  viewed,  that  many  of  the  native  princes  still  attach  to  it  the  idea  of  beino-  the 
capital  of  their  supreme  government.  The  coin  is  in  some  places  struck  in  the  name 
of  the  Mogul  emperor.  Some  have  applied  to  the  present  representative  of  the 
family  for  confirmation  in  their  respective  possessions ;  an  empty  ceremony,  which 
the  British  policy  does  not  encourage,  whilst  others  apply  for  favour  and  acknow- 
ledgment to  the  British  power,  chiefly  in  consideration  of  their  now  having  posses- 
sion of  the  Mogul  metropohs."f 

Nine  miles  south-west  from  Delhi  there  is  a  remarkably  elegant  pillar     piiiar  of  cut- 
242  feet  high,  which  seems  to  have  been  intended  as  a  minaret  to  a     *"''  Minar. 
mosque  which  was  never  built:  it  goes  under  the  name  of  Cuttub  Minar. 

Rewary,  fifty  miles  S.  W.  from  Delhi,  is  a  town,  with  a  district  of  the  |  Rewary. 
same  name,  formerly  given  to  the  Raja  of  Bhurtpoor,  but  resumed  by  the  British 
on  account  of  his  infidehty  to  his  engagements  in  their  cause.     It  is  now  a  secure 
and  considerable  entrepot  for  the  commerce  carried  on  with  Delhi  in  that  direction, 
which  is  great  and  constant. 

Paniput,  fifty  miles  N.  by  W.  from  Delhi,  was  formerly  a  great  com-  |  Panipnt. 
mercial  emporium,  but  has  suffered  severely  from  the  political  confusion  which  so 
long  desolated  the  country.  It  is  famous  as  the  scene  of  two  of  the  greatest  battles 
ever  fought  in  India;  one  in  1525,  between  the  Sultan  Bauber  and  Ibrahim  Lodi, 
the  Afghan  emperor  of  Delhi,  in  which  the  latter  was  defeated  and  slain,  in  conse- 
quence of  which  the  dynasty  of  Timour  siezed  the  throne;  the  second  took  place 
in  1751,  between  Ahmed  Shah  Abdalli,  king  of  the  Afghans,  and  the  Mahrattas, 
under  the  Bhow  Sidasiva.  The  latter  were  routed  with  immense  slaughter;  40,000 
prisoners  were  taken  ;  out  of  500,000  persons,  including  men,  women,  and  children, 
who  composed  the  Mahratta  camp,  the  greater  part  were  killed:  many  were  delibe- 
rately put  to  death  in  cold  blood  by  the  Afghans ;  and  many  who  attempted  to  escape 
were  slain  by  the  neighbouring  Zemindars. 

That  part  of  the  province  of  Delhi  which  lies  to  the  east  of  the  Gan-  Rohiicund. 
ges  is  called  Rohiicund,  being  formerly  possessed  by  a  race  called  Ro-  Tiie  Rohiiia!. 
hillas,  originally  of  the  Yoosofzey  Afghan  tribe,  who  migrated  hither  about  the  be- 
ginning of  the  eighteenth  century.  They  are  a  handsome  and  tall  race,  of  a  whiter 
complexion  than  the  more  southerly  inhabitants  of  India,  courageous  and  hardy,  and 
conjoin  the  pursuits  of  agriculture  with  those  of  arms.  They  were  united  under  a 
distinct  leader.  In  1774  the  British  defeated  their  combined  forces  at  the  battle  of 
Cutterah.  They  have  been  since  that  time  exposed  to  the  plundering  incursions  of 
the  Seiks,  and  the  rapacity  of  the  Nabob  of  Oude,  who  also  denies  the  Rohillas  the 
advantage  of  commercial  intercourse  with  his  territories,  which  is  enjoyed  by  the 
other  British  districts;  but  their  industry  puts  them  in  possession  of  a  considerable 
trade.  Rohiicund  includes  the  three  separate  jurisdictions  of  Bareilly,  Shah-jehan- 
poor,  and  Moradabad.     The  Mahometans  and  Hindoos  arc  about  equal  in  number; 

•  See  his  Essay  on  Indostan,  i,  193.  f  Elphintone. 


150  BOOK  FORTY-SEVENTH. 

but  owing  to  the  intolerance  of  the  former,  there  are  no  Hindoo  temples  of  any 
magnitude.  The  population,  especially  about  the  town  of  Bareilly,  is  conaiderable, 
but  has  never  been  numerically  ascertained.  Bareilly  is  a  large  and  thriving  place, 
situated  on  the  banks  of  the  united  Jooah  and  Lunkra.  It  was  the  capital  of  Hafez 
Rehmut,  a  Rohilla  chief,  slain  at  the  battle  of  Cutterah,  who  lies  interred  here. — 
Cutterah  is  twenty-eight  miles  S.  E.  from  Bareilly. — Moradabad  forms  the  western 
part  of  Rohilcund.  The  soil  is  naturally  moist:  it  is  rich,  but  not  cultivated.  The 
climate  is  unhealthy,  a  circumstance  attributed  to  the  vicinity  of  the  mountains  ;  and 
the  population  is  scanty.  During  the  Patau  sway,  this  part,  as  well  as  the  rest  of 
Rohilcund,  was  in  a  highly  flourishing  condition;  its  dechne  may  be  dated  from  the 
Mahratta  invasion.  It  has  been  a  prey  to  Jauts,  Mewatties,  Aheers,  and  others ; 
and  even  still  the  police  is  far  from  being  efficient  for  the  prevention  of  gross  enor- 
mities. The  imprisonments,  trials,  and  punishments,  which  take  place  on  account  of 
robbery  and  murder,  are  uncommonly  numerous.  The  independent  jaghire  of  Ram- 
poor,  possessed  by  a  Rohilla  Nabob,  affords  refuge  to  plunderers  from  the  pursuit 
of  justice.  In  1816,  the  number  of  prisoners  at  Moradabad  was  upwards  of  four 
hundred. 

saiiaiunpoor.  |  About  90  milcs  duc  north  from  the  city  of  Delhi  is  Saharunpoor,  the 
capital  of  a  British  district  of  the  same  name.  This  district,  though  situated  between 
the  Jumna  and  the  Ganges,  and  in  itself  flat,  is  not  subject  to  the  periodical  inunda- 
tions which  prevail  in  Bengal. 

Hurdwar.  |  In  this  district  is  Hurdwar,  a  celebrated  place  of  Hindoo  pilgrimage, 
near  the  last  of  the  falls  of  the  Ganges,  where  the  pilgrims  come  to  bathe  in  the  river. 
At  the  end  of  March  they  begin  to  assemble.  In  1794^,  there  were  150,000,  Every 
Annual  piigii-  tcu  ycars  the  number  is  unusually  great.  This  gregarious  pilgrimage  is 
mages.  accompanied  by  an  annual  fair,  at  which  a  great  multitude  of  mercantile 

transactions  take  place.  In  times  of  political  uncertainty  and  confusion,  serious  af- 
frays have  occurred  from  the  rival  claims  advanced  by  different  armed  castes  to  the 
superiority  and  direction.  The  British  ascendancy  has  been  followed  by  the  esta- 
bUshment  of  more  steady  regulations  for  conducting  the  ceremonies  and  the  trade. 
The  town  of  Hurdwar  is  very  small,  having  only  one  street,  which  is  about  a  furlong 
and  a  half  in  length.  About  forty-seven  miles  N.N.E.  from  Delhi  is  Seerdhuna,  the 
chief  town  of  Somroo  Begum,  the  widow  of  a  celebrated  military  adventurer,  called 
Somroo,  who  was  a  native  of  Treves,  and  died  in  1776. 

Hurriana.  |  In  the  wcst  part  of  the  province  lies  Hurriana,  the  chief  town  of  which, 
Hissar,  has  extensive  ruins,  having  been  once  a  flourishing  capital.  The  palace  of 
Feroze  Shah,  in  the  centre,  has  some  extensive  subterranean  apartments.  The  sur- 
rounding territory  was  long  a  prey  to  all  sorts  of  irregularity  and  individual  rapacity, 
the  Briti.sh  leaving  it  to  different  chiefs,  and  declining  to  receive  marks  of  subjection 
from  any,  for  fear  of  becoming  involved  in  their  disputes  with  their  neighbours :  but 
matters  were  carried  to  sucli  a  lieight  among  the  predatory  natives  and  neighbours, 
that  the  chiefs  resigned  their  possessions,  and  the  British  took  them  into  their  own 
hands.     This  happened  about  1809. 

The  northern  quarter  of  the  province  of  Delhi  is  occupied  by  Seik  principalities 
•under  Brili.sli  prolection.  Here  is  the  ancient  town  of  Tlianusar,  in  the  vicinity  of 
which  is  tlie  lake  Khoorket,  to  which  pilgrims  come  from  great  distances  to  worship 
and  bestow  their  charity.  Siihind,  once  a  renowned  and  brilliant  city,  is  now  a  scene 
of  desolation,  from  tiic  devastations  of  the  Sciks,  w!io,in  1707,  destroyed  the  mosques, 
and  levelled  the  palaces  and  public  buldings  with  the  ground.  D'Anville  makes  this 
the  Serinda  from  which  Justinian  procured  silk  worms,  an  opinion  not  admitted  by 
other  oriental  scholars. 

Piovinceof  On  the  south-east  of  Delhi  is  the  province  of  Oude,  the  smallest  in 

^"  ^'  Upper  Indostan.     On  the  north  it  is  bounded  by  some  dependencies  of 

Nep'l;  on  tlic  south  by  Allahabad;  on  the  east  by  Baiiar;  and  on  tlie  west  by  Agra 
and  Delhi.  Its  length  is  250  miles;  its  breadth  100.  The  whole  surface  is  level, 
well  watered,  and  [jroductive  in  various  valual^le  plants.  It  also  produces  nitre,  kit- 
chen salt,  and  lapis  lazuli,  from  which  last  is  obtained  the  ultra-marine  blue  so  much 
valued  Ijy  painters,  and  which  sells  at  nine  guineas  per  ounce.     The  Hindoo  inha- 


site  of  the  city 
ot"  Oude. 


IXDOSTAN.  151 

bitants  of  this  and  the  adjoining  provinces  are  a  much  superior  race  both  in  bodily 
and  mental  qualities  to  those  of  the  southern  parts,  tliough  the  latter  may  be  their 
equals  in  acuteness  and  cunning.  The  Rajepoots,  or  mihtary  class,  have  robust 
frames,  and  are  taller  in  stature  than  the  Europeans.  Many  of  them  are  Mahome- 
tans. From  this  province  some  of  the  Ea§t  India  Company's  best  sepoys  are  pro- 
cured. Their  military  habits  were  kept  much  on  the  alert  by  the  political  anarchy  of 
the  province,  till  the  British  government  assumed  the  superintendence.  The  present 
capital  of  Oude  is  Lucknow,  on  the  south  side  of  the  river  Goomty,  one  |  LucUnow. 
of  the  tributaries  of  the  Ganges  which  descends  from  the  Kumaoon  mountains.  The 
streets  inhabited  by  the  lower  classes  are  sunk  several  feet  below  the  surface.  They 
are  extremely  dirty,  and  so  narrow  that  two  carts  cannot  pass  each  other.  The  Na- 
bob's palace,  the  mosques,  and  burying  places,  display  considerable  splendour,  hav- 
ing gilt  roofs  and  an  ornamented  architecture.  The  Imam  Barri,  built  by  Asoph  ud 
Dowla  in  1783,  is  reckoned  one  of  the  most  superb  edifices  in  India,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  those  erected  by  the  emperor  of  Delhi.  Here  is  the  sepulchre  of  that  Nabob, 
where  tapers  are  kept  burning,  and  verses  from  the  Koran  continually  chaunted,  both 
day  and  night.  In  the  neighbourhood  is  Constantia,  the  residence  of  the  late  Gene- 
ral Claude  Martin,  to  which  are  attached  a  superb  garden  and  a  mango  clump,  but 
the  surrounding  country  is  flat  and  barren.  On  the  General's  decease  the  furniture 
was  sold,  and  the  mirrors  and  girandoles  now  adorn  the  government  house  at  Cal- 
cutta. 

The  town  of  Oude,  on  the  south  side  of  the  river  Gogra,  is  religiously 
honoured  as  the  ancient  capital  of  the  great  Rama,  but  now  exhibits  a 
shapeless  heap  of  ruins,  covered  with  jungle,  and  containing  the  reputed  sites  of 
temples  dedicated  to  different  sainted  characters.  The  pilgrims  who  resort  hither 
are  chiefly  of  the  Ramata  sect.  Fyzabad,  which  was  the  capital  before  |  FyzabaJ. 
1775,  still  contains  a  numerous  population.  It  has  been  chiefly  remarkable  of  late 
years  as  the  residece  of  the  celebrated  Bhow  Begum,  widow  of  Shuja  ud  Dowlah, 
who  died  in  1815,  and  left  a  treasure  amounting  to  ^61, 038, 074  sterling,  exclusive  of 
jewels,  shawl  goods,  wearing  apparel,  cattle,  and  various  other  property.  Between 
the  river  Gogra  and  the  southmost  range  of  the  Himalah  chain  of  mountains,  is  Go- 
rukpoor,  a  large  but  depopulated  town,  not  far  from  the  mausoleum  of  Goseknath,  a 
famous  Hindoo  hermit,  and  founder  of  the  sect  of  Jaghys; — Balrampoor,  much  fre- 
quented by  the  merchants  from  the  northern  mountains,  who  bring  hither  the  tails  of 
yaks  and  strong  horses  of  a  small  breed; — Naudpara,  on  a  marshy  soil  covered  with 
bamboos,  and  inhabited  by  wild  long-horned  buffaloes; — Nimkar,  on  the  Goomty, 
where  a  sacred  table,  a  tree,  and  some  pools,  attract  the  veneration  of  the  Hindoos; 
— and  Khyrabad,  which  contains  a  considerable  manufacture  of  cotton  stufls.  In 
the  district  belonging  to  it  is  a  sacred- place  called  Brahmavert,  where  Brahma  sacri- 
fiiced  by  the  side  of  a  muddy  pool. 

On  the  south  of  Agra  and  of  Oude  hes  the  province  of  Allahabad.  It 
is  bounded  on  the  south  by  the  Hindoo  province  of  Gundwana,  on  the 
west  by  Malwah,  and  on  the  east  by  Bahar.  The  surface  of  this  province  on  the 
banks  of  the  Jumna  and  Ganges  is  flat  and  liighly  productive,  but  flic  soulh-wost 
parts,  called  Bundelcund,  consist  of  an  elevated  table  land,  diversified  with  liigh  hills, 
and  abounding  with  fastnesses.  It  is  not  susceptible  of  complete  cultivation,  but  it 
contains  the  famous  diamond  mines  of  Pannah.  The  low  part  has  a  sultry  climate, 
and  is  exposed  to  hot  winds,  from  which  Bundelcund  is  exempt.  Besides  the  two 
great  rivers,  a  number  of  small  streams  flow  through  the  north  part  of  this  province, 
and  render  some  districts,  especially  the  subdivisions  of  Benares  and  Allahal)ad, 
among  the  most  productive  countries  of  India.  It  exports  diamonds,  nitre,  opium, 
sugar,  and  indigo.  The  hilly  country  having  fewer  and  smaller  rivers,  depends 
chiefly  on  the  periodical  rains,  and  the  water  procured  with  considerable  labour  from 
wells.  The  population  exceeds  seven  millions,  consisting  of  a  proportion  of  Hin- 
doos to  Mahometans  as  eight  to  one.  In  the  remote  antiquities  of  India,  it  held  a 
high  rank  for  containing  the  two  chief  prayagas  or  confluences  of  the  Ganges,  places 
always  esteemed  peculiarly  sacred  in  the  Brahminical  religion.  It  is  at  present  en] 
tirely  subject  to  British  jurisdiction,  with  the  exception  of  some  petty  chielUuniB  in 


rrovince  of 
AllalKihad. 


152  BOOK  FORTY-SEVENTH. 

City.  I  Bundelcund.     The  city  of  Allahabad  is  considered  by  some  orientalist* 

as  the  ancient  Palibolhra,  the  capital  of  the  Prasian  or  Pragian  monarchy.  It  i» 
called  by  the  Hindoos  the  "  Prayaga"  by  way  of  distinction,  being  the  most  sacrec 
place  of  this  description.  Here  the  Ganges,  the  Jumna,  and  the  Sereswati  are  said 
to  join;  the  last,  however,  is  not  now  visible,  and  is  only  asserted  to  flow  under 
Hindoo  pietj-,  |  ground !  By  bathing  at  the  place  of  junction,  a  condensation  of  religious 
purification  is  obtained,  amounting  to  the  same  degree  as  if  the  votary  had  bathed  in 
each  of  the  three  separately,  and  even  acquiring  from  the  junction  an  additional  con- 
summation of  spiritual  privileges.  When  the  pilgrim  arrives,  he  sits  down  on  the 
bank  of  the  river,  has  his  head  shaved,  allowing  all  his  hair  to  drop  off  directly  into 
the  water,  the  sacred  writings  promising  a  million  of  years'  residence  in  heaven  for 
each  hair  thus  disposed  of.  Next  day  he  performs  the  obsequies  of  his  deceased  an- 
cestors. Each  devotee  pays  a  tax  of  three  rupees  to  government,  and  expends  much 
more  in  charity  to  the  Brahmins,  who  wait  by  the  river  side  to  receive  these  pious 
oblations.  Many  sacrifice  their  lives  at  the  exact  place  of  confluence,  by  going  out 
in  a  boat  and  plunging  in  with  weights  hung  to  their  sides.  Others  lose  their  lives  by 
the  pressing  of  the  crowds,  eager  to  enter  the  most  sacred  spot  of  the  river  at  periods 
of  the  moon,  esteemed  supereminently  holy.  The  fort  of  Allahabad  is  situated  on  a 
tongue  of  land  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  the  city,  the  one  side  being  washed  by  the 
Jumna  and  the  other  approaching  to  the  Ganges.  It  is  lofty  and  extensive,  and 
commands  the  navigation  of  both  rivers.  The  side  next  the  land  is  regular  and  very 
strong;  the  gateway  elegant,  and  in  the  Grecian  taste.  The  government  house  is 
spacious  and  cool.  The  fortifications  are  considered  as  now  quite  impregnable  to 
the  tactics  of  a  native  army.  This  was  a  favourite  city  of  Akber,  and  by  that  empe- 
ror the  modern  city  was  founded.  The  houses  were  formerly  built  of  brick  and  sub- 
stantial, but  now  mostly  of  mud.  The  inhabitants,  exclusive  of  the  garrison,  are  esti- 
mated at  20,000. 

Another  place  of  distinguished  interest  in  India  is  the  city  of  Benares 
in  this  province,  being  both  a  place  of  great  sanctity  and  the  focus  of 
Brahminical  erudition.  The  streets  of  Benares  are  so  extremely  narrow  that  it  is 
difficult  to  get  along  even  on  horseback.  The  number  of  stone  and  brick  houses  is 
upwards  of  12,800.  Some  of  the  brick  houses  are  six  stories  high,  with  terraces 
and  small  windows.  Those  on  the  opposite  sides  of  the  streets  are  often  connected 
by  crossing  galleries.  The  mud  houses  are  above  16,000  in  number,  and  in  1S03, 
the  permanent  inhabitants  exceeded  582,000,  exclusive  of  8000  foreigners.  During 
festivals  the  concourse  is  beyond  calculation.  The  Mahometans  are  supposed  to  be 
more  than  one  in  ten.  About  8000  houses  are  occupied  by  mendicant  though  not 
needy  Brahmins.  The  mosque  was  built  by  Aurengzebe  in  a  conspicuous  and  sacred 
spot,  where  a  Hindoo  temple  formerly  stood,  which  was  destroyed  to  make  room 
for  the  mosque.  The  houses  of  the  English  at  Serole  are  handsome,  but,  like 
others  in  this  climate,  look  bare  for  want  of  trees,  which  cannot  be  suffered  near 
any  dwelling  on  account  of  the  multitudes  of  musquitoes  which  they  harbour. 
Benares  contains  many  inhabitants  of  great  opulence,  and  many  active  merchants 
and  bankers.  It  is  the  great  mart  for  diamonds  and  other  precious  stones,  brought 
principally  from  Bundelcund.  The  land  in  the  vicinity  is  high  priced  and  property 
frequently  litigated.  Benares  is  held  sacred  for  ten  miles  round.  The  famous  lin- 
gam  which  it  contains  is  reckoned  a  petrifaction  of  Siva  himself.  Within  the  city 
Fables  con-  are  not  less  than  a  million  of  images  of  the  lingam.  The  history  of  this 
nected  with  it.  ^jj^  j^  j.jpj^  -^^  ^j^^  marvellous.  It  is  believed  that  it  was  originally  built 
of  gold,  but  in  consequence  of  the  sins  of  the  people  was  converted  into  stone,  and 
afterwards  into  clay  and  thatch  for  their  increasing  wickedness.  The  Brahmins 
maintain  that  the  physical  foundation  of  this  city  differs  from  that  of  the  rest  of  the 
terrestrial  mass.  It  rests  on  the  point  of  Siva's  trident!  while  the  earth  rests  on 
the  thousand-headed  serpent  Ananta,  (the  emblem  of  eternity.)  Hence  no  earth- 
quake is  ever  felt  within  its  holy  limits,  and  it  retained  its  positian  at  epochs  at  which 
the  rest  of  the  world  was  overthrown.  One  visit  to  Benares  secures  for  the  pilgrim 
a  happy  entrance  into  the  heaven  of  Siva.  There  are  persons  who  practise  the 
profession  of  regular  guides  or  cicerones  to  the  pilgrims.     Many  resort  hither  to 


City  of  Be. 
nares. 


INBOSTAN.  ,  153 

finish  their  days,  and  such  is  its  sanctity,  that  even  the  Enghsh,  who  have  stained 
their  souls  with  the  blood  of  the  cow,  and  sacrilegiously  fed  on  her  flesh,  may  obtain 
absorption  into  Brihm  by  dying  at  Benares.  Let  it  be  hoped  that  this  privilege  does 
not  depend  on  the  faith  which  the  privileged  individual  reposes  in  the  reality  of  the 
bliss  which  awaits  him — a  condition  which  would  be  somewhat  unreasonable. — Be- 
nares is  also  the  Athens  of  the  Hindoos.  In  1801,  besides  the  pubhc  |  its  learning, 
college  for  Hindoo  literature,  there  were  private  teachers  of  the  Hindoo  and  Ma- 
hometan law.  Of  the  former  300  were  said  to  be  eminent :  their  pupils  were  5000. 
No  fees  are  taken  from  the  pupils,  the  teachers  being  supported  by  donations  from 
pilgrims  of  rank,  and  regular  salaries  from  Hindoo  princes.  Reading  and  writing 
are  taught  together,  the  boys  being  made  to  learn  the  forms  of  letters  by  tracing 
them  on  the  surface  of  loose  sand.  The  Brahmins  are  seen  teaching  literature  and 
science  in  the  streets,  and  under  the  trees.  The  ancient  name  of  Benares  was  Casi, 
or  "the  splendid,"  which  it  still  retains.  Since  1781,  when  it  came  into  the  hands 
of  the  English,  it  has  enjoyed  uninterrupted  tranquillity,  and  has  increased  in  all 
directions.  Its  population  certainly  exceeds  600,000.  It  has  fine  gardens,  elegant 
tanks,  and  pagodas  ancient  and  modern,  among  which  is  the  temple  of  Visvisha, 
built  of  red  stone,  and  ornamented  with  elegant  columns  and  fine  sculpture.  It 
contains  a  stone  statue  of  a  bull,  and  a  living  bull  is  always  kept  in  it,  as  in  the 
temple  of  Apis  in  Egypt.  The  pagoda  is  consecrated  to  Mahadco,  or  Siva,  who  is 
worshipped  under  the  symbol  of  a  black  stone,  a  common  emblem  of  divinity  among 
the  ancient  nations,  and  which  some  consider  as  connected  with  the  history  of  stones 
which  have  fallen  from  the  heavens.*  The  observatory,  built  by  the  |  observatoiT. 
Raja  Jessing,  still  stands.  Its  figure  is  spherical,  representing  the  universe.  In  its 
interior  are  contained  the  zodiac,  and  other  circles  of  the  armillary  sphere.  The 
astronomical  system  here  delineated  is  the  Copernican,  which  is  believed  to  have 
been  known  and  adopted  by  the  ancient  Indians.  The  instruments  for  observation 
are  partly  made  of  stone. | 

In  the  district  of  Rewah,  the  English  have,  as  in  other  places,  put  down  the  trade 
of  gang  robbery,  by  which  the  country  previously  was  so  unmercifully  oppressed. 
Surnaid  Singh,  a  leader  of  a  den  of  thieves,  finding  he  could  not  escape  when  the 
mud  fort  of  Entooree  was  stormed,  and  the  garrison  put  to  the  sword,  strewed  gun- 
powder on  a  cloth,  in  which  he  wrapped  himself  up,  and  then  terminated  his  life  by 
setting  it  on  fire. 

The  diamond  mines  of  Pannah  are  supposed  to  have  been  the  Pa- 
nassa  of  Ptolemy.  During  the  reign  of  Akber  they  were  supposed  to 
yield  eight  lacks  of  rupees  per  annum;  and,  under  the  government  of  the  native 
chiefs  and  of  the  Mahrattas,  these  mines  have  been  a  considerable  source  of  public 
revenue,  as  well  as  of  mercantile  profit.  The  diamonds  are  contained  in  the  loose 
soil  which  is  mixed  with  pebbles.  The  soil  is  washed,  and  the  pebbles  separated  with 
the  hand  on  a  board.  The  diamonds  are  always  found  loose  and  separate.  Many 
days  are  spent  unsuccessfully  in  this  labour,  but  a  very  few  diamonds  in  the  course 
of  the  year  repay  the  workmen.  They  are  taken  to  a  house,  weighed,  and  sold  to 
the  merchants  residing  at  Pannah.  The  workmen  are  allowed  a  certain  proportion 
of  their  value.  Chatterpoor  is  a  trading  town,  luit  full  of  temples,  and  inhabited 
partly  by  borages,  or  Indian  monks,  fakeers,  and  other  devotees.  It  was  an  import- 
ant entrepot  for  the  trade  between  Mirzapoor  and  the  Dcccan.  It  is  extensive  and 
well  built,  but  far  from  being  so  flourishing  as  in  former  times. 

The  large  province  of  Bahar  is  situated  between  Bengal  on  the  east, 
and  Oude  and  Allahabad  on  the  west.  On  the  north  it  is  bounded  by 
the  territory  of  Nepal,  and  on  the  south  by  Gundwana,  which  also  extends  round 
part  of  its  western  frontier.  Its  surface  is  flat,  the  soil  fertile,  and  flie  climate  highly 
favourable  to  vegetation.  Agriculture,  manufactures,  and  commerce,  have  always 
greatly  flourished  in  this  province.     Opium  is  its  staple  commodity,  of  which  the 

*  Dalberg-,  sur  le  culte  meteorique. 

•j-  Esquisses  de  rHisloire  des  Indes,  Trad,  de  I'Angl,  ii,  p.  24. 

Vol.  II.—U 


Pannah. 

Diamond 

mines. 


Prnvince  of 
Baliar. 


154  BOOK  FORTY-SEVENTH. 

governmeni  makes  a  monopoly.  It  is  brought  to  Calcutta,  and  exposed  to  public 
cityof  Patna.  |  sale.  Nitre  is  also  manufactured.  The  modern  capital  is  Patna,  about 
a  mile  and  a  half  long,  and  three  fourths  of  a  mile  broad  within  the  walls.  It  is  closely 
built,  and  the  suburbs  are  extensive,  so  that  altogether  it  occupies  nine  miles  along 
the  river  side,  (including  Jaffier  Khan's  garden,)  and  its  width  averages  two  miles. 
It  contains  but  few  European  houses  and  settlers.  The  walls  and  gates  are  in  a  de- 
cayed and  tottering  state.  In  the  middle  of  the  city  the  Romish  Christians,  consisting 
of  twenty  Portuguese  families,  have  a  church,  the  handsomest  in  the  place.  Near 
to  it  is  the  common  grave  of  the  English,  who  were  treacherously  massacred  by  Meer 
Cossim  in  1763,  before  his  final  overthrow.  That  massacre  was  perpetrated  by  the 
adventurer  Somroo  or  Summers.  This  place  now  ranks  before  Delhi  and  Agra :  its 
population  is  312,000  of  stationary  inhabitants  ;  of  whom  97,000  are  Mahometans, 
and  214,500  Hindoos.  The  Seiks  have  here  a  place  of  worship  of  great  repute,  and 
Gaya  and  its  several  families  of  Armenians  have  long  had  a  fixed  residence  here, 
pilgrimage.  Gaya,  the  capital  of  the  Bahar  district,  is  a  place  of  great  sanctity,  being 
the  scene  of  many  Brahminical  legends.  It  is  the  resort  of  numerous  pilgrims.  These 
poor  creatures  have  laboured  under  gross  oppression  and  extortion  from  the  priests, 
being  even  subjected  to  torture  till  they  consented  to  give  an  offering  deemed  suited  to 
their  circumstances.  The  British  have  prohibited  all  forced  exactions,  and  made  the 
priests  amenable  to  the  criminal  police  for  all  acts  of  violence,  or  for  refusing  to  per- 
form the  ceremonies  required  when  the  pilgrim  makes  his  voluntary  gift.  In  times 
of  peace  the  number  of  pilgrims  and  their  attendants  is  reckoned  not  less  than 
100,000.  Many  breaches  of  the  peace  arise  out  of  this  great  concourse,  and  the 
priests  have  a  character  for  ignorance  and  immorality  ill  fitted  for  disseminating  any 
improvement  in  morals  among  those  who  aspire  at  the  benefit  of  their  intercourse. 
Some  miles  from  Gaya  there  is  a  granite  rock  in  which  a  great  cavern,  and  some 
temples  containing  Indian  inscriptions,  have  been  formed.* 

Bogiipoor.  I  The  district  of  Boglipoor,  in  the  eastern  part  of  this  province,  consists 
of  a  great  variety  of  surface  ;  hills,  rocks,  woods,  and  thickets.  Some  iron  ore  is 
found  in  it.  The  inhabitants  bear  a  much  superior  character  to  that  of  the  south- 
eastern natives  of  Bengal ;  but  it  contains  among  the  mountains  a  barbarian  population 
of  extremely  predatory  habits,  who  mostly  follow  a  superstition  of  their  own,  while 
some  of  the  wealthiest  have  fallen  under  the  influence  of  a  low  caste  of  Brahmins, 
who  have  instructed  them  to  worship  Durga,  and  say  prayers  before  a  heel  tree. 
Both  sexes  of  these  mountaineers  are  addicted  to  intoxication.  They  pay  no  taxes. 
Some  of  the  chiefs  receive  pensions  from  the  British  government  for  maintaining  the 
public  peace.  These  are  generally  spent  in  liquor  at  the  town  of  Boglipoor.  The 
town  is  chiefly  inhabited  by  Maliometans,  who  have  a  college  here  in  a  state  of  great 
decay. 

Monghir.  |  Monghir  is  a  celebrated  town  and  fortress,  beautifully  situated  on  a 
bend  of  the  Ganges.  It  was  a  place  of  great  importance  under  the  Mogul  govern- 
ment. It  was  strengthened  by  Cossim  Ali,  when  he  intended  to  throw  off"  his  depend- 
ence on  the  English,  who  had  raised  him  to  the  throne,  but  was  taken  in  nine  days. 
It  was  a  place  of  importance,  a  station  for  a  brigade,  and  a  dep6t  of  ammunhion  ; 
but,  since  the  British  dominions  have  extended  beyond  Delhi,  Allahabad  has  been 
chosen  for  a  depot,  and  the  fort  of  Monghir  has  been  neglected.  The  population  is 
about  30,000.  The  most  respected  place  of  worship  here  is  the  monument  of  Peer 
Shah  Hossein  Lohauni,  where  both  Hindoos  and  Mahometans  make  frequent  offer- 
its  artisans.  |  iugs,  especially  on  their  marriages,  and  other  interesting  occasions.  The 
gardeners,  tailors,  and  carpenters  of  Monghir,  are  noted  for  their  expertness.  Much 
of  the  army  clothing  is  made  here,  and  they  excel  in  making  European  furniture, 
carriages,  and  palanquins.  Hardware  also,  though  coarse,  is  extremely  cheap. 
About  four  miles  from  Monghir  there  is  a  hot  spring  called  Seetacoond,  of  a  tempe- 
rature of  ]  30°  or  upwards.  Not  far  from  Monghir  the  Afghans  built  a  rampart 
which  formed  a  connection  between  two  mountain  chains,  to  protect  the  country 
from  hostile  invasions. 

*  Asiat.  Researches,  vol.  i. 


INDOSTAN.  155 


Province  of 
Bengal. 


Produce  and 
agriculture. 


Proceeding  down  the  Ganges,  wc  come  to  the  most  important  pro- 
vince in  India,  occupying  the  lower  part  of  the  course  of  that  great 
river.  This  is  Bengal, — a  province  more  deserving  of  the  appellation  of  a  kingdom 
than  any  to  which  we  have  yet  turned  our  attention,  and  which  will  merit  a  minute 
description. 

Bengal  enjoys  a  position  admirably  adapted  for  security  against  the     its  position 
attacks  of  foreign  enemies.  The  whole  northern  frontier  is  skirted  with     a"pectl^^"^^ 
a  belt  of  low  land,  from  ten  to  twenty  miles  broad,  covered  with  a  most  exuberant 
and  impenetrable  vegetation,  particularly  the  augeah  grass,  which  is  sometimes  thirty 
feet  in  height,  and  two  inches  thick.  Beyond  this,  are  the  mountains  connected  with 
the  Himulah,  the  population  of  which,  though  warlilie,  is  thin  and  of  limited  number. 
On  the  south,  the  shore  is  almost  inaccessible  by  sea,  an  account  of  the  shallows 
with  which  it  is  every  where  beset,  having  only  one  harbour,  and  that  difficult  of  ac- 
cess.    On  the  east  it  is  protected  by  rugged  mountains  and  mighty  rivers  from  any 
inroads  on  the  side  of  the  Birman  empire.     It  is  only  on  the  west  that  the  approach 
of  an  enemy  could  be  apprehended,  and  here  also  the  natural  barrier  is  in  most 
places  strong. — The  Ganges,  running  in  a  south-easterly  direction,  divides  Bengal 
into  two  nearly  pqual  portions.     Taken  in  general,  it  is  a  flat  country,  containing 
only  a  few  elevated  tracts.  The  parts  liable  to  annual  inundations  were  called  Beng, 
whence  probably  the  name  which  we  give  to  the  whole  province.     The  higher  lying 
parts  were  called  Barendra.     In  the  southern  districts  rice  grows  most  luxuriant ; 
as  we  ascend  the  river,  the  proportion  of  wheat  and  barley  progressively  increases. — 
The  most  important  productions  of  Bengal  are  tobacco,  indigo,  cotton, 
the  mulberry,  and  the  poppy,  each  of  which,  in  general,  requires  land 
appropriate  to  its  own  cultivation.     One  great  object  of  the  farmer  is   to  have  an 
equable  supply  of  water,  which  is  frequently  obtained  by  means  of  embankments 
crossing  the  country,  and  preventing  the  rain  which  falls  from  flowing  ofl^.     Much 
care  is  requisite  to  protect  the  seed,  when  sown,  from  the  depredations  of  numerous 
birds,  and  afterwards  in  several  districts  the  produce  must  be  protected  by  watching 
from  the  incursions  of  wild  boars,  elephants,  buffaloes,  and  deer.     Maize  and  millet 
require  protection  during  the  night  from  the  large  bats.     The  grain  is  stored  in  jars 
of  unbaked  earth,  or  in  baskets  made  of  large  twigs.    The  implements  of  husbandry 
are  coarse  and  ill  adapted  to  their  office,  the  plough  merely  scratching  the  surface, 
without  turning  it  up.     A  number  of  them  in  succession,  each  drawn  by  a  single 
yoke  of  very  small  oxen,  are  employed  to  deepen  the  furrows.     The  miscellaneous 
exercise  of  different  kinds  of  industry  is  numbered  among  the  causes  which  retard 
the  progress  of  agriculture.     The  Bengalese  can  readily  turn  from  his  usual  occupa- 
tion to  another  branch  of  the  same  art,  or  to  an  entirely  new  occupation,  and  suc- 
ceeds surprisingly  in  his  earliest  efforts.     The  division  of  labour  is  prevented  from 
being  carried  to  any  extent  by  the  want  of  capital.     Every  manufact-urer  and  artisan 
works  on  his  own  account,  and  conducts  the  whole  process  of  his  art,  from  the  form- 
ation of  his  tools  to  the  sale  of  his  produce. ,  This  versatility  is  certainly  a  valuable 
resource  in  those  cases  in  which  the  demand  for  any  class  of  productions  ceases, — 
a  frequent  cause  of  misery  in  manufacturing  countries,  from  the  helplessness  of  indi- 
viduals who  are  thrown  out  of  their  usual  employment,  and  unfit  for  any  other. 
Many  of  the  farm  servants  in  Bengal  are  purchased  slaves,  or  bond-servants,  but 
they  are  not  treated  with  any  harshness,  or  even  distance,  by  their  masters.     The 
culture  of  potatoes  has  been  introduced  here  with  very  beneficial  effect.     A  great 
abundance  of  fish  is  supplied  by  the  rivers  ;  the  best  and  highest  flavoured  of  which 
is  the  mango  fish,  so  called  from  appearing  during  the   mango  season.     Mullet 
abounds  in  all  the  rivers,  and  may  be  killed  with  small  shot,  as  they  swim  against  the 
Stream,  with  their  heads  partly  out  of  the  water.     Bengal  enjoys  great 
facilities  of  internal  commerce  ;  innumerable  boats  incessantly  navigate 
the  Ganges,  its  tributaries,  and  its  branches.     The  construction  of  these  vessels 
varies  in  a  cmious  manner  with  the  kind  of  navigation  to  which  they  are  destined. 
The  flat  clinker  boats  used  in  the  western  districts  are  different  from  those  employed 
in  the  wide  and  stormy  navigation  of  the  lower  Ganges.     The  latter  are  lofty,  un- 
wieldy, and  deep.     All  the  Bengaleac  boats  arc  without  keels,  which  v  "^uld  render 


Commerce 
and  inland 
navigation. 


156  BOOK   FOUTY-SEVEXTH. 

them  unsafe,  as  they  often  ground  in  the  shallows.  For  this  reason  they  are  not  so 
well  adapted  for  sailing.  In  descending  the  river  they  are  carried  before  the  stream; 
in  ascending,  they  are  dragged  along  with  the  track  rope  ;  in  the  winding  branches 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Ganges,  the  principal  rehance  is  on  the  oar.  The  original  man- 
ner of  conducting  commerce  seems  to  have  been  by  hauls  or  open  fairs,  held  on  par- 
ticular days,  in  an  open  pluiu.  These  are  still  very  frequent.  Petty  traders  take 
advantage  of  the  days  kept  as  festivals  of  the  Hindoo  gods  and  Mahometan  saints,- 
to  find  a  market  for  their  wares.  Many  places  have  bazars,  or  dailv  markets,  in 
which  articles  in  common  use  are  regularly  sold.  These  are  kept  by  established  shop- 
keepers, and  frequented  by  small  venders.  There  is  no  uniformity  of  weights  and 
measures.  They  have  standards,  but  these  are  local,  very  numerous,  and  difierent 
even  in  the  same  place  for  difierent  articles  of  merchandise.  The  currency  is  silver 
and  cowries.  Copper  has  never  been  introduced,  and  gold  seldom  appears,  except 
in  Calcutta.  Bankers  were  introduced  from  the  vrest,  at  the  time  of  the  3Iahometan 
conquest.  Previously  they  were  few  m  number,  and  of  low  rank.  At  all  the  mar- 
kets there  are  money  changers,  with  loads  of  cowTies,  who,  in  the  early  part  of  the 
day,  give  cowries  for  rupees,  and  in  the  evening  give  the  hucksters  rupees  for  their 
cowries,  as  being  more  easily  transported.  Their  profit  on  the  t\yo  transactions  is 
about  a  thirty-sixth  part.  The  same  class  are  also  in  the  habit  of  advancing  money 
to  improvident  senants,  on  their  monthly  wages,  charging  a  profit  of  four  seventy- 
fourths  per  month,  on  their  advances,  but  occasionally  losing  their  principal. 
Sta?^^**  I  This  pro>-ince  contains  the  now  celebrated  city  of  Calcutta,  the  metro- 
its  situation.  I  pohs  of  the  British  power  ia  India.  It  is  situated  about  100  mUes  from 
the  sea,  on  the  east  side  of  the  western  branch  of  the  Ganges,  called  the  Hoogly.  or 
Calcutta  river.  It  is  rendered  somewhat  unhealthy  by  being  in  the  vicinity  of  exten- 
sive muddy  lakes,  and  an  immense  forest.  The  jungle  has  been  cleared  away  to  a 
certain  extent;  broad  straight  roads  are  cut  in  the  direction  of  the  prevailing  winds, 
and  the  streets  are  well  drained;  but  the  uir  of  the  place  still  participates  in  the  dis- 
advantages belonging  to  its  general  situation.  At  high  water,  the  river  is  a  mile  in 
breadth,  and  at  ebb  tide  exposes  a  great  extent  of  dry  sand  banks.  On  approaching 
the  city  from  the  sea,  a  stranger  is  much  struck  \\-ith  its  magnificent  appearance ;  the 
Bafldings.  |  spircs  of  the  churches,  temples,  and  mosques,  the  strong  and  regular 
citadel  of  Fort  William,  the  extent  of  the  buildings,  the  expansion  of  adjoining  villas 
and  gardens,  present  a  picture  very  difierent  from  the  state  of  the  same  locality  a  hun- 
dred years  ago,  when  it  was  a  mere  village,  inhabited  chiefly  by  husbandmen.  It 
extends  above  six  miles  along  the  river.  The  esplanade  between  the  citadel  and 
the  town  leaves  a  spacious  opening,  in  which  stands  the  new  government-house, 
erected  by  the  Marquis  Vi'ellesley;  and  on  a  line  with  this  edifice  is  a  range  of  mag- 
nificent houses,  ornamented  with  spacious  verandahs.  The  architecture  of  the  house 
is  Grecian,  and  the  pillars  of  the  verandalis  too  elevated  to  afford  the  requisite  shade 
in  this  hot  climate,  in  the  mornings  and  evenings.  One  of  the  most  memorable  ob- 
BiackHoie.  |  jects  is  the  Black  Hole,  tij^  prison  in  which  ^oobah  Sarajeh  ud  Dowla, 
on  taking  the  fort  iji  1757,  shut  up  the  garrison,  consisting  of  146  persons,  of  whom 
123  perished  miserably  before  morning,  sufibcated  by  the  confined  air.  It  now  forms 
part  of  a  warehouse,  and  is  filled  %nth  merchandise.  A  monument  of  a  pyramidal 
form  is  erected  opposite  to  the  gate,  to  commemorate  the  unfortunate  persons  who 
perished  by  this  act  of  cruelty.  It  has  suffered  by  the  lightning,  and  is  rathar  in  a 
decayed  state.  The  government  house  is  the  most  remarkable  public  edifice.  The 
others  are,  the  town  house,  the  court  of  justice,  and  two  English  churches.  It  con- 
tains-a  Greek  church,  an  Armenian,  and  some  Romish  churches  belonging  to  the 
Portuguese,  many  Hindoo  temples,  and  Mahometan  mosques.  The  botanic  garden 
is  beautifully  situated  on  the  west  bank  of  the  river,  on  a  bend  of  the  Hoogly,  hence 
Indian  Called  the  Garden  Reach.     That  part  of  the  town  which  is  inhabited  by 

tP"^-  natives,  and  called  the  black  town,  extends  to  the  north  of  tlie  other,  to 

which  it  exhibits  a  wretched  contrast.  Its  streets  are  narrow,  dirty,  and  unpaved. 
It  contains  some  two-storied  houses  of  brick,  but  the  great  majority  are  mud  hovels 
roofed  with  small  tiles,  with  side  walls  of  mats,  bamboos,  and  other  combustible  ma- 
terials.    Hence  conflagrations  are  frequent.     The  EugUsh  houses  arc  all  dtUiched, 


INDOSTAN.  157 

each  possessing  a  piece  of  ground  surrounded  by  a  high  wall.  They  cost  large  sums 
of  money,  and  stand  in  constant  need  of  repair.  The  destructive  ravages  committed 
on  the  timber  by  the  white  ants  often  occasion  complete  ruin  in  the  interior,  while 
the  house  has  on  the  outside  every  appearance  of  being  perfectly  sound.  Fort  Wil- 
liam stands  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  below  the  town.  It  is  of  an  octa-  |  Fort  vroDain- 
gonal  form,  and  superior  in  strength  and  regularit}'  to  any  fortress  in  India.  The 
building  of  it  was  commenced  by  Lord  Clive,  after  the  battle  of  Plassey.  It  has  cost 
the  East  India  Company  altogether  two  millions  Sterling.  It  is  too  extensive  to  be  use- 
ful as  a  tenable  post  in  a  case  of  extremity;  requiring  10,000  men  to  defend  its  works, 
and  containing  15.000,  a  number  which  would  be  able  to  keep  the  field.  The  works 
are  scarcely  above  the  level  of  the  country, — a  circumstance  which  excites  surprise  in 
the  natives  the  first  time  they  see  it,  as  they  connect  the  idea  of  strength  with  eleva- 
tion: they  generally  mistake  the  barracks  for  the  fort.  The  strata  under  the  soil  in 
this  neighbourhood,  are  of  a  clayey  tenaceous  texture,  and  on  boring  to  a  depth  of 
140  feet,  afford  no  springs.  A.t  a  depth  of  thirty-five,  a  stratum  of  decayed  wood  is 
found,  the  debris,  no  doubt,  of  some  ancient  forest.  The  population  of  P«»p«>«"i«^ 
Calcutta  is  computed  at  hah' a  million.  In  179S,  the  number  of  houses,  mamien. 
shops,  and  other  habitations  in  the  town,  belonging  to  individuals  was  as  follows : — 

To  natives  of  Great  Britam,         ------  4,300 

Armenians,            -.._.-.-  640 

Portuguese,  and  other  Christians,            ....  2.650 

Hindoos,               -..--..-  56.460 

Mahometans,        ..-..-.-  14,700 

Chinese,               .--._...  10 


Total  houses,  mdependently  of  those  belonging  to  the  Fort  and 

the  Company,  .......         7S,760 

The  genteel  society  of  Calcutta  is  highly  convivial.  It  is  customary  to  rise  carlv. 
Dinner  is  generally  after  sunset,  and  the  convivial  panics  are  kept  up  till  midnight. 
The  pro^nsions  are  excellent,  and  hberally  served:  and  as  they  quickly  spoil  in  this 
climate,  the  remains  are  thrown  out  to  the  pariah  dogs:  the  prejudices  of  the  natives 
not  allowing  them  to  use  any  thing  prepared  by  persons  not  belonging  to  their  own 
caste  or  reUcfion.  The  lower  orders  of  the  Portuguese  cani^t  consume  the  whole, 
and  they  are  cleared  away  by  a  variety  of  animals,  chiefly  the  pariah  or  wandering 
dogs,  and  immense  flocks  of  crows,  kites,  and  vultures,  which  almost  cover  the  houses 
and  gardens.  The  adjutant  stork  tenders  his  assistance  during  the  day,  the  jackals 
and  foxes  mingle  \^-ith  the  pariah  dogs  during  the  night,  and  altogether  keep  up  a 
hideous  howling.  Game  is  to  be  had  in  great  abundance.  3Iadeira  and  claret  wines 
are  used.  They  are  exposed  to  much  damage  from  the  musk-rat,  that  animal  com- 
municaUng  to  every  bottle  which  it  passes  over  a  disagreeable  flavour,  which  renders 
'it  unfit  for  use.  The  tables  are  covered  with  a  profusion  of  dehcious  fruit,  obtained 
at  a  very  moderate  expense.  The  usual  mode  of  ^isiting  is  in  palanquins,  but  many 
gentlemen  have  carriages  on  a  construction  suited  to  the  climate;  and  the  breed  of 
horses  has  been  greatly  improved.  The  British  inhabitants  are  hospitable  and  gene- 
rous to  their  countr\TBen  in  cases  in  which  their  assistance  is  required.  The  Asiatic 
Society,  established'in  this  city  by  Sir  W.  Jones,  has  proved  highly  useful  (  Asaikiodety. 
for  concentrating  such  knowledge  as  is  occasionally  obtained  of  Asia,  and  particularly 
of  Indostan.  3Iany  British  merchants  here  have  attained  great  opulence,  and  live  in  a 
splendid  style.  The  Armenians  are  very  respectable,  and  form  the  most  numerous 
body  of  Ibreign  merchants.  Some  of  the  higher  classes  of  them  are  usually  invited 
to  the  pubhc  entertainments  of  the  EngUsh.  The  Portuguese  houses  of  agency  are, 
next  to  the  English,  the  most  numerous.  Many  of  the  Portuguese  approach  venr 
near  to  the  natives  in  appearance  and  manners.  Some  Hindoo  traders  hare  acquired 
enormous  fortunes.  Some  of  them  have  apartments  fitted  up  in  the  European  fashion, 
and  in  the  most  splendid  style,  while  other  rooms  in  their  houses  contahi  tlie  ii::ages 
of  their  deiiios,  decorated  with  jev.  els.  Some  of  ihora  keep  English  coaches  and 
quipages.     There  is  more  intercourse  between  the  Europeans  and  the  natives  in 


G' 


158  BOOK  FORTY- SEVENTH. 

Calcutta  than  in  other  parts  of  India.  The  lower  orders  of  Europeans  have  acquired 
a  Hindoo  appearance,  and  the  Hindoos  in  too  many  instances  contract  from  the  most 
worthless  of  the  Europeans  a  brutality  and  coarseness  of  character,  habits  of  drunk- 
enness, and  other  moral  deformities.  The  business  of  the  covuts  of  justice  also,  with 
all  its  blessed  fruits,  generates  in  numerous  individuals  a  spirit  of  low  chicane.  Dis- 
honesty is  extremely  prevalent,  yet  the  property  of  Europeans  is  respected  in  a  sur- 
prising degree  by  the  natives,  even  when  exposed  to  great  temptations, 
chanderna-  Chandcrnagore  is  a  French  settlement  on  the  west  bank  of  the  river 

gore.  Hoogly,  sixteen  miles  from  Calcutta.   The  position  of  this  town  is  prefer- 

able to  that  of  Calcutta.  The  population  of  it  in  1S14  was  41,377,  and  the  revenue 
chinsura.  ]  wliich  it  yielded  32,154  rupees.  The  Dutch  settlement  of  Chinsura  is 
eighteen  miles  up  the  river  from  Calcutta,  on  the  west  side.  It  was  first  the  seat  of 
serampore.  |  a  Dutch  factory  in  1656.  The  Danish  settlement  of  Serampore,  twelve 
miles  above  Calcutta,  has  a  lively  and  pleasing  appearance,  the  houses  being  well 
built,  and  whitened  with  chunam.  It  is  narrow  and  long,  extending  about  a  mile 
along  the  banks.  It  has  a  small  saluting  battery  but  no  fortifications.  It  is  the  head 
quarters  of  the  European  Protestant  missionaries,  and  has  become  a  place  of  great 
literary  activity  ;  the  proficiency  attained  in  the  eastern  languages  in  this  place  being 
very  extensive.  •  ' 

The  Sunder-  I  The  dreary  regions  at  the  mouths  of  the  Ganges,  called  the  Sunder- 
bunds.  I  jjunjj^^  consist  of  a  labyrinth  of  rivers  and  salt  creeks,  forming  a  com- 

plete inland  navigation.  All  the  banks  consist  of  alternate  strata  of  sand  and  black 
mould,  bearing  the  appearance  of  recent  deposition,  and  showing  the  shifting  nature 
of  the  streams,  and  the  mutability  of  these  numerous  islands.  The  navigation  to 
Calcutta  is  by  two  passages,  more  than  200  miles  through  a  thick  forest,  where 
at  one  time  the  channel  is  so  narrow  that  the  branches  of  the  trees  on  the  opposite 
shores  meet  over  the  vessel,  while  at  another  it  presents  a  spacious  expanse  of  water, 
and  distant  shores  finely  fringed  with  wood.  The  only  inhabitants  of  the  forests  are 
wild  beasts,  excepting  here  and  there  a  solitary  fakeer,  or  Mahometan  devotee, — 
persons  greatly  respected,  and  supposed  to  be  divinely  protected  from  the  prowhng 
tigers.  Wood-cutters  also  frequent  these  places.  The  marshy  parts  of  the  forests 
do  not  admit  of  cultivation.  Some  of  the  drier  parts  might  undoubtedly  be  cultivated ; 
but  the  impenetrable  forest  is  valued  as  a  strong  natural  bulwark  against  maritime  in 
vasion.  Large  quantities  of  excellent  salt  are  manufactured  in  this  quarter,  and  thr 
article  is  esteemed  particularly  sacred,  as  being  obtained  from  the  mud  of  the  Ganges. 
The  forests  also  supply  Calcutta  with  an  inexhaustible  supply  of  wood  for  fuel,  and 
other  purposes.  This  vast  tract  is  considered  as  without  owners,  and  therefore 
claimed  as  the  property  of  government. 

s^igor  Island.  |  Sagor  Island  is  twenty  miles  long  and  five  broad.  The  anchorage  is 
healthier  at  this  part  than  higher  up  the  river.  It  is  a  celebrated  scene  of  Hindoo 
pilgrimage,  being  esteemed  a  place  of  great  sanctity,  because  it  is  situated  at  the 
junction  of  the  holiest  branch  of  the  Ganges  with  the  ocean.  Here  many  aged  per- 
Human  immo-  SOUS  make  a  Voluntary  sacrifice  of  their  lives.  Children  are  also  sacrificed, 
lations,  ^y  being  thrown  into  the  water,  particularly  by  people  belonging  to  the 

eastern  districts,  who  sometimes,  when  apprehensive  of  not  having  progeny,  promise, 
that  if  they  have  five,  the  fifth  shall  be  devoted  in  its  infancy  to  the  Ganges.  Simi- 
lar immolations  take  place  at  Allahabad,  at  Bansbariah  in  the  district  of  Hoogly,  and 
at  Chogdah  in  that  of  Nuddea.  The  sacrifices  of  the  aged  are  sanctioned  by  express 
tenets  in  their  sacred  books  ;  but  the  sacrifices  of  children  are  not  any  where  en- 
joined ;  such  acts  are  the  offspring  of  spontaneous  supersfition,  binding  itself  by  vo- 
luntary vows.  In  1801,  this  dreary  island  was  inhabited  by  a  few  of  the  devotees 
called  Gosseins,  who  claimed  contributions  from  the  pilgrims  and  itinerant  merchants 
who  resorted  to  it.  Obsequies  are  performed  for  deceased  ancestors,  and  an  ancient 
sage  called  Capila,  who  is  said  to  have  lived  2000  years  before  Christ,  has  a  temple 
here,  in  which  he  is  worshipped  as  a  god.  Religious  mendicants  sometimes  take  up 
their  abode  at  the  temple,  and  are  often  devoured  by  tigers.  Ruins  of  embankments 
and  works  of  inasonry  are  found  here,  which  show  that  the  island  has  at  one  time  been 
inhabited.  Of  late  years,  the  altcation  of  governnicnl  has  been  directed  to  this  island,and 


INDOSTAN.  159 


Commence- 
ment ofcul- 
tivatiun. 


Recently 
tbcraed  island. 


District  of 
Bacliergunge. 


it  has  been  let  out  in  portions  to  an  association  consisting  of  Europoans 
conjoined  with  natives.  In  this  instance,  the  government  has  relaxed 
from  that  rigid  policy  which  it  has  on  other  occasions  invariably  observed,  of  prohibit- 
inw  Europeans  from  becoming  landholders.  This  was  necessary  that  the  undertaking 
mio-ht  be  conducted  with  the  requisite  vigour,  as  the  speedy  clearing  of  the  island  of 
the  shelter  in  which  the  tigers  lurk,  is  necessary  to  make  it  habitable.  In  April,  1819, 
one-fifth  was  already  cleared,  and  a  broad  passage  effected  through  the  remainder, 
in  consequence  of  which  the  tigers  gradually  retired.  In  the  course  of  these  pro- 
ceedings, several  vestiges  of  old  buildings  were  discovered. 

An  island  two  miles  long,  and  half  a  mile  broad,  called  Edmonstone's 
Island,  in  lat.  21"  5'  N.  and  long.  88°  20'  E.  has  emerged  from  the 
water,  since  the  year  1813.  It  is  covered  with  the  trunks  of  trees  floated  down  the 
river,  many  of  which  have  taken  root  and  vegetated,  while  creeping  plants  have 
bound  together  the  accumulated  sand,  pushing  upwards  to  the  surface,  in  proportion 
as  fresh  portions  were  either  deposited  from  the  water  or  drifted  by  the  wind ;  the 
dung  of  the  birds  by  which  the  place  is  frequented  has  promoted  vegetation,  and 
contributed  to  the  formation  of  a  fertile  mould.  The  chief  creeping  plant  of  this 
description  is  the  Ipomea  pes  caprm.  Some  species  of  salsola  likewise  contribute  to 
the  same  end.  It  is  visited  by  wood-cutters,  and  fishermen,  who  erect  huts  on  it,  but 
no  permanent  habitation  has  as  yet  been  established. 

The  district  of  Bachergunge  is  at  the  mouth  of  the  Puddah,  or  great 
stream  of  the  Ganges,  on  the  sea  shore  east  of  the  Sunderbunds,  and 
similar  in  physical  character,  only  that  it  is  cultivated  and  populous.     In  1584  it 
was  laid  waste  by  an  inundation,  and  afterwards  by  the  ravages  of  the  Mughs,  a  fe- 
rocious banditti,  who  live  on  the  eastern  frontier  of  the  province,  and  who  were  aided 
by  the  Portuguese  settlers  in  Chittagong. — The  district  of  Jessore,  on  |  Jessore. 
the  coast  of  Calcutta,  partly  consists  of  a  similar  territory  ;  it  has  been  infested  by 
river  pirates,  who  live  in  the  jungles.     These  places  also  are  inhabited  or  frequented 
by  salt-makers.     This  territory  has  been  somewhat  better  cultivated  since  the  land 
was  settled  on  the  Zemindars  as  their  property,  in  fee-simple.     The  rent  which  they 
reahse,  amounts  to  about  a  fifth  part  of  the  government  land  tax.     It  contains 
1,200,000  inhabitants,  in  the  proportion  of  nine  Mahometans  to  seven  Hindoos. — 
The  district  of  Hoogly  also  improves,  but  much  of  it  continues  in  a  state  |  Hoogiy. 
of  nature.     It  is  particularly  annoyed  by  gang-robbers,  who  accompany  their  rob- 
beries with  torture.     This  crime  though  somewhat  diminished  by  the  vigilance  of 
the  British  police,  is  still  extremely  prevalent.     The  river  Hoogly,  from  which  the 
district  derives  its  name,  is  formed  by  the  junction  of  two  branches  given  ofT  by  the 
Ganges,  called  the  Cossimbazar,  and  the  Jellinghy.     The  influx  of  the  tide  here  is 
sometimes  inconceivably  rapid,  occasioning,  at  Calcutta,  an  instantaneous  |  Tides, 
rise  of  five  feet.     On  its  approach  all  boats  must  quit  the  shore,  their  place  of  safety 
being  the  deep  water  in  the  middle  of  the  river.     The  town  of  Hoogly  is  large, 
well  inhabited,  and  thriving,  but  not  equal  to  what  it  was  under  the  Mogul  govern- 
ment, when  all  the  duties  on  foreign  commerce  were  collected  there.     In  1632,  it 
was  the  scene  of  a  tragical  slaughter  of  the  Portuguese,  when  the  Moguls  took  it 
by  assault.     Most  of  the  Portuguese  ships  lying  at  anchor,  were  blown  up  by  their 
own  people  in  despair,  so  that  out  of  sixty-four  large  vessels,  fifty-two  grabs,  and  200 
sloops,  only  one  grab  and  two  sloops  got  away.     Here  in  1688,  the  English  fought 
their  first  battle  in  Bengal  against  the  Nabob's  troops,  in  which  they  were  successful, 
though  it  was  followed  by  a  peace  on  conditions  of  a  submissive  tendency.     In  the 
district  of  Nuddea,  adjoining  to  Calcutta  on  the  north,  is  Plassey,  cele-     NudJea. 
brated  for  the  bloody  route  which  decided  the  f\ite  of  Bengal  in  fivvour     P'»"«J'- 
of  the  English,  under  Colonel  Clivc,  against  the  Mogul  Nabob.     The  town  of  Nud- 
dea contains  a  Brahminical  seminary,  which  the  English  have  of  late  years  encou- 
raged by  the  institution  of  prizes. 

The  district  of  Midnapoor,  on  the  confines  of  Orissa,  is  only  partially  |  Midnapoor. 
cultivated.     It  sufiered  severely  by  a  dearth  in  1799.     Here  there  is  no  seminary 
properly  so  called,  that  is  none  for  teaching  the  Hindoo  and  Mahometan  law ;  but 
there  are  numerous  schools  for  reading  and  arithmetic.     The  character  of  the  teach- 


Rirboom. 
Moorshedabad, 


160  BOOK  FORTY-SEVENTH. 

ers  is  on  a  scale  of  morality  which  must  appear  to  a  person  of  our  habits  ludicrous, 
or  perhaps  lamentable.  An  eminent  teacher  of  Midnapoor  was  found  on  a  criminal 
trial  to  be  a  habitual  thief;  yet  the  circumstance  excited  no  surprise  or  disappoint- 
ment, and  was  attended  with  no  lowering  of  the  individual  in  society.  But  Ave  are 
not  to  suppose,  from  the  prevalence  of  such  instances,  that  there  is  a  total  want  of 
honour  among  the  people.  There  are  temptations  to  which  all  are  conscious  that 
tliey  habitually  yield,  yet  there  are  others  which  appear  to  our  habits  much  stronger, 
over  which  their  sense  of  honour  never  fails  to  obtain  a  heroic  trium.ph. 
The  sontai  Midnapoor  contains  an  indigent  insulted  race  called  Sontals,  who  are 

'■^'=*'  considered  as  outcasts,  and  not  allowed  to  settle  in  the  villages  of  the 

other  Hindoos.  They  have  villages  allowed  them  between  the  CLdtivated  lands  of 
the  other  inhabitants  and  the  unoccupied  tracts,  and  their  neighbourhood  thus  serves 
as  a  protection  to  the  former  from  the  depredations  of  wild  animals.  They  are  said 
to  be  industrious  in  their  habits,  but  from  their  ignorance  of  business,  they  are  egre- 
o-iously  imposed  on  by  money  lenders,  who  often  extort  from  them  100  per  cent,  on 
the  sums  which  they  advance.  The  people  of  Midnapoor  are,  on  the  whole,  a  sim- 
ple and  peaceable  race,  compared  to  those  Hindoos  who  have  more  intercourse  with 
the  courts  of  justice. 

Pistrict  of  ^'^  ^^^^  north  of  Midnapoor  and  Hoogly  is  the  district  of  Burdwan, 

Burdwan.  distinguished  by  a  comparatively  high  state  of  cultivation,  like  a  garden 

in  the  midst  of  a  wilderness.  Its  inhabitants  amounted,  in  1811,  to  856,000,  being 
at  the  rate  of  476  to  each  square  mile.  It  continues  to  improve,  new  villages  are 
formed,  and  the  number  of  brick  buildings  increases.  It  is  the  most  fertile  district 
in  all  India.     The  next  to  it  is  Tanjore  in  the  Carnatic. 

To  the  north  of  this  are  the  districts  of  Birboom  and  Moorshedabad, 
the  former  of  which  contains  coal,  though  not  of  good  quality.  Moor- 
shedabad is  the  chief  seat  of  the  silk-weaving  manufacture.  Here  gang-robbery, 
called  "  dacoity,"  is  the  most  common  crime.  The  city  of  Moorshedabad  stands  on 
the  Cossimbazar  branch  of  the  Ganges,  extending  eight  miles  along  both  sides  of 
the  river.  It  is  unfortified,  the  streets  are  narrow  and  almost  impassable  for  car- 
riages, and  the  buildings  very  indifferent.  The  streets  are  badly  drained,  and  even 
in  some  parts  overrun  with  jungle ;  the  air  confined  and  unhealthy.  The  city  seems 
rapidly  going  to  decay,  unless  some  exertions  to  improve  it  are  made  on  a  decided 
plan  and  a  comprehensive  scale.  In  1704,  this  city  succeeded  Dacca  as  the  seat  of 
government,  under  the  Nabob  Jaffier  Khan.  In  1757,  when  the  Enghsh  seized  the 
government  of  the  country,  it  was  superceded  by  Calcutta,  but  continued  the  station 
of  the  collector-general  till  1771.  Moorshedabad  is  still  a  place  of  extensive  trade. 
About  a  mile  south  from  it  is  the  town  of  Cossimbazar,  on  an  island.  It  may  be 
reckoned  the  port  of  Moorshedabad.  Here  the  best  silk  stockings  in  Bengal,  which 
are  all  wire-knit,  are  manufactured.  In  the  midst  of  the  adjoining  marshes  is  to  be 
found  the  magnificent  palace  of  Motidchil.*  8o  mild  is  the  climate  of  this  place, 
says  M.  Lagoux  de  Flaix,  that  the  silk  worms  spin  their  silk  the  whole  year  round 
on  the  mulberry  trees,  with  which  the  island  is  covered.  The  branch  of  the  river 
which  goes  by  the  same  name  is  a  part  of  the  most  sacred  line  of  the  Ganges. | 
nistri«  of  Proceeding  northward  we  enter  Rajshahy,  a  large  district,  which  oc- 

Rfljshahy.  cupics  the  ccntrc  of  the  province,  and  is  intersected  in  its  whole  length 

by  the  Ganges.  Its  capital  is  Nattore,  between  which  and  the  Dacca  in  the  south- 
east, there  is,  during  the  inundations,  a  navigation  of  100  miles  across  the  shallow 
lakes  called  jeels ;  the  villages  and  clumps  only  appearing  above  the  water,  which 
cityof  Raie.  ^^^^  ^  gcntlc  currcnt  of  half  a  mile  per  hour.  The  town  of  Rajemahl, 
raahi.  with  its  adjacent  territory,  is  now  attached  to  the  Boglipoor  division  of 

Bahar,  though  in  the  province  of  Bengal.  Here  we  find  the  magnificent  ruins  of  the 
palaces  which  it  contained  when  it  was  a  Mahometan  capital,  and  the  seat  of  an  im- 
portant miliiary  government,  commanding  tlie  fiimous  pass  of  Telliagurry,  and  other 
mountainous  passes  between  Bengal  and  Bahar,  which  were  of  so  much  conse- 
quence when  the  two  Soubahs  were  hostile  and  independent.     The  town  has  now 

•  Pennant  View,  ii.  294.  t  I^ssai,  tome  ii.  p.  376. 


District  of 
I'urntah. 


District  of  Di- 
nagepoor. 


INDOSTAN.  161 

fallen  to  complete  decay,  though  still  a  large  place,  and  the  resident  population  about 
30,000,  besides  a  number  ol"  travellers  whom  it  always  contains.  There  is  in  this 
neighbourhood  a  tribe  called  Toojipahs,  who  live  on  pillage,  and  dwell  in  villages 
under  chiefs  called  Manchis.  They  have  retained,  from  time  immemorial,  in  the 
midst  of  their  mountains,  their  wild  independence,  their  manners,  and  their  re- 
ligion.* 

In  the  north-west  corner  of  the  province  is  the  district  of  Purneah, 
bounded  on  the  north  by  the  Morung  hills  and  woods,  which  separate  it 
from  the  territory  of  Nepal.  Here  the  winter  is  colder  than  in  the  preceding  districts, 
hoar  frost  is  frequent  in  it,  and  proves  injurious  to  the  leguminous  crops.  Yet  the 
district  enjoys  on  the  whole  great  advantages  both  in  soil  and  climate,  and  is  very 
productive.  The  potato  has  been  introduced,  and  is  regularly  cultivated,  though  not 
used  as  a  leading  article  of  food.  In  1801,  the  population  of  Purneah  had  nearly 
doubled  in  forty  years,  and  consisted  of  nearly  three  millions ;  the  Hindoos  being  to 
the  Mahometans  as  fifty-seven  to  forty-three;  but  the  latter  have  great  influence, 
being  in  possession  of  a  great  part  of  the  land.  Purneah,  the  chief  town,  stands  on 
a  surface  of  nearly  nine  square  miles,  but  contains  only  40,000  inhabitants.  This, 
like  many  other  places  in  India,  has  been  progressively  deteriorating  in  salubrity 
without  any  apparent  cause,  and  in  1815,  had  become  so  destructive  to  all  classes, 
that  it  was  thought  necessary  to  remove  the  civil  authorities  elsewhere.")" 

Proceeding  eastward,  we  enter  Dinagepoor,  which  lies  also  a  little 
south.  In  the  winter  months  the  cold  here  is  considerable.  The  Eu- 
ropeans have  fire  in  their  rooms,  and  wear  woollen  clothing,  while  the  natives,  not 
so  well  provided,  shiver  in  the  night,  and  rise  in  the  morning  helpless  and  benumbed, 
till  revived  by  the  solar  heat.  In  1808,  the  population  consisted  of  three  njillions, 
of  whom  2,100,000  were  Mahometans,  and  900,000  Hindoos.  The  inhabitants, 
dastardly  in  the  extreme,  are  the  prey  of  gangs  of  robbers,  whose  depredations  are 
facilitated  by  the  numerous  rivers.  Ghoraghat,  in  this  district,  is  a  town  and  zemin- 
dary,  which,  like  some  others  in  the  same  quarter,  was,  at  an  early  period  of  the  Ma- 
hometan conquest,  given  to  Afghan  chiefs,  who  zealously  propagated  their  faith.  It 
produces  raw  silk,  gunnies,  (or  sackcloth,)  plenty  of  fruit,  and  Tanyan  horses.  The 
ruins  of  Gour,  the  ancient  capital  of  Bengal,  are  situated  in  the  district  |  iiuinsofconr. 
of  Dinagepoor,  twenty-five  miles  from  Rajemahl.  Several  villages  stand  on  its  site ; 
and  it  contains  the  remains  of  a  mosque  of  black  stone.  + 

The  district  of  Rungpoor  occupies  the  north-eastern  extremity  of  Ben-  ^.f^ts?"  **"' 
gal,  on  both  sides  of  the  river  Brahmapootra,  having  Bootan  on  the  north  Uungpoor. 
and  Assam  on  the  east.  It  labours  under  the  local  disadvantage  of  a  frontier  exposed 
to  five  independent  states,  Nepal,  Bootan,  Cooch-Bahar,  Assam,  and  the  G arrows. 
It  contains  several  swamps,  and  some  beautiful  clusters  of  lakes.  To  the  cast  of 
the  rivers  Brahmapootra  and  Chonkosh,  the  country  is  interspersed  with  a  number 
of  detached  hills.  Bamboos  are  extremely  abundant.  The  cocoa  trees  are  very 
productive  of  well  ripened  fruit.  The  different  grains  are  cultivated.  Tobacco  is 
the  staple  produce ;  sugar  and  indigo  are  also  reared.  Elephants  are  numerous ;  and 
the  harmless  rhinoceros  common.  Although  here,  as  elsewhere,  proi)crfy  of  all 
kinds  is  secured  by  the  British  laws,  yet  the  people  have,  in  this  quarter,  little  confi- 
dence in  such  settlements,  not  being  able  to  conceive  that  the  possessor  of  large 
sums  of  money  can  escape  the  rapacity  of  any  sovereign  ])ower.  The  upper  classes 
are  ill  informed,  and  their  mode  of  living  is  contracted.  They  do  not  associate  with 
one  another,  but  lead  secluded  lives,  surrounded  by  flattering  dependents  and  anms- 
ing  mendicants.  The  frontiers  adjoining  to  Bootan  and  Morung  are  infested  with  a 
set  of  wandering  robbers  and  murderers,  called  Keechuks  or  Geedarmars.  The 
natives  are  unhealthy,  and  the  children  feeble.  This  country  being  a 
portion  of  the  Hindoo  Camroop,  or  region  of  sensuality,  prostitutes  form 
a  regular  society,  subject  to  a  separate  priesthood.  The  women  thus  set  apai-t  im- 
dergo  in  early  life  the  ceremony  of  marriage  with  a  plantain  tree.     The  Mahometans 

•  Sliaw,  Asiatic  Researches.  f  Mr.  Colebrooke      Dr.  Trancis  Buchanan, 

+  Dr.  F.  Buchanan. 
Vol.  U— X 


State  of  mo- 
i-als. 


162  BOOK  FORTY-SEVENTH. 

are  more  numerous  here  than  the  Hindoos  in  the  proportion  of  ten  to  nine,  and  are 
gaining  ground.  But  tlie  two  reUgions  are  on  perfectly  friendly  terms,  and  the  peo- 
ple apply  frequently  to  one  another's  saints  and  deities  when  their  own  appear  to  fail. 
There  are  a  few  persons,  named  Asuric,  who  belong  neither  to  the  one  nor  to  the 
other  relio-ion.  The  name  given  to  them  is  equivalent  to  atheist.  The  town  of 
Rungpoor,  the  capital,  is  a  scattered  place,  containing  about  18,000  inhabitants.  The 
public  offices  of  the  country,  however,  are  not  here,  but  at  a  place  called  Dhap,  where 
the  Europeans  reside.  The  houses,  about  300  in  number,  extend  along  an  excel- 
Rangamatty.  (  lent  road,  bordered  with  trees.  Rangamatty  is  a  town  which  was  for- 
merly inhabited  by  several  Mogul  chiefs,  but  is  now  a  miserable  place.  Goalpara, 
Goaipara.  |  a  town  ou  tlie  left  bank  of  the  Brahmapootra,  twenty-three  miles  from 
the  frontiers  of  Assam,  is  the  principal  mart  of  the  intercourse  with  the  Assamese, 
who  bring  coarse  cloths,  stick-lac,  tar,  wax,  and  occasionally  gold,  and  take  salt  in 
return.  But  the  Assamese  are  so  disorderly,  and  so  little  to  be  trusted,  (sometimes 
murdering  their  creditors,)  that  tliis  intercourse  is  very  inconsiderable.  There  are 
Descendants  about  twenty  families  of  Portuguese  here,  who  have  entirely  adopted  the 
guel'e!  ^°""*  dress  of  the  natives,  can  neither  read  nor  write,  and  only  understand  a 
few  words  of  Portuguese.  I'he  natives  stand  in  some  awe  of  them  as  a  more  vigor- 
ous race  than  themselves,  and  employ  them  as  messengers  for  demanding  payment 
of  debts,  and  other  bullying  purposes.  They  have  little  form  of  religion,  and  no 
priest.  Sometimes  they  go  to  Bowal  near  Dacca,  to  have  their  marriages  duly  so- 
lemnized; but  in  general  they  content  themselves  with  a  public  acknowledgment  of 
marriage  at  home.  There  are  large  forests  in  this  quarter,  the  timber  of  which  may 
probably  turn  to  good  account ;  but  its  durability  and  other  qualities  have  not  been 
yet  subjected  to  the  requisite  trials.* 

District  of  The  district  of  Cooch-Bahar  formed  the  western  division  of  the  an- 

coochBahar.  c^Q^t  kingdom  of  Camroop.  The  term  Cooch,  the  name  of  a  tribe,  is 
attached  to  it  to  distinguish  it  from  the  large  province  of  Bahar,  of  which  Patna  is  the 
capital.  One  portion  of  the  original  Cooch  tribe,  called  Panicooch,  preserves  a  language 
quite  different  from  the  Bengalese,  and  has  not  adopted  the  Brahminical  religion.  A 
great  proportion  of  the  people  live  in  extreme  indigence ;  and  some  years  ago  they  were 
in  the  habit  of  selling  their  children  for  slaves  without  scruple ;  but  that  traffic  has 
been  suppressed.  This  state  was,  for  many  years,  subjected  to  great  anarchy  and 
misery,  which  the  British  attempted  to  remedy  by  temporary  measures;  but,  in  1813, 
they  took  the  management  of  it  into  their  own  hands,  and  reduced  the  Raja,  who  is 
of  a  low  and  cruel  disposition,  to  a  state  of  real  dependence,  without  that  semblance 
of  freedom  which  is  generally  left  to  those  who  are  friendly  and  of  good  character. "j" 
To  the  south  of  Rungpoor  is  the  district  of  Mymunsingh,  intersected 

by  the  Brahmapootra.     This  district  is  greatly  improved  of  late  years. 

The  country  near  Bygonbarry,  the  capital,  which  in  1790  was  a  complete 
waste,  the  haunt  of  wild  beasts  and  river  pirates,  is  now  well  inhabited.  The  Hin- 
doos have  some  gratuitous  schools  for  their  own  learning.  It  is  reckoned  disgrace- 
ful to  receive  payment  for  teaching.  In  1813,  the  number  of  gang  robberies  said  to 
have  been  committed  was  sixty-three,  and  the  gangs  were  exceedingly  formidable. 
The  capital,  Bygonbarry,  is  of  modern  creation.  The  other  large  town,  Seragegunge, 
is  on  the  Jhinai  river;  it  appears  in  no  map,  yet  it  is  thought  by  some  to  be  the  most 
trading  place  in  Bengal,  next  to  Calcutta.^ 

siihetcristrict.  |  Silliet,  a  district  to  the  east  of  Mymunsingh,  is  the  most  easterly  of 
the  British  provinces  of  Bengal.  It  is  thought  to  be  only  350  miles  from  the  pro- 
vince of  Yunan  in  China ;  but  no  intercourse  has  taken  place  between  the  two 
countries  in  that  direction,  nor  have  tiie  intervening  regions  been  explored.  On  the 
east  it  is  bounded  by  a  lofty  chain  of  mountains  continued  from  Arracan  and  Chitta- 
gong,  inhabited  by  savage  tribes,  who  rank  very  low  in  the  scale  of  humanity.  The 
town  of  Silhet  is  surrounded  with  peaked  conical  hills.  During  the  inundation  of 
the  Soormah  and  other  rivers,  the  greater  part  of  the  land  is  laid  under  water.  There 

•   Mr.  J.  Grant.     Dr.  y.  Eucli:inan. 

t  Dr.  !•'.  I5iiclianaii.     I)cscri|)lion  of  Huidostan  by  Walter  llamiUon,  Esq.  vol.  i.  p.  214. 

i  Hamilton's  Description,  i.  p.  189, 


District  of  My' 
tnunsingh. 

Its  improve- 
ment. 


INDOSTAN.  163 

is  a  navigation  at  that  season  between  it  and  Dacca,  over  fields  which  produce  rice 
during  winter,  but  during  the  rains  are  covered  with  eight  or  ten  feet  of  water.  Rice 
is  the  chief  produce.  But  the  cultivation  is  greatly  impeded  by  the  inroads  of  the 
Kookies,  a  savage  race  of  predatory  mountaineers,  who  inhal>it  the  Tiperah  and 
Cachar  hills,  to  which  they  instantly  retire  after  their  sudden  incursions.  This  is 
one  of  the  three  only  localities  in  India  found  capable  of  producing  good  |  its  oranges, 
oranges ;  the  other  two  being  Chandpoor  in  the  Dacca  district,  and  Sautghur  at  the 
foot  of  the  eastern  Ghauts,  or  passes  leading  from  Bangalore  to  Madras.  There 
are  large  plantations  of  orange  trees,  like  forests,  in  Silliet;  and  the  quantity  of  fruit 
annually  exported  is  very  great.*  On  the  spot  they  often  cost  no  more  than  one 
rupee  per  thousand.  Silhet  abounds  in  lime,  which  is  transported  by  water  during 
the  inundations.  A  sort  of  coal  has  also  been  found  here,  but  of  indifferent  quality. 
The  landed  proprietors  have  the  character  of  bad  managers.  'I'hcy  fall  changes  of 
into  arrears  in  their  payments  to  government,  so  tbat  their  estates  are  i""pefty. 
frequently  exposed  to  sale:  they  are  also  irregular  and  litigious  in  their  transactions 
with  one  another.  There  is  a  race  of  mountaineers  called  Cosseahs,  |  The  cosseahs. 
who  at  one  time  occupied  part  of  the  low  country,  Init  scarcely  ever  paid  the  revenue 
due  to  government,  and  always  fled  to  their  native  mountains  when  any  attempt  was 
made  at  coercion.  Being  in  consequence  dispossessed  of  their  lands  in  the  low 
country,  they  in  revenge  afterwards  committed  many  murders  and  other  enormities, 
till  forts  with  garrisons  of  sepoys  were  established  to  hold  them  in  check.  The 
Cosseahs  are  said  to  be  an  honest,  fair-dealing  set  of  people,  and  marked  by  strict 
veracity,  but  outrageously  vindictive.  It  is  expected  that  the  intercourse  now  esta- 
blished will  have  a  tendency  to  civilize  them.  This,  however,  is  always  uncertain. 
It  may  impart  to  them  a  new  set  of  vices.  The  practice  of  selling  their  |  slave  markets, 
children  and  others  for  slaves,  has  always  been  carried  to  a  great  extent  in  the  dis- 
trict of  Silhet.  Here  the  Moguls,  according  to  Abul  Faze!,  procured  eunuch  slaves 
for  the  seraglio.  Some  of  the  free  natives  are  still  inveigled  off  for  sale  to  the  dif- 
ferent towns  of  Bengal ;  but  such  attempts  are  now  rarely  successful,  being  vigi- 
lantly resisted  by  the  British  government. 

To  the  south  of  Silhet  lies  the  district  of  Tiperah,  named  also  Roo-  |  Tiperah. 
shenabad,  of  large  dimensions,  forming  the  chief  eastern  boundary  of  Bengal.  Its 
limits  to  the  east  are  indefinite,  that  country  being  extremely  wild,  overgrown  with 
jungle,  and  abounding  with  elephants.  That  portion  of  Tiperah  wliich  lies  near  the 
river  Megna  is  rich,  well  cultivated,  and  commercial.  The  manick  or  zemindar  of 
Tiperah  possesses  an  independent  sovereignty  beyond  the  hills,  but  usually  resides 
in  the  British  head  quarters  at  Comillah.  The  district  contains  no  large  towns,  but 
many  of  moderate  size,  such  as  Luckipoor,  Daoodcaundy,  and  Chandpoor.  It  was 
an  independent  Hindoo  principality  long  after  the  Mahometans  had  possession  of 
Bengal,  though  Dacca,  the  capital  of  the  latter,  was  in  its  near  neighbourhood.  It 
was  not  till  1733,  when  the  Mogul  power  was  itself  falling  to  pieces,  that  Tiperah 
was  brought  under  its  full  influence.  In  1765,  it  devolved  to  the  British  government. 
In  ISOl,  it  was  estimated  to  contain  750,000  inhabitants,  in  the  proportion  of  four 
Hindoos  to  three  Mahometans ;  but  this  was  undoubtedly  an  exaggeration.  It  long 
continued  one  of  the  most  disturbed  districts  of  the  province;  but,  of  late  years,  gang 
robberies  have  been  almost  entirely  suppressed,  and  other  heinous  offences  have  be- 
come comparatively  rare.  The  territory  round  Chandpoor  is  famous  for  producing 
the  very  finest  oranges  in  India. | 

On  the  west  of  Tiperah  is  the  district  of  Dacca  Jelalpoor,  distinguish- 
ed as  the  granary  of  rice  for  Bengal.  Since  the  famine  of  1787,  this 
district  has  been  progressively  improving.  The  landed  property  is  divided  into  small 
portions  called  talooks,  which  are  subdivided  again  to  an  extreme  degree  of  minute- 
ness. Hence  civil  causes,  on  the  subject  of  property,  are  numerous  and  intricate. 
In  ISOl,  this  district  contained  nearly  a  milhon  of  inhabitants,  one-half  Hindoos,  and 
the  other  Mahometans.     The  change  in  social  condition,  freedom  of  industry,  and 

•  Rennet's  Memoir.   Colebrook.  Dr.  F.  Buchanan.  Hamilton's  Description,  8tc.  vol.  i.  p.  191. 
I  W.  Hamilton's  Description,  kc.  vol.  i.  p.  176. 


Dacca  Jelal* 
poor. 


164  BOOK  FORTY-SEVENTH. 

security  of  property,  is  similar  here  to  what  it  has  been  in  the  adjoining  districts.  The 
City  of  Dacca.  |  chief  town,  Dacca,  is  situated  beyond  the  principal  stream  of  the  Gan- 
ges, about  100  miles  above  its  mouth  by  land,  but  400  by  the  winding  course  of  the 
river.  ,  It  is  admirably  situated  for  trade,  is  on  the  whole  wealthy,  and  in  population 
and  extent  the  third  city  in  Bengal.  It  has,  at  different  times,  enjoyed  great  splen- 
dour and  prosperity.  In  the  time  of  Aurengzebe,  it  seems  to  have  been  a  rival  to 
the  greatest  cities,  with  the  exception  of  Gour.  Again,  in  1774,  it  was  made  the 
centre  of  law  and  revenue,  and  exhibited  great  opulence.  When  the  provincial  coun- 
cil was  abolished,  and  judges  and  collectors  were  appointed  to  the  different  districts, 
it  fell  ofi";  but  the  mercantile  and  industrious  classes  have  not  decreased,  and  its  limits 
have  been  extended.  Towards  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century,  Dacca  was  the 
residence  of  Azim  Ushan,  Aurengzebe's  grandson,  who  began  and  nearly  completed 
a  magnificent  palace,  now  in  ruins.  It  contained,  at  the  same  time,  an  enormous 
gun  of  hammered  iron,  weighing  about  64,814  pounds,  and  the  shot  for  it  must  have 
weighed  400  pounds ;  but  it  is  not  probable  that  it  ever  was  discharged.  The  pre- 
sent city  extends  six  miles  along  the  river,  the  houses  made  of  brick  and  thatch,  the 
streets  very  narrow  and  crooked.  The  thatch  houses  are  generally  burned  down 
once,  and  often  twice,  in  the  year,  the  owners  looking  on  with  indifference.  Their 
valuables,  being  contained  in  earthen  pots  sunk  beneath  the  floor,  do  not  suffer,  and 
the  houses  are  easily  rebuilt  at  the  expense  of  a  few  rupees.  This  city  formerly 
Manufactures,  |  manufactured  beautiful  fabrics,  which  were  held  in  great  estimation  at 
the  court  of  Delhi,  and  also  at  that  of  France.  Its  prosperity  has  been  materially 
affected  by  the  French  revolution.  In  1801,  its  population  was  estimated  at  200,000, 
though  then  comparatively  in  a  state  of  decline,  and  the  Mahometans  were  to  the 
Hindoos  in  the  proportion  of  145  to  130.  The  society  of  the  place  is  diversified  by 
many  respectable  Greek,  Armenian,  and  Portuguese  merchants  settled  in  it.  The 
inhabitants  are  remarkably  orderly,  and  seem  attached  to  the  existing  state  of  things. 
District  of  The  district  of  Chittagong  is  situated  to  the  south  of  Tiperah,  in  the 

chittagong.        south-eastcm  extremity  of  Bengal,  on  that  part  of  the  coast  which  turns 
round  to  the  south-east,  forming  the  commencement  of  the  region  called  "  the  Pe- 
ninsula beyond  the  Ganges."     It  is  more  detached  than  any  other  portion  of  the 
province,  being  in  contact  only  with  Tiperah  in  a  narrow  part  of  its  northern  extre- 
mity.    On  the  west,  it  is  bounded  by  the  bay  of  Bengal :  on  the  east,  by  the  Birman 
empire ;  and  on  the  south,  by  Arracan.     About  two-thirds  of  the  soil  are  unpro- 
ductive and  hilly,  and  one-third  plain  and  arable  ;  the  former  being  chiefly  the  parts 
Islamabad.       |  furthest  from  the  sea-coast.     Its  capital,  Islamabad,  on  the  Chittagong 
river,  is,  according  to  M.  Wahl,  the  Bangala  of  the  Arabian  writers  ;  it  is  an  acces- 
sible sea-port,  well  situated  for  external  commerce,  as  well  as  the  construction  of 
large  ships,  of  which  a  considerable  number  are  built  annually,  both  of  imported  and 
indigenous  timber.     Being  reckoned  a  healthy  country,  it  is  the  frequent  resort  of 
Inhabitants.     |  invalids  from  other  parts   of  the  province.     Its   inhabitants  consist  of 
Mahomedans,  Hindoos,  and  Mughs.     The  Mahomedans  are  to  the  Hindoos  as 
TheMughs.      j  thrcc  to  two.  The  Mughs  are  uatives  of  Arracau,  who  havc  been  driven 
from  that  country  by  the  oppressions  of  their  chiefs,  or  of  the  Birman  government 
by  whom  they  have  been  subdued,  or  who  have  been  induced  by  predatory  habits  to 
live  in  the  most  rugged  localities  of  this  district.     These  are  a  much  more  vigorous 
race  than  the  Bengalese  natives ;  but  addicted  to  murder  as  well  as  robbery.     A 
considerable  profit  accrues  to  government  from  the  elephants  caught  in  the  forests 
of  Chittagong,  which  are  possessed  of  excellent  qualities,  and  well  fitted  for  the 
camp  and  the  chase.     At  an  early  period  of  its  intercourse  with  Europe,  Chittagong 
was  inhabited  by  some  irregular  Portuguese,  who  were  in  the  practice  of  pillaging 
the  adjoining  countries.     The  hills  in  the  north  and  east,  are  inhabited  by  a  savage 
people  called  Choomeas.     Beyond  them  are  Kookies,  who  live  in  a  state  of  perpe- 
tual war,  and  esteem  bravery,  cunning,  and  the  slaughter  of  their  enemies,  the  highest 
merits  that  any  man  can  possess.     The  land  of  this  district  is  divided  into  very 
small  possessions,  and  there  are  always  numerous  litigations  on  questions  of  bound- 
aries.* 

*  W.  Hamilton's  Description  of  Hindostan,  vol.  i,  p.  167. 


INDOSTAN.  165 


Isle  of  Sun- 
deep. 


Sutledge  and 
Jumna. 


At  the  mouth  of  the  great  Megna,  formed  by  the  united  streams  of  the 
Ganges  and  Brahmapootra,  is  the  isle  of  Sundeep,  which  was  taken 
from  the  Moguls,  and  erected  into  an  independent  principality  in  the  end  of  the  18th 
century  by  Sebastian  Gonzales.  It  was  taken  in  1616  by  the  Arracanese,  who, 
under  the  name  of  Mughs,  infested  and  devastated  the  neighbouring  parts  of  Ben- 
gal, carrying  off  the  inhabitants  into  slavery.  It  was  afterwards  taken  by  the  Mo- 
guls in  1666,  and  devolved  to  the  East  India  Company  along  with  the  whole  province 
of  Bengal. 

We  shall  now  take  a  view  of  the  mountainous  countries  which  lie     countries  in 
between  the  plains  of  the  Ganges  and  the  plateau  of  Thibet.     Some  of    mountains, 
these  were  wholly  unexplored,  till  recent  transactions  led  the  British  armies  to  them 
as  the  scene  of  warlike  operations. 

This  is  particularly  the  case  with  the  tract  situated  between  the  rivers 
Sutledge  and  Jumna,  which  the  last  war  with  the  Ghoorkas  has  brought 
into  the  view  of  Europe,  and  which  was  the  scene  of  the  tour  lately  published  by 
Mr.  Eraser.*  That  territory  is  divided  into  about  thirty  political  communities,  four 
of  which,  being  considerably  larger  than  the  others,  are  called  principalities.  Such 
was  its  condition  before  it  was  subdued  by  the  Ghoorkas,  and  to  this  it  has  been 
nearly  restored  since  the  expulsion  of  that  foreign  power  by  the  British  arms. 
Though  the  people  are  almost  all  aboriginal,  the  rulers  have  been  always  strangers, 
who  seem  to  have  come  among  them  on  some  of  their  pilgrimages  to  the  sacred 
places,  and  finding  them  barbarous  and  ignorant  in  the  extreme,  easily  subdued  them. 
The  chiefs  were  almost  always  in  a  state  of  mutual  war,  till  they  were  invaded  by  the 
Ghoorkas  in  1803.  In  1814  it  was  wholly  occupied  by  this  people,  who  had  not  only 
committed  great  excesses  in  the  prosecution  of  the  war,  but  kept  up  a  rule  of  the 
most  oppressive  description.  They  maintained  here  a  force  of  7000  men,  5000  of 
whom  were  regular  troops,  armed  with  muskets  hke  the  sepoys.  Many  of  the  old 
forts  which  they  could  not  conveniently  occupy  were  destroyed.  The  revenue  ex- 
tracted from  it  by  Ummer  Singh,  the  commander,  never  exceeded  282,000  rupees, 
(£28,200.)  In  1815  Sir  David  Auchterlony  took  the  country  after  a  hard  contest, 
in  which  the  fortresses  of  Jytok  and  Almora  sustained  the  attacks  of  the  Europeans 
with  a  bravery  and  perseverance  seldom  before  displayed  by  the  militaiy  powers  of 
India.  This  conquest  cost  the  victors  no  trifling  expenditure  of  blood  and  treasure. 
The  country  was,  with  a  few  exceptious,  put  in  possession  of  the  former 
expelled  chiefs.  Very  few  of  them  pay  tribute  to  the  protecting  power. 
They  have  engaged  to  submit  their  disputes  to  British  arbitration,  and  to  furnish  a 
specific  number  of  hill  carriers  in  case  of  military  operations  in  their  country,  the 
only  mode  of  conveying  baggage  over  these  rugged  regions  being  by  human  labour. 
The  moral  character  of  the  indigenous  mountaineers  is  represented  in  very  unfavour- 
able colours,  as  destitute  of  gratitude  or  honesty  ;  they  perpetually  rob  one  another, 
and  the  poorest  individual  who  has  a  rag  on  his  back  is  made  an  object  of  plunder  in 
passing  from  one  village  to  another.  The  long  distracted  state  of  the  country  and 
its  extremely  minute  division  into  petty  independent  jurisdictions,  generated  or 
maintained  this  state  of  peculiar  degradation.  Their  subjugation  to  harsh  masters, 
and  the  exactions  to  which  they  have  been  subjected,  have  rendered  them  indolent 
in  the  extreme.  Their  physical  constitution  is  far  from  being  robust.  The  four 
largest  principalities  are  Cahlore,  (situated  on  both  sides  of  the  Sutledge,)  Hindoor, 
Sirmore,  and  Bussaher.  The  legitimate  Rajah  of  Sirmore,  Kerrum  Perkaush,. 
whose  birth  would  have  induced  the  victors  to  re-establish  him,  was  so  bad  a 
character  that  he  was  set  aside,  and  his  son,  a  minor,  seated  on  the  guddy,  (or 
throne,)  under  the  guardianship  of  his  mother.  Kurrum  Perkaush  had,  during  hi? 
possession  of  the  sovereignty  before  the  Ghoorka  conquest,  murdered  every  per- 
son of  worth  in  his  dominions,  so  that  the  existence  of  such  characters  was 
only  a  matter  of  tradition:  yet  in  1816,  when  this  person  had  every  appearance 
of  drawing  near  his  end,  his  wife  declared  her  resolution  to  terminate  her  life 
at  the  same  time.  Nahan,  the  capital  of  Sirmore,  is  a  large  open  town,  populous  and 

*  See  Journal  of  a  Tour  through  part  of  the  snowy  range  of  the  Hamalali  mountains,  and 
to  the  sources  of  the  rivers  Jumna  and  Ganges,  by  James  Caillie  Fraser,  Esq.  4to.  1820. 


Present  poli- 
tical state. 


Gurwal  and 
Kumaoon. 


166  BOOK  FORTY-SEVENTH. 

handsome,  situated  on  a  level  spot  on  the  top  of  a  lofty  mountain.  It  stands  about 
2000  feet  above  the  level  of  the  plain.  From  the  top  of  this  and  the  neighbouring 
mountains,  a  magnificent  view  is  obtained  of  the  plains  of  Sirhind  to  the  south,  the 
south-west,  and  south-east,  but  to  the  northward,  the  view  is  terminated  by  the  snowy 
mountains. — Bussaher  occupies  the  northern  extremity  of  the  territories  between  the 
Sutledge  and  Jumna.  This  state  pays  a  tribute  of  15,000  rupees,  (^1500)  per  an- 
num. Rampoor,  its  capital,  is  a  great  mart  for  the  goods  of  Thibet,  those  of  the 
hills  and  of  the  plains. — Poondur  is  a  remote  and  barbarous  community  amonw  the 
hills,  the  particular  circumstances  of  which  are  imperfectly  known.  It  has  never 
been  subjected  to  the  full  control  of  any  foreign  power,  such  as  that  of  the  Ghoor- 
kas.  The  people  demand  black  mail  of  several  of  their  neighbours,  and  delight  in 
the  life  of  liberty  and  plunder  which  their  situation  enables  them  to  lead.* 

To  the  east  of  the  river  Jumna  hcs  the  province  of  Gurwal.     The 

southern  part  of  this  country  is  an  assemblage  of  hills  of  the  most  di- 
versified and  irregular  kind,  short  and  narrow  ridges  in  all  varieties  of  angles  and 
mutual  attitudes,  and  separated  by  confined  valleys.  The  people  of  Gurwal  and  of 
Kumaoon  are  called  Khasiyas ;  and  their  language  also  goes  under  that  name,  from 
the  word  Khas,  the  name  given  to  the  aborigines,  who  are  reckoned  an  impure  race ; 
for  this  reason  the  present  inhabitants  disclaim  that  appellation,  and  pretend  that 
their  progenitors  emigrated  from  the  south.  Kumaoon  lies  east  and  south  from  Gur- 
wal, being  separated  from  it  by  a  small  river;  but  the  inhabitants  of  the  two  territo- 
ries are  widely  different  from  each  other.  Those  of  Gurwal  are  comparatively  strong 
and  active,  and  earn  their  subsistence  in  a  great  measure  by  labouring  as  carriers  to 
the  pilgrims  who  visit  the  holy  places.  The  Gurwalians  fix  their  burdens  on  their 
backs  with  slings,  but  the  Kumaoonees  carry  them  on  the  head,  their  country  being- 
somewhat  less  precipitous,  so  as  not  to  demand  so  imperiously  the  free  use  of  their 
hands  in  climbing.  The  people  of  Gurwal,  however,  have  always  crouched  beneath 
any  political  yoke  however  galling,  without  making  the  least  eflbrt  to  assert  their  inde- 
pendence, though  their  country  is  strong  and  well  adapted  for  defence.  Here  the  Bha- 
girath  and  Alcananda  streams  unite  to  form  the  Ganges.  The  country  fell  under 
British  influence  in  1814.  The  Rajah  of  Serinagur  was  re-established;  but,  as  his 
former  capital  is  situated  in  a  part  of  the  territory  which  the  British  retained  in  their 
own  hands,  he  subsequently  fixed  his  residence  at  Barahat-I  The  river  Alcananda 
is  the  Rajah's  eastern  boundary,  and  to  the  east  of  it  lies  the  mountainous  province 
of  Kumaoon. 

Serinagur,  the  late  capital  of  Gurwal,  occupies  a  central  situation  in 

a  valley  about  three  miles  long,  surrounded  by  barren  mountains,  on  the 
east  side  of  the  river  Alcananda.  It  is  of  an  elliptical  form,  and  about  three-fourths 
of  a  mile  long.  The  houses  are  roughly  built  of  stone  and  earth,  generally  two 
stories  high,  and  roofed  with  slate.  The  house  of  the  old  Rajahs  is  of  granite,  and 
four  stories  high.  The  river  Alcananda,  on  which  the  town  stands,  has  made  great 
encroachments  on  it;  an  earthquake  in  1803,  has  also  injured  it  greatly,  and  in  1815, 
the  British  found  it  in  a  most  ruinous  condition.  The  inhabitants  are  chiefly  emi- 
grq^iffe  from  the  low  countries,  and  the  leading  persons  are  the  agents  of  the  banking 
houses  at  Nujibabad  and  in  the  Doab,  who  are  engaged  in  the  traffic  of  specie.  The 
British  retain  possession  of  the  valley  of  Deyrah  Doon,  situated  between  the  Jumna 
and  Ganges,  and  of  some  importance  in  a  military  point  of  view.  Kalunga  is  an 
important  fortress  in  Gurwal,  which,  in  1814,  stood  two  separate  attempts  to  carry 
it  by  storm,  but  was  afterwards  abandoned  by  the  garrison  during  the  preparations 
made  for  a  third  assault.  A  little  to  the  north-east  of  this  fortress  are  many  caves, 
inhabited  by  a  race  of  people  nearly  in  a  state  of  nature,  who  live  on  rice  of  a  re- 
markably large  grain.  The  caves  extend  for  some  distance  into  the  rock,  and  are 
frequently  a  considerable  height  from  the  ground,  and  ascended  by  rope  ladders.  In 
tliis  country  are  some  of  the  holy  junctions  of  the  Gangctic  streams  called  Prayagas, 
and  the  two  sources  called  Gangootre  and  Kedarnath.     Bhadrinath  is  a  town  con- 

•  Fraser's  Journal. 

t  Dr.  F.  Buchanan.    Mr.  W.  Hamilton,  vol.  ii.  p.  633,  etc. 


Town  of  Se' 
rinagur. 


Fortress  of 
Almora. 


INDOSTAN.  167 

sisting  of  twenty  or  thirty  huts,  with  a  temple  and  a  warm  spring  used  as  a  bath. 
The  whole  territory  is  filled  with  sacred  places,  which  the  Hindoos  make  a  merit  of 
visiting,  and  pay  stated  sums  in  the  form  of  offerings,  at  numerous  places,  in  the 
course  of  their  religious  tour. 

Between  the  rivers  Alcananda  and  Cali,  lies  the  Hindoo  principality  ]  Kumaoon. 
of  Kumaoon.  Here  the  surface  is  less  prerupt  than  in  Gurvval,  the  plains  are  spa- 
cious, and  the  hills  of  easy  ascent.  The  popvdation  is  denser,  and  the  cultivation 
carried  higher  up  the  hills.  The  towns  and  villages  look  well  at  a  distance,  but,  on 
nearer  inspection,  are  found  dirty.  The  houses  are  two  stories  high,  the  ground 
floor  being  occupied  by  the  cattle.  The  people  dress  in  cotton  stuffs,  while  the  Gur- 
walians  dress  in  wool.  Their  dispositions  are  mild.  Polygamy  is  much  practised 
among  them.  The  men  take  the  charge  of  the  household  affairs,  while  the  women 
undertake  all  the  drudgeries  of  agriculture.  They  are  very  much  under  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Brahmins,  who,  previously  to  the  subjugation  of  the  country  by  the 
Ghoorkas,  raised  and  deposed  the  Rajah  at  pleasure.  Almora  is  tlie 
capital  of  Kumaoon,  and  wa^  the  scene  of  important  and  well  contested 
military  actions  in  1815.  There  is  a  subdivision  of  the  Kumaoon  district  called 
Painkhandi,  very  precipitous  in  its  surface,  containing  the  snowy  peak  of  Rhanmee, 
22,700  feet  above  the  ocean.  The  hills  abound  in  timber.  Some  of  the  cedars  are 
of  enormous  size.  Some  specimens  of  them  have  measured  27  feet  in  circumfer- 
ence at  the  height  of  four  feet  from  the  ground,  and  180  feet  in  height.  Hemp 
grows  with  uncommon  luxuriance,  being  ten  or  twelve  feet  high,  with  wide  spreading 
branches.  There  is  a  plant,  resembling  butcher's  broom,  from  which  |  Paper  plant, 
the  inhabitants  make  a  paper  which  is  in  request  among  the  native  bankers  of  India 
for  bills  of  exchange,  as  being  only  moderately  bibulous,  and  stronger  than  other 
paper.  Birch  bark  is  used  for  writing  on,  and  quantities  of  it  are  sent  to  Lucknow, 
where  it  is  used  to  line  the  snakes,  or  winding  tubes,  of  the  hookahs.  Several  of 
the  inhabitants  are  Bhootees.  There  are  ten  villages  among  the  snowy  mountains 
inhabited  exclusively  by  that  race.  They  indeed  occupy  in  general  the  alpine  heights 
nearest  to  the  snowy  Himalahs,  both  on  the  north  and  south  side.  They  are  entirely 
devoted  to  religious  observances  and  commerce.  On  some  occasions  they  are  con- 
cerned in  military  operations,  but  rather  unwillingly.  They  are  darker  in  complexion 
than  the  other  mountaineers.  They  adhere  to  the  lama  religion,  which  they  mix 
with  several  Hindoo  superstitions.  Some  of  these  tracts  are  only  inhabited  in  the 
summer  months  :  such  as  the  village  Malari  on  the  Niti  road.  In  Gurwal  and  Ku- 
maoon the  sale  of  children  was  a  daily  practice,  and  a  subject  of  taxation  under  the 
Ghoorka  government,  but  has  been  abolished  by  British  autliority.* 

To  the  east  of  these  countries  lies  the  kingdom  of  Nepal,  one  of  the 
largest  and  most  compact  sovereignties  of  modern  Indostan,  compre- 
hending nearly  two-thirds  of  the  northern  hills  of  India.  The  name  of  Nepal  pro- 
perly belongs  only  to  one  magnificent  valley,  the  rest  of  the  kingdom  consisting  of 
other  conquests  of  the  Ghoorkas,  wlio  are  its  masters.  This  kingdom  is  in  the 
form  of  a  parallelogram,  all  the  sides  of  which,  except  the  northern,  are  bounded  by 
the  British  possessions.  It  in  general  extends  about  twenty  miles  into  the  plains  of 
Indostan.  To  the  north  of  this  flat  belt,  there  is  a  range  of  low  hills,  between  which 
and  the  high  mountains  there  are  fine  valleys  of  considerable  length  ;  these  are  well 
cultivated,  and  called  doon,  a  term  synonymous  to  "  strath"  or  "  glen."  Along  the 
bottoms  of  the  hills  there  is  a  rich  low  tract,  which  is  left  without  cultivation,  on  ac- 
count of  its  extreme  unhealthiness  ;f  though  some  parts  which  have  been  well 
cleared  appear  to  be  tolerably  healthy. — A  great  part  of  the  country  among  the  hills 
is  very  productive  in  grain  and  various  fruits,  such  as  pine  apples,  peaches,  grapes, 
and  oranges.  Ginger  and  cardamoms  form  part  of  the  valuable  produce  of  these 
tracts.  Much  of  this  mountainous  region  consists  of  granite :  it  contains  much 
iron,  lead,  copper,  some  zinc,  and  a  little  gold  in  some  of  the  rivers  :  it  also  con- 
tains mines  of  sulphur.  The  breadth  of  the  hilly  region,  between  the  plains  and 
the  alpine  region,  is  about  thirty  or  forty  miles  at  Catmandoo,  the  capital,  but  it  ii 

•  W.  Hamilton's  Description  of  Hindostan,  vol.  ii.  p.  648. 
t  Col.  Kirkpatrick's  Account  of  the  Kingdom  of  Nepal,  p.  20. 


Kingdom  of 
Nepal. 


Newars. 
Original 
inhabitants 


168  BOOK  FORTY-SEVENTH. 

greater  in  the  western  parts.  The  alpine  region  itself  is  of  equal  extent.  The 
snowy  ridge  winds  considerably,  but  has  few  interruptions,  and  is  in  most  places 
quite  impassable. 

The  numerous  valleys  interspersed  among  the  mountains  are  inhabited  by  various 
tribes,  differing  in  language  and  customs.  Those  who  have  any  preten- 
sions to  be  aboriginal  have  the  Mongolian  character  and  aspect.  The 
most  fertile  part  of  Nepal  Proper  was  formerly  occupied  (and  still  in  a  great  measure 
is)  by  the  Newars,  a  race  addicted  to  agriculture  and  commerce,  and  far  more  ad- 
vanced in  the  arts  than  any  of  the  other  mountain  tribes.  They  profess  the  doctrines 
of  Buddha;  but  instead  of  acknowledging  the  Lama,  they  have  a  priesthood  of  their 
own.  They  have  also  adopted  the  Hindoo  practice  of  division  into  castes.  In  the 
more  rugged  parts,  there  is  a  tribe  called  Murmi,  a  robust  race,  who  live  by  agricul- 
ture and  the  carrying  of  burdens.  They  are  hated  by  the  Ghoorkas,  for  eating  the 
flesh  of  the  cow ;  and,  not  being  permitted  to  kill  these  sacred  animals,  they  eat  those 
that  die  a  natural  death.  The  Hindoo  inhabitants  of  Nepal  have  the  character  of 
being  both  abject  and  arrogant,  debauched,  jealous,  and  revengeful.  The  Ghoorka 
military  are  more  orderly  than  that  which  was  previously  maintained  by  the  native 
Rajahs,  but  inferior  to  the  British  sepoys.  They  are  armed  with  match-locks,  for 
which  they  do  not  use  cartridges.  The  war  standard  exhibits,  on  a  yellow  ground, 
the  portrait  of  Huniman,  a  gigantic  monkey  and  Hindoo  demigod. 
Great  valley  ^^^^  most  Select  portions  of  the  Ghoorka  territories  consist  of  two  de- 

of  Nepfti.  lightful  valleys,  called  Great  and  Little  Nepal.   The  large  valley  is  nearly 

circular,  watered  by  numerous  rills,  running  from  the  mountains,  and  meeting  in  the 
Catmandoo.  |  centre,  in  the  Bogmutty.  Here  is  Catmandoo,  the  capital,  which  stands 
4784  feet  above  the  plains  of  Bengal.  Hence,  though  in  lat.  27°  50',  it  enjoys  a  cli- 
mate similar  to  that  of  the  south  of  Europe ;  the  temperature  of  the  springs  is  64*'. 
The  periodical  rains  extend  to  this  spot.  The  hoe  is  the  great  instrument  of  cultiva- 
tion, but  extremely  awkward  from  its  shortness,  obliging  the  workman  either  to  stoop 
greatly,  or  to  sit  on  his  heels,  the  last  of  which  postures  he  generally  prefers.  They 
have  numerous  water-mills  for  grinding  corn,  an  improvement  not  known  in  southern 
Indostan.  There  are  considerable  manufactories  of  copper,  of  brass,  and  a  kind  of 
bell  metal.  They  make  bells,  but  not  equal  to  those  made  in  Thibet.  They  make 
several  bell  metal  vessels,  and  sell  them  along  with  those  of  brass  and  copper  in 
Thibet.  The  great  mass  of  the  inhabitants  dwell  in  the  valleys.  Both  the  hills,  and 
the  low  country  called  Terriani,  are  very  thinly  peopled.  The  Newars  are  much 
more  numerous  than  the  Parbutties,  or  mountaineers.  To  them  also  the  cultivation 
of  the  soil  is  generally  confined.  They  are  despised  by  the  Parbutties  as  an  unwar- 
like  race,  and  are  treated  with  oppressive  rigour  and  extortion  by  their  rulers.  They 
have  in  some  degree  the  Mongolian  features,  but  with  a  much  wilder  expression. 
Most  of  the  servants  are  slaves.  Some  Brahmins  are  slaves  to  Rajepoots,  and  act 
as  cooks,  which  is  considered  as  a  situation  of  great  dignity.  It  is  reckoned  dis- 
graceful in  any  one  to  sell  his  children  to  an  infidel,  or  a  person  of  impure  caste,  al- 
though this  is  sometimes  done  in  urgent  cases ;  and  the  individual  who  does  it  docs 
not  on  that  account  lose  caste.  He  would  however  incur  this  dreaded  calantiity,  if  ho 
should  at  any  future  time  receive  such  a  child  again  into  his  house.  The  female  slaves 
of  the  Maha  Ranny,  or  Queen,  arc  allowed  some  peculiar  privileges,  and  have  con- 
siderable influence  at  court.  In  the  day  time,  they  attend  their  royal  mistress ;  and 
when  she  goes  out,  some  of  them  follow  her  as  a  body  guard,  dressed  and  riding  on 
horseback  like  men,  and  armed  with  swords.  Catmandoo  is  estimated  to  contain  a 
population  of  20,000.  There  are  some  other  fine  cities  in  the  same  valley;  as  La- 
lita  Patau,  which  contains  24,000  inhabitants,  and  was  formerly  the  capital  of  an  in- 
dependent state.  Bhatgony  is  another,  which  was  also  a  capital  before  the  Ghoorka 
invasion.  In  the  hills  on  the  south  side  of  this  valley  are  the  sacred  springs  of  the 
Seher  at  the  village  of  Sulti  Kuhl.  They  contain  multitudes  of  small  fish,  which  are 
never  touched,  the  inhabitants  behoving  that  any  attempt  to  steal  them  will  be  fol- 
lowed by  instant  death.* 

•  Kirkpatrick's  Nepal,  p.  T5. 


TNDOSTAX.  169 


Valley  of  Noa- 
kote. 


The  other  valley  is  called  Noakote,  about  six  miles  long,  and  one  and 
a  quarter  in  breadth ;  possessing  an  extremely  fertile  soil,  and  capable 
of  bearing  all  the  productions  of  Bahar,  though  hemmed  in  by  the  snowy  mountains 
on  the  north.  Though  so  near  the  hills,  it  appears  not  to  be  quite  so  elevated  as 
that  of  Catmandoo.  The  heats  are  so  great  after  April  that  the  country  is  not  ha- 
bitable, on  account  of  the  prevalence  of  the  fever  called  the  Owl.*  North  from 
Catmandoo,  at  a  distance  of  thirty-seven  miles  taken  in  a  straight  line,  though  re- 
quiring eight  days  to  accomplish  the  journey,  is  Nielkantha,  a  town  of  pilgrimage, 
which  is  visited  about  the  end  of  July  and  the  beginning  of  August,  though  the  road 
is  scarcely  passable,  on  account  of  the  depth  of  the  snow ;  avalanches  and  glaciers 
being  frequent.  During  this  short  period  a  fair  is  held  here,  and  many  shops  are 
opened ;  but  when  the  cold  season  sets  in,  it  is  abandoned  by  all  its  inhabitants,  who 
remove  to  a  milder  climate.  The  name  signifies  "  a  blue  throat,"  and  is  an  epithet 
of  Siva,  originating  from  an  exploit  said  in  the  Hindoo  mythology  to  have  been  per- 
formed by  that  deity. 

Immediately  west  from  Nepal  Proper,  is  a  country  of  considerable  ^he  twenty- 
extent,  called  "  the  territory  of  the  twenty-four  Rajahs,"  because  it  for-  fo"''  Raj»hs. 
nierly  consisted  of  that  number  of  petty  states  under  Rajahs  who  acknowledged  the 
superiority  of  the  Jemlah  Rajah.  One  of  these  is  Ghoorka,  the  original  seat  of 
the  power  which  has  made  sucli  extensive  conquests  in  those  regions.  Jemla  was 
once  bounded  by  Gurwal,  and  had  the  ascendancy  over  numerous  states.  It  contains 
a  fine  valley,  indented  with  deep  ravines  twenty  miles  long,  and  ten  wide,  resembling 
that  of  Nepal,  but  more  checquered  with  hills.  It  is  well  cultivated,  and  contains 
valuable  mines  of  rock  salt.  The  Bhootees,  who  are  Lamaists,  form  the  majority  of 
the  population;  but  all  the  accounts  which  we  have  of  it  have  reached  us  through 
the  medium  of  natives,  as  it  has  not  yet  been  visited  by  Europeans. 

Mucwanpoor  is  an  important  district  subject  to  the  Rajah  of  Nepal.  |  Mucwanpoor. 
It  was  formerly  more  extensive  than  it  now  is.  It  lies  chiefly  to  the  south  of  the 
Nepal  valley,  and  the  San  Cosi  river.  One  half  of  it  is  in  the  level  country  called 
the  Teniani,  a  belt  about  twenty  miles  wide.  This  contains  sorjie  hilly  and  poor 
land,  but  the  greater  part  of  it  is  rich,  though  uncultivated,  and  on  this  account 
abounding  in  elephants  and  rhinoceroses.  The  breed  of  elephants  is  of  a  very  in- 
ferior kind.  The  native  Rajahs  formerly  encouraged  the  exuberance  of  the  jungle 
for  their  own  defence,  cultivating  a  few  rich  spots  which  were  concealed  in  the  bosom 
of  the  forests.  Under  the  Ghoorka  dynasty,  it  has  become  more  extensively  cleared. 
It  produces  excellent  tobacco,  and  some  red  cotton.  To  the  north  of  the  Teniani, 
Mucwanpoor  consists  of  a  gradation  of  small  hills  abounding  with  pines.  The  pea- 
santry all  over  the  district  are  dirty  and  poor.  At  the  conclusion  of  the  last  war  of  the 
British  with  the  Nepalese  government,  the  former  proposed  to  restore  an  old  Rajah  to 
the  possession  of  a  great  part  of  this  territory:  but  the  matter  probably  remains  still 
unsettled,  being  put  off"  by  the  pertinacity  of  the  Nepalese.  To  the  east  of  Nepal 
Proper,  the  mountains  are  chiefly  occupied  by  two  tribes  called  Kirauts  and  Lim- 
boos  intermingled,  both  subject  to  the  Ghoorkas.  They  are  not  sincere  followers  of 
the  Brahmins,  but  are  compelled  by  their  present  rulers  to  abstain  from  the  flesh  of 
the  cow,  for  which  they  have  a  strong  predilection.  With  Thibet  there  are  two 
roads  of  communication  from  Nap'd. — Morung  lies  on  the  east  of  Muc-  |  Morung. 
wanpoor,  and  is  similar  to  it  in  physical  character.  It  continues  subject  to  the 
Ghoorkas,  with  the  exception  of  a  section  extending  thirty-five  miles  to  the  west  of 
the  Teesta. 

To  the  east  of  Morung  lies  the  principality  of  Sikkim,  about  sixty  |  sikkim. 
miles  long,  and  forty  broad.  The  greater  part  of  it  is  included  between  the  two  arms 
of  the  river  Teesta.  The  inhabitants  are  of  the  Lapcha  tribe.  They  mostly 
profess  Lamaism,  eat  beef,  pork,  and  other  animal  food  held  by  the  Hindoos  in 
detestation,  drink  ardent  spirits  to  excess,  and  do  not  marry  their  females  till  they 
arrive  at  maturity.  They  are  not  so  enervated  by  excess  in  religious  devotion 
as  the  Bhootees  ;    hence,  though  the  latter  had  the  ascendancy  in  the  govern- 

•  Kirkpalrick's  Nepal,  p.  117. 
Vol.  II.— Y 


170  BOOK  FORTY-SEVENTH. 

ment  preyious  to  the  Ghoorka  invasion,  the  armies  consist  principally  of  the  more 
vigorous  Lapchas.  In  1788,  the  Ghoorkas,  in  a  desperate  contest  near  to  the  capi- 
tal Sikkini,  defeated  the  Rajah,  and  soon  after  obtained  possession  of  the  princi- 
pality ;  though  the  submission  of  the  people  and  their  leaders  was  only  partial,  and 
accompanied  with  much  annoyance  to  their  masters,  who  afterwards  gave  them  a  chief 
of  their  own  tribe.  In  the  rupture  between  the  Ghoorkas  and  the  British  in  1814, 
the  Rajah  declared  in  favour  of  the  latter,  and  at  the  pacification  was  reinstated  in  a 
considerable  portion  of  his  mountain  territory,  together  with  a  tract  of  low  land  ceded 
by  the  Ghoorkas,  essential  to  the  support  of  his  people.  This  is  rich,  but  not  at  all 
under  cultivation.  The  chief  produce  is  rice  and  madder.  In  consequence  of  their 
coincidence  in  religious  faith,  this  state  keeps  up  more  intercourse  with  Thibet  than 
any  other  on  the  south  side  of  the  snowy  mountains,  and  it  is  through  this  medium 
that  all  communication  is  conducted  between  India  and  the  Chinese  authorities  on 
the  north  side  of  the  Himalah  mountains.  The  establishment  of  a  state  independent  of 
the  Ghoorka  sway,  and  under  friendly  relations  with  the  British  government,  has 
arrested  the  progress  of  Ghoorkan  ambition  to  the  eastward,  where  Bootan  would 
have  fallen  an  easy  prey,  and  the  approximation  of  this  power  to  the  Birman  empire 
might  have  generated  scenes  of  the  most  extensive  warlike  confusion.  The  fort  of 
Naggree,  in  Sikkim,  is  a  place  of  uncommon  strength,  which  the  Ghoorkas  gave  up 
with  much  reluctance,  and  which  the  British  have  strengthened  for  the  Rajah  with 
some  powerful  pieces  of  ordnance. 

Bootaiu  j       Contiguous  to  Sikkim  on  the  east,  is  Bootan,  the  country  of  the  Deb 

Rajah,  which  we  have  already  noticed  in  our  account  of  Thibet,  estimated  at  an  ex- 
tent of  250  miles  in  length,  and  ninety  in  average  breadth.  It  is  entirely  mountain- 
ous in  its  northern  part,  the  reverse  of  Thibet,  which  is  a  level  table  land.  At  the 
base  of  the  hills,  near  the  frontier  of  Bengal,  there  is  a  valley  choked  up  with  jungle, 
and  unhealthy.  The  face  of  the  country  in  general  is  greatly  diversified,  and  there 
are  places  of  very  opposite  climates  in  sight  of  each  other.  There  is  a  good  deal 
of  agricultural  industry,  and  irrigation  is  much  attended  to  ;  the  labours  of  the  field 
are  devolved  on  the  females.  Wild  animals  are  not  numerous  in  Bootan  ;  but  mon- 
keys of  a  large  size  and  a  handsome  form  abound,  and  are  held  sacred  by  the  Bhoo- 
tees,  as  well  as  by  the  Hindoos.  A  caravan  dispatched  by  the  Deb  Rajah  annually 
visits  the  Rungpoor  district,  bringing  with  it  the  coarse  woollen  manufacture  of  the 
country,  Thibet  cowtails,  walnuts,  ivory,  musk,  gold  dust,  silver  in  ingots,  Chinese 
silks,  tea,  paper,  and  knives,  besides  horses  ;  it  takes  back  in  return,  English  wool- 
lens, indigo,  dried  fish,  quicksilver,  cloves,  nutmegs,  incense,  sandal  wood,  copper, 
tin,  gunpowder,  hides,  cotton  cloth,  and  pigs.  The  value  of  the  whole  scarcely 
exceeds  30,000  rupees  ;  and  the  indigo  forms  one  half  of  it.  This  timid  government 
will  not  permit  any  caravan  from  Bengal  to  enter  Bootan.  The  military  weapons  of 
the  Bootaners  are  bows  and  arrows,  short  straight  swords,  faulchions  resembling  prun- 
ing hooks,  and  a  few  bad  matchlocks.  The  people  are  of  large  stature,  many  of 
them  six  feet  high  :  more  ruddy  and  robust  than  the  Bengalcse,  but  very  subject 
to  glandular  swellings  in  the  throat.  Their  eyes  and  features  are  in  a  great  measure 
Mongolian.  Their  skins  are  smooth ;  and  they  have  no  beard  till  well  advanced  in 
years.  Tea  is  much  used  among  them.  Their  manner  of  preparing  it  is  to  mix  to- 
gether flour,  salt  butter,  bohea  tea,  with  some  other  astringent  vegetable,  and  water  ; 
boil  them  together,  and  beat  them  up.  When  they  have  finished  the  cup,  they  lick  it 
clean  with  the  tongue.  Their  houses  have  only  one  story,  but  the  palace  of  the 
Deb  Rajah  has  several,  which  are  ascended  by  lofty  stairs.  The  country  being 
mountainous,  abounds  in  bridges  hung  on  iron  chains.  When  the  Deb  Rajah  takes  a 
•dose  of  physic,  his  physician  is  obliged  to  sw.illow  an  equal  dose.  The  ministers  of 
religion  are  quite  distinct  in  their  habits  from  the  people,  and  the  latter  take  no  part  in 
ThrDehHa-     I  matters  of  spiritual  concern.     The  Deb  Raiah,  their  governor,  is  consi- 

jah  and  DUar-     1  '  ,  .  •'  ^ 

mn  Rajah.  j  dercd  as  thc  secular  vicegerent  of  their  spiritual  prince  called  Dharma 
Rajah,  a  supposed  incarnation  of  the  deity,  who  sometimes  interposes  his  opinion 
with  an  air  of  authority.  The  people  of  thc  low  countries  belong  to  subdued  tribes, 
and  the  true  Bootaners  live  in  the  mountains;  sometimes  descending  to  enforce  obe- 
dience from  tiie  people  of  the  plains,  to  inflict  chastisement,  or  to  invade  the  neigh- 


Kingdom  of 
Assam. 


INDOSTAN.  171 

bouring  slates.  On  such  occasions  it  is  said  that  their  attacks  exhibit  a  horrid  com- 
bination of  cowardice,  perfidy,  and  diabohcal  crueUy.  It  was  in  1772  that  this  coun- 
try first  fell  under  the  observation  of  the  British,  in  consequence  of  a  sudden  invasion 
made  by  the  Deb  Rajah  on  the  territory  of  the  Cooch  Bahar.  Two  battahons  of 
native  infantry  were  employed  to  drive  them  back,  and  pursue  them  into  their  own 
country,  when  the  fortress  of  Dellamcotta  was  taken  by  storm.  On  this  occasion 
the  Deb  Rajah  obtained  a  peace  through  the  mediation  of  the  Teshoo  Lama.  The 
town  of  Tassisudon,  the  capital  of  Bootan,  stands  in  the  middle  of  a  cultivated  val- 
ley, which  is  about  tliree  miles  in  length,  and  one  in  breadth.  The  castle  or  palace 
is  of  a  quadrangular  form.  Near  it  is  a  long  line  of  shed.s,  where  workmen  are  em- 
ployed in  forging  brazen  gods,  and  other  ornaments  for  their  houses.* 

On  the  south  of  Bootan,  and  extending  a  great  way  to  tlie  cast,  is  the 
kingdom  of  Assam.  It  adjoins  the  province  of  Bengal,  at  the  north- 
east corner,  about  the  91st  degree  of  oast  longitude.  It  is  thought  probable  that  it 
comes  in  contact  with  the  kingdom  of  Ava  on  the  cast,  about  the  96th  degree  of 
longitude,  and  is  at  that  part  180  miles  from  Yunan  in  China.  It  is  the  basin  or 
valley  through  which  a  large  portion  of  the  river  Brahmapootra  flows.  The  average 
breadth  of  the  valley  is  about  seventy  miles,  but  the  present  territory  of  the  Rajah 
of  Assam  nowhere  reaches  the  hills, — these  belonging  to  the  Deb  Rajah  of  Bootan. 
The  western  province  is  named  Camroop,  extending  nearly  as  far  east  as  the  cele- 
brated temple  of  middle  Kamakhya.  The  long  island  formed  by  the  division  and 
re-union  of  the  river,  contains  many  low  woody  hills,  and  a  great  extent  of  fine  low 
land,  possessed  of  great  natural  fertility.  The  middle  province,  or  Assam  Proper, 
is  more  extensive  than  the  western.  JVo  European  has  penetrated  much  further  than 
Gohati,  the  capital,  situated  at  is  western  extremity.  Its  length  is  not  known.  It 
comprehends  the  northern  half  of  the  western  island  formed  by  the  Brahmapootra, 
and  the  whole  of  the  very  large  island  named  Majuli.  It  is  more  fertile,  and  less 
hilly  than  Camroop.  The  third  province  is  a  small  and  insignificant  tract,  of  which 
very  little  is  known.  For  a  great  way  to  the  cast,  no  part  of  this  state  lies  on  the 
south  side  of  the  river.  On  the  north  Assam  is  bounded  by  the  mountains  of  Boo- 
tan, Auka,  DufFala,  and  Miree,  and  on  the  south  by  the  G arrow  mountains,  which 
become  higher  as  they  extend  east,  and  change  the  name  of  Garrow  to  that  of  Naga. 
The  animal  and  vegetable  productions  are  similar  to  those  of  Bengal.  Three-fourths 
of  the  produce  consist  of  rice.  The  trade  of  this  kingdom  has  diminished  of  late 
years,  and  the  number  of  its  inhabitants  has  been  reduced  by  the  violence  of  intes- 
tine broils.  It  is  a  rule  of  state  in  Assam  that  no  person  of  the  royal  blood  can 
succeed  to  the  throne  if  he  has  any  blemish  or  scar  on  his  body;  and  it  is  sometimes 
the  practice  to  mark  artificially  those  who  are  not  to  succeed  to  the  crown,  in  order 
to  prevent  civil  wars  about  the  succession.  The  criminal  code  is  cruel  in  the  ex- 
treme ;  but  among  the  rich  its  punishments  are  easily  averted  by  bribery.  All  the 
members  of  the  family  of  any  rebel,  both  male  and  female,  are  capitally  punished. 
Rafts  covered  with  human  heads  are  sometimes  found  floating  down  the  Brahma- 
pootra, supposed  to  be  supplied  from  this  source.  The  population  is  supposed  to 
be  under  half  a  million:  about  three  fourths  of  the  country  are  uncultivated  jungle. 
It  contains  no  shops  nor  markets,  and  their  towns  are  merely  groups  of  the  most 
niiserablc  hovels.  The  national  character  has  deteriorated  since  the  introduction  of 
the  Brahminical  religion.  They  have  become  more  pusillanimous  towards  foreigners, 
and  more  disunited  among  themselves.f 

In  the  neighbourhood  of  Assam,  to  the  west  and  the  north,  there  are 
a  few  states  or  principalities  which  maintain  more  or  less  show  of  inde- 
pendence. Such  is  Bidgenee,  the  Rajah  of  which  has  part  of  his  pos- 
sessions within  the  limits  of  the  Bengal  province,  subject  to  the  English,  and  another 
part  within  the  territory  of  Bootan,  while  the  spot  on  which  his  capital  is  situated  is 
a  sort  of  neutral  ground,  deriving  a  degree  of  independence  from  its  ambiguous 

•  See  Capt.  Turner's  Account  of  Tliibet,  and  Ur.  F.  Buchanan, 
t  See  Mr.  VVadt's  work.  Di.  F.  Buchanan. 


Adjoining 
staici. 

Bidgenee. 


173  BOOK  FOllTY-SEVENTH. 

position.     Here  the  prince  is  suspected  of  harbouring  bad  characters,  and  sharing 
in  their  plunder.     He  pays  a  tribute  of  2000  rupees  to  the  Enghsh.* 
he  Garrows.  |     The  tribe  called  the  Garrows  occupies  a  portion  of  the  territory  included 
in  the  great  bending  of  the  Brahmapootra,  where,  from  running  west,  it  turns  to 
the  south.     They  formerly  occupied  this  territory  to  the  margins  of  the  river,  but 
are  now  confined  to  an  inland  hilly  district.     They  are  a  ferocious  and  irregular  set 
of  people,  and  a  military  establishment  is  required  in  their  neighbourhood,  to  hold 
them  in  check  during  the  fairs.     Mingled  with  them  are  some  hostile  tribes,  who 
have  subdued  portions  of  their  country,  particularly  on  the  banks  of  the  river.    They 
are  a  more  robust  race  than  the  Bengalese,  both  men  and  women  are  active  in  their 
habits,  and  would  be  industrious  if  they  were  secured  in  a  fair  recompense  for  their 
produce.     But  their  transactions  with  their  neighbours  are  said  not  to  be  subjected 
Their  charao-      to  good  regulations  on  the  part  of  the  latter.    They  eat  all  sorts  of  animal 
tomi.        *       food,  including  dogs,  cats,  frogs,  and  snakes.     Milk  they  hold  in  abhor- 
rence, as  a  kind  of  excrementitious  matter.     They  are  partial  to  puppies,  which  they 
cook  in  the  most  cruel  manner  that  can  be  conceived.     They  first  make  the  animal 
eat  as  much  rice  as  its  stomach  will  receive,  then  tie  his  four  legs  together,  and 
throw  him  on  the  fire.     They  take  out  the  animal  when  sufficiently  broiled,  rip  open 
the  body,  and  divide  the  rice  in  equal  shares   among  the  party  assembled.     This 
process  has  been  repeatedly  witnessed  by  the  Bengalese  traders.     They  have  some 
other  characteristic  barbarous  customs.     When  a  quarrel  arises  between  two  Gar- 
rows, the  weaker  party  escapes  to  a  distant  hill :  both  parties  plant  a  tree  bearing  an 
acid  fruit  called  chatakor,  and  swear  solemnly  to  embrace  the  earliest  opportunity  of 
eating  their  adversary's  head  with  the  juice  of  its  fruit.     If  no  opportunity  occurs 
for  many  years,  tlie  feud  is  handed  down  with  undiminished  virulence  to  posterity. 
The  party  which  eventually  succeeds  in  cutting  off"  the  head  of  his  adversary,  boils 
it  with  the  fruit  of  the  tree,  eats  part  of  the  soup,  and  distributes  the  remainder 
among  his  friends:  the  tree  is  now  cut  down,  and  the  feud  is  ended;  the  party  of 
the  deceased,  instead  of  indulging  the  spirit  of  vengeance,  acquiesces  in  the  award 
of  the  good  fortune  of  the  other.     They  set  a  high  value  on  the  heads  of  Bengalese 
people,  especially  when  they  belong  to  persons  of  rank.     When  they  separate  one 
from  the  body,  they  bring  it  reeking  among  their  friends,  fill  the  skull  with  victuals, 
eat  out  of  it,  and  accompany  the  feast  with  dancing ;  then  bury  it  for  a  length  of  time 
sufiicient  to  make  the  flesh  separate  easily  from  the  Irenes,  after  which  they  dance 
round  it  as  before,  and  hang  it  up  as  a  trophy  in  the  house  of  the  murderer.    Such  a 
ekuU  has  its  value  in  exchange  like  any  other  piece  of  property.     It  forms,  in  fact, 
a  circulating  medium;  and  the  value  is  in  proportion  to  the  rank  of  the  individual. 
The  head  of  a  Hindoo  factor  who  had  purchased  the  zemindary  of  Caloomaloopara 
was  valued  at  1000  rupees;  that  of  a  common  peasant  costs  ten  or  twelve.     That 
none  of  their  own  people's  heads  may  bo  passed  off"  in  this  manner,  they  make  a 
point  of  burning  the  bodies  of  their  dead  to  powder.     Domestic  feuds  are  numerous; 
but  they  have  courts  held  by  their  chiefs  for  settling  disputes.     These  courts  do  not  in- 
flict any  punishment,  unless  a  man  is  detected  in  uttering  a  falsehood  before  them, 
which  incurs  the  penalty  of  instant  death.     Dishonesty  and  stealing  are  not  frequent, 
but  murders  are  daily  occurrences.     Those  who  are  not  converted  to  the  Brahminical 
rehgion  believe  in  the  transmigration  of  souls.     Their  supreme  god  has  a  wife, 
though  no  children.     They  use  no  images  or  temples.     They  do  not  write  their  own 
language;  a  few  among  them  can  read  and  write  Bengalese.     This  description  ap- 
plies chiefly  to  the  northern  Garrows.     The  southern  are  partially  converted  to  the 
Brahminical  religion.     Their  colour  is  sometimes  a  light,  sometimes  a  deep  brown. 
They  have  a  surly  look,  a  flat  nose,  small  eyes,  a  wrinkled  forehead,  overhanging 
eyebrows,  a  large  mouth,  thick  lips,  and  a  round  face.     The  women  are  singularly 
ugly,  short  and  squat,  but  strong-bodied,  and  work  at  all  occupations.     Intoxication 
is  very  common,  and  is  the  cause  of  many  crimes. I 

cachar.  |       Cachar,  on  the  south  of  Assam,  is  a  large  territory,  which  the  Birmans 

have  invaded  with  various  success,  sometimes  being  obliged  to  retire  on  account  of 

•  Dr.  F.  Buchanan.  f  Sipon,    Elliot.     Dr.  F.  Buchanan. 


INDOSTAN.  17^ 

the  unhealthiness  of  the  country,  and  sometimes  succeeding  in  exacting  tributary 
engagements.  Between  Cachar  and  Arracan  Hes  Cassay,  or  Munipoor,  |  Mimipoor. 
bounded  on  the  west  by  the  Bengal  districts  of  Tiperah  and  Silhet,  and  on  tlie  east 
separated  from  the  Birman  territories  by  the  river  Keenduem.  The  natives  have 
the  soft  countenances  of  the  Hindoos,  very  different  from  the  Birman  physiognomy. 
Several  of  them  who  have  been  taken  prisoners,  are  now  settled  in  the  Birman  ca- 
pital, Ummerapoor,  where  they  are  distinguished  by  their  superior  skill  in  various 
branches  of  handicraft  work.  They  are  excellent  horsemen,  and  form  the  only  ca- 
valry in  the  Birman  empire.  Their  music  is  pleasant,  and  conformable  to  the  Eu- 
ropean taste.  They  profess  the  Brahminical  religion.  Their  capital  is  Munipoor, 
in  N.  latitude  24°  20',  and  E.  longitude  94"  30'.  The  tract  in  which  it  is  situated 
forms  the  nearest  communication  between  the  north-east  corner  of  Bengal  and  the 
north-west  quarter  of  the  Birman  empire,  but  the  whole  route  has  not  been  traversed 
by  any  European.  A  communication  is  kept  up  between  Munipoor  and  Assam.  It 
was  taken  by  the  Birmans  in  1774,  and  is  still  tributary  to  that  power.* 


BOOK  XLVIII. 

INDOSTAN    CONTINUED. 

The  Dcccan,  or  Southern  Indosian. 

The  countries  topographically  described  in  the  preceding  book  are  sometinies 
called  Indostan  Proper.  To  the  south  of  these  lies  a  beautiful  triangular  region, 
stretching  from  a  broad  base  of  fifteen  degrees  of  longitude,  through  a  range  of  the 
same  number  of  degrees  of  latitude,  that  is,  from*23°  N.  to  8°  but  gradually  becom- 
ing narrower  as  it  proceeds  southward,  till  it  terminates  in  a  point  at  Cape  Comorin- 
This  portion  of  India  has  been  called  the  Peninsula;  and,  to  distinguish  it  from  a 
country  which  is  to  follow  it  in  our  descriptions,  it  has  been  denominated  "  the  Pe- 
ninsula on  this  side  of  the  Ganges."  A  more  appropriate  name  for  it  is  the  Deccan, 
which,  according  to  some,  means  Dakkan,  or  "the  south,"  according  to  others  l)ax' 
ine,  or  "the  country  on  the  right,"  as  it  is  on  the  right  of  those  travellers  or  conquer- 
ors who  enter  by  the  way  of  Persia.  The  term  Deccan  has  not  always  been  equally 
extensive  in  its  application.  In  its  most  ancient  acceptation  it  included  the  whole 
peninsula,  for  it  all  belongs  to  the  Poonyaboomi,  or  holy  land  of  the  Brahmins.  It  is 
full  of  ancient  places  of  pilgrimage,  and  has,  from  the  earliest  period  of  histoiy,  been 
inhabited  by  Hindoos.  At  the  epoch  of  the  composition  of  the  Puranas,  it  was,  like 
the  rest  of  Indostan,  divided  into  a  multitude  of  small  principalities. 

The  five  original  nations  which  inhabit  this  country  go  under  the  common  appel- 
lation of  Draviras.  The  Goorjanas,  or  Goojers,  seem  to  have  been  incorporated 
with  the  other  four  at  some  period  comparatively  recent,  by  circumstances  buried  in 
the  darkness  of  antiquity.  Other  two,  the  Mahraltas  and  Telingas  have  always  been 
numerous  and  powerful  nations,  occupying  the  western  and  eastern  portions  of  the 
northern  half  of  the  peninsula.  On  the  south,  the  Cmmatas  or  Canaras  come  in  con- 
tact with  them,  occupying  the  whole  breadth  of  the  peninsula.  The  Tamulas,  or 
Draviras  properly  so  called,  dwell  in  the  southern  extremity.  This  division  of  races, 
marked  by  diversity  of  language  and  of  writing,  and  consecrated  by  a  religion  which 
prohibits  any  mixture  of  caste,  has  withstood  the  shock  of  conquests,  the  caprices  of 
tyrants,  and  even  the  intolerance  of  Mahometan  bigotry.  Within  the  territorial  limits 
of  these  different  races,  a  certain  number  of  others  are  found,  who  have  been  uiduccd 

•  Wade.     Syme's  Account  of  an  Embassy  to  the  King  of  Ava. 


Kingdom  of 
t{ie  Deccan. 


Mogul  pro- 
vince of  the 
Deecan. 

State  of  the 
Nizaiii« 


174  BOOK  FORTY-EIGHTH. 

to  emigrate  to  this  country  by  motives  of  interest,  or  who  have  sought  in  it  an  asykim 
from  tlie  cruelty  of  conquerors:  but,  as  they  have  remained  completely  insulated, 
their  manners,  customs,  languages,  religious  and  nuptial  ceremonies  bear  testimony 
to  their  origin,  and  to  the  permanent  character  of  all  their  institutions. 
Divisions.  |  Conqucsts  and  political  revolutions  have  occasioned  changes  in  the 
boundaries  and  relative  importance  of  the  kingdoms  which  have  been  formed  in  this 
peninsula.  The  kingdom  which  in  the  fifth  century  had  Vijanagara,  or 
Bisnagor,  for  its  capital,  is  more  particularly  denominated  "the  kingdom 
of  the  Deccan"  in  the  writings  of  the  Portuguese,  Arabs,  and  Turks.  It  compre- 
hended the  more  modern  provinces  of  Khandesh,  Dowletabad,  Bejapoor,  Golconda, 
Berar,  and  Gundwana.  It  was  also  called  the  kingdom  of  Narsinga,  from  the  title 
assumed  by  its  sovereigns.  The  Mahometan  emperors,  or  Great  Moguls,  when  they 
conquered  a  great  part  of  this  kingdom,  of  which  Dowletabad  was  the  most  conspicu- 
ous portion,  called  it  the  government  or  vice-royalty  of  the  Deccan. 

This  province  underwent  various  changes,  sometimes  by  enlargement 
and  sometimes  by  curtailment,  according  to  the  changing  fortune  of 
arms,  till  at  last  the  viceroy  or  Nieam  of  the  Deccan,  taking  advantage 
of  the  weakness  of  his  masters  to  make  himself  independent,  erected  a 
separate  state,  now  subject  to  England,  of  whicli  the  centre  is  Hyderabad,  and  to 
which,  as  a  state,  the  name  of  the  Deccan  is  sometimes  particularly  applied. 
Late  and  pre-  I  In  conscquence  of  these  changes,  the  names  of  provinces  now  cm- 
sent  diTisioni.  j  piQyg^j  j^  (^jjg  geography  of  the  Deccan  are  sometimes  those  imposed 
on  them  as  Mogul  governments,  sometimes  those  of  indigenous  or  mussulman  king- 
doms, and  sometimes  those  which  are  derived  from  the  ancient  tribes.  It  must  be 
confessed  that  these  fluctuations  give  the  geographer  a  troublesome  task. — Old  poli- 
tical divisions  are  always  less  important  than  those  now  existing,  and,  irom  the 
icecency  of  the  last  change,  existing  divisions  in  the  present  instance  are  not  defined 
in  a  satisfactory  manner.  But  we  must  trace  their  leading  features. — Till  very  lately 
we  should  have  been  inclined  to  arrange  them  under  three  or  four  diflerent  heads, 
founded  on  their  political  condition,  viz.  the  Mahratta  states,  the  Mahometan  posses- 
sions, including  those  of  the  Nizam  and  of  the  Nabob  of  the  Carnatic,  the  English 
provinces,  and  the  Hindoo  principalities  of  the  south.  But  recent  revolutions  have 
so  completely  reduced  the  Mahrattas,  and  tlie  countries  immediately  subjected  to 
England  are  now  so  thoroughly  intermixed  with  those  of  the  former,  as  to  break  up 
all  compactness  of  territory  ;  the  others,  likewise,  are  become  so  completely  subser- 
vient, or  at  least  so  clfectually  prevented  from  numbering  the  possibility  of  open 
defiance  among  their  jjolitical  prerogatives,  that  it  will  be  most  advisable  to  follow  a 
simple  topographical  order,  noticing,  as  we  proceed,  the  influence  of  recent  events 
in  modifying  the  present  state  of  the  different  localities. — "In  prosecution  of  this  plan, 
we  shall  first  take  a  view  of  the  Deccan  strictly  so  called,  that  is,  the  extensive  ter- 
ritory which  lies  between  the  river  Nerbuddah,  with  its  parallel  of  latitude,  extended 
to  the  eastern  boundary,  and  the  Krishna,  and  then  of  the  remaining  part  or  triangu- 
lar termination  of  the  land,  lying  between  the  parallel  of  the  Krishna  and  Cape 
Comorin. 

The  Deccan  Proper  does  not  enjoy  the  same  advantages  for  inland 
navigation  as  the  more  northerly  provinces  already  described.  The 
rivers,  when  swollen  by  periodical  rains,  are  too  impetuous  to  admit  of  it,  and  when 
not  so  swollen  they  are  too  shallow,  except  near  the  sea,  where  their  course  is  ob- 
structed by  sand  banks.  The  roads  have  at  the  same  time  always  been  impractica- 
Preyaiiing  ^Jq  fpj  whccl  carriaffcs.     Hence,  this  recion  is  marked  by  a  peculiarity 

mode  of  inland       .  i         ,.  r        •  •  i  ^  i-   •  nii  i 

carriage.  lu  the  modc  ot  conductiug  an  interchange  of  commodities.    1  liese  have 

been  transported  on  bullocks,  the  property  of  a  class  of  people  named  Bunjarries, 
emigrants  from  Rajepootana,  and  consisting  chiefly  of  four  tribes,  the  Rhatores, 
Burteah,  Chowan,  and  Powar.  In  1813,  these  were  supposed  to  possess  182,000 
head  of  cattle.  Besides  these,  a  race,  called  Mooltanics,  professing  the  Mussulman 
religion,  who  say  that  they  fled  from  Mooltan  when  invaded  by  Nadir  Shah  in  1739, 


The  Deccan 
Proper. 


ProTince  of 
Gundwana. 


The  Gond 
tribes. 


IXDOSTAK.  175 

have  a  share  in  the  same  occupation  of  carriers,  and  muster  ahout  5000  or  6000  head 
of  cattle.* 

We  shall  now  take  our  departure  from  the  central  parts  in  the  north;  proceed  next 
along  the  eastern  coast,  and  then  take  the  western  provinces  in  the  same  order,  that 
is,  from  north  to  south. 

We  begin  witii  the  extensive  province  of  Gundwana,  so  called  from 
the  tribe  of  the  Gonds  who  inhabit  the  western  parts  of  it,  or  Gundwana 
Proper.  The  eastern  parts  consist  of  a  number  of  petty  raja-ships,  which  are  almost 
independent,  and  not  mutually  connected.  They  are  of  no  political  importance,  ex- 
cept that  they  form  a  strong  westerly  frontier  to  Bengal  and  Orissa,  the  country 
being  wild  and  impenetrable  to  an  army.  Gundwana  is  a  large  quadrangular  territory, 
with  its  sides  obliquely  placed  in  reference  to  the  points  of  the  compass.  On  its 
north-west  side,  it  is  bounded  by  Malwah  and  Allahabad  ;  on  the  north-east  by  Ba- 
har  and  Bengal  ;  on  the  south-east  by  Orissa  and  the  Northern  Circars,  which  lie 
between  it  and  Bengal  Bay ;  and  on  the  south-west  by  Khandesh,  Bcrar,  Beeder, 
Hyderabad.  It  contains  the  sources  of  the  Nerbuddah  and  Sone  :  the  Wurdce  and 
Godavery  form  its  south-west  frontier  line,  and  receive  several  tributary  streams  from 
it.  The  Karoon,  Hatsoo,  and  Silair,  are  the  largest  rivers  by  which  it  is  intersected, 
and  none  of  them  are  navigable  within  its  limits.  It  is  on  the  whole  mountainous, 
poor,  ill  watered,  unhealtiiy,  wild,  and  thinly  peopled.  A  chain  of  mountains  of  no 
great  elevation  extends  from  the  southern  frontier  of  Bengal  almost  to  the  G  odavery, 
separating  the  western  or  Nagpoor  districts  from  the  eastern.  The  inhabitants  of 
these  hills  are  called  Kurns  or  Carnas.  The  native  Gonds  in  the  west 
are  a  miserable  race,  scarcely  advanced  one  step  in  civilization,  and  the 
very  lowest  in  the  scale  of  Indian  society.  They  are  Brahminical  Hindoos,  the 
Brahmins  having  condescended  to  officiate  as  spiritual  directors  to  some  of  their 
chiefs,  but  they  retain  many  impure  customs,  and  cat  all  sorts  of  animal  food,  with 
the  exception  of  beef.  One  of  their  chiefs  was  conquered  and  taken  prisoner  to 
Delhi  by  one  of  Aurengzebe's  officers,  was  converted  to  tlie  Mahometan  religion, 
had  his  conquered  lands  restored,  and  received  the  title  of  Boorahan  Shah.  His 
descendants  were  afterwards  carried  to  Nagpoor  by  the  Mahrattas.  They  are 
still  Mahometans,  but  highly  respected,  and  family  alliances  with  them  are  ambi- 
tiously courted  by  the  other  Gond  chiefs.  All  the  Gonds  have  been  rendered  tribu- 
tary to  the  Mahrattas,  but  the  collection  of  the  tribute  could  never  be  executed  with- 
out the  presence  of  an  armed  force. 

The  capital  of  Gundwana  is  Nagpoor,  being  the  seat  of  the  Bhoonsla  |  Nagiioor. 
Mahratta  dynasty.  In  some  maps  it  is  erroneously  represented  as  the  capital  of  Be- 
rar,  which  is  an  adjoining  province.  Nagpoor  is  an  extensive  city,  of  modern  dale, 
but  meanly  built.  The  streets  are  narrow  and  filthy,  and  the  houses  roofed  with  tile. 
It  is  imperfectly  fortified  with  a  wall.  The  fort  is  a  place  of  considerable  strength. 
The  British  residency  lie?  to  the  west  of  the  city,  separated  from  it  by  a  small  ridge 
of  high  ground. I  The  city  and  suburbs  are  about  seven  miles  in  circ\imfercnce,  and 
the  population  is  estimated  at  100,000.  This  was  once  a  powerfid  government,  but, 
having  so  far  departed  from  its  old  system  of  reserve  and  neutrality  as  to  join  Sindiai 
in  a  confederation  against  the  English,  it  was,  in  180.3,  deprived  of  Cuttak,  and  thus 
cut  off  from  its  connection  with  the  sea.  Recently  the  Raja  Appa  Salieb  having, 
under  the  veil  of  friendly  relations,  engaged  in  a  series  of  deceitful  plots,  some  of 
which  were  formed  immediately  after  he  had  been  reinstated  in  valuable  possessions 
by  tlie  conquerors  at  whose  mercy  he  was  placed;  that  individual  was,  in  1818,  placed 
in  confinement,  from  which  he  escaped,  and  has,  by  the  latest  accounts,  led  the  life 
of  a  predatory  fugitive  among  the  Gonds,  while  a  legitimate  heir  of  the  family  has 
been  instated  in  the  throne  and  territory;  but  the  powers  of  the  family  are  now  greatly 
curtailed,  the  British  having  taken  possession  of  all  the  northern  parts  situated  on 


Amerkoon- 
took. 


the  Nerb\iddah.     Amerkoontook,  in  N.  lat.  22°  55'  and  E.  long.  82" 
7',  is  a  wild  and  thinly  inhabited  region,  but  a  celebrated  scene  of  Hin- 

•  Mr.  W.  Hamilton's  Description,  vol.  ii.  p.  4. 

t  A  view  of  the  residency  and  the  adjoining  hills,  is  given  in  Prinsep's  Narrative,  p.  144, 
and  a  plan  of  the  vicinity  of  the  city  at  p.  230. 


Province  of 
Orisaa. 

the  south,  ; 


176  BOOK  forty-ei(;hth. 

doo  pilgrimage,  from  containing  the  sources  of  the  Sone  and  Nerbuddah  rivers.  It 
has  not  been  explored  by  Europeans ;  but,  being  now  within  the  limits  of  the  British 
Mundeia.  |  dominions,  it  is  likely  to  be  soon  better  known  to  geographers.  IVIun- 
dela  is  a  strong  fortress  on  the  Nerbuddah,  delivered  up  to  the  British  in  1818.  The 
central  district  of  Chotteesghur  is  better  cultivated  than  the  rest  of  this  desolate  pro- 
uuttunpoor.  I  vince,  and  exports  grain.  Its  capital,  Ruttunpoor,  consists  of  1000  mi- 
serable and  straggling  huts,  near  to  which  is  an  idol  of  blue  granite,  nine  feet  high, 
rubbed  over  with  red  paint,  and  ornamented  with  flowers.  Here  are  many  pools  and 
tanks;  and  the  ruins  in  the  neighbourhood  indicate  the  former  existence  of  a  more 
advanced  state  of  society.  Ryepoor,  another  town  in  the  same  district,  contains 
3000  huts. 

On  the  east  of  Gundwana,  on  the  Bengal  Bay,  is  the  province  of 
Orissa,  bounded  by  Bengal  on  the  north,  and  the  Northern  Circars  on 
rom  which  it  is  separated  by  tlie  Chilka  lake.  In  the  interior  the  hills  are 
rugged,  uncultivated,  overgrown  by  rank  jungle,  and  unhealthy  in  the  highest  degree, 
so  that  armies  have  sustained  enormous  losses  by  sickness,  in  the  mere  act  of  cross- 
ing the  mountainous  ridge  which  extends  from  the  Godavery  to  the  Mahanuddy. 
This  province,  though  provided  with  so  strong  a  natural  barrier,  has  always  easily 
changed  its  masters,  in  consequence  of  the  apathy  of  the  people  :  and,  as  its  un- 
healthiness  has  discouraged  colonization,  the  Hindoo  manners  are  maintained  in 
greater  purity  here  than  in  most  other  parts  of  India.  It  contains  some  monuments 
which  seem  to  indicate  that  it  was  a  flourishing  country  previously  to  the  Mahometan 
invasion,  and  the  conclusion  is  confirmed  by  the  narratives  of  some  early  travellers. 
Nearly  half  of  it  is  now  under  British  jurisdiction,  including  all  the  low  parts  on  the 
sea-coast.  Tliis  part  is  plain  and  fertile,  but  not  well  cultivated  or  peopled.  Its 
inhabitants  are  reckoned  a  hundred  to  each  square  mile.  The  hilly  parts  are  pos- 
sessed by  native  Zemindars,  who  are  called  Ghurjauts,  and  are  tributary  to  the 
British  government.  They  contain  about  thirty  persons  to  the  square  mile.  Rice 
and  salt  are  the  chief  produce  of  the  province.  In  the  tributary  part,  the  peojjle 
are  wretched  and  poor.  Some  live  by  burning  charcoal,  or  smelting  iron,  others  by 
felling  timber.  The  country  swarms  with  wild  animals,  among  which  are  tigers  and 
jackals.  In  the  back  lying  parts  of  the  province,  the  native  Ooreas,  a  courageous 
and  fierce  race,  retain  their  pristine  barbarous  manners,  and  commonly  go  armed 
with  bows  and  arrows,  or  swords,  which  last  are  broad  at  the  end  and  narrow  in  the 
middle,  and  worn  naked.  An  irreconcilable  hatred  has  always  subsisted  between  this 
people  and  the  Mahrattas.  Those  Ooreas,  who  are  within  the  British  jurisdiction, 
have  adopted  industrious  habits,  and  are  pusillanimous  and  cunning.  In  the  northern 
maritime  part  of  Orissa  there  is  a  considerable  manufacture  of  coarse  calicos,  called 
Beiasore.  |  satittes,  for  turbans.  The  sea-port  town  of  Belasore,  on  the  Booree 
Bellaun  river,  though  much  fallen  off",  having  been  a  great  place  for  European  fac- 
tories at  an  early  period  of  intercourse  between  India  and  Europe,  is  still  noted  for 
maritime  transactions.  It  has  at  different  times  been  the  scene  of  warlike  opera- 
tions. In  1688,  in  a  dispute  with  Aurengzebe,  it  was  attacked  by  the  English  under 
Captain  Heath,  a  battery  of  thirty  guns  taken,  and  the  town  plundered.  In  1803,  it 
was  taken  by  the  English  from  the  Nagpoor  Raja,  and  has  ever  since  remained  at- 
tached to  the  presidency  of  Bengal.  The  district  of  Cuttak  to  the  south,  lying  be- 
tween the  Chilka  lake  and  the  river  Solundee,  is  a  flat,  rich,  alluvial  country.  The 
town  of  Cuttak  is  large  and  populous,  and  its  situation  below  high  water  mark,  so 
as  to  require  embankments  to  preserve  it  from  being  inundated  by  the  tide. 
Temple  and  In  the  district  of  Cuttak,  in  this  province,  is  the  celebrated  Juggernaut, 

Juggernaut.  in  lat.  19°  40'  N.  and  long.  85°  54'  E.  Juggernaut  is  one  of  the  names 
of  the  god  Vishnu,  under  which  he  is  worshipped  in  various  temples  in  different  parts 
of  India.  This  temple,  however,  being  esteemed  supereminent  in  sanctity,  receives 
the  name  of  Juggernaut  by  way  of  eminence.  It  is  a  shapeless  mass  of  decayed 
granite,  but  conspicuous  from  a  distance,  and,  on  so  flat  a  coast,  an  excellent  land- 
mark for  navigators.  The  town  Pooree,  by  which  it  is  surrounded,  is  dirty  and  ill 
built,  inhabited  by  a  sickly  Hindoo  population,  consisfing  chiefly  of  priests  and  ofii- 
cers  of  the  idol.     The  land  for  ten  miles  round  the  temple  is  reckoned  so  holy  as  to 


Festival  of 
Ruth  01-  the 
oai'. 

louts  of  an 

Fanaticism  of 
the  devotees. 


INDOSTAN.  177 

insure  future  bliss  to  every  person  who  dies  witiiin  its  bounds.  A  ridiculous  legend 
is  attached  to  the  origin  of  the  image.  Krishna,  a  divine  incarnation,  was  acci- 
dentally killed  by  the  arrow  of  Angada  a  hunter,  and  his  bones  were  placed  in  the 
belly  of  an  image  made  by  Viswacarma,  the  architect  of  the  gods.  A  succession  of 
ditferent  images  has  been  fabricated,  and  the  Brahmins  engaged  in  removing  the 
sacred  bones  are  obliged  to  bandage  their  eyes  for  fear  of  being  struck  dead  by  the 
effulgence  of  the  relics.  The  image  at  [)resent  exhibited  is  a  carved  block  of  wood 
with  a  hideous  visage  painted  black,  the  mouth  wide  and  red,  the  eyes  and  head  very 
large,  without  legs  or  hands,  having  only  Htumi»s  of  arms.  At  ceremonies,  he  is 
supplied  with  gold  or  silver  arms.  There  arc  other  two  idols  representing  his  bro- 
ther and  sister,  which  are  of  a  white  and  yellow  colour.  The  cars  on  which  they 
are  elevated  are  eighty  feet  high,  resembling  Hindoo  pagodas,  supported  by  strong 
frames  placed  on  four  or  live  rows  of  wheels,  which  deeply  indent  the  ground  as 
they  turn.  The  upper  parts  of  the  cars  are  covered  with  English  broad  cloth,  in 
party-coloured  stripes,  and  decorated  with  streamers.  During  the  fes- 
tival of  Ruth  Jattra,  the  three  images  are  brought  forth  with  prodigious 
ceremony  and  noise,  and  moved  along  on  these  machines,  amidst  the  s 
immense  multitude,  from  the  temple  to  the  garden-house  of  the  idol.  The 
emulation  excited  to  participate  in  the  oflice  of  dragging  these  carriages 
is  very  high ;  the  distance  is  about  a  mile  and  a  lialf,  but  the  motion  is  so  slow  that 
the  journey  occupies  three  or  four  days,  llorriblc  scenes  often  occur  on  these 
occasions.  Numerous  individuals  are  squeezed  or  trod  to  death  by  the  injpetuous 
rushing  of  the  multitude.  Many  miserable  persons  die  of  famine  or  fatigue  round 
the  place,  and  often  at  a  distance  of  many  miles  before  they  reach  the  termination 
of  their  pilgrimage.  Many  ofler  themselves  as  voluntary  sacrifices  to  gratify  the 
idol.  Here  superstition  assumes  a  peculiarly  disgusting  (brm.  The  temple,  throne, 
and  carriage  of  the  deity  arc  covered  with  indecent  sculptures  :  the  ntotions  which 
are  made,  and  the  songs  sung  by  the  attending  priests  and  ministers,  are  grossly 
obscene,  a^id  the  highest  merit  and  admiration  arc  attached  to  the  unnatural  resolu- 
tion of  suicide,  when  formed  and  executed  by  any  infatuated  individual.  When  any 
such  announces  his  intention  of  resigning  life  in  this  revolting  manner,  seif  immou- 
the  crowd  makes  way  for  the  devoted  individual,  who  throws  himself  on  ^'""' 
the  ground  before  one  of  the  chariot  wheels,  and  is  crushed  to  death.  Sometimes, 
by  laying  themselves  awkwardly  down,  they  are  not  immediately  killed,  but  languish 
for  an  hour  or  two  in  the  agonies  of  death.  Their  bodies  are  not  interred,  but  left 
to  the  dogs  and  the  vultures.  The  air  is  deeply  infected  with  the  putrid  eilluvia 
emitted  by  the  half  consumed  bodies,  and  to  great  distances  round  the  place  human 
bones  and  skulls  lio  strewed  on  the  surface  of  the  ground.  At  the  times  of  the  fes- 
tivals, religious  mendicants  of  all  descriptions  abound,  who  employ  various  strange 
devices  to  stimulate  the  charity  of  the  multitude,  such  as  standing  on  their  heads, 
filling  their  eyes  with  mud,  and  their  mouths  with  straw,  or  lying  extended  in  a  pud- 
dle of  water.  Numerous  oHerings  of  food  arc  made  to  Juggernaut,  and  provisions 
which  have  been  presented  by  others  are  purchased  with  much  eagerness,  on  account 
of  the  sacred  character  which  they  have  thus  acquired.  One  singularity  takes  place 
here,  that  the  distinction  of  caste  is  forgotten,  and  all  descriptions  of  pilgrims  feast 
with  the  Brahmins.  Some  old  persons  come  on  purpose  to  die  at  Juggernaut,  and 
many  measure  the  whole  distance  of  a  long  journey  by  the  length  of  their  bodies. 

A  great  road  from  Calcutta  to  Juggernaut  has  been  begun,  raised  at 
an  average  six  feet  above  the  level  of  the  country.  Between  Cuttak 
and  Juggernaut,  the  branches  of  the  Maha  are  so  numerous,  that  twenty- 
seven  stone  bridges  are  required.  The  chief  entrance  to  the  town  and  temple  has 
been  widened,  to  prevent  the  dismal  casualties  above  alluded  to,  arising  from  the 
rushing  of  the  fanatical  crowd  on  the  opening  of  the  gate.  This  place  was  taken 
from  the  Mahrattas  in  1803,  and  now  presents  the  curious  spectacle  of  a  heathen 
temple  of  the  most  exceptionable  kind,  regulated,  and  its  economy  managed,  under 
the  British  government.  Scruples  and  rcmoiistraucos  have  been  made  by  well  mean- 
Vot.  II.— Z 


Improvements 
connected 
with  Jugger- 
naut. 


178  BOOK  FOIITV-EIGHTH, 


EuroDean  iog  individuals  on  this  point.*    The  Europeans  certainly  give  no  coun- 

scruples.  tcnance  to  the  atrocious  acts  of  self  immolation  which  are  perpetrated 

here  under  the  influence  of  deluded  opinions :  but  it  would  neither  be  wise  nor  fair 
to  suppress  by  force  the  customary  expressions  of  devotion,  and  the  institutions 
which  have  for  ages  been  subservient  to  it,  and  it  would  show  too  much  apathy  to 
stand  aloof,  and  leave  the  scene  to  its  own  course,  to  the  full  extent  of  all  its  attend- 
ing barbarities.  It  is  better  to  give  full  toleration,  and  at  the  same  time  exercise 
their  power  to  mollify  the  hideous  features  of  superstition  by  human  regulations 
suited  to  the  present  state  of  the  general  mind,  and  fitted  to  impress  it  gradually 
with  the  Superiority  of  liberality  and  good  sense  to  the  fooleries  of  superstition 
and  the  useless  tortures  and  violations  of  natural  feeling  to  which  it  impels  its 
votaries. 

In  the  year  1813,  the  receipts  from  the  pilgrims  (chiefly  at  the  tolls) 
amounted  to  87,159  rupees. 

In  the  year  1813,  the  accoupts  of  the  temple  stood  as  follows: — 

Receipts.  Rupees. 

From  pilgrims,  chiefly  at  the  tolls,  ......  87,159 

From  lands  assigned  to  the  temple,  ......  20,643 

Authorized  collections  at  the  temple,  ......  5,997 


Revenue  and 
expense  of  the 
temple. 


Expenditure. 

CoUoetor's  establishment,  and  contingencies,          .         .         .  17,257 

Value  of  broad  cloth  for  the  idol,          .....  1,505 

Expense  of  the  temple  itself,        ......  56,612 


113,799 


75,374 


Balance  remaining  to  government,     ......        38,425 

The  number  of  taxable  pilgrims  sometimes  amounts  to  70  or  80,000;  but  the  num- 
ber of  persons  attending  exempted  from  taxation  is  always  much  greater.  Many 
offerings  are  made  to  this  temple  all  over  Indostan  and  transmitted  either  in  the  form 
of  merchandise  or  bills  of  exchange.  The  economy  of  the  temple  is  vested  in  the 
Raja  of  Khoorda,  by  the  British  government.  It  is  thought  that  1,200,000  persons 
attend  annually,  of  whom  a  very  great  number  never  return. 

STe  Norfhern  "^^^  province  Called  the  Northern  Circars,  includes  a  great  part  of  the 

circais.  territory  which  once  belonged  to  Orissa,  viz.  from  Goomsur  to  the  river 

Godavery.  It  extends  south  as  far  as  the  river  Gundegama.  The  southern  part  is 
subjected  to  extreme  heat  in  summer,  the  thermometer  sometimes  standing  at  108° 
at  midnight  for  an  entire  week.  Under  this  heat  the  wood  warps  to  such  a  degree, 
that  the  nails  fall  out  of  doors  and  tables,  and  glass  is  liable  to  crack.  The  hill 
fever  prevails  in  the  upland  parts.  Much  grain  is  produced  in  the  Circars.  Fruits 
and  esculent  roots  do  not  succeed,  and  are  thought  to  be  injured  by  the  sea  air.  The 
forests  of  Rajamundry  on  the  Godavery  yield  abundance  of  large  teak  trees.  Seve- 
ral kinds  of  woollen,  cotton,  and  silk  stuffs  are  manufactured  here,  but  not  in  re- 
markable quantity;  the  thread  is  prepared  by  the  females.  Ships  of  600  tons  are 
built  at  the  mouths  of  the  Godavery.  The  native  inhabitants  are  wholly  Hindoos, 
with  the  exception  of  a  few  Mahometans  in  the  towns.  The  hilly  lands  are  in  the 
hands  of  zemindars,  some  of  whom  were  driven  from  the  Carnatic  and  Orissa,  by 
the  Mahometans,  in  1652.  Other  lands  are  divided  into  villages  or  town- 
ships, a  sort  of  corporations  provided  with  their  proper  establishment  of 
officers  and  servants.  Under  this  simple  form  of  government,  the  inhabitants  have 
lived  from  time  immemorial.  The  boundaries  of  villages  have  been  seldom  altered, 
though  often  injured  or  desolated,  and  the  same  name  and  the  same  families  have 
continued  for  ages.     The  inhabitants  give  themselves  no  trouble  about  the  breaking 

•   See  the  details  and  reasonings  in  Buchanan's  Christian  Researclies  in  Asia,  p.  18— ."0, 
third  edition. 


Division  of  the 
country  vil- 
lages. 


F(ilicieal  vicis- 
situdes. 

le  hands  of 


Vizagapatam. 

Desperate  con- 
duct of  a  poli- 
gar. 


INDOSTAN.  179 

up  of  kingdoms  while  their  village  and  its  internal  economy  remain  unchanged.  This 
state  of  society  is  prevalent  in  the  whole  southern  or  peninsular  India. 

In  1541,  this  country  was  subjugated  by  the  Mahometans.     In  1724, 
it  was  transferred  from  the  house  of  Timour  to  the  Nizam  ul  Mulk.    In 
1742,  it  was  ceded  to  the  French  East  India  Company.     It  passed  into  t 
the  British  by  a  grant  of  the  Mogul  and  the  Nizam.     A  considerable  force  (six  na- 
tive battalions)  is  required  to  preserve  this  country  from  the  incursions  of  the  moun- 
taineers, whose  haunts  are  not  under  the  control  of  the  British. — Gan-     District  of 
jam  is  the  most  northern  district  in  this  province,  containing  Goomsur,     Ganjam. 
a  large  zemindary,  the  possessor  of  which  was  found  on  accusation  and  subsequent 
inquiry  by  the  British  magistrate  in  1815,  to  have  been  guilty  of  a  long  series  of 
murders  among  the  females  of  his  seraglio,  whom  he  destroyed  by  the  most  inhu- 
man tortures,  and  threw  their  bodies  into  a  well  where  numerous  bones  were  found, 
demonstrating  that  the  practice  had  been  kept  up. for  many  years.. — To 
the  south  of  this  is  Vizagapatam.     This  district  contains  the  zemindary 
of  Bobilee,  the  possessor  of  which,  Kangaroo,  who  ranked  as  the  first 
poligar  in  the  country,  on  being  taken  in  his  last  strong  fort  by  the  French  com 
mander,  at  the  instigation  of  a  hostile  neighbour,  in  1757,  ordered  a  thorough  mas- 
sacre of  all  the  women  and  children  of  his  garrison ;  and  one  of  the  soldiers,  out  of 
four  who  had  taken  an  oath  of  vengeance  when  their  chief  fell,  passed  through  the 
quartei's  of  his  enemy  Vizeram  Rauze,  and  stabbed  him  in  thirty  two  places. — The 
district  of  Rajamundry  lies  along  both  sides  of  the   Godavery,  but  the  |  Rajamundry. 
greater  part  to  the  south.     This  is  the  only  country  on  the  west  side  of  the  Bengal 
Bay  which  furnishes  teak  wood.     There  is  a  considerable  cultivation  of  sugar  on 
the  Delta  of  the  river. — To  the  south  of  this  is  Masulipatam,  famous  |  Masuiipatam. 
for  its  chintzes.     The  population  is  industrious  and  numerous,  so  that,  though  the 
country  is  rich  and  well  cultivated,  it  imports  considerable  quantities  of  rice  and  other 
provisions. — To  the  south  of  this  is  Guntoor,  a  rich  and  populous  dis-     District  of 
trict,  and  the  scene  of  some  of  the  worst  excesses  of  the  Pindarees  in     Guntoor. 
1815.  Between  the  10th  and  the  22d  of  March,  a  band  of  these  miscreants,  amount- 
ing to  5000,  plundered  308  villages,  murdered  166  persons,  wounded  485,  and  in- 
flicted torture  on  2251.     There   were  eighteen  persons  who  killed  themselves  in 
despair  on  the  approach  of  this  banditti.     Many  of  the  natives,  though  unarmed, 
made  a  gallant  defence,  and  it  was  afterwards  in  contemplation  to  allow  them  arms 
to  protect  themselves  from  gangs  of  robbers ;  but  the  precautions  since  adopted  of 
utterly  destroying  the  Pindaree  combinations,  will,  it  is  hoped,  form  an  effectual  pre- 
ventive of  any  repetition  of  such  scenes.* 

Having  proceeded  southward  along  the  eastern  coast  a  little  beyond 
the  Krishna,  we  shall  return  to  the  west  boundary  of  the  great  province 
of  Gundwana,  proceeding  here  also  from  north  to  south,  and  consequently  beginning 
with  the  province  of  Khandesh,  which  is  separated  by  the  Nerbuddah  from  Malwah 
on  the  north,  bounded  on  the  west  by  Guzcrat,  and  on  the  south  by  Aurungabad  and 
Bcrar.  The  river  Tuptee,  which  runs  through  it,  from  east  to  west,  is  of  consider- 
able size,  with  deep  and  steep  banks  of  firm  black  earth,  and  sending  olf  numerous 
ravines  on  both  sides,  intersecting  the  country  for  several  miles.  A  considerable 
portion  of  this  province  formerly  belonged  to  the  Ilolcar  lamily.  It  was  well  peo- 
pled and  cultivated,  but  has  of  late  years  been  ruined  by  plunder  and  war.  The 
chiefs  of  the  Bhecl  tribes  possess  the  hills  to  the  north  of  Boorhanpoor,  and,  besides 
their  oWn  people,  keep  some  Arabs  and  others  about  them,  to  assist  in  making  for- 
cible exactions  on  their  neighbours.  liolcar's  dominions  here  were  ceded  to  the 
British  in  1818.  At  this  time,  when  the  Mahratla  power  was  reduced, 
the  Arab  colonies  were  strong  in  Khandesh,  and  it  was  necessary  for  the 
victors  to  expel  them.  They  made  a  vigorous  resistance,  and  the  only  choice  allow- 
ed to  them  was  transportation  to  their  native  Arabian  deserts.  When  they  were  re- 
duced by  force,  they  escaped  this  lot  in  consequence  of  some  misinterpretation  which 
occurred  in  the  course  of  the  negociations.     They  were  allowed  to  transport  them- 

•  See  page  144,  of  this  volume. 


Province  of 
Khandesh. 


Arahian  colo- 
nies. 


180  BOOK  FORTY-EIGHTH. 

selves  wliorever  they  pleased.*  The  Arabs  have  always  made  a  figure  as  brave  sol- 
diers in  this  part  of  India.  In  the  Peshwa's  army  they  received  fifteen  rupees  per 
month,  while  the  natives  of  the  Deccan  only  received  six,  and  those  of  Upper  Indos- 
tan  eight.  The  forts  which  made  the  most  determined  resistance  in  1816,  were  ]Mul- 
ligaum,  which  surrendered  in  consequence  of  their  great  magazine  having  been  blown 
up;  Talnere,  where  the  garrison,  having  acted  treacherously  under  the  mask  of  su- 
ing for  terms,  was  put  to  the  sword;!  ^^^  Aseerghur,  which  surrendered  after  a  vi- 
gorous resistance. 

Province  of  Bcrar  is  a  province  nearly  of  a  triangular  shape ;  the  north-west  side 

^"*"^*  being  bounded  by  Khandesh,  the  north-east  by  Nagpoor  in  Gundwana, 

which  is  sometimes  erroneously  represented  as  part  of  Berar,  and  the  south  by  Au- 
rungabad  and  Beeder.  Its  capital  is  Elichpoor.  Berar  is  an  elevated  valley,  almost 
equidistant  from  the  west  and  east  coast  of  the  Deccan.  It  is  thiidy  inhabited,  and 
little  cultivated,  but  some  parts  of  it  are  naturally  fertile,  and  contain  rich  grass  pas- 
tures. The  cultivated  crops  are  wheat,  maize,  pease,  and  flax.  In  the  beginning  of 
CaiaBhairava,  |  spring  a  shocking  ceremony  takes  place  at  Cala  Bhairava,  in  the  motm- 
tains,  between  the  rivers  Tuptee  and  Ncrbuddah.  It  is  the  practice  of  some  per- 
vowsof  sui-  sons  of  the  lowest  tribes  in  Berar  to  make  vows  of  suicide,  in  return  for 
*"'^-  answers   which  their  prayers  are  believed  to  have  received  from  their 

idols.  This  is  the  place  where  t^.uch  vows  are  performed  in  the  beginning  of  spring, 
when  eight  or  ten  victims  generally  throw  themselves  from  a  precipice.  The  cere- 
mony gives  rise  to  an  annual  fair,  and  some  trade.  But,  on  the  whole,  every  sort  of 
prosperity  has  been  wretchedly  kept  down  by  the  lawless  spirit  of  plunder  which  has 
been  indulged  by  persons  of  various  descriptions;  and  the  goveinmcnt  of  (ho  Nizam 
has  had  the  utmost  difiiculty  in  stemming  these  irregular  proceedings,  partly  in  con- 
sequence of  his  own  troops,  and  even  his  ministers,  liaving  been  guilty  of  patronizing 
the  mischief,  and  sharing  in  its  spoils. 

Province  of  '  I  The  proviucc  of  Boeder  lies  on  the  south  of  Berar,  bounded  by  Au- 
Beeder.  |  fmigabad  on  the  west,  and  by  Gundwana  and  Hyderabad,  but  chi(!tly 

the  latter,  on  the  east.  The  surface  is  uneven,  but  not  mountainous,  and  it  is  in  ge- 
neral very  fertile.  The  inhabitants  are  in  the  proportion  of  six  Hindoos  to  one  Ma- 
hometan, though  it  has  long  been  subject  to  Mahometan  princes.  It  is  at  present 
included  in  the  Nizam's  dominions.  Beeder,  the  chief  town,  was  the  capital  of  a 
Hindoo  sovereignty  before  the  Mahometan  conquest.  It  was  noted  for  works  of 
tutenague  inlaid  with  silver.  It  is  much  decayed,  but  contains  tlie  remains  of  some 
very  good  buildings. 

Province  of  To  tho  soutli  and  the  east  of  this  province  is  the  large  province  of  Hy- 

Hyderabad.  dcrabad,  extending  to  the  Krishna  river  on  the  south,  and  bounded  by 
the  Northern  Circars  on  the  east;  Gundwana  and  part  of  Beeder  are  conterminous 
with  it  on  tho  north.  It  is  an  elevated  table  land,  with  a  hilly  surface,  and  therefore 
of  a  lower  temperature  than  tho  adjoining  parts  of  India.  During  three  months  in 
the  year,  the  thermometer  is  often  as  low  as  45°,  or  even  35°.  Woollen  blankets, 
shawls,  and  quilted  sdks  are  used  as  a  protection  from  this  degree  of  cold.  A  few 
of  the  principal  nobility  use  English  broad  cloth  as  a  luxury.  The  territory  is  natu- 
rally productive,  but  the  cultivators  are  wretchedly  poor,  and  much  oppressed  by  their 
superiors.  To  the  south  of  the  capital,  an  extensive  tract,  at  present  desolate  and 
covered  with  jungle,  contains  traces  of  ruined  towns  and  inclosures,  which  indicate 
the  former  existence  of  a  numerous  and  civilized  population.  The  fiscal  arrange- 
ments are  so  bad,  that  commerce  labours  under  extreme  discouragement.  • 
City  of  Hyde-  Tho  city  of  Hyderabad,  the  capital  of  tho  Nizam's  dominions,  is  about 

rabad.  ^^^^^  mUcs  long,  and  three  broad  within  the  walls;  the  streets  are  narrow, 

crooked,  and  ill  paved.  Its  population  is  reckoned  200,000.  The  palace  and 
Court  of  the  mosques  aro  tho  only  remarkable  buddings.  The  court  of  Hyderabad 
Nizam.  retains  more  of  the  forms  and  ceremonies  of  the  old  Mogul  governments 

than  any  other  in  Indostan.     Tiie  Nizam  possesses  large  magazines  full  of  the  prc- 


•  See  Prinsep's  Narrative  of  recent  Political  and  Military  Transactions  in  India,  p.  415,  41G. 
t  See  a  view  of  this  tort  in  Prinsep's  Narrative  at  p.  333. 


INDOSTAN.  181 

sents  whicli  he  has,  at  diflcrent  times,  received  from  native  and  European  powers, 
consisting  of  bales  of  cloth,  cases  of  glass,  china  and  glass  ware,  clocks,  watches, 
and  similar  articles,  which  arc  hoarded  without  being  ever  seen.  The  Nizam  is  a 
vassal  of  the  British  government,  but  his  court  has  sometimes  been  a  scene  of  busy 
intrigue,  and  the  ear  of  his  highness  has  often  been  assailed  with  the  suggestions  of 
the  enemies  of  that  government,  under  such  circumstances  as  could  not  aflbrd  the 
most  distant  prospect  of  bettering  his  situation,  and  exposed  him  to  the  risk  of  a  total 
loss  of  his  high  rank.  Some  of  these  intrigues  were  instigated  by  Europeans  hostile 
to  England,  during  the  late  war. 

Golconda,  to  tho  east  of  the  capital,  though  renowned  for  diamond  ]  Goiconda, 
mines,  contains  none  at  present,  and  it  is  doubtful  if  it  ever  did.  But  the  fortress  Is 
a  considerable  depdt  for  diamonds  brought  from  other  parts  to  be  polished  and  fa- 
shioned for  sale  by  the  diamond  merchants  of  Goiconda.  The  fortress  is  used  as  a 
state  prison,  where  the  obnoxious  members  of  the  Nizam's  family  are  conlined,  in 
which  number  are  at  present  included  his  wife,  his  mother,  and  two  youngest  sons. 

Two  provinces  of  the  Deccan  Proper  remain  to  be  mentioned,  and  both,  according 
to  existing  divisions,  are  partly  situated  on  tho  western  shore,  though  extending  a 
great  way  inland — Aurungabad  and  Bejapoor. 

The  surface  of  tho  province  of  Aurungabad  is  very  irregular,  and  in     province  of 
general  mountainous  toward  the  western  Ghauts.   It  contains  the  sources     Aurungabad. 
of  many  rivers,  but  none  of  them  acquire  any  considerable  size  within  its  limits.   IMost 
of  it  has  been  long  in  the  possession  of  the  Mahrattas,  particularly  the  sea  coast, 
which  has  from  that  cause,  been  infamous  for  piracy.     Its  capital,  Au-  |  its  capital, 
rungabad,  in  lat.  19°  54'  N.  and  long.  75*  33'  E.  was  the  favourite  residence  of  Au- 
rengzebc  while  viceroy  of  the  Deccan.     It  continued  tho  metropolis  of  the  Nizams 
till  they  quitted  it  for  Hyderabad,  as  being  too  close  upon  the  Mahratta  frontier.     Ah- 
mednuggur  is  a  fortress  in  the  middle  of  this  province,  beautifully  situated  among  the 
mountains.     It  has  been  generally  in  the  hands  of  a  Mahratta  chief,  sometimes  of  Sin- 
dia,  sometimes  of  the  Peshwah.    It  is  populous,  and  contains  elegant  architectural  re- 
mains of  Mogul  buildings. — Dowlctabad  is  a  town  and  strong  ifortress,     city  of 
seven  miles  N.  W.  from  the  city  of  Aurungabad,  belonging  to  the  Nizam,     nowietabad. 
The  fortress  is  formed  of  an  insulated  mass  of  granite,  and  the  only  entrance  is  an  as- 
cent, part  of  which  is  a  covered  way  cut  through  the  heart  of  the  rock,  so  that  it  can  only 
be  taken  by  famine.     It  contains  within  itself  reservoirs  of  water.     Not     Antiquities  or 
lar  from  this  is  the  village  of  Ellora,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  which  is     Kiiora. 
found  a  most  astonishing  group  of  Hindoo  temples,  cut  in  the  solid  rock.     These 
contain  a  sort  of  pantheon  of  all  the  Indian  deities.     The  numberless  sculptures, 
friezes,  columns,  and  chapels,  apparently  suspended  in  the  air,  display,  every  where, 
a  great  refinement  of  taste  united  to  labour  inconceivable.     The  symbols  seem  to 
have  been  formed  partly  by  Brahminical  and  partly  by  Budhist  devotees.     At  present 
lliicy  are  not  held  in  any  veneration,  nor  visited  by  any  class  of  pilgrims ;  but  being 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  Dowlctabad,  which  was  in  ancient  times  the  seat  of  a  pow- 
erful Hindoo  principality  under  the  name  of  Deoghir,  they  probably  owe  their  origin 
to  the  zeal  of  the  reigning  families  of  that  metropolis.     The  village  and  its  lands  be- 
ing now  transferred  to  the  British  government,  we  wait  for  a  more  complete  account 
of  the  symbols  and  inscriptions,  as  none  has  hitherto  been  given  by  any  competent 
scholar. 

To  this  province  belongs  the  Island  of  Bombay,  the  seat  of  the  prin-  is|g„j  „(• 
cipal  British  settlement  on  the  west  coast  of  India,  in  lat.  1S°  56'  N.  Bombay, 
and  long.  72°  57'  E.  This  small  island  is  formed  by  two  parallel  ranges  of  whin- 
stone  rock,  one  on  tho  west,  five  miles  long,  and  another  on  the  east,  eight  miles  long. 
These  rocks  are  united  at  each  end  by  a  low  belt  of  land,  which  seems  to  be  of  re- 
cent formation,  and  over  which  the  sea  is  said  sometimes  to  have  broken,  and  flooded 
40,000  acres  of  land.  The  Goper  river,  belonging  to  the  island  of  Salsette,  and 
which  runs  into  the  channel  separating  this  island  from  Bombay,  is  said  to  have  occa- 
sioned similar  inundations,  and  flowed  quite  across  Bombay  island  into  the  ocean  at 
its  southern  side.  When  first  noticed  by  Europeans,  Bombay  was  reckoned  a  most 
unhealthy  place.     It  contained  a  cocoa  nut  wood. — The  fortifications  of  this  island 


European 
society. 

consequent 


182  ,  BOOK  FORTY-EIGHTH. 

aro  thought  too  extensive,  as  requiring  too  numerous  a  garrison.  The  houses  are 
built  of  wooden  pillars,  supporting  wooden  verandas.  The  view  of  the  bay  from  the 
Its  advantages  ^^^^  i^  extremely  beautiful.  Bombay  is  a  barren  rock,  unfit  for  agricul- 
as  a  station.  turo;  but  possesses  great  advantages  for  trade  and  for  ship-building,  the 
rise  of  the  tides  being  sufficient  to  permit  the  construction  of  docks  on  a  large  scale. 
The  docks  belong  to  the  Company,  but  the  persons  who  contract  for  the  timber, 
the  inspector  on  delivery,  and  the  builders  of  vessels,  are  always  Parsees,  who  mono- 
polize every  department,  and  build  many  large  vessels,  some  of  1000  tons.  The 
teak  wood  of  which  they  are  built  is  brought  from  the  western  side  of  the  Ghaut 
mountains.  The  Parsees  are  exceedingly  thriving,  and  contribute  much  to  the  pros- 
perity of  the  settlement.  This  little  island  commands  the  whole  trade  of  the  north-west 
coast  of  India,  and  of  the  Persian  Gulf.  In  1814  the  Company's  marine  at  Bombay 
consisted  of  eighteen  armed  cruizers,  besides  armed  boats,  advice  boats,  and  other 
craft,  a  force  requisite  on  account  of  swarms  of  cunning  and  ferocious  pirates  by  whom 
these  seas  are  infested.  In  1716  the  population  was  16,000;  in  1816  it  amounted  to 
161,000.  The  European  society  at  Bombay  is  less  numerous  than  at 
the  other  presidencies,  and  the  salaries  of  the  functionaries  are  smaller, 
y  there  is  less  profusion,  although  great  abundance  and  even  elegance,  in 
their  mode  of  living.  The  territorial  possessions  under  the  immediate  jurisdiction  of 
the  Bombay  presidency  are  small  compared  to  those  of  Bengal  and  Madras,  and  lie 
chiefly  along  the  Gulf  of  Cambay ;  but  the  inhabitants  arc  among  the  most  intelligent 
and  industrious  of  Indostan,  and  carry  on  a  very  great  trade.  Very  few  capital  con- 
demnations occur  in  the  crimnial  court,  sometimes  not  one  in  six  years. — Twenty 
communica-       days  are  required  to  convey  a  letter  by  post  from  Calcutta  to   Bom- 

tlOIlWlth  ,-'  4,1  1-  •,•  •^'  .  ,,  ., 

Calcutta.  bay.     A  telegraphic  communication  was  once  projected,  but  not  earned 

into  execution.  It  was  apprehended  that  the  stations  in  the  interior  might  be  exposed 
to  the  attacks  of  plunderers  for  the  sake  of  concealing  their  own  motions.  The 
small  town  of  Mahim,  on  this  island,  has  a  Portuguese  church,  to  which  a  college 
for  priests  is  attached,  but  their  chief  seminary  is  at  Goa,  where  all  attend  who  have 
any  pretensions  to  learning. 

Island  of  Sal-  The  comparatively  large  island  of  Salsette,  on  the  north  of  Bombay, 

sette.  ^jjg  formerly  separated  from  it  by  a  narrow  strait,  but  they  aro  now 

connected  by  a  narrow  causeway.  The  length  of  the  island  is  eighteen  miles,  and 
its  breadth  thirteen.  The  soil  is  fertile,  and  well  adapted  to  the  production  of  the 
most  valuable  articles  ;  yet  it  unaccountably  remains  uncultivated,  and  covered  with 
jungle,  which  makes  it  more  unhealthy  in  its  present  state  than  Bombay.  Some  at- 
tention has  lately  been  paid  to  the  formation  of  roads,  which,  along  with  the  cause- 
way, have  a  natural  tendency  to  introduce  other  improvements.  The  causeway 
gives  great  facility  to  the  gardeners  in  bringing  their  produce  to  the  Bombay  market, 
but  it  is  said  to  have  injured  the  harbour.  The  operation  of  embankments  in  pro- 
ducing either  depositions  or  the  stagnation  of  the  water  at  a  particular  spot  from  the 
meeting  of  opposite  currents,  or  the  contrary  effect  of  an  active  current,  attended  by 
the  deepening  of  a  moveable  bottom,  is  seldom  foreseen  with  such  precision  as  to 
afford  certain  practical  rules  on  this  point  of  engineering.  That  this  island,  at  some 
period  buried  in  the  obscurity  of  early  history,  has  enjoyed  a  high  prosperity,  is  at- 
tested by  the  remains  of  former  great  works  found  on  it,  such  as  tanks  and  terraces, 
accompanied  with  flights  of  steps.  It  is  also  rich  in  mythological  antiquities.  There 
are  several  extraordinary  caverns  in  it,  one  of  which  resembles  that  at  Carli  on  the 
adjoining  part  of  the  continent,  and  contains  two  gigantic  figures  at  Biidda,  twenty  feet 
high,  showing  that  the  works  belonged  not  to  the  Brahminical,  but  to  the  Buddhist 
system  of  faith.  The  Portuguese  converted  the  place  into  a  Christian  church.  They 
did  not  destroy  the  images  as  in  many  other  instances ;  but,  not  having  coolness 
enough  to  allow  them  to  stand  as  simple  monuments  of  art  and  of  antiquated  opinions, 
they  converted  them  into  Christian  emblems,  painted  them  red,  and,  with  a  pious 
zeal,  cherished  them  as  valuable  proselytes  ;  many  others  of  an  ugliness  incorri- 
gibly heathen,  they  utterly  effaced.  Considerable  quantities  of  bay  salt  arc  made 
Population.  I  here  in  the  shallows  along  the  shore. — The  island  is  estimated  to  contain 
50,000  inhabitants,  one  fiilh  of  whom  arc  Christians,  partly  descendants  of  the  Por- 


INDOSTAN.  183 

tuguese,  partly  a  sort  of  converted  Hindoos.  The  inhabitants  arc  altogether  an  or- 
derly race  ;  a  criminal  trial  does  not  occur  amongst  them  lor  years  ;  drunken  quar- 
rels and  petty  assaults  being  the  utmost  extent  of  their  breaches  of  the  peace.  Here, 
as  in  Bombay,  several  Indian  languages,  together  with  Indian  and  Portuguese,  arc 
spoken  with  almost  equal  frequency,  and  writings  on  business  are  drawn  up  in  all 
of  them.  Or  this  island  arc  the  town  and  fortress  of  Tanna,  the  latter  commanding 
tlie  passage  between  the  island  and  the  continent.  It  was  taken  from  the  Mahrattas 
in  1773. 

Elephanta  is  a  beautiful  island  in  this  group,  about  seven  miles  from  |  Eiepiianta. 
Bombay,  and  five  from  the  continent ;  composed  of  two  long  hills  with  a  narrow 
valley  between  them,  and  is  nearly  six  miles  in  circumference.  At  the  landing  place 
there  was  formerly  an  ill-shaped  colossal  statue  of  an  elephant,  cut  out  of  a  solid 
rock,  which  has  now,  in  a  great  measure,  fallen  to  pieces  by  its  own  weight.  It  was 
from  this  statue  that  the  Portuguese  gave  the  island  its  present  name.  This  island 
contains  the  most  celebrated  of  those  artificial  caverns  which  bear  wit-  |  its  cave, 
ness  to  the  influence  of  superstition  in  animating  its  votaries  to  execute  the  most 
astonishing  labours.  The  entrance  is  fit\y-tive  feet  wide,  its  height  and  length  about 
eighteen. 

The  temple  itself  is  130  feet  long,  and  123  feet  wide  ;  its  height  varies  from  17^ 
to  15  feet ;  it  is  supported  by  twenty-six  massy  columns,  cut  out  of  the  solid  rock; 
the  interior  is  covered  with  sculptures  which  differ  from  those  of  Kennery  in  .Salscttc, 
in  being  Brahminical.  These  have  suffered  severely  from  the  assaults  of  the  Por- 
tuguese. The  most  remarkable  figure  is  a  bust  with  three  heads,  called  the  Tri- 
murti ;  the  middle  head  representing  Brahma  the  creator ;  the  other  two  Vishnu  the 
preserver,  and  Siva  the  destroyer.  Such  are  the  leading  capacities  in  which  the 
character  of  the  Deity  is  contemplated.  These  sometimes  appear  to  be  three  re- 
presentations of  one  Being,  at  other  times  the  worshippers  view  them  as  distinct 
[)ersons,  according  to  the  varying  conceptions  of  a  vague  metaphysical  theology. 
The  length  from  the  chin  to  the  crown  of  the  head  is  six  feet;  and  the  countenances 
would  be  remarkably  beautiful  were  it  not  for  an  inordinate  thickness  in  the  under 
lip.*  No  document  whatever  exists  to  lead  to  any  probable  conjecture  regarding 
the  period  at  which  this  temple  was  formed,  or  the  individuals  to  whom  it  owes  its 
existence. 

Between  Bombay  and  the  main  land,  and  separated  from  the  latter  by  a  |  Caranja, 
very  narrow  strait,  is  Caranja,  or  Oorun  isle,  to  which  convicts  are  sent  from  Bombay 
to  be  employed  in  public  works.     A  great  quantity  of  salt  is  manufactured  here, 
yielding  a  revenue  to  government  of  11,000  rupees,  (llOOL) 

About  fifteen  miles  south  from  Bombay  are  the  small  islands  of  He- 
ncry  and  Kenery,  both  fortified,  and  formerly  a  great  resort  of  pirates. 
Four  miles  farther  south  are  Colabba  isle  and  Colwoman's  island,  which  arc  esteemed 
well  adapted  for  the  accommodation  of  European  troops  on  account  of  their  great 
salubrity,  and  the  facility  with  which  intemperance  among  the  niillitary  may  be  pre- 
vented, and,  though  not  hitherto  so  employed,  seem  to  bo  reserved  for  that  purpose, 
as  they  are  not  applied  to  any  object  of  revenue. 

Returning  to  the  continental  territory  of  the  province  of  Aurungabad,  I  Mahratta 
we  find  the  large  district  of  Baglana,  one  of  the  original  Mahratta  coun-  |  *°"""'''^^S' 
tries  from  whence  that  tribe  first  sprung  into  notice.  Its  Rajas  yielded  a  sort  of 
feudal  obedience  to  Aurengzebe,  and  a  tribute  which  was  not  regularly  paid,  its  sub- 
jugation never  having  been  complete.  This  country  was  among  the  first  to  throw 
off  its  nominal  subjection  to  the  emperor  of  Delhi,  under  the  conduct  of  Sevajee  the 
first  Mahratta  leader,  and  it  remained  under  a  Mahratta  government  till  1818.  It 
is  exceedingly  mountainous,  and  owed  its  habitual  independence  to  its  natural 
strength.  Sungumnere  is  another  large  district, ^subject  to  the  Pcshwah,  before  the 
late  extinction  of  the  power  of  that  family.  The  districts  of  Jalnapoor,  Bheer,  and 
Futtehabad,  belong  to  the  Nizam.  That  of  Jooneer  contains  Poona,  the  late  capi- 
tal of  the  Peshwa. 

*  Maria  Graham's  Journal  of  a  Residence  in  India,  p,  55,  &c. 


Henci-y  and 
Kenery.  ami 
otliur  islands. 


184  IJOOK  FOHTY-EIGHTII. 


Mahratta 
natiom. 


OriRin  of  the 
Pesliwa. 

Other  chiefs. 


In  the  ancient  tables  of  the  Hindoos  the  term  Maharashtra  is  given 
to  a  division  of  the  Doccan,  chiefly  in  the  north-west  quarter.  Khandesh, 
Baglana,  and  part  of  Berar,  were  included  in  the  original  country  of  the  Mahnittas* 
extending  north-west  as  far  as  Guzerat  and  the  Nerbudda,  where  the  Grassias  and 
Bheels  commence.     The  Mahrattaa  were  leagued  with  the  pirates  of  the  western 
shore,  and  bore  with  them  the  common  name  of  Ganim  or  robbers.     The  Mahratta 
language  is  now  diffused  much  more  extensively.     This  people  is  not  like  the  Raje- 
poots,  originally  of  the  military  cast.     They  are  divided  into  three  principal  tribes ; 
the  Koonbee,  or  farmers  -,  the  Dungar,  or  shepherds ;  and  Goalah,  or  cowherds. 
Their  make  is  diminutive,  and  has  nothing  of  the  grace  and  dignity  of  the  llajopoot. 
It  is  only  in  very  modern  times  that  this  nation  has  attracted  notice,  being  unknown 
in  history  from  the  time  of  the  Mahometan  conquest  till  the  reign  of  Aurengzcbe. 
They  were  governed  by  a  plurality  of  discordant  chiefs,  till  their  efforts  were  com- 
bined under  the  adventurer  Sevajec,  the  illegitimate  olFspring  of  the   Odeypoor 
family.     After  various  adventures,  ho  settled  at  Poonah,  where  ho  died.     One  of 
his  descendants  delegated  all  his  authority  to  a  Brahmin,  who  afterwards  assumed 
the  sole  power,  under  the  title  of  Peshwa,  fixing  his  residence  at  Poona, 
and  making  a  mere  pageant  of  the  representative  of  the  royal  stock, 
viz.  the  Rajah  of  Satara,  whom  he  kept  in  his  possession.     In  the  mean 
time  Bhoonsla,  the  paymaster,  seized  the  eastern  portion  of  the  empire,  and  fixed 
his  seat  of  government  at  Nagpoor.     The  family  of  Sindia  established  itself  in 
Malwah  and  Khandesh,  and  seized  a  great  part  of  Rajepootana.     Guicowar  seized 
a  great  part  of  Guzerat;  and  Holcar  part  of  Malwah.     These  chiefs  were  always 
disposed  to  act  in  a  confederate  capacity  ;  and  each  divided  his  conquests  among 
the  others.     Their  possessions  were  thus  very  much  mixed;  the  same  district,  or 
even  the  same  town,  being  often  held  by  a  plurality  of  chiefs,  each  with  separate 
rights.     Their  more  remote  possessions  used  to  contain  no  larger  number  of  genuine 
Mahrattas  in  proportion  to  the  natives  than  India  now  docs  of  Englisli  to  Indians, 
and  in  later  times  the  countries  were  kept  in  Subjection  chiefly  through  the  instru- 
mentality of  Europeans,  whose  tactics  were  opposed  to  the  physical  force  of  the 
Hindoos  and  Mahometans. 

Making  a  constant  trade  of  war,  the  Mahrattas  could  at  any  time 
raise  a  numerous  cavalry,  though  badly  maintained  and  irregularly  [)aid. 
This  army  was  joined  by  Mussulmans,  Hindoos,  Rajepoots,  and  latterly  by  the  Pin- 
■darees,  all  of  whom  conceived  it  their  right  to  make  up  for  the  want  of  regular  pay 
by  ravaging  the  countries  of  the  conquered.  "A  Mahratta  camp,"  says  M.  Tone, 
■"is  formed  without  any  regard  to  regularity,  and  always  occupies  a  great  extent  of 
ground.  "When  the  prince's  tent  is  fixed,  the  great  bazar  was  established  in  front  of 
it,  and  there  all  sorts  of  goods  are  exposed  for  sale.  This  bazar  constitutes  a  con- 
siderable source  of  revenue  to  the  prince;  every  merchant  and  every  tradesman 
belonging  to  it  pays  a  duty  of  about  five  rupees  per  month.  The  dancing  women, 
who  follow  the  camp  in  hundreds,  are  also  liable  to  a  regular  tax,  and  even  the  pick- 
pockets, a  great  number  of  whom  follow  the  army  under  the  protection  of  the  prince. 
The  cavalry  make  very  long  marches,  and  endure  great  fatigue.  They  sometimes 
give  opium  to  their  horses,  to  carry  them  through  their  fatigues." — This  people, 
while  extending  their  ravages  and  their  conquests,  met  with  a  severe  and  bloody 
check  at  the  battle  of  Paniput  in  1761,  when  they  were  overthrown  by  Ahmed  Shah 
Abdalla,  the  Afghan  sovereign.  In  1795  they  confederated  to  invade  the  dominions 
of  the  Nizam,  an  expedition  which  turned  out  a  mere  marauding  incursion,  but  be- 
^' fore  and  after  this  they  were  much  divided,  and  were  engaged  in  warring  against 
Their  mutual  onc  another.  The  forces  of  Sindia  and  the  Peshwa  met  with  a  signal 
quarrels.  ^^^^^^  ^^^^^  Holcar  near  Poona,  in  1802.     The  Peshwa,  Baje-Row,  in 

consequence  of  this  event,  fled  to  Bassein  near  Salsctte,  where  a  treaty  was  entered 
into  between  him  and  the  British,  and  he  was  in  a  few  months  reinstated  at  Poona 
by  General  Weflesley,  (now  the  Duke  of  Wellington.)     This  state  however,  like  ■ 
the  others  belonging  to  the  Mahrattas,  was  miserably  ill-governed;  oppression,  ex- 

*  Orme's  Indostaii. 


Mahratta 
armies. 


Fall  of  the 

I'cshwa. 


INDOSTAX.  185 

lortion,  rapacity,  cmbezzloniont,  and  discontent,  worn  every  where  prevalent.  All 
the  offices  at  the  court  of  Poona  were  hereditary.  Not  only  did  the  people  suffer, 
and  industry  consequently  languish,  but  the  members  of  the  government  perpetually 
preyed  openly  or  secretly  on  one  another,  and  on  the  general  interests.  A  Mahratta 
government  always  considered  itself  as  at  war.  At  the  festival  called  Dusserah,  in 
the  end  of  September,  after  the  breaking  up  of  the  rains,  they  used  to  prepare  regu- 
larly for  their  expeditions.  The  only  weapon  used  by  the  horsemen  is  a  sabre,  in 
the  use  of  which,  and  the  management  of  their  horses,  they  are  extremely  dexterous. 
The  principal  functionaries  of  a  Mahratta  slate  were  the  Brahmins  ;  civii  estoWisiw 
they  were  the  only  individuals  who  had  it  in  their  power  to  accumulate  "'^"''• 
wealth,  and  they  arc  remarkably  well  qualified  for  public  business  by  their  extraordi- 
nary urbanity ^jand  command  of  temper.  A  Brahmin,  however,  after  being  allowed 
to  fill  his  coffers  for  years,  generally  fell  at  last  under  the  grasp  of  his  rapacious  prince. 
The  countries  overrun  by  the  Blahrattas  have  been  much  depopulated,  and  filled 
with  misery.  "  I  do  not  believe,"  says  M.  Tone,  "  tliat  a  government  can  be  men- 
tioned on  the  face  of  the  earth  less  capable  of  protecting  its  subjects  than  the  vague 
and  uncertain  system  of  the  Mahrattas,  nor  an  administration  more  rapacious,  more 
corrupt,  less  stable,  and  less  fitted  to  provide  for  the  happiness  of  individuals,  and 
the  tranquillity  of  the  state.  To  this  are  to  be  ascribed  the  extreme  misery  of  the 
people,  the  oppression,  poverty,  and  famine  which  they  suffer,  and  to  which  this  un- 
happy country  seems  to  be  devoted."*  The  restlessness  of  the  Peshwa, 
(which  might  be  called  perverse  if  we  were  not  obliged  to  acknowledge 
that  an  impatience  of  subjection  and  control  is  universal  among  those  who  have  ever 
tasted  the  sweets  of  independent  rule,  but  which,  in  this  instance,  exhibited  a  strong 
contrast  to  the  indulgence  received,)  hastened  the  downfal  of  the  Mahratta  power. 
In  1815  that  chief  was  detected  plotting,  in  direct  violation  of  recent  treaties  which 
he  had  made  with  the  English,  not  only  when  at  their  mercy,  but  when  they  had 
saved  him  from  falling  a  victim  to  the  hostility  of  his  own  brother  chiefs.  His  first 
flagrant  act  was  the  murder  of  the  Guicowar's  ambassador,  through  the  agency  of 
Trimbukjee  Dainglia,  his  minister.  In  consequence  of  this  act  his  capital  was  sur- 
rounded, and  he  was  obliged  to  fulfil  the  article  of  a  former  agreement,  of  keeping 
up  an  auxiliary  force  of  5000  cavalry,  and  to  give  up  certain  districts  for  maintaining 
it.  After  this,  trusting  to  the  co-operation  of  Sindia,  Holcar,  and  others,  he  declared 
open  war,  by  attacking  the  British  residency  at  Poonah.  Defeated  in  this  attempt, 
he  was  reduced  to  the  situation  of  a  wandering  fugitive  with  his  army,  was  at  last 
taken,  obliged  to  renounce  all  sovereignty  for  himself  and  his  family,  and  sent  to 
reside  in  exile  at  Pithoor,  a  place  of  Hindoo  pilgrimage  in  the  province  of  Allahabad. 
The  greater  part  of  his  territories  were  taken  under  the  immediate  rule  of  the  British 
authorities.  The  Raja  of  Satara  was  established  in  his  sovereignty,  and  had  some 
additional  territory  assigned  to  him  from  that  of  the  Ex-Peshwa.  This  arrangement 
reconciled  the  military  class  of  the  nation;  the  full  maintenance  of  the  religious  esta- 
blishments, and  the  preservation  of  their  sources  of  revenue,  quieted  the  religious 
orders  ;  and  the  cultivating  and  mercantile  classes  spontaneously  hailed  the  revolution 
as  the  first  dawn  of  their  freedom  and  prosperity.  ., 

The  city  of  Poona,  the  former  residence  of  the  Peshwa,  is  in  lat.  18°  |  City  of  Poona. 
30'  N.  and  long.  74°  2'  E. ;  100  miles  from  Bombay,  and  seventy-five  from  the 
nearest  part  of  the  coast.  It  is  indifferently  built,  open  and  defenceless,  and  occu- 
pies only  two  square  miles  of  siufacc.  Several  of  the  houses  are  large,  and  built  of 
square  blocks  of  granite  to  a  height  of  six  feet,  above  whicli  there  is  a  frame  of  timber 
with  slight  walls.  The  streets  are  named  after  mythological  personages,  and  the 
walls  of  the  houses  painted  with  figures  of  the  gods,  forming  thus  a  spacious  pan- 
theon where  the  history  of  the  Brahminical  deities  may  be  studied  in  traversing  the 
streets.  The  ancient  palace  is  surrounded  by  high  thick  walls,  and  was  inhabited 
by  the  Peshwa's  brother  and  the  other  members  of  his  family,  while  he  himself  lived 
in  a  modern  house  in  a  different  part  of  the  town.     He  had  made  arrangements  for 

*  Tone,  Aperju  de  la  constitut.  polit.  de  I'empire  des  Mahrattas,  traduit  dans  les  Annales 
des  Voyages,  Tome  V.     Chambers  on  the  Mahrattas,  in  the  Asiatic  Itesearches. 
Vol.  II.— A  a 


186  BOOK  FOIITY-EIGHTH. 

building  a  new  palace,  to  be  executed  by  British  architects,  and  the  ground  was  regu- 
larly consecrated  by  being  plastered  over  with  ashes  and  cow-dung.  To  the  east  of 
the  city  there  are  excavations  with  mythological  sculptures  of  the  same  kind  with 
those  of  Elephanta,  but  much  inferior.  The  Moota  Moola  river  which  flows  past 
this  city,  afterwards  joins  the  Beema,  a  tributary  of  the  Krishna,  and  during  the  rainy 
season  a  journey  may  be  accomplished  by  water  in  a  light  canoe  all  the  way  from 
Poena  to  the  Bay  of  Bengal.  The  population  has  recently  increased;  it  is  now  es- 
timated at  150,000.  The  British  residency  is  about  two  miles  from  Poena. 
Caverns  of  Thirty  miles  N.  W.  from  this  city  are  the  remarkable  excavations  of 

CarU.  Carli,  sculptured  over,  not  with  Brahminical  figures  like  those  of  Ele- 

phanta, but  with  emblems  of  the  Buddhist  or  of  the  Jain  religion,  i.  e.  figures  of 
elephants,  of  men,  and  of  Buddha,  and  these  are  confined  to  the  capitals  of  the  pil- 
lars; there  are  no  personifications  of  the  deity,  and  no  separate  cells  for  sacred  rites. 
The  cave  is  highly  magnificent.  It  has  elegant  hexagonal  columns,  supporting  a 
roof  ribbed  with  teak  wood  cut  so  as  to  fit  the  cave  exactly.  The  portico  is  highly 
laboured,  and  contains  some  figures  remarkable  for  gracefulness  of  design.*  Four 
miles  from  Carli  is  the  remarkably  strong  hill-fort  of  Loghur. 

t"S-™iihi^^'  About  ten  miles  west  from  Poena,  at  Chinchoor,  a  personage  resides 

choor.  who,  like  the  great  Lama,  is  venerated  as  an  incarnation  of  the  favourite 

Brahminical  deity,  Ganesa  or  Gonputty,  the  god  of  prudence.  He  lives  in  a  large 
dirty  pile  of  building,  accompanied  by  many  Brahmins,  who  subsist  on  the  revenue 
of  the  land  which  has  been  appropriated  to  the  establishment  by  the  bounty  of  super- 
stitious neighbours.  When  Mrs.  Graham  visited  the  place  in  1809,  the  existing 
Deo  of  Chinchoor  was  a  boy  of  twelve  years  of  age.  This  person  worships  his 
other  self  in  the  form  of  a  statue,  that  other  self  being  the  greatest  part  of  the  two, 
and  not  impaired  by  incarnation.'f 

Province  of  South  from  Aurungabad  is  the  large  province  of  Bejapoor,  extending 

Bejapoor.  as  far  south  as  the  river  Tomboodra,  the  great  southern  tributary  of  the 

Krishna.  The  maritime  parts  of  it,  lying  between  the  Ghaut  mountains  and  the  sea, 
go  under  the  general  name  of  the  Concan;  the  remainder  is  the  basin  of  the  Krishna 
and  its  tributaries,  the  Beema  and  Gutpurba.  The  horses  reared  on  the  banks  of 
the  Beema  are  held  in  great  estimation  by  the  Mahrattas.  In  this  province  the  style 
of  building  among  the  lower  classes  undergoes  a  perceptible  change:  the  roofs  to 
the  north  of  the  Krishna  are  pitched  and  thatched ;  those  on  the  south  are  flat,  and 
covered  with  mud  and  clay.  This  whole  province  was,  during  the  Peshaw's  power, 
exposed  to  dreadful  disorder  and  depopulation,  in  consequence  of  the  projects  of 
rapine  and  oppression  which  that  prince  indulged  against  the  leading  families,  till  at 
last,  in  1804,  tranquillity  and  a  more  steady  arrangement  were  established  by  British 
arbitration. 

cityof  Beja-  '^^^^  ^^^Y  ^^  Bejapoor,  written  Visiapoor  in  old  European  books  of 

pot"',  travels,  seems  to  has^e  been  a  very  extensive  place  when  it  was  the  capi- 

tal of  an  independent  sovereignty,  and  before  it  was  taken  by  Aurengzebe  in  1689; 
and  the  fort  was  one  of  the  largest  in  the  world.  At  present  it  exhibits  scarcely  any 
thing  but  shapeless  heaps  of  ruins,  attesting  its  ancient  magnitude.  The  fort,  mea- 
sured by  the  counterscarp  of  the  ditch,  is  about  eight  miles  in  circumference.  The 
flanking  towers  are  numerous  and  of  great  size,  and  the  ditch  cut  out  of  the  solid 
rock.  Here  are  some  magnificent  ruins  of  the  tombs  of  Mahometan  saints.  Most 
of  the  buildings,  excepting  the  palaces  in  the  fort,  appear  to  have  had  little  or  no 
wood  used  in  their  construction.  They  are  generally  built  of  massy  stone,  in  the 
most  durable  style,  the  workmanship  being  at  the  same  time  minute  and  elegant. 
The  city  is  said  to  have  contained  amazing  wealth;  and  many  valuables,  and  quan- 
tities of  the  precious  metals  are  often  found  among  the  ruins.  Twelve  huge  guns 
are  still  left,  affbi'ding  a  specimen  suited  to  the  enormous  size  of  the  fort  itself. 

That  part  of  this  province  which  is  called  the  Concan  declines  gradually  westward 
from  the  Ghauts  to  the  sea,  and  contains  many  streams,  but  no  large  river.     This 

•  Maria  Graham's  Journal  of  a  residence  in  India,  p.  64.    This  work  contains  a  plate  of  the 
cavern,  and  another  of  the  portico.  f  Ibid,  p.  TO. 


INDOSTAN.  187 

coast  being  elevated,  and  broken  into  small  bays  and  harbours,  was  particularly  fa- 
vourable to  piracy,  and  went  by  the  name  of  the  pirate  coast.  Much  of  it  is  rich. 
It  produces  remarkably  strong  hemp,  but  the  plant  will  scarcely  bear  any  seed.  In 
1816,  the  Concan,  and  the  whole  maritime  country  from  the  17th  to  the  21st  degree 
of  latitude,  were  scoured  by  a  maraudingleaderof  the  Pindarees,  called  Sheik  DuUo. 
This  coast  contains  several  places  of  note. 

Beginning  at  its  northern  extremity,  we  find  Fort  Victoria  on  a  lofty  |  Fort  victoria, 
hill  near  the  entrance  of  the  Bancoot  river.  In  1756,  it  was  a  piratical  state,  and 
was  taken  by  Commodore  James,  in  concert  with  the  Mahrattas,  and  ceded  to  the 
British  along  with  its  district,  consisting  of  nine  villages,  in  exchange  for  Gheria.  It 
became  extremely  populous  in  consequence  of  the  security  which  property  enjoyed 
within  its  limits,  and  would  have  been  much  more  so  if  there  had  been  an  adequate 
supply  of  water.  The  fortress  of  Gheria,  situated  on  a  rocky  promon-  |  Ghena. 
tory  connected  with  the  continent  by  a  narrow  neck  of  land,  is  in  lat.  17°  56.'  In 
1707,  Conajee  Angria  had  established  here  an  independent  sovereignty,  and  pos- 
sessed a  numerous  piratical  fleet.  The  place  was  taken  in  1756,  by  Admiral  Watson 
and  Col.  Clive,  and  the  fleet  destroyed.  There  were  found  in  it  200  pieces  of  can- 
non, and  moveable  property  to  the  extent  of  120,000/.  The  island  of  Dcwghur  on 
this  coast,  in  16°  21',  commands  a  very  fine  harbour,  where  vessels  of  600  tons  may 
ride  in  safety  during  the  whole  monsoons.  Between  the  British  possessions  in  Mal- 
wah  and  the  Portuguese  district  of  Goa,  is  the  principality  of  Warree,  |  Warree. 
the  chief  of  which  is  called  the  Bhoonsla.  This  was  the  piratical  state  longest  tole- 
rated by  the  Bombay  government,  being  only  kept  in  check  by  a  blockading  squad- 
ron. Deadly  animosities  subsisted  between  the  Bhoonsla  and  the  Raja  of  Colapoor, 
by  which  the  whole  territory  was  kept  in  a  state  of  desolation  and  misery.  Warree 
surrendered  to  Col.  Keir  in  1818.  The  fortified  island  and  town  of  Malwan,  in  lat. 
15°  53'  N.  thirty-three  miles  from  Goa,  were  acquired  by  the  British  from  the  Raja 
of  Colapoor  m  1813,  and  Vingorla,  in  its  neighbourhood,  from  the  Ranny  of  Sa- 
wunt  Warree,  along  with  a  certain  extent  of  territory,  for  the  purpose  of  suppress- 
ing piracy. 

The  citv  of  Goa,  in  the  southern  part  of  the  Concan,  is  a  place  of  |  Goa. 
great  notflj  being  the  metropolis  of  the  Portuguese  possessions  in  India,  in  lat.  15° 
30',  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  south-east  from  Bombay.     It  is  situated  on  the 
river  Gja,  or  Mantoa,  which  flows  from  the  Ghauts  into  the  Gulf  of  Goa,  by  seve- 
ral moaths,  forming  the  peninsula  of  Bardess  and  the  islands  of  Goa,  Combarem 
and  others.     The  old  city  of  Goa  is  eight  miles  up  the  river,  and  now  deserted  by 
the  secular  inhabitants  on  account  of  unhealthincss.     The  natives  call  this  city 
Tifsoari  or  Trikurii.*     According  to  the  traditions  of  the  country,  the  island  was 
peopled  by  a  colony  of  Moorish  merchants  driven  from  different  parts  of  Malabar ; 
but  it  was  a  commercial  place  at  a  much  earlier  period.     It  contains  many  magnifi- 
cent churches  in  a  style  of  architecture  excelling  any  thing  done  by  Europeans  in 
other  parts  of  India.     New  Goa  is  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  within  the  forts  of  the 
harbour.     In  1808,  there  were  200  churches  in  the  Goa  province,  and  above  2000 
priests.     The  territory  still  possessed  by  the  Portuguese  in  this  quarter     Portuguese 
is  100  miles  long  and  20  broad.    Goa  was  taken  from  the  Hindoo  Rajas     '"''"o'-y. 
by  the  Bhamence  Mahometans  about  A.  D.  1469.     In  1510  it  was  taken  by  Albu- 
querqtie,  and  made  the  capital  of  the  Portuguese  possessions.     That  nation  does  not 
seem  to  have  taken  possession  of  much  territory,  but  merely  made  India  an  object 
of  pillage,  on  which  they  maintained  a  large  European  army.     In  1580  they  pos- 
sessed, on  this  coast,  Diu,  Damaun,  Choul,   Bassein,  Salsette,  Bombay,  and  Goa. 
They  had  factories  at  several  other  stations,  where  they  influenced  the  respective 
governments.     After  the  conquest  of  Portugal  by  Philip  II.  of  Spain,  in  1580,  the 
Portuguese  settlements  were  neglected,  and  left  to  their  own  resources ,  and  the 
vices  of  their  internal  government,  and  the  exhoritant  power  of  the  inhabitants,  Ijas- 
tened  tlieir  decay.     At  present,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  of  the  highest  classes, 
the  great  mass  of  the  Portuguese  population  in  India  consists  of  descendants  of  Eu- 

•  Tiefenthakr,  i.  364,     Pennant,  ii.  110 


Colapoor  and 
Farnella. 


Satarah.    Its 
Rajah. 


188  BOOK  FORTY-EIGHTH. 

ropeans  by  native  women,  and  numerous  converts  who  have  joined  them,  and  who 
still  retain  many  pagan  customs.  At  present  the  Portuguese  nation  posseses  only 
Diu,  Damaun,  Goa,  Dhelli  on  the  island  of  Tinor,  and  Macao  in  China.  Goa  is 
the  seat  of  an  archbishop,  a  viceroy,  a  chancellor,  with  several  other  great  function- 
aries, and  a  tribunal  of  the  inquisition. 

The  small  state  of  Colapoor  is  partly  in  the  Concan,   and  partly 

within  the  Ghauts.    Its  capital  is  in  lat.  16°  19'.  It  has  been  in  modern 
times  a  scene  of  habitual  confusion,  like  most  other  Blahratta  states.     Parnella,  in 
its  neighbourhood,  is  reckoned  the  most  healthy  district  in  the  Mahratta  dominions. 
Satarah,  in  the  northern  part  of  this  province,  is  a  remarkable  place, 

as  being  the  residence  of  the  royal  family  to  which  the  Peshwa  yielded 
a  nominal  submission,  whilst  he  kept  it  under  his  own  power,  and  used  the  Raja  as  a 
mere  pageant.  When  a  new  Peshwa  succeeded  to  power,  he  repaired  to  Satara  to 
receive  the  keelaut,  or  dress  of  investment.  The  country  round  Satarah  was  pri- 
vileged with  exemption  from  military  depredations.  When  the  Peshwa  was  reduced 
and  obliged  to  abdicate  in  1818,  part  of  his  territory  was  allotted  to  form  a  depend- 
ent sovereignty  for  the  Raja  of  Satarah,  while  the  rest  was  incorporated  with  the 
former  British  conquests.  This  sovereignty  is  bounded  by  the  Ghauts  on  the  west, 
by  the  Neera  and  Beema  on  the  north,  by  the  Warner  and  Krishna  on  the  south,  and 
by  the  Nizam's  dominions  on  the  east.  The  net  resources  of  the  Raja  amount  to 
fifteen  or  sixteen  lacks  of  rupees.  The  country  is  in  the  interim  occupied  by  the 
British  authorities  till  it  becomes  duly  tranquillized,  and  till  the  Raja,  who  is  a  young 
man,  becomes  adequate  to  the  duties  of  his  situation.* 

Wassotah.  |  At  a  distance  of  thirty  miles  S.S.AV.  from  Satarah,  is  the  fortress  of 
Wassotah,  in  the  midst  of  the  finest  and  most  magnificent  scenery.  Tt  was  besieged 
Puntierpoor.  |  and  taken  in  1818.  Punderpoor,  on  the  Beema,  is  a  regular,  well-built, 
populous,  and  thriving  city,  where  almost  all  the  chiefs  of  the  Mahratta  empire  had 
dwellings.  The  first  stories  of  the  houses  are  of  stone,  and  the  second  of  brick. 
This  has  received  some  celebrity  as  the  scene  of  the  assassination  of  Gungadhur 
Shastry,  the  ambassador  of  Guicovvar,  by  persons  hired  by  the  Peshwa  and  his  mi- 
nister Trimbukjee.  The  person  slain  was  a  high  Brahmin,  and  the  foul  act  was 
perpetrated  during  the  solemnities  of  religion,  while  myriads  of  pilgrims  vere  col- 
lected in  the  city.  It  proved  the  source  of  all  the  subsequent  misfortunes  and  final 
Darwar.  |  overthrow  of  the  Peshwa. — Darwar,  a  fortified  town,  was  cede^  by  the 

Mahrattas  to  Tippoo  in  1784.  In  1790  it  surrendered  to  the  Mahrattas,  assisted  by 
the  British,  after  a  siege  of  twenty-nine  weeks,  when  the  town  was  almost  destjoyed, 
and  the  country  totally  devasted.  It  is  now,  with  the  adjacent  district,  attached  to 
the  presidency  of  Madras. — Badaumy,  fifty-five  miles  east  from  Darwar,  on  ♦he 
river,  is  one  of  the  strongest  hill-forts  in  India.  It  was  taken  by  storm  in  1818. 
Hoobiy.  I  Hoobly,  thirteen  miles  from  Darwar,  is  a  populous  and  respectable  mart, 

containing  numerous  and  rich  bankers,  who  regulate  the  currency  of  the  neighbour- 
ing country.  The  surrounding  country  is  well  wooded  and  watered.  Shahnoor, 
near  the  Tomboodra,  was  once  the  capital  of  a  small  Patau  state.  It  was  dread- 
fully demolished,  and  the  country  ravaged  by  Tij)poo.  Copal,  at  a  lower  part  of  the 
Tomboodra,  was  taken  by  storm  by  an  English  dcitachmcnt  in  1819. 
Bijanagur.  |  Twenty  miles  cast  from  this  is  Bijanagur,  a  Hindoo  city  of  great  anti- 
quity and  celebrity.  Its  wall  is  eight  miles  in  circumference.  It  was  the  capital 
of  t!ie  kingdom  called  Narsinga  or  Bisnagur  in  old  European  maps,  which  compre- 
hended the  whole  Carnatic  above  and  below  the  Ghauts.  This  capital  is  described 
in  glowing  colours  by  the  eastern  writers, "f  and  half  a  century  ago  it  still  presented 
some  remnants  of  its  ancient  splendour.J  It  was  founded  in  1344,  and  must  not 
be  confounded  with  another  Bijenagur  or  Visianagur,  founded  in  340,  on  the  con- 
fines of  Khandesh  and  Malwah.§     The  descendant  of  the  Narsinga  monarchs  pos- 

*  Narrative  of  the  Political  and  Military  Transactions  of  Rritisli  India,  under  the  adminislni- 
tlon  of  the  Marquis  Hastings,  by  Henry  T.  Pnnsejj,  4to.  1820.  p.  419,  420,  &lc. 

f  Abdool  Hizacinn.-,  Voyai^e  ilans  I'lmle,  edition  de  M.  Laiii^lOti,  cli.  4.  ct.  note  36.  Khon- 
demir,  in  tlie  Asiatic  Ann.  lU-gi^lcr,  1800,  Misc.  Tracts,  p.  226. 

T  Ticfcnthalcr,  i.  p.  369.  §  WaliJ,  ii.  956,  Stc. 


1ND08TAN.  189 

scssos,  under  the  title  of  Rajil  or  little  Rajah,  the  fort  of  Anagundy,  one  of  the 
ruins  of  the  city  of  Bijanagur,  with  a  small  revenue. 

The  southernmost  portion  of  continental  India  still  remains  to  l)e  do-  imiia  south  ut 
scribed.  The  river  Krishna  is  mentioned  in  a  general  way  as  its  north-  '""^  Krishna, 
ern  boundary,  which  it  actually  is  at  one  part ;  the  province  of  Hyderabad,  being  on 
the  north,  and  the  Balaghaut  on  the  south  side  of  that  river  :  but  the  upper  part  of 
the  Krishna  flows  within  the  province  of  Bejapoor.  The  geographer,  therefore  in 
the  western  part,  takes  for  the  boundary  an  important  tributary  of  the  Krishna,  far- 
ther south,  called  the  Tomboodra.  The  Krishna,  in  like  manner,  before  it  empties 
itself  into  the  bay  of  Bengal,  winds  round  to  the  north,  on  which  account  a  consider- 
able part  of  the  Circars  already  described,  lies  on  the  south  of  the  river ;  and  here 
we  take  for  our  boundary,  a  small  river  called  the  Gundcgama.  The  General  piiysi- 
territory  which  has  this  line  formed  by  the  Tomboodra,  Krishna,  and  '^'  '^^aturcs. 
Gundegama,  for  its  boundary  on  the  north,  and  the  sea  in  all  other  directions,  termi- 
nating in  Cape  Comorin  in  the  south,  has  a  triangular  form.  Physically  viewed,  it 
consists  of  a  great  central  table  land,  (principally  occupied  by  the  Balaghaut  dis- 
tricts, and  the  Mysore,)  separated  by  abrupt  and  mountainous  declivities  from  a  low 
belt,  various  in  breadth,  lying  between  it  and  the  sea  on  the  west  and  east.  The 
term  Balaghaut,  signifying,  above  the  Ghauts,  is  often  applied  to  the  whole  central 
eminence,  while  the  low  belt  is  called  Payeen  Ghaut,  or,  below  the  Ghauts.  In  tliis 
whole  country  the  number  of  Mahometans  is  comparatively  small ;  consequently  the 
primitive  Hindoo  manners  and  customs  are  preserved  more  entire  than  in  other  parts 
of  India  ;  a  circumstance  promoted  by  the  insulated  state  in  which  all  strangers  who 
have  taken  up  their  residence  in  these  regions  have  remained.  It  contains,  besides 
the  followers  of  the  Brahminical  system,  which  are  the  most  numerous  inhabitants, 
many  Jains,  some  colonies  of  Jews  settled  in  Cochin  and  other  parts  of  Malabar, 
and  many  Christians  of  different  denominations.  In  its  present  political  situation 
this  whole  territory  is  included  in  the  presidency  of  Madras. 

The  term  Karnata  was  applied  to  an  ancient  Hindoo  geographical  di- 
vision, comprehending  all  the  high  table  land ;  but  it  has  in  modern  times 
lost  its  original  application,  and  has  been  transferred  to  the  adjacent  provinces  on  the 
sea-coast.  These  are  still,  for  the  sake  of  distinction,  called  by  some  the  lower 
Carnatic.  The  soil  of  this  country  is  in  general  light  and  sandy,  sometimes  inun- 
dated with  torrents  of  rain,  at  other  times  burned  up  with  the  land  winds  impregnated 
with  fine  dust ;  it  produces  tobacco,  betel,  indigo,  holcus  sorghum,  and  dourra.  Rice 
is  less  abundant  than  in  many  other  provinces.  Agriculture  depends  on  artificial 
canals  and  reservoirs,  built  at  an  enormous  expense  by  the  princes  and  heads  of  vil- 
lages. The  basin  of  Saragambra,  among  others,  is  eight  English  miles  in  length, 
and  three  in  width,  and  for  eighteen  months  supplies  thirty-two  villages  with  the 
water  required  for  cultivation.  The  sea-coast  is  so  shallow,  that  flat-bottomed  boats 
are  required  for  landing;  yet  manufactui-es  and  trade  have  attracted  the  Europeans 
to  this  coast  so  little  favoured  by  nature.  The  inland  parts  contain  hills  of  sienite, 
with  a  small  proportion  of  feldspar;  and  the  soil  of  the  flat  country  seems  to  consist 
of  the  debris  of  the  same  rock.  The  loamy  part  of  the  soil  is  often  strongly  impreg- 
nated with  iron.  It  is  also  impregnated  in  many  places  with  common  salt.  This  is 
the  case  near  Madras,  where  the  soil  is  heavy  but  sterile,  and  at  certain  depths  con- 
tains strata  of  cockle  and  oyster  shells  at  a  distance  of  nine  miles  from  the  sea.  Here 
trees  will  not  thrive.  The  only  trees  which  grow  spontaneously  on  the  barren  jiarts 
of  the  Carnatic  arc  the  Mdia  azcdarach,  or  common  bead-tree,  and  the  Robinia 
miiis. 

In  the  towns  and  villages,  and  along  some  of  the  principal  roads,  are  |  Choultries, 
choultries  for  the  accommodation  of  travellers.  The  small  ones  are  single  square 
rooms,  without  windows ;  the  larger  ones  arc  handsome  and  extensive  buildings, 
erected  by  munificent  or  pious  individuals.  A  Brahmin  always  resides  near,  who 
furnishes  the  traveller  with  food  and  a  mat  to  lie  on,  and  they  arc  provided  with  a 
tank  or  well,  where  the  pilgrims  perform  their  ablutions.  These  establishments 
abound  for  forty  or  fifty  miles  round  Madras ;  but  they  are  kept  in  a  dirty  state,  and 
the  water  of  the  ponds  is  very  impure  from  neglect.     The  Carnatic  abounds  in  tem- 


The  Carnatic, 
or  Coronianilcl 
province. 


190  BOOK  FOHTY-EIGIITII. 

Tempiej,  |  ples  or  pagodas,  which  here  are  always  within  an  area,  surrounded  by  a 
wall  as  high  as  the  temple  itself.  Over  the  gate-way  is  a  high  tower,  serving  as  a 
historical  monument  of  the  god  to  whom  it  is  dedicated.  It  contained  formerly  a 
prodigious  number  of  forts,  which,  from  tlie  long  continuance  of  internal  tranquillity, 
Inhabitants.  |  are  now  going  to  decay.  The  population  is  estimated  at  five  millions. 
The  Mahometans  are  very  thinly  scattered  over  the  country,  excepting  at  the  Na- 
bob's court.  Tlie  number  of  Christians  is  reckoned  40,000,  one-half  of  whom  are 
Roman  Catholics.  The  natives  are  generally  much  inferior  in  bodily  vigour  to  the 
inhabitants  of  northern  Indostan.  Here  many  of  the  Brahmins  follow  secular  pro- 
fessions. 

Madras.  |       The  most  brilliant  and  interesting  place  in  this  province,  at  the  present 

day,  is  the  seat  of  the  presidency,  Madras.  On  approaching  this  city  from  the  sea, 
the  flat  sandy  shores  and  low  hills  present  an  appearance  of  barrenness,  which  wears 
off"  when  we  come  nearer,  and  find  such  crowds  of  human  beings  covering  the  beach. 
The  public  buildings  present  an  elegant  appearance,  having  colonnades  to  the  upper 
stories,  supported  on  arched  bases,  and  covered  with  the  beautiful  shell  mortar  of  the 
country,  called  chunam,  which  is  hard,  and  so  finely  polished  as  to  have  exactly  the 
appearance  of  marble.  The  fortifications  of  Fort  George,  and  the  pagodas  and  mi- 
narets, at  a  little  distance,  mixed  with  trees  and  gardens,  give  an  air  of  magnificence 
to  the  scene.*  The  station,  however,  is  extremely  unfavourable  for  a  capital.  A 
Nature  of  rapid  Current  runs  along  the  coast,  and  a  powerful  surf  beats  even  in  mild 

the  shore.  weather.     Pondicherry  would  have  been  a  far  more  eligible  situation, 

lying  to  windward,  and  placed  in  a  fertile  country. — Some  local  contrivances  have 
been  adopted  here  for  sumiounting  the  disavantages  of  the  landing.  Large  and  light 
boats  are  used  for  crossing  the  surf.  They  are  formed  of  thin  planks  sewed  together, 
with  straw  in  the  seams  instead  of  caulking;  the  great  object  in  their  construction  being 
flexibility.  The  ships'  boats  sometimes  anchor  on  the  outside  of  the  surf,  where  they 
wait  for  the  country  boats  from  the  beach.  When  the  unsettled  state  of  the  weather 
renders  landing  dangerous,  a  flag  is  display  on  shore  to  warn  the  sailors.  A  sort  of 
loose  raft  called  a  catamaran  is  often  used  in  bad  weather  for  maintaining  communi- 
Catamarans.  |  cation  between  the  shore  and  vessels  at  anchor.  The  catamaran-men 
wear  a  peculiar  cap  made  of  matting,  in  which  they  can  keep  any  letter  intrusted  to 
them  quite  safe,  although  they  themselves  should  be  washed  ofl'  the  raft,  a  circum- 
stance which  often  happens,  and  is  not  much  minded,  as  they  find  it  easy  to  regain 
their  situation  by  swimming.  Madras  differs  from  Calcutta  in  having  no  extended 
European  town,  except  a  few  houses  in  the  fort,  as  the  settlers  here  live  entirely  in 
Fort  George.  |  their  villas,  and  merely  repair  to  the  fort  to  transact  business.  Fort 
George,  though  not  so  large  as  Fort  William  at  Calcutta,  is  handsome  and  strong; 
it  requires  but  a  moderate  garrison;  is  on  coiiimanding  ground,  and  easily  relieved  by 
sea.  The  garrison  consists  of  one  European  regiment  and  four  native  battalions. 
In  the  middle  stands  the  original  fortress,  now  converted  into  government  oftices  and 
town  houses  for  some  of  the  civil  servants.  Here  are  also  the  church,  the  govern- 
or's house,  and  the  exchange,  on  which  a  lighthouse  is  erected,  the  light  of  which  is 
ninety  feet  above  the  sea,  and  seen  at  a  distance  of  seventeen  miles.  The  govern- 
ment house  is  on  the  edge  of  the  esplanade  in  the  choultry  plain,  a  large  and  hand- 
some edifice;  near  to  it  is  the  residence  of  the  Nabob  of  the  Carnatic,  called  the 
Gardeo  I  Chapauk  gardens.     The  villas  or  garden  houses  are  only  one  story  high, 

houses.  I  of  a  pleasing  architecture,  with  porticos  and  verandas,  supported  by  chu- 

named  pillars,  and  surrounded  by  trees  and  shrubs;  the  floors  are  covered  with  rattan 
mats.  During  the  hot  winds  the  air  is  kept  cool  by  mats  formed  of  tlic  roots  of  the 
fragrant  cusa  grass,  which  are  placed  against  the  doors  and  windows,  and  kept  con- 
stantly wet;  through  these  the  draughts  of  wind  are  transmitted  which  serve  to  ven- 
tilate the  apartmens.  Whenever  the  use  of  these  is  intermitted,  the  sensation  pro- 
duced is  like  that  of  a  furnace.  Yet  there  is  on  an  average  less  extreme  heat  here 
than  at  Calcutta.  The  botanic  garden,  which  was  fitted  up  at  a  vast  expense,  was 
almost  destroyed  by  a  hurricane  in  1807.     The  roads  in  the  immediate  vicinity  are 

*  Hodge's  Travels  in  India,  p.  2,  3,  &c. 


INDOSTAN.  191 

broad,  well  made,  and  agreeably  ornamented  with  trees.     The  huts  are  roofed  with 
tile,  and  present  abetter  appearance  than  those  of  Bengal.     The  society  |  Society, 
of  Madras  is  not  so  extensive  as  that  of  Calcutta;  provisions  are  less  abundant,  and 
more  expensive.     The  style  of  living,  however,  is  nearly  the  same.     The  Mount 
road  is  a  favourable  resort,  where  the  ladies  and  gentlemen  repair  with  their  gayest 
equipages.     Along  this  road  banyan  and  white  tulip  trees  are  planted  on  each  side. 
On  this  road,  at  a  distance  of  five  miles  from  Fort  St.  George,  is  a  cenotaph  to  the 
memory  of  the  Marquis  Cornwallis,  where  the  gentry  drive  slowly  about  and  converse 
in  the  cool  of  the  evening.     In  this  city  there  are  two  orphan  hospitals,  a  male  and  a 
female,  both  admirably  conducted.     Madras  is  visited  by  French  pedlars  |  Pedlars, 
from  Pondicherry,  selling  laces  and  artificial  flowers;  and  a  few  Mahometans  go 
about  selling  amber,  mocha  stones,  coral,  and  other  trinkets.     Madras  is  famous  for 
jugglers,  who  are  celebrated  for  superior  dexterity :  one  of  their  most  un-  |  Jugglers, 
pleasant  feats  is  that  of  introducing  a  sword  into  their  stomach,  which  they  learn  by 
early  practice,  introducing  short  pieces  of  bamboo  in  the  first  instance,  which  are 
gradually  lengthened  as  the  parts  become  habituated.     To  the  north  of  the  fort  is 
the  black  town,  which  besides  the  Hindoos,  contains  Armenian  and  Por-  |  Black  town, 
tuguese  merchants,  Chinese,   Moors,  and  black  Jews.     It  is  quite  void   of  plan, 
splendid  brick  palaces  being  mixed  with  wretched  bamboo  cabins.     In   1794,  the 
population  was  estimated  at  300,000  souls.     The  commerce  of  Madras  |  Population. 
is  inferior  to  that  of  the  other  presidencies.     The  Company's  staple  article  is  piece 
goods.     The  markets  are  dearer  than  at  Calcutta,  but  have  been  greatly  benefited 
of  late  by  the  removal  of  some  restrictions  to  which  they  had  been  subjected.     Do- 
mestic servants  receive  higher  wages  than  at  Calcutta,  hence  fewer  are  employed  by 
any  individual ;  yet  the  service  is  equally  well  performed.* 

It  was  in  1639  that  the  English  first  had  a  fixed  establishment  on  Originandpro- 
this  coast,  by  virtue  of  a  grant  from  the  Hindoo  sovereign  reigning  at  ^ment. 
Chandergherry,  a  descendant  of  the  dynasty  of  Benjanagur,  containing  permission 
to  build  a  fort.  In  1653  the  agent  and  council  were  raised  to  the  rank  of  a  presi- 
dency. In  1744  it  was  taken  by  the  French,  but  was  restored  at  the  peace  of  Aix- 
la-Chapelle  in  1749,  in  a  greatly  improved  state.  In  1756  the  fort  was  greatly 
strengthened,  and  withstood  in  1758,  and  1759,  a  siege  from  the  French,  conducted 
with  much  skill  and  bravery.  In  1767,  and  1781,  Hyder  approached  very  near  it 
with  his  armies. 

The  territory  now  forming  the  presidency  of  Madras  is  very  exten- 
sive, comprehending  the  whole  of  Indostan  south  of  the  Krishna,  the 
Northern  Circars,  and  some  tracts  acquired  since  the  degradation  of  Bajee  Row,  the 
last  of  the  Peshwas.  This  territory  contains  three  princes,  the  Rajas  of  Misore, 
Travancore,  and  Cochin,  who  collect  their  own  revenues,  and  exercise  a  de- 
gree of  power  in  the  internal  management  of  their  respective  states ;  but,  with 
reference  to  external  politics,  even  these  are  wholly  subservient  to  the  British  power, 
are  protected  by  a  subsidiary  force,  and  furnish  large  annual  contributions.  The 
rest  of  the  territory  is  under  the  immediate  jurisdiction  and  control  of  the  governor 
and  council  at  Madras. 

In  1811  the  population  of  these  provinces,  not  including  the  subjects  of  the  three 
Rajas,  was  computed  to  exceed  12,000,000.  The  number  of  civil  servants  on  the 
establishment  was  206  ;  in  1818  it  was  241.  In  1811,  the  regular  troops  of  all  de- 
scriptions under  this  presidency  amounted  to  50,456,  and  the  ofllccrs  to  1347.  In 
1818,  the  military  officers  had  increased  to  1506,  and  the  medical  officers  were  183. 
In  1813,  the  European  inhabitants  not  in  the  service,  residing  within  the  hmits  of 
the  presidency,  were  estimated  only  at  170,  which  was  undoubtedly  under  the  real 
number-l 

The  fortifications  chiefly  subservient  to  the  defence  of  these  territo-  |  Chain  of  Forts, 
ries  in  times  of  political  disturbance,  extend  in  a  fine  crossing  the  continent  from 
Fort  George  by  Vellore,  Bangalore,  Seringapatam,  and  descending  the  western 
Ghauts,  to  Tellicherry.  There  is  another  line  farther  north  comprehendhig  Chittel- 
droog,  Bellary,  and  Gooty ;  and  a  third,  extending  from  Masulipatam,  by  Ellora 

•  Lord  Valentia's  Travel's.  f  Fifth  Report  on  Indian  affairs. 


Presidency  of 
Madias. 


Noithern  Ar 
cot. 


192  BOOK  FOKTY-EIGHTH. 

and  Hyderabad,  to  Julna,  where  it  is  taken  up  by  the  Bombay  army,  and  extends  by 
Serroor,  and  Poena,  to  Bombay. 

P'strict  of  Nei-  The  most  northern  district  of  the  Carnitic  is  that  of  Nellore,  and  On- 
goie.  gole.     It  contains  several  copper  mines  remarkably  fusible,  and  free 

from  iron.  But  the  attempts  made  to  work  them  seem  not  to  have  answered  the  expec- 
tations entertained.  The  general  rocks  are  primitive,  consisting  of  mica  slate  of  va- 
rious colours.  The  manufacture  and  sale  of  salt  are  carried  to  a  great  extent  in  this 
Nellore.  |  district.     Nellorc,  the  capital,  is  situated  on  the  south  side  of  the  Pen- 

nar  river.  It  has  a  fort,  the  walls  of  which  are  of  mud,  with  many  port  holes  for 
small  arms,  made  of  tubes  of  baked  clay  laid  in  the  wet  mud  in  the  building  of  the 
Roman  ami-  Wall,  and  afterwards  consolidated  in  the  drying.  In  1787,  a  peasant 
quities.  having  struck  on  some  brick  work  in  his  field,  dug,  and  found  it  to  be 

the  remains  of  a  Hindoo  temple  ;  he  found  also  a  pot  which  contained  Roman  coins 
and  medals  of  the  second  century,  mostly  Trajans,  Adrians,  and  Faustinas,  all  of 
gold,  many  of  them  fresh  and  beautiful,  others  defaced  and  perforated  as  if  they  had 
been  worn  as  ornaments. 

To  the  south  of  this  district  lies  the  northern  district  of  Arcot ;  con- 
taining Arcot,  the  Mussulman  capital  of  the  Carnatic,  sixty-eight  miles 
S.S.W,  from  Madras.  It  is  chiefly  inhabited  by  Mahometans  who  speak  the  Hindos- 
tanee  or  Deccany  language.  It  is  thought  to  be  the  capital  of  the  Sorce  of  Ptolemy ; 
but  the  existing  town  is  quite  modern.  It  is  extensive,  and  contains  excellent  houses. 
Temple  of  In  this  district  is  the  Hindoo  temple  of  Tripetty,  the  most  celebrated  in 
Tiipetty.  southern  India,  situated  in  a  hollow  enclosed  by  mountains,  and  not  per- 

mitted to  be  visited  or  seen  by  any  Christian  or  Mahometan.  For  this  privilege,  a 
large  sum  is  annually  paid  to  government,  which,  in  1758,  amounted  to  £30,000.* 
veiiore.  |  Here  also  is  Vellore,  a  military  post  of  great  importance  previously  to 

the  conquest  of  the  Mysore,  built  in  a  valley  on  the  river  Palaur.  It  is  defended  by 
a  number  of  forts  situated  on  the  surrounding  heights.  The  mountains  here  contain 
old  pagodas  ornamented  with  inscriptions  in  the  Tamul  character.  Vellore  com- 
mands the  main  road  leading  from  the  valley  of  Veniambady  to  the  Mysore.  Its 
ditch  contains  large  alligators.  To  this  place  the  family  of  Tippoo  was  removed, 
after  the  taking  of  Seringapatam.  Here  also,  in  1806,  a  serious  revolt  of  the  native 
troops,  and  a  massacre  of  their  officers,  and  other  Europeans,' took  place,  which  was 
subdued)  and  the  insurgents  mostly  put  to  the  sword,  by  Colonel  Gillespie  and  a 
party  of  dragoons.  Vellore  is  the  present  place  of  exile  of  the  ex-king  of  Kandy. 
Southern  Ar-  The  next  district  is  Southern  Arcot,  extending  as  far  south  as  Tan- 

''°^'  jore  and  Trichinopoly.     In  1806,  this  district  was  in  a  wretched  condi- 

tion; many  parts  of  it,  naturally  fertile,  lay  waste,  and  the  revenue  was  collected  with 
difficulty.  In  1809,  the  leading  inhabitants  of  the  villages  mostly  combined  to  farm 
their  own  lands,  in  consequence  of  which  the  country  and  revenue  have  been  greatly 
improved. 

Gingee  is  reckoned  one  of  the  principal  forts  of  the  Carnatic.  It 
stands  on  a  stupendous  rock,  and,  when  well  defended,  is  impregnable 
by  the  ordinary  modes  of  attack.  By  the  Indians  it  is  esteemed,  on  account  of  its 
situation,  the  strongest  town  in  the  Carnatic.  It  is  very  unhealthy,  and  proved  the 
grave  of  a  large  proportion  of  the  French  garrison  kept  in  it  while  in  the  possession 
of  that  government.  It  contains  the  ruins  of  the  palace  of  the  old  Chola  kings  of  the 
Carnatic. 

In  this  district  Pondicherry  is  situated,  though  not  comprehended  in 
its  jurisdiction,  being  in  the  possession  of  the  French  nation.  It  was 
once  the  most  splendid  European  settlement  in  India.  It  stands  on  a  sandy  plain 
near  the  sea,  producing  only  palm  trees,  millet,  and  a  few  herbs;  but  the  surrounding 
district  produces  cotton  and  rice.  Though  a  better  natural  station  than  Madras,  it 
has  no  commanding  advantages  for  commerce,  and  during  the  war  with  France,  the 
inlial)itauts  were  reduced  to  great  distress  and  poverty.  It  derives  all  its  importance 
from  being  the  capital  of  the  French  possessions  in  India.     The  French  power  in 

*  Fr.  Buchanan.    Kennel's  Memoir. 


Fort  of  Gia 

gee. 


Ponilichei'ry, 
tlie  French 
settlement. 


INDOSTAN.  193 

India  began  in  1749  under  M.  Duplcix,  and  ended  with  the  surrender  of  Pondicherry 
in  1761 ;  but  during  that  interval  it  was  remarkably  brilliant;  since  that  time  it  has 
always  belonged  to  the  British  during  war  with  France,  and  has  been  restored  to  the 
latter  power  on  the  conclusion  of  peace.  At  the  peace  of  Amiens,  its  inhabitants 
were  estimated  at  25,000,  the  revenue  40,000  pagodas,  and  the  extent  of  coast  five 
miles.  Bonaparte  took  this  opportunity  to  send  out  a  large  equipm'ent,  including  a 
staff  of  seven  generals,  and  carrying  with  them  £100,000  in  specie.  On  the  re- 
commencement of  hostilities,  the  ambitious  views  thus  manifested  were  disappointed, 
but  M.  Lenois,  the  aduiiral,  had  the  good  fortune  to  escape  with  his  fleet.  The 
French  system  of  jiolicy  in  this  part  of  India  was  harsh  and  intolerant  towards  the 
natives.  They  destroyed  the  temples,  forced  the  people  to  do  work  repugnant  to 
their  castes,  and  prolubitcd  the  residence  of  any  family  which  was  not  Christian 
within  their  boundaries.  Their  revenue,  in  1817,  amoiinted  to  12,988  star  pagodas. 
Trivicary,  a  village  sixteen  miles  N.W.  from  Pondicherry,  seems  to  have  'nivicary. 
been  at  one  time  a  place  of  great  extent  and  importance,  as  the  pagoda  its  pagoda. 
is  one  of  the  largest  size,  having  a  stone  tower  over  the  gateway  eight  stories  high, 
and  the  tank  belonging  to  it  occupied  several  acres  of  ground.  It  is  remarkable  for 
the  petrifactions  found  in  its  neighbourhood.  One  of  the  petrified  trees  {  PetiiracUons. 
is  60  feet  long,  from  two  to  eight  in  diameter,  and  in  most  places  as  hard  as  flint. 

Sixteen  miles  south  from  Pondicherry  is  Fort  St.  David,  once  the  |  Foitst-DavM. 
head  of  the  English  settlements  on  this  coast,  but  when  taken  by  the  French  under 
M.  Lally,  the  fortilications  were  demoHshed  and  never  re-built.  Close  |  Cmiaiore. 
adjoining  is  the  town  of  Cudalore,  in  a  situation  naturally  strong.  It  is  thought  a 
better  natural  station  than  cither  Madras  or  Pondicherry.  It  was  the  seat  of  a  Bri- 
tish factory  at  an  early  period,  and  has  been  the  scene  of  some  sanguinary  conflicts. 
Between  the  years  1780  and  1784,  the  country  became  desolate,  the  villages  being 
laid  in  ruins,  but  since  that  i)criod  a  happy  and  rapid  improvement  has  taken  place.* 

The  pagodas  of  Sidamburam  or  Chillambaram  are  situated  on  the  sea  Pagodas  of 
coast,  in  lat.  11°  28'  N.  thirty-six  miles  south  trom  Pondicherry,  and  c'lii'afflbaram. 
form  a  favourite  place  of  pilgrimage.  They  are  encircled  with  a  high  wall  of  blue 
stone.  The  chief  of  the  four  pagodas  is  on  the  same  plan  with  that  of  Juggernaut, 
though  on  a  smaller  scale,  and  is  esteemed  a  master-piece  of  architecture.  Each 
of  the  three  gates  is  surmounted  with  a  pyramid  120  feet  high,  built  with  large  stones 
above  forty  feet  long  and  more  than  five  square,  all  covered  with  plates  of  copper, 
adorned  with  a  variety  of  figures  neatly  executed.  The  whole  structure  extends 
1332  feet  in  one  direction,  and  93G  in  another.  In  the  year  1785  the  main  gateway 
was  repaired  by  a  devout  widow  at  an  expense  of  50,000  pagodas.  The  circuit 
forms  a  vast  gallery,  divided  into  apartments,  in  which  the  Brahmins  live.  In  the 
area  of  the  temple  there  is  a  large  pool,  skirted  on  three  of  its  sides  with  a  beautiful 
gallery  supported  by  columns.  A  broad  stair  of  fine  red  granite  leads  down  from 
each  of  these  galleries  to  the  pool.  On  the  side  opposite  to  the  water  there  is  a 
magnificent  hall,  ornamented  with  999  columns  of  blue  granite  covered  witli  sculp- 
tures representing  all  the  Brahminical  deities.  One  of  the  greatest  curiosities  of  this 
pagoda  is  an  immense  granite  chain  of  exquisite  workmanship,  extending  from  four 
jwints  of  the  circumference  of  the  cupola  to  the  nave,  and  forming  lour  festoons  137 
feet  long,  with  the  ends  held  by  four  enormous  wedge-shaped  stones  belonging  to  the 
arch.  Each  link  is  somewhat  more  than  three  feet  in  length,  and  the  whole  of  a 
beautiful  resplendent  polish.  | 

The  territory  in  which  Madras  is  situated  is  called  the  Jaghire  or 
Chingleput,  now  forming  a  collectorship.  This  territory  was  dreadfully 
ravaged  with  fire  and  sword  by  Hyder  Ali,  in  1780,  and  at  the  conclusion  of  the  war 
in  1784  it  contained  no  vestige  of  man  excepting  the  bones  of  persons  who  had  been 
massacred,  and  the  walls  of  houses  and  temples  which  had  been  burned.  After  this 
it  was  doomed  to  suffer  by  a  dreadful  famine.  Chingleput,  its  capital,  is  respectably 
fortified.  Conjeveram,  or  the  golden  city,  in  the  Chingleput,  is  an  extensive  place, 
containing  a  vast  number  of  weavers.     It  has  a  magnificent  pagoda  adorned  with 

*  Orme's  Indostan.  t  Legoux  dc  Flaix,  i.  n.  118. 

Vol.  IL— B  b 


Tlic  Cliin^c- 
put  or  Jaehirc. 


194  BOOK  FOIlTY-EmHTH. 

st.Thom6.  I  beautiful  sculptures.  St.  Thome,  three  miles  south  from  Madras,  called 
by  the  natives  Maliapuram,  or  "  the  city  of  peacocks,"  contained  some  Nestorian 
Christians  when  taken  by  Gama,  who  gave  it  its  present  name.  It  was  taken  in 
1672  by  the  French,  and  in  1749  by  the  EngHsh,  and  is  now  subject  to  the  presi- 
Mahabaiipu.  dency.  Maliabalipuram,  thirty-five  miles  south  from  Madras,  is  a  col- 
'®°'*  lection  of  ruins  on  the  sea  side,  containing  many  sculptures,  also  a 

temple  cut  out  of  the  solid  rock,  with  well  finished  figures  of  idols  in  alto  relievo  on 
the  walls.  At  another  part  of  the  hill,  there  is  a  figure  of  Vishnu  reposing  on  a 
>  pillow  consisting  of  a  numerously  coiled  snake.  There  are  at  the  distance  of  a  mile 
and  a  half  from  the  hill,  two  pagodas  cut  out  of  the  solid  rock  ;  a  colossal  lion,  and 
an  elephant  as  large  as  life.  The  town  of  Sadras,  forty-two  miles  south  from  Ma- 
dras, is  in  possession  of  the  Dutch.  It  used  formerly  to  be  a  populous  place,  and 
famous  for  the  manufacture  of  ginghams. 

District  of  ^'^  ^^^  south  of  the  preceding  is  the  district  and  principality  of  Tanjorc, 

Tanjore.  v/hich,  in  point  of  fertility,  is  the  second  territory  in  Indostan;  the  first 

place  being  due  to  Burdwan,  in  Bengal.  Prodigious  mounds  have  been  created  to 
prevent  the  waters  of  the  Cavery  from  rejoining  those  of  the  Coleroon,  after  their 
separation  at  Trichinopoly.  The  waters,  thus  preserved  at  a  desirable  height,  are 
distributed  by  canals  in  all  directions.  The  inhabitants  are  uncommonly  industrious, 
and  expert  in  husbandry.     In  1807,  their  number  was  as  follows: 

Brahmins, 17,149 

Sudras,  including  native  Christians,      -         -         _         .         .         42,442 
Mahometans,  ._.  1,457 


61,048 


The  Mahometans  of  this  quarter  are  all  descendants  o^  Arabian  refugees,  who  left 
Arabia  in  the  eighth  century,  and  are  called  Lubbies.  The  territory  was  never  occu- 
pied by  any  Mahometan  power;  and  the  Hindoo  religion  has  been  preserved  in  con- 
siderable splendour.  The  people  seem  strongly  attached  to  the  British  government, 
which  indulges  and  protects  their  worship,  and  makes  a  liberal  allowance  from  the 
revenue  for  the  maintenance  of  the  temples.  In  1799,  the  territory  was  transferred 
^'^t^r^onh''*"  ^^  ^^^  British  jurisdiction.  The  Raja  reserved  several  palaces,  two  forts, 
present  Raja.  which  are  kept  in  excellent  repair,  and  an  ample  revenue  for  the  main- 
tenance of  his  dignity.  The  present  Raja  was  educated  under  M.  Schwartz,  a  re- 
spectable Danish  missionary,  and  among  Christians,  yet  he  adheres  steadily  to  the 
Brahminical  faith  and  observances,  but  he  is  particularly  kind  to  the  Danish  mission- 
aries, and  in  other  respects  liberal  in  his  sentiments.  The  Brahmins  here  are  pe- 
culiar in  having  a  printing  press,  which  they  employ  in  honouring  their  gods.  The 
present  Raja  has  been  all  along  sensible  of  his  dependence  on  the  good  will  of  the 
British,  and  sets  a  high  value  on  any  attention  which  he  receives  from  them.  He 
iinderstands  the  English  language,  has  an  English  library,  and  reads  the  English 
newspapers.  He  made  an  earnest  representation  of  the  claim  which  he  had  to  a 
higher  title  than  that  of  Excellency  first  given  to  him,  as  he  was  not  inferior  to  those 
Indian  princes  who  were  entitled  Highness ;  and  was  greatly  delighted  when  this 
claim  was  acquiesced  in.  The  voluntary  immolation  of  widows  is  still  retained  here, 
though  discouraged  by  the  Raja,  and  not  countenanced  by  natives  of  rank  or  educa- 
tion; the  Brahmins  however  derive  a  profit  from  the  cruel  rite.  The  capital  city, 
Tanjore,  contains  the  finest  specimen  of  the  pagoda  in  Indostan;  and  within  it  a  bull, 
carved  from  a  block  of  black  granite,  which  is  an  excellent  example  of  Hind'6o  sculp- 
ture. In  remote  ages  this  was  the  great  seat  of  learning,  and  here  the  almanacks 
were  framed.* 

Combooconam,  2.3  miles  N.  E.  from  the  city  of  Tanjore,  was  the  an- 
cient capital  of  the  Chola  race,  and  still  exhibits  remains  which  indicate 
its  former  splendour;  such  as  tanks  and  pagodas,  which  are  very  fine.  Its  houses 
arc  neat,  and  chiefly  inhabited  by  Brahmins.     The  country  around  it  is  rich  and 

*  Lor<l  Valcntia's  Travel's.    Fr.  Buchanan.    Uenncl's  Memoir. 


Combooco' 
uam. 


Tranquebar, 
the  Danish  set* 
tiement. 


IN DO ST AN.  195 

liighly  cultivated.  At  this  place  there  is  a  consecrated  pond,  which  every  twelve 
years  has  the  quality  of  purifying  those  who  bathe  in  it  from  all  their  sins,  and  forms 
a  powerful  attraction  for  countless  multitudes  of  pilgrims. 

On  the  east  of  Tanjore  is  the  Danish  settlement  of  Tranquebar,  the 
territory  attached  to  which  is  of  very  small  extent.  The  fort  is  large, 
and  filled  with  population  both  European  and  native.  The  fortifications  were  a  suf- 
ficient protection  against  the  attacks  of  predatory  cavalry,  formerly  not  uncommon, 
but  are  not  fitted  to  sustain  a  defence  against  a  regular  force.  In  1812  the  popula- 
tion of  Tranquebar,  and  its  sixteen  villages  was, 

Europeans, 487 

Mixed  breed,  born  in  India,     --..-..  370 

Hindoos, 16,775 

Christian  natives,   -         -         -         -         -         -         -         -         .  601 

Mahometan  natives,        ---.--_-  1,446 


19,679 

Since  1814,  when  it  was  restored  to  the  Danes,  it  has  greatly  improved  in  com- 
merce and  population. — Negapatani,  a  maritime  place,  twenty  miles  (  Negapatam. 
south  from  Tranquebar,  is  the  JS'igama,  of  the  ancients.  It  has  a  good  anchorage, 
and  at  the  close  of  the  last  century  exported  annually  four  or  five  thousand  bales  of 
stufts  of  various  kinds.  When  in  the  hands  of  the  Dutch  it  was  the  capital  of  their 
settlements  on  this  coast,  and  had  a  very  extensive  gold  coinage. — On  the  north  of 
Tanjore  is  the  zemindary  of  the  Tondiman  family,  wliich  has  been  always  friendly  to 
the  English,  and  has  been  much  befriended  in  its  turn  ;  their  finances  being  arranged 
and  recovered  at  times  of  embarrassment  by  the  management  of  agents  appointed 
by  that  nation. 

Trichinopoly,  to  the  west  of  Tanjore,  higher  up  the  river  Cavery,  was  District  of  Xr*.- 
a  favourite  residence  of  the  Mahometans  of  the  southern  Carnatic.  The  ^^'^''nopo'y- 
district  is  fertile,  though  inferior  in  this  respect  to  Tanjore.  The  climate  is  rendered 
milder  than  it  would  otherwise  be  by  the  moisture  with  which  the  air  is  impregnated. 
On  the  adjacent  island  of  Seringham  are  two  magnificent  pagodas,  which  the  Hin- 
doos have  long  venerated.  The  island  is  formed  by  the  separating  of  the  Cavery 
into  two  branches,  the  northern  being  called  the  Coleroon.  The  chief  pagoda  is  a 
mile  from  the  western  extremity  of  the  island.  It  is  composed  of  seven  square  en- 
closures, the  walls  of  which  are  twenty-five  feet  high,  and  four  thick.  These  are 
350  feet  distant  from  each  other,  the  outward  wall  being  nearly  four  miles  in  circum- 
ference, and  some  of  the  stones  forming  the  columns  of  its  gateways,  are  thirty- 
three  feet  long,  and  five  in  diameter  ;  those  which  form  the  roof  are  still  larger.  The 
other  pagoda  is  a  mile  to  the  east,  and  has  only  one  enclosure. 

The  district  of  Dindigul  and  Madura  is  situated  chiefly  about  the  tenth 
degree  of  north  latitude,  to  the  south  of  the  preceding.  At  this  part  the 
low  land  of  the  Carnatic  becomes  broader.  The  central  table  land  having  ter- 
minated fixrther  north,  this  lies  on  the  soutii  of  it  as  well  as  on  the  east.  Dindigu! 
is  a  fine  valley,  through  which  the  river  Vyar  flows  an  easterly  course, 
and,  through  the  greater  part  of  the  year,  is  expended  entirely  on  irriga- 
tion, so  as  never  to  reach  the  sea.  Tlic  climate  of  Dindigul  is  usually  the  finest 
m  India.  IMay  is  the  hottest  month.  In  December  and  January,  tlie  thermome- 
ter seldom  falls  below  64°.  It  is  in  January,  July,  and  August,  that  the  superiority 
of  its  climate  is  most  conspicuous.  The  numerous  hills  with  which  the  province  is 
interspersed  occasion  frequent  cooling  shoMcrs  ;  yet  this  district  was  in  1809,  1810, 
and  1811,  desolated  by  a  destructive  epidemic  fever,  which  greatly  thinned  the  popu- 
lation and  destroyed  the  cattle.  From  April  1st,  1810,  to  the  corresponding  term  in 
the  following  year,  21,510  persons  died.  The  deaths  in  ordinary  years  do  not  ex- 
ceed 3-138.  The  town  of  Dindigul  contained  7000  inhabitants  before  the  epidemic  ; 
in  1812  their  number  was  reduced  to  3195.  Part  of  this  district  goes  under  the 
name  of  the  "  territory  of  the  Poligars,"  but  is  not  peculiarly  entitled  to  that  distinc- 
tion from  any  singularity  in  the  mode  in  which  the  land  is  held.     The  heads  of  vil- 


District  of 
Pimligiil  ami 
Madura. 

Dindigul  divi- 
sion. 


Miulura  divi 
sion. 


196  BOOK  rOUTY-EIGHTII. 

lagos  always  have  possession  of  the  lands  ;  and,  sometimes,  when  favoured  by  the 
strength  of  the  country,  these  have  assumed  the  name  and  character  of  poligars  ;  but 
the  true  poligars  were  originally  banditti,  who  afterwards  obtained  regular  jurisdiction 
within  their  boundaries. 

The  Madura  subdivision  of  this  district,  lying  farther  south,  and  at 
less  elevation,  is  warmer  than  Dindigul;  the  heat  in  December  and  Ja- 
nuary being  seldom  below  66°.  In  May  it  ranges  from  79°  to  98°.  Some  marshy 
tracts  adjoining  the  hills  renderthe  climate  unhealthy;  and  near  Tondiman's  coun- 
try, there  is  a  quantity  of  jungle  which  has  a  similar  effect.  The  ancient  sovereigns 
of  this  country  were  named  the  Pandian  race,  and  it  is  supposed  to  have  been  the 
JVTadura  Regia  Pandionis  of  Ptolemy.  In  conjunction  with  Trichinopoly  it  forms  a 
Hindoo  division  named  Madree.  It  was  formerly  one  of  the  holy  countries,  the  ca- 
pital being  styled  the  southern  Mathura,  and  it  still  contains  some  remains  of  ancient 
grandeur.  Christianity  has  gained  considerable  ground  in  this  quarter.  In  17S5, 
there  were  18,000  Roman  catholics,  and  many  protestants.  In  1809,  1810,  and 
181 1,  it  was  depopulated  by  the  epidemic  already  mentioned.  Madura,  the  capital, 
is  an  ancient  city,  and  formerly  well  defended  by  a  strong  fort,  three  miles  and  three 
quarters  in  circumference.  It  sustained  many  sieges  in  the  wars  from  1740  to  1760, 
being  often  in  the  hands  of  refractory  poligars,  who  then  abounded  in  the  country; 
but  the  cessation  of  warlike  operations  has  now  superseded  the  utility  of  such  forts. 
The  population  has  decreased  of  late  years,  and  the  people  are  poor  and  very  ill 
lodged.  The  streets  are  narrow,  and  rendered  particularly  dirty  by  the  stagnant 
Avater  of  the  old  drains,  and  by  a  multitude  of  cattle  kept  within  the  city.  It  contains 
a  famous  temple  consecrated  to  the  god  Vellayadah,  to  whom  the  devotees  bring 
whimsical  oflcrings  of  shoes  of  colossal  magnitude,  highly  ornamented.  A  maritime 
part  of  this  district,  called  Marawah,  contains  a  race  of  professed  robbers,  called 
Coillcries,  who  frankly  avow  their  profession,  consider  it  as  their  legitimate  hereditary 
right,  and  merely  observe  that  matters  are  now  so  changed  as  greatly  to  curtail  the 
exercise  of  it.  This  territory  contains  a  caste  called  Totiyars,  among  whom  a  plu- 
rality of  male  kindred  have  their  wives  in  common.  There  is  a  zemindary  in  it  called 
Shevagunga,  where  the  dogs  are  held  in  high  estimation  among  the  Hindoo  princes, 
while  these  animals  in  every  other  part  of  India  are  regarded  with  unreasonable  con- 
tempt. At  the  town  of  Ramnad,  near  the  coast,  there  is  a  protestant  church  of  very 
neat  architecture.  In  all  this  country  the  females  have  a  leading  influence  in  fixing 
hereditary  successions.* 

Island  of  Ra-  The  island  of  Ramisscram,  lying  between  this  coast  and  the  island  of 

nusseram.  Ccylou,  is  greatly  celebrated  in  the  Brahminical  mythology.     It  contains 

a  pagoda  much  frequented  by  pilgrims.  Rama,  an  incarnation  of  Vishnu,  is  believed 
to  have  erected  this  building  on  his  return  from  vanquishing  Ravan,  the  king  of  the 
giants,  and  conquering  the  island  of  Ceylon.  Rama  is  believed,  on  this  occasion,  to 
have  restored  for  a  short  time  by  miracle  the  isthmus  which,  at  a  more  remote  pe- 
riod, had  connected  Ceylon  with  the  continent,  and  of  which  the  chain  of  islands, 
rocks,  and  shallows,  noAv  extending  across,  forms  the  remnant.  This  line  of  rocks 
is  called  "  the  bridge  of  Rama,"  an  appellation  for  which  the  Arabians  have  substi- 
tuted "  the  bridge  of  Adam."  The  pagoda  is  extremely  massy,  resembling  the  Egyp- 
tian architecture.  Water  is  brought  hither  from  the  Ganges  by  the  pilgrims,  poured 
over  the  god,  and  then  sold  to  the  devout  at  a  price  which  brings  a  considerable  re- 
venue to  the  temple.  The  guardianship  of  this  sacred  isle  is  vested  in  a  family  of 
devotees,  the  chief  of  which  is  Pandaram,  who  is  bound  down  to  perpetual  celibacy, 
and  the  family  succession  is  kept  up  by  the  sisters ;  a  mode  of  establishing  legitimate 
descent  which  prevails  over  the  southern  extremity  of  India. t 

nistrict  of  The  district  of  Timievclly  occupies  the  extremities  of  the  Carnatic  and 

Tinneveiiy.  ^j-  ^j^^  whole  jicuinsula,  bciug  separated  from  the  province  of  Travancore 
on  the  west  coast  by  the  Travancore  ridge  of  mountains,  a  continuation  of  the  west- 
ern Ghauts.  It  contains  some  rivers  and  salt  marshes,  separated  from  the  sea  by 
high  sand  hills.     This  district  has  one  peculiarity  of  climate,  that  a  fall  of  rain  is 

*  Fifih  Report.  f  Cordiiier's  Account  of  Ceylon,  vol.  ii  p.  1 — 31. 


Climate  of 
Trichendorej 
and  CouK- 
tallum. 


INDOSTAN.  197 

always  expected  late  in  January,  Avhich  raises  the  rivers,  and  replenishes  the  tanks?. 
For  this  reason  the  latter  arc  of  smaller  size  than  in  the  preceding  districts. 

Two  places  in  this  district  are  remarkable  as  cool  retreats  for  persons 
injured  by  the  climate,  viz.  Trichendore,  and  the  valley  of  Courtallum ; 
tlie  latter,  in  particular,  is  highly  grateful  to  the  feelings  of  a  European, 
early  in  June,  after  the  commencement  of  the  heavy  rains  of  Malabar,  and  it  contains 
a  waterfall,  under  which  invalids  take  a  shower-bath,  which  greatly  contributes  to 
their  recovery.     But  from  February  to  May  this  place  is  close  and  sultry,  being 
deprived  of  the  influence  of  the  southerly  winds.     Trichendore  is  on  the  sea-side, 
thirty  miles  east  from  Palamcotta.     Rice  and  cotton  are  the  chief  produce  of  this 
district.     The  cotton  is  of  a  remarkable  fine  quality.     The  English,     introduction 
before  they  obtained  possession  of  Ceylon,  made  attempts  to  introduce     plantations, 
the  cultivation  of  cinnamon  and  other  spiceries  in  this  district,  which  might  have 
succeeded  to  a  certain  extent,  had  not  subsequent  political  changes  rendered  such 
plantations  unnecessary.     The  nutmegs  and  cloves  entirely  failed;  these  articles 
are  not  even  produced  in  Ceylon,  and  cinnamon  itself  thrives  only  in  a  limited  por- 
tion of  it.*     The  cotton  of  this  district  is  exported  to  Madras,  and  there  consigned 
for  sale  to  China.     In  this  district  the  peculiar  Hindoo  manners  are  supposed  to  be 
more  pure  than  any  where  else.     The  principal  towns  for  size  and  population  are 
Tinnevelly,  Alvartinnevelly,  Spermadevy,  and  Culdacoorchy,  but  none  of  much 
consequence.     At  Tuticorin,  ninety  miles  north-east  from  Cape  Comorin,  there  is  a 
pearly  fishery,  but  the  pearls  are  not  equal  in  quality  to  those  found  on  the  coast  of 
Ceylon.     A  superintendent  deputed  by  the  British  government  attends  constantly 
during  six  weeks.     The  net  revenue  derived  from  it  in  1807  was  81,917  star  pagodas. 

In  this  district  Cape  Comorin  is  situated,  called  in  the  Malabaric  Ian-  |  capeComorin. 
guage  Kumari  and  Kanyamuri,  forming  a  majestic  termination  of  the  mountain  chain 
of  the  Ghauts  and  of  this  triangular  portion  of  the  Asiatic  continent.  Its  summit  is 
1294  English  yards  in  height,  covered  with  a  briglft  verdure,  overlooking  a  fine 
cascade,  and  a  plain  filled  with  forests.  Parvati,  who  in  the  Hindoo  mythology  is 
goddess  of  the  mountains,  seems  according  to  Arrian  to  be  the  divinity  who  has 
sanctified  this  promontory  and  the  adjoining  ocean,  and  for  this  she  is  surnamed 
Kumari.  Francis  Xavier  had  the  address  to  turn  these  traditions  to  good  account 
for  promoting  the  objects  of  his  mission,  by  making  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  of 
these  rocks  the  site  of  a  church  dedicated  to  the  Virgin  Mary. 

Turning  now  to  the  Central  Plateau,  we  find,  in  the  most  northern 
part  of  it,  bounded  by  the  line  of  the  Tomboodra  and  Krishna,  a  province 
usually  called  "the  Ceded  Districts  of  Balaghaut."  This  term  is  re- 
stricted to  the  territories  acquired  by  the  British  government  in  1800, 
and  now  divided  into  the  collectorships  of  Bellary  and  Cuddapah.  The  ceded  dis- 
tricts, contain  more  ground  than  Scotland.  The  waters  of  the  Tomboodra  and 
Krishna  form  a  strong  barrier  to  this  province  for  the  greater  part  of  the  year,  and 
also  contribute  to  its  fertility.  The  soil  is  in  general  more  fertile  than  either  that  of 
Malabar  or  Canara.  Drill  husbandry  is  universal.  The  period  of  the  rains  is  un- 
certain, but  one  night's  rain  enables  a  farmer  to  sow  his  seed,  and  three  nights  secure 
a  good  crop.  Where  the  land  is  overrun  with  shrubs,  the  expense  of  clearing  is 
great.  The  good  trees  are  for  the  most  part  entirely  destroyed  by  the  wars  with 
which  the  country  was  long  devastated.  The  British  found  the  whole  social  arrange- 
ments of  this  territory  in  the  most  horrible  confusion.  The  rebellions  of  the  poligars, 
struggling  with  the  more  organized  rapacity  of  the  Mahratta  and  Mahometan  go- 
vernments, the  extortions  of  the  revenue  officers,  and  the  plunderings  carried  on  by 
persons  who  purchased  the  privilege  of  freebooting,  had  made  every  man  a  ferocious 
enemy  to  his  neighbour.  Few  families  escaped  assassination,  or  were  free  from  the 
imputation  of  murder.  When  the  British  power  had  begun  to  establish  a  system  of 
order  and  tranquillity,  and  the  country  was  beginning  to  recover,  it  was  visited  by  a 
severe  scarcity  in  1803  and  1804,  from  the  failure  of  the  necessary  rains,  which 
required  all  the  exertion  of  government  to  prevent  the  horrors  of  absolute  famine. 

•  See  the  subsequent  book,  passim. 


Central 
Plateau. 

Ceded  Dis- 
tricts of  Bala* 
ghaut. 


District  of  Bel- 
lary. 


District  of 
Cucldappali, 


198  BOOK  FORTY-EIGHTH. 

But  since  the  year  1805,  in  which  the  season  was  favourable,  these  districts  have 
greatly  improved.  In  1806  the  population  amounted  to  1,907,376,  and  had  increased 
by  one-tburth  in  five  years,  partly  from  the  return  of  inhabitants  who  had  emigrated 
during  the  Nizam's  domination.  In  remote  times,  this  province  formed  part  of  the 
last  Hindoo  empire  of  Bijenagur.  It  was  in  the  possession  of  different  Mahometan 
powers  in  succession  till  1800.  It  is  of  great  value  as  a  source  of  supplies  for  the 
armies  in  the  Deccan. 

The  district  of  Bellary  is  the  west  part  of  the  province.    The  zemin- 

dary  of  Harponelly  in  this  quarter,  was  restored  to  the  family  after  the 
fall  of  Tippoo's  power;  at  least  an  heir  was  brought  forward,  though  it  was  sus- 
pected that  he  was  not  legally  entitled  to  the  succession,  but  set  up  by  the  Brahmins 
with  the  view  of  perpetuating  the  management  in  their  own  hands,  and  preventing 
the  power  from  being  absorbed  by  government.  This  is  a  frequent  practice  when  a 
line  becomes  extinct.  Some  public  treasure  was  carried  off  from  this  place  by  the 
soonUoor.  |  Mahrattas  and  Pindarees  in  1817.  Soondoor,  twenty-five  miles  from 
Bellary,  was  a  favourite?  place  of  pilgrimage  with  the  Peshwa,  who,  in  1807,  and 
1815,  made  a  visit  to  the  temple  of  Cartic  Swamy,  (the  god  of  war  of  the  Hindoos,) 
but  a  crowd  of  other  pilgrims  took  the  opportunity  of  accompanying  him,  and  com- 
mitted dreadful  irregularities.  On  the  last  of  these  occasions  it  turned  out  to  have 
been  a  premeditated  plan  on  the  part  of  the  Peshwa  to  take  forcible  possession  of 
the  district,  though  it  was  preceded  by  the  most  formal  engagement  that  all  his  fol- 
lowers should  be  left  on  the  north  side  of  the  Tomboodra.  In  the  territory  of  Cur- 
noul,  in  the  north-east  of  the  province,  called  in  our  maps  Ghazypoor,  there  are 
diamond  mines  at  a  place  called  Banaganpilly. 

The  collectorship  of  Cuddapah  is  in  the  east  and  south  part.     Here 

abundance  of  soda  is  found  in  a  black  soil,  among  the  Pennaconda  hills. 
The  spots  producizig  it  are  known  by  their  barren  aspect  and  the  black  colour  which 
the  mould  exhibits  in  the  morning.  It  is  mixed  with  kitchen  salt.  Nitre  also  is 
abundant,  and  easily  extracted  by  a  simple  process.  About  seven  miles  from  the 
town  of  Cuddapah,  there  are  diamond  mines  on  the  banks  of  the  Pennar  river.  This 
river  intersects  the  district  of  Gandicotta,  and  finds  its  way  through  a  deep  and  per- 
pendicular gap  in  the  Gandicotta  hills,  into  the  plain  of  Cuddapah.  The  fort  of 
Gandicotta,  was  formerly  noted  for  its  strength,  but  is  now  a  place  of  no  importance. 
The  valley  is  fertile  and  populous,  and  celebrated  for  its  diamond  mines. 

On  the  south  and  west  of  the  preceding  province  is  that  of  Mysore, 

the  theatre  of  the  celebrated  military  events  in  which  first  Hyder  Ali, 
and  afterwards  his  successor  Tippoo,  were  the  most  conspicuous  actors.  It  is  si- 
tuated chiefly  between  the  eleventh  and  fifteenth  degrees  of  north  latitude;  but,  con- 
sisting of  a  table  land,  nearly  3000  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  it  enjoys  a  much 
more  temperate  and  salubrious  climate  than  any  other  country  of  equal  extent  within 
the  tropics.  From  the  remains  of  hedges,  and  other  signs,  this  province  appears  to 
have  been,  at  some  remote  period,  in  a  much  higher  state  of  cultivation  than  at  pre- 
sent; but  it  is  now  rapidly  recovering.  It  produces,  besides  rice,  the  chicada,  the 
dodada,  the  Phaseolus  mango,  the  Dolichos  catsjang,  and  the  sugar  cane.  The  crop 
of  Cynosurus  corocamis,  or  raggy,  is  by  far  the  most  important  of  those  raised  on  the 
dry  field,  and  forms  the  support  of  all  the  lower  ranks  of  society.  Abundance  of 
castor  oil  is  produced,  which  is  burned  in  lamps,  and  given  to  milch  buffaloes.  As 
to  sugar  plantations,  it  is  only  the  prodigious  difference  in  the  cheapness  of  labour 
that  enables  those  of  Indostan  to  approach,  in  point  of  economy,  to  those  of  the 
^Vest  Indies,  which  have  so  decided  an  advantage  in  point  of  soil,  climate,  carriage, 
and  agricultural  and  mechanical  skill.*  Poppies  arc  cultivated  both  for  the  sake  of 
the  opium  and  the  seed,  which  is  used  in  the  sweet  cakes  eaten  among  the  most 
luxurious  of  the  natives.  The  cocoa  tree  is  very  productive  in  this  territory,  not- 
withstanding its  distance  from  the  sea.  It  seems  to  flourish  in  any  situation  which 
conjoins  the  requisite  temperature  witli  an  impregnation  of  sea  salt  in  the  soil.  From 

*  For  a  full  accovmt  of  the  cuUlvation  and  maiiutacture  of  sugar  in  this  province,  see  Dr.  Fr, 
liuclianan'i)  Journey  through  the  Mysore,  cic.  passim. 


Province  of 
Mysoic. 


INDOSTAN.  199 

this  and  other  species  of  the  palm  tribe,  the  juice  is  obtained  which  ferments  into  the 
liquor  called  toddy,  a  term  which  seems  to  be  a  corruption  of  iari,  the  Mahometan 
term  for  the  juice  of  the  palmyra,  or  Borassus  flaheUiforrais.     The  great  defect  in 
agriculture  here  consists  in  the  imperfect  cleaning  of  the  fields  from  the  grass  roots, 
which  vegetate  with  great  vigour,  and  are  difficult  to  subdue.     In  1S04,  the  number 
of  families  in  Mysore  was  482,612,  of  which  only  17,000  were  of  the  Mahometan 
religion,  though  the  province  had  been  thirty-eight  years  under  zealous  sovereigns  of 
that  faith.     The  Brahmin  families  were  25,370,  the  Lingait  72,627,  and  the  Jain 
2063.     The  Hindoos  of  this  province  are  immersed  in  the  most  deplorable  super- 
stition.    When  two  parties  in  a  village  have  a  dispute,  it  is  not  uncommon  for  one  of 
them  to  have  recourse  to  an  expedient  by  which  both  suffer;  this  is,  to  kill  a  jack-ass 
in  the  street.  After  such  an  act  the  place  is  deserted;  no  Hindoo  will  live  in  it  unless 
by  compulsion.     Another  expedient  of  revenge  is,  for  the  proprietor  of  a  garden  to 
catch  a  number  of  monkeys  and  squirrels  in  a  net,  and  convey  them  by  stealth  into 
the  garden  of  another,  where  they  destroy  the  produce,  and  are  protected  from  being 
killed  by  the  superstitious  veneration  in  Avhich  they  are  universally  held.    These  acts 
of  reciprocal  injury  have  of  late  become  more  rare  from  being  found  ultimately  so 
unprofitable.  The  men  of  this  province  are  stout  and  healthy,  and  their  complexions 
a  tinge  fairer  than  those  of  the  natives  of  Coromandel.  The  women  in  general  pos- 
sess graceful  forms,  and  dress  in  a  becoming  style.     The  division  of  time  here  is 
singular.     Instead  of  dividing  the  diurnal  period  into  twenty-four  hours,  and  each 
hour  into  sixty  minutes,  they  divide  it  into  sixty  hours,  consequently  twenty-four  mi- 
nutes form  an  hour.    In  the  country  round  Seringapatam,  the  people  are  divided  into 
what  are  called  right  hand  and  left  hand  sides  :* — the  first  comprehends  nine  castes, 
and  the  second  eighteen.  The  circumstances  which  add  dignity  to  tlie  members  of  any 
caste  are,  its  following  no  useful  employment ;  being  restricted  from  the  pleasures  of 
the  table ;  and  being  devoted  to  piety  and  learning.     Hence  a  disgusting  hypocriti- 
cal cant  is  the  prevailing  fashion.     The  arrangements  which  take  place  in  the  family 
of  the  Raja  of  Mysore  are  whimsical  in  the  extreme.     The  males  are  divided  into 
two  great  branches,  the  Raja  Bundas,  and  the  Collalays,  who  intermarry.  The  head 
of  the  first  is  the  Curtur  or  sovereign,  and  of  the  other  the  Delawai.     Some  of  each 
family  are  of  Vishnu's  side,  others  of  Siva's;  none  wear  the  linga,|  and  all  acknow- 
ledge the  Brahmins  as  their  spiritual  guides.     The  Curtur,  on  ascending  the  throne, 
whatever  religion  he  has  been  educated  in,  always  adopts  the  ceremonies  of  the  Sri 
Vaishnavam^     On  the  contrary,  the  females  of  both  families  wear  the  linga,  reject 
the  authority  of  the  Brahmins,  and  are  under  the  spiritual  guidance  of  the  Jangamas. 
Such  inconsistent  arrangements  are  not  uncommon  among  the  Hindoos. 

This  province  is  less  subject  to  the  English  than  most  of  the  others.  Power  of  the 
the  Raja  of  Mysore  enjoying  great  influence  under  the  patronage  of  the  ^''•''*' 
supreme  government.  In  1812  the  Raja  having  attained  the  age  of  nineteen,  and 
shown  talents  adequate  to  the  active  charge  of  his  dominions,  together  with  a  desire 
to  enter  on  the  exercise  of  his  prerogative,  the  Dewan  Purneah,  his  minister,  who 
had  previously  the  sole  management,  was  at  first  actuated  with  the  most  indignant 
resentment,  and  used  insulting  conduct  to  the  Raja  ;  and,  when  the  cliange  of  ad- 
ministration was  carried  into  effect,  conceiving  himself  degraded,  was  so  deeply 
affected  that  he  lost  his  understanding  from  a  paralytic  attack,  and  soon  died. 

The  leading  city  in  this  province  is  Seringapatam,  the  capital  of  Tip-  |  Seiingapatam- 
poo,  in  lat.  12°  25'  north,  and  long.  76°  45'  east.  It  is  situated  at  the  upper  end 
of  a  large  island  formed  by  the  Cavery,  which  is  here  a  large  and  rapid  river,  and 
has  an  extensive  channel  interrupted  witli  granite  rocks.  The  island  is  about  four 
miles  long,  and  a  mile  and  a  half  broad.  The  neighbouring  country  rises  gradually 
from  both  sides  of  the  river,  the  ground  being  finely  watered,  partly  by  native  streams 
and  partly  by  canals  conveying  the  water  from  places  where  the  river  has  been 
dammed  across.  The  fort  is  an  injudiciously  contrived  building,  in  an  unfinished 
state,  and  occupies  about  a  mile  at  the  west  end  of  the  island.     Tippoo  retained  the 

•  Dr.  Fr.  Buchanan's  Journey,  vol.  i.  p.  77.  250.  ii.  p.  268.  294. 
t  An  indecent  emblem  of  fertility. 


200  BOOK  FORTY-EIGHTH. 

long  straight  lines  of  wall,  and  the  square  bastions  of  the  Hindoos  ;  and  his  glacis 
was  in  many  places  so  high  and  steep  as  to  aftbrd  shelter  to  the  assailants,  llydcr's 
palace  at  the  east  end  of  the  island  is  built  of  mud,  but  is  an  elegant  and  handsome 
native  structure.  Near  this  is  the  magnificent  mausoleum  of  Hyder,  where  himself,  his 
wife,  and  Tippoo,  lie  buried  under  tombs  of  black  marble.  The  British  government 
is  at  the  expense  of  covering  these  with  rich  cloth,  and  maintaining  the  former  esta- 
blishment of  priests  to  offer  up  prayers,  and  of  musicians  to  perform  the  Nobut. 
The  palace  in  the  city,  though  large  and  massy,  has,  like  all  the  public  edifices,  a 
mean  appearance.  Hyder's  palace  is  now  the  residence  of  a  surgeon  ;  his  seraglio 
is  converted  into  a  European  hospital ;  his  private  apartments  are  occupied  by  the 
resident,  and  his  public  rooms  by  European  soldiers.*  Tippoo's  seraglio  is  an  artillery 
barrack.  All  these  buildings  look  heavy  for  want  of  windows,  and  are  too  closely 
shut  up  to  suit  the  taste  and  convenience  of  their  present  possessors.  This  island 
in  Tippo's  time  probably  contained  150,000  inhabitants  ;  at  present  they  may  be  es- 
timated at  32,000,  besides  the  garrison.  Many  have  gone  to  Mysore,  the  residence 
of  the  Raja :  and  some  of  the  Mahometans  who  originally  belonged  to  tlie  Carnatic 
have  returned  to  their  native  country.  Timber  is  dear  here,  being  brought  from  the 
western  Ghauts.  Bread  also  is  dear;  and  the  European  soldiers  are  obhged  to  eat 
rice  ;  but  meat  and  vegetables  are  both  abundant  and  of  excellent  quality. — Seringa- 
patam  was  the  scene  of  two  memorable  warlike  events  ;  each  decisive  of  the  war  in 
Tippoo's  de-  which  it  occurrcd.  One  was  the  successful  attack  by  Lord  Cornwallis 
*^^  on  Tippoo's  fortified  camp,  under  its  Avails,  on  the  6th  of  February,  1792. 

Tippoo's  army  consisted  of  40,000  infantry,  besides  a  large  body  of  cavalry.  For 
the  attack  2800  Europeans,  and  5900  native  infantry  were  selected.  The  attacking 
army  lost  535  men  in  killed  and  wounded.  Eighty  guns  were  taken  ;  the  Sultan 
lost  4000  men,  and  his  army  was,  by  subsequent  desertion,  reduced  to  20,000.  Tip- 
poo relinquished  one  half  of  his  dominions,  and  paid  three  crores  and  thirty  lacks  of 
rupees  (about  3,500,000/.)  in  bullion.  The  force  brought  against  him  on  that  occa- 
sion was  one  of  the  most  formidable  ever  collected  in  India;  consisting  of  11,000 
Europeans,  31,600  natives  in  the  British  service  ;  and  belonging  to  the  Mahrattas,  the 
Nizam,  the  Raja  of  Travancore,  and  the  Coorg  Raja,  40,000  ;  the  persons  attached 
to  the  camps  of  the  confederates  exceeded  400, 00^  ;  the  bullocks  employed  in 
bringing  supplies  amounted  to  half  a  million;  there  were  several  hundred  elephants, 
and  many  thousand  camels. — The  other  warlike  event  was  the  storming  of  the  city 
-on  the  4th  of  May,  1799,  by  General  Harris.  The  garrison  amounted  to  about  5000 
Tippoo's  final  men,  of  whom  a  great  proportion  was  slain,  and  the  dead  body  of  the 
liieath.  °^  ""  brave  Tippoo  was  found  under  a  gateway.  The  particulars  of  his  death 
remain  otherwise  unknown  ;  and  it  was  never  discovered  who  had  obtained  posses- 
-sion  of  his  valuable  necklace  of  pearls.  The  British  took  possession  of  the  island, 
and  it  has  ever  since  been  kept  strongly  garrisoned.  As  a  fortress,  it  controls  the 
west  coast  of  Malabar,  and  the  adjoining  low  and  open  districts  of  the  Carnatic  on 
the  east  and  south.  The  spot,  however,  is  unhealthy,  and  liable  to  epidemics. 
Intermittent  fevers  prevail  over  the  whole  of  the  Mysore. 

cityof  Mysore.  |  Tlic  city  of  Mysore,  the  ancient  capital  of  the  province,  and  the  pre- 
sent residence  of  the  Raja,  is  in  lat.  12°  19'  north,  and  long.  76°  42'  east;  about 
nine  miles  north-cast  from  Seringapatam,  and  in  the  same  valley.  Tippoo  had  at- 
tempted to  remove  it  from  its  former  site  to  an  eminence  about  a  mile  distant;  but  it 
is  now  in  its  old  station.  The  Raja's  fort  is  well  built,  and  kept  in  very  good  order. 
The  ancient  name  of  the  place  was  Purragurry:  but  in  1524  tiie  fort  was  built  or 
repaired,  and  received  the  name  of  Mahesh-asoor  from  a  bulfaloe-headed  monster 
who  was  overthrown  by  the  prowess  of  the  goddess  Cali.  This  name  has  since 
been  contracted  to  Mysore. — We  have  already,  in  our  general  account  of  the  physical 
aspect  of  India,  taken  notice  of  the  river  Cavery,  which,  from  its  great  subserviency 
ciiittcUirooK.  |  to  agriculturc,  is  the  most  useful  river  in  the  south  of  India.  Chittel- 
droog,  the  chief  town  of  a  district,  has  a  remarkably  strong  fort,  belonging  to  the 
Raja,  on  a  rock  with  five  peaks,  2640  ells  in  height.     The  surrounding  country  is 

*  Dr.  Fr.  Ijuchanan,  vol.  i.  p.  69. 


INDOSTAN.  201 

dry  and  clear,  but  rt  is  reckoned  unhealthy.  Bangalore  is  a  large  fortified  |  Bangalore, 
town,  seventy  miles  north-east  from  Seringapatam.  Here  Hyder  had  constructed  a 
fort  according  to  the  best  fashion  then  followed  among  the  Mahometan  states;  but 
Tippoo,  finding  it  quite  insufficient  to  sustain  an  attack  from  the  British  troops  de- 
stroyed it.  Dewan  Purneah,  however,  the  late  minister  of  the  Raja,  rebuilt  it  in  1802. 
It  used  to  be  a  place  of  great  trade,  but  its  prosperity  was  ruined  by  the  domineering 
interference  of  Tippoo  in  the  concerns  of  trade.  The  Mahometans  of  this  place 
now  suffer  great  distress  from  the  change  of  the  government.  In  this  pait  of  the 
country  a  peculiar  affection  of  the  skin  is  very  common,  in  which  it  becomes  entirely 
white.  It  does  not  in  any  way  affect  the  health  of  the  individuals  in  whom  it  occurs; 
and  their  children  are  like  those  of  other  people.  The  town  of  Maggri,  twenty-two 
miles  west  from  Bangalore,  is  filled  with  pagodas,  pubUo  choultries,  and  monuments 
of  Indian  architecture  and  sculpture.  In  the  neighbourhood  are  many  iron  forges, 
and  a  manufacture  of  steel.  A  great  quantity  of  sandal-wood  is  found  m  the  adja- 
cent forests;  the  best  of  it  grows  on  a  rocky  soil. 

On  the  east  of  Mysore  is  the  province  of  Coimbatoor,  between  Mala-  rrovince  of 
bar  on  the  west  and  Salem  on  the  east;  the  Ghauts  are  in  its  western  ^°""  "^• 
part,  and  from  thence  some  tributaries  of  the  Cavery  flow  eastward  through  the  pro- 
vince. It  is  on  the  whole  fertile.  The  ox  is  considered  by  the  people  here  as  a 
living  god,  who  gives  them  their  bread.  In  every  village  one  or  two  bulls  are  kept, 
to  which  monthly  or  weekly  worship  is  paid ;  yet  much  of  the  country  which  has 
been  formerly  cultivated  now  lies  waste.  In  the  useful  arts  the  people  are  much 
inferior  to  the  inhabitants  of  Mysore,  and  the  latter  are  inferior  to  the  natives  of 
Madras  and  Calcutta.  The  capital,  Coimbatoor,  is  112  miles  south  by  east  from 
Seringapatam.  [t  contained  only  2000  houses  in  1801,  but  m  Hyder's  time  it  had 
double  the  number.  Tippoo  sometimes  resided  at  Coimbatoor,  and  built  a  mosque 
in  the  place.  At  Perura,  two  miles  from  this  city,  there  is  a  celebrated  temple,  dedi- 
cated to  Siva.  The  idol  is  said  to  have  placed  itself  here;  and  aftenvards,  about 
3000  years  ago,  a  Raja  of  Madura  erected  the  temple  over  it.  This,  and  the  temples 
of  Mailcotta°and  Seringapatam,  were  spared  by  Tippoo  when  he  issued  a  general 
order  for  the  destruction  of  all  idolatrous  temples.  The  building  is  highly  orna- 
mented, but  the  figures  are  rude,  and  some  of  them  indecent.  The  height  of  the 
mountainous  part  of  Coimbatoor  is  not  exactly  ascertained.  In  January,  1809,  it 
was  visited  by  a  party  of  Europeans,  who  found  the  cold  severe  enough  to  freeze 
water  to  the  thickness  of  half  an  inch,  while  the  thermometer  in  the  adjacent  coun- 
try stood  at  84'*.  This  hilly  tract  is  divided  into  three  countries,  called  the  three 
Naads,  which  are  inhabited  by  three  distinct  classes  of  persons:  the  first  are,  the 
Todevies,  who  are  exclusively  herdsmen,  and  go  bare-headed  and  bare-footed.  The 
Koties  are  more  diminutive,  and  their  features  are  less  expressive;  they  consist  of 
cultivators,  artisans,  musicians,  and  dancers;  like  the  former,  they  wear  no  covering 
on  the  head  or  feet.  The  third  class,  called  the  Bergies,  are  the  prmcipal  cultivators 
and  landholders;  and  are  supposed  to  have  emigrated  from  Mysore  300  years  ago. 
These  three  classes  of  persons  speak  distinct  languages,  wholly  unintelligible  to 

one  another. 

To  the  cast  of  the  preceding  province,  and  separated  from  it  by  the  Provin^^of 
river  Cavery,  is  the  province  comprehending  Salem  and  Barramahal.  It 
-is,  on  the  whole,  an  elevated  region,  declining  to  the  south-east  from  the  central  ta- 
ble land,  the  western  Ghauts  forming  its  north-west  frontier.  The  principal  grains 
cultivated  in  it  are  maize  and  rice.  Two  crops  of  the  former  are  obtained  in  the 
year,  one  of  which  is  reaped  in  April,  the  other  in  September.  It  also  produces  a 
quantity  of  cotton.  A  great  part  of  the  land  lies  waste.  Barramahal  is  in  its  north- 
ern part.  The  most  elevated  country  consists  of  cold  hills,  where  tlie  natives  of  the 
adjoining  districts  are  unwilling  to  settle.  The  poligars  of  the  high  lands  have  been 
restored  to  their  estates  on  condition  of  paying  a  fixed  rent  or  tribute,  but  have  no 
jurisdiction  over  the  inhabitants.  When  a  rich  man  constructs  a  reservoir  at  his  own 
expense  for  irrigation,  he  is  allowed  to  hold  in  free  estate  by  hereditary  tenure  one- 
fourth  of  the  lands  so  watered  ;  but  is  bound  to  keep  the  reservoir  in  repair,  lanks 
of  this  sort,  where  the  holder  of  the  free  estate  can  be  compelled  by  the  inhabitants 
Vof..  IT.— C  c 


202  BOOK  FOinY-KTf.irTH. 

to  do  his  fluty,  are  well  known  to  be  much  better  kept  than  those  supported  by  go- 
vernment. The  fort  of  Kistnagherry  is  on  a  rock  700  feet  in  height.  The  British 
troops  were  repulsed  from  this  place  with  considerable  loss,  in  an  attempt  to  storm  it 
in  1791.  This  province,  in  general,  is  full  of  beautiful  and  picturesque  situations. 
The  coast  to  the  west  of  the  central  plateau,  contains  some  pro\'inces 
wliich  remain  to  be  described,  viz.  Canara,  Malabar,  Cochin,  and  Tra- 


Western 
Coast. 


vane  ore. 


Province  of 
Canara. 


Revolutiom 
suid  preseDt 
state. 


The  province  of  Canara  begins  at  Cape  Rama,  at  a  short  distance  from 
Goa,  in  the  Concan.  It  extends  south  till  it  comes  in  contact  with  the 
province  of  ^Malabar.  The  tillage  lands  of  this  province  are  well  cultivated  with 
rice,  though  the  surface  is  .so  rugged  (being  traversed  by  rocky  hills  from  the  Ghauts 
to  the  sea;  that  the  produce  must  be  transported  from  one  part  to  another  on  men's 
heads.  Bullocks  are  seldom  used.  Manure  is  scarce.  The  cattle  are  not  much 
larger  than  long  legged  goats,  a  circumstance  ascribed  to  the  constant  humidity  of 
the  surface.  Gardens  of  cocoa  trees  are  not  so  numerous  as  in  some  neighbouring 
parts,  as  the  rice  cultivation  is  so  much  more  profitable  :  but  there  are  some  sandy 
.spots  well  adapted  for  these  trees.  Good  trees  yield  from  fifty  to  a  hundred  nuta 
annually,  in  four  crops  :  weak  ones  less  than  fifty. 

This  province  remained  undisturbed  in  the  hands  of  Hindoo  princes 
till  Hyder  Ah  subdued  it  in  1763.  He  found  it  in  a  state  of  high  culti- 
vation. It  devolved  to  the  British  in  1799,  and  has  ever  since  been  singular  for  a 
state  of  pertect  tranquillity,  prosperity,  and  an  easy  realization  of  the  revenue.  The 
land  in  this  province  has  always  been  more  in  the  situation  of  private  property  than 
in  the  rest  of  India,  and  the  revenue  is  comparatively  moderate.  The  inhabitants 
have,  under  their  present  masters,  become  more  comfortable  in  their  situation,  and 
make  a  better  appearance  in  their  dress  than  formerly.  Farms  and  possessions  are 
usually  very  small,  and  cultivated  by  the  resident  proprietors  with  a  minute  attention, 
and  an  ardour,  which  are  apparent  in  the  neatness  which  prevails  in  the  enclosures, 
and  in  every  part  of  the  culture. 

Population.  I  In  1807  the  population  was  estimated  at  576,640  souls,  of  whom  the 
Brahmins  amounted  to  98,610,  an  unusually  large  proportion,  and  thought  by  some 
to  be  a  cause  of  the  superior  civihzation  of  this  province.  The  Jains  are  more  nu- 
merous than  in  any  of  the  adjacent  countries.  Tippoo  destroyed  many  of  the 
towns,  and  took  60,000  Christians  captives  to  Mysore,  from  whence  few  ever  re- 
turned. 

xortJi  Canara.  [  This  province  is  usually  divided  into  North  and  South  Canara.  North 
Canara,  which  is  the  largest,  lies  between  the  thirteenth  and  fifteenth  degrees  of 
latitude.  The  sea  coast  here  is  chiefly  occupied  by  villages  of  Brahmins  :  the  inte- 
rior parts  belong  to  the  Buntar  caste.  The  Brahmins  here  are  mostly  descended 
from  those  of  the  north  of  India,  and  are  held  in  great  contempt  by  the  Bravida 
Brahmins  of  the  south,  chiefly  because  they  eat  fish.  There  are  said  to  be  five  dif- 
ferent nations  between  Onore  and  TelUcherry,  who,  though  mixed  together,  retain 
distinct  languages  and  characters,  and  a  distinct  national  spirit ;  the  Nairs,  Coorgs, 
Tulavas,  Concanies  and  Canarese.*  The  Comarapeca,  or  true  Sudras  of  this  divi- 
sion, are  both  cultivators  and  soldiers,  strongly  inclined  to  robbery,  and  had  acquired 
an  uncommon  degree  of  cruelty  during  times  of  anarchy.  In  a  particular  portion 
of  this  division  there  were,  in  1800,  4834  houses  occupied  by  Brahmins,  1500  by 
Mahometans, '385  by  Christians,  147  by  Siva  Bhactars,  and  87  by  Jains. 
sooiKia.  1       Soonda  is  a  small  subdivision,  situated  above  the  "VTestern  Ghauts. 

The  town  of  Soonda  was  at  one  time  a  very  large  city  ;  three  miles  in  diameter  each 
way  being  occupied  with  houses ;  but  the  houses  have  been  reduced  to  100,  chiefly 
by  the  ravages  of  the  Mahrattas  and  Hyder.  In  the  western  part  of  this  subdivision 
the  garden  cultivation  is  the  chief  object  with  the  farmers,  who  raise  betel  nut,  black 
Karwar.  |  pcppcr,  betel  leaf,  cardamoms,  and  plantains.    The  town  of  Karwar  has 

an  English  factory  and  fort,  and  was  formerly  a  noted  seat  of  European  commerce; 
ouore.  1  but  went  to  ruin  in  the  time  of  Tippoo.  The  town  of  Onore  was  formerly 

•  Abbe  Dubois. 


INDOSTAN.  1^03 

a  place  of  great  trade,  Ofspecially  in  pepper.  It  also  was  totally  demolished  by  Tippop ; 
but  part  of  it  has  been  lately  rebuilt,  and  a  customhouse  has  been  established  in  it. 
The  lake  of  Onore  is  of  great  extent,  reaching  nearly  to  the  Ghauts,  |  LakeofOnore. 
and  contains  many  islands,  some  of  which  are  cultivated.  It  abounds  with  fish,  which 
are  dried,  and  form  a  considerable  article  of  inland  commerce.  During  the  dry  sea- 
son the  water  is  very  brackish,  but  by  the  great  supply  which  it  receives  in  the  rainy 
season  from  numerous  streams,  it  becomes  quite  fresh.  The  town  of  Barcelore, 
thought  by  some  to  be  the  Baract  of  the  ancients,  was  once  a  considerable  place  of 
Portuguese  and  Arabian  trade.  In  1557  it  was  governed  by  a  Ranny  or  female  sove- 
reign. The  town  of  Cundapoor  is  situated  on  a  river,  which  forms  the  boundary 
line  between  north  and  south  Canara.  The  mouth  of  the  river  forms  a  lake  which 
receives  five  fresh  streams,  has  only  one  opening  into  the  sea,  and  contains  a  number 
of  islands. 

South  Canara  is  called  Tulava  among  the  Hindoos.  The  sod  here  ]  souOi  canm-a. 
l>ecomes  worse  in  proportion  to  the  distance  trom  the  sea.  The  interior  is  occupied 
by  Hindoos,  and  the  sea-coa.st  by  Mahometans,  here  called  Moplays.  In  ISOO  the 
population  consisted  of  206,633  males,  and  190,039  females.  The  number  of  houses 
was  80,000,  of  which  7184  belonged  to  Brahmins,  5223  to  IMahometans,  2700  to 
Jains,  2545  to  Christians,  and  the  remainder  to  low  castes  of  Hindoos.  The  num- 
ber of  slaves,  male  and  female,  was  7924.  During  Tippoo's  government  the  Hin- 
doos were  obliged  to  skulk  in  the  woods,  and  all  who  could  be  caught  were  circum- 
cised, by  which  rite  they  lost  the  Hindoo  caste,  and  became  good  Mahometans, 
forming  a  caste  by  themselves.  Many  of  the  Christians  also  of  this  country  were 
compelled  to  profess  Islamism,  but  more  than  15,000  have  returned  to  the  church. 
Before  the  time  of  Tippoo  the  Christians  had  twenty-seven  churches  in  this  neigh- 
bourhood. Jains  greatly  abound,  and  seem  to  have  been,  at  no  remote  period,  the 
prevailing  sect  in  this  province. 

Mangalore,  in  tliis  part  of  the  province,  is  a  flourishing  sea-port  town,  |  Mangaiore. 
in  lat.  12°  53',  built  in  a  beautiful  situation  round  the  shore  of  a  small  peninsula, 
which  is  elevated  in  the  centre,  and  once  contained  a  fort  in  that  situation.  In  Hy- 
der's  time  the  principal  merchants  were  Moplays  and  Concanies ;  but  since  the  Bri- 
tish acquired  the  government,  many  men  of  property  have  come  to  settle  in  it  from 
Surat,  Cutch,  and  Bombay.  These  are  chiefly  of  the  Yaisya  caste,  along  with  many 
Parsees.  It  was  the  scene  of  some  violent  contlicts  during  the  Mahometan  dynasty 
of  Mvsore. 

At  the  river  Chandraghiri,  bounding  Canara  on  the  south,  the  Hindoo 
region  of  Malabar  connnences,  and  extends  to  Cape  Comorin.  The 
British  province  of  Malabar  forms  only  part  of  this  region,  the  remainder  consisting 
of  Cochin  and  Travancore.  The  British  province  extends  about  200  miles  along  the 
coast.  Tliis  province  contains  few  villages  or  towns,  except  on  the  sea-coast,  each 
man  living  distinct  on  his  estate  or  farm;  the  house  being  within  the  garden,  which 
is  surrounded  by  a  high  bank  and  deep  valley,  like  a  rampart  and  ditch.  Black  pep- 
per is  the  chief  article  of  export.  Almost  the  whole  land  is  private  property.  The 
approved  history  of  this  country  is,  that  it  was  created,  or  raised  iiom  tlie  bottom  of 
the  sea,  for  the  use  of  the  Brahmins.  Tliere  are  established  rules  of  great  antiquity, 
for  the  transfer,  lease,  and  mortgage  of  estates.  The  Mahometans  or  IMoplays, 
being  persons  of  industry  and  business,  acquire  great  advantages  over  the  idle  and 
dissolute  Nairs,  so  that  they  often  make  purchases  or  obtain  mortgages  of  the  estates 
of  the  latter. 

The  principal  division  of  the  Hindoo  castes  here,  is  into  I.  Namburies 
or  Brahmins;  II.  Nairs  of  various  classes;  III.  Tiars,  the  free  cultivat- 
ors of  the  soil;  IV.  Malears,  musicians  and  conjurors,  also  freemen;  and  V.  The 
Poliars,  or  bondmen,  attached  to  the  soil.  The  distance  of  intercourse  by  which  the 
ditferent  castes  are  separated,  is  laid  down  with  great  precision. 

I.  A  Nair  must  not  touch  a  Brahmin;  a  Tiar  must  keep  at  the  distance  of  thirty- 
six  yards;  and  a  Poliar  ninety-six  steps.  II.  A  Tiar  must  not  come  within  twelve 
steps  of  a  Nair;  a  Malear  withur  three  or  four;  or  a  Pohar  within  ninety-six.  III.  a 
Maloar  must  not  touch  a  Tiar.     IV.  A  Pohar  must  not  come  near  even  to  a  Makai 


Provinef  of 
Malabar. 


I.ocal  diTision 
erratics. 


204  BOOK  FORTY-EIGHTH. 

or  to  any  othea-  caste.  If  he  wishes  to  speak  to  any  one  of  them,  he  must  stand  at 
the  prescribed  distance  and  call  aloud.  When  any  unfortunate  violation  of  these  rules 
occurs,  the  person  polluted  by  it  purifies  himself  by  bathing  and  reading  the  sacred 
books,  according  to  rules  which  vary  with  the  degree  of  contamination  incurred. 
The  Niadis.  |  There  is  a  still  more  loathed  race  of  outcasts  in  Malabar,  called  Niadis, 
who  wander  in  small  companies,  and,  when  they  see  a  passenger,  set  up  a  howl  which 
warns  him  not  to  come  too  near,  and  proclaims  the  necessities  of  the  wretched  indi- 
vidual. The  charitably  disposed  lay  down  what  they  mean  to  bestow,  and  go  away; 
and  then  the  Niadis  approach  and  pick  it  up.  They  eat  tortoises,  and  sometimes 
alligators. 

Singularities  '  '^^^  most  remarkable  of  the  castes  in  Malabar  is  that  of  the  Nairs, 
oftheNairs,  |  who  are  Subdivided  into  eleven  gradations.  They  are  the  Sudra,  or  mili- 
tary caste,  and,  though  not  all  following  the  military  profession,  were  formerly  all 
liable  to  be  called  on  for  military  duty  by  the  Rajas.  At  present  they  work  at  various 
handicraft  occupations ;  they  are  under  the  direction  of  the  Brahmins ;  they  are  fond 
of  appearing  in  arms,  and  often  practise  assassination;  their  aiTOgance  towards  the 
inferior  castes  was  formerly  of  the  harshest  kind.  A  Nair  was  expected  to  cut  down 
any  Tiar,  or  Mucua,  (fisherman,)  who  presumed  to  touch  his  person,  or  any  Foliar, 
or  Pariar,  who  did  not  turn  out  of  his  road  as  he  passed.  The  Nairs,  in  common 
with  all  the  Malabar  Hindoos,  are  as  remarkable  for  thoughtless  profusion  as  the 
people  in  other  parts  of  India  for  extreme  parsimony.  But  the  most  singular  charac- 
teristic of  this  race  is  to  be  found  in  the  terms  of  intercourse  observe'd  by  the  two 
sexes.  They  marry  before  the  age  of  ten,  but  the  husband  never  cohabits  with  his 
wife ;  she  lives  with  her  mother  or  her  brother,  and  is  at  liberty  to  cohabit  with  any 
other  man  who  is  of  equal  or  higher  rank.  Hence  no  man  knows  his  own  father; 
his  brothers  and  sisters  arc  only  known  by  their  common  relationship  to  one  motiier; 
and  when  a  man  dies,  his  property  descends,  not  to  children  supposed  to  be  his  own, 
but  to  those  of  his  mother  or  his  sister.  The  mother  manages  the  house,  and  at  her 
death  the  eldest  sister  assumes  the  direction. 

Before  the  time  of  Hyder,  this  country  was  governed  by  numerous  chiefs  or  landed 
proprietors,  whose  jurisdiction  continually  varied  in  extent,  according  to  the  circum- 
stances of  succession.  The  Moplays,  along  the  sea-coast,  are  descendants  of  Ara- 
bians, and  extremely  fanatical  in  their  religion.  The  mutual  antipathy  which  subsists 
between  them  and  the  Hindoos  is  very  great. 

tians'^of^st"*'  '^"^'^  Christian  religion  was  early  introduced  into  Malabar,  and  the  pro- 

ihomas.  *         fcssors  of  that  religion  seem  to  be  entitled  to  be  considered  as  a  distinct 
primitive  church.     They  reject  the  supremacy  of  the  pope,  the  mystery  of  transub- 
stantiation,  and  the  adoration  of  relics  and  images.     When  Vasco  de  Gama  arrived 
at  Cochin  in  1603,  he  found  a  political  community  professing  the  Christian  faith, 
with  a  king  at  their  head.     But,  finding  that  they  differed  from  the  church  of  Rome, 
the  Portuguese  exerted  themselves  to  convert  them,  both  by  persuasion  and  force. 
Hence  there  are  many  Roman  Catholics  here  who  have  their  places  of  worship. 
The  original  church  uses  Syriac  copies  of  the  sacred  books,  and  the  same  language 
is  retained  in  those  used  by  the  proselyted  churches.     The  members  of  the  former 
are  sometimes  called  Nestorians,  sometimes  the  Christians  of  St.  Thomas.     They 
trace  their  origin  to  the  apostle  of  this  name,  who,  according  to  them,  visited  their 
country ;  but  it  is  more  probable  that  the  founder  of  their  church  was  another  Tho- 
mas, who  landed  on  this  coast  in  the  fifth  century.     They  acknowledge  the  patriarch 
of  Antioch  as  their  early  head.     They  are  called  sometimes  the  Syrian  Christians. 
They  highly  value  the  Syriac  language  as  the  sacred  dialect  in  which  Christ  and  his 
disciples  spoke ;  that  language  is  not  understood  by  the  people,  and  therefore  extem- 
poraneous explanations  of  the  Scriptures  are  given  by  the  clergy.     The  Syriac  is,  in 
fact,  used  among  them  as  the  Latin  Vulgate  is  in  the  church  of  Rome.     Among  the 
mountainous  parts  of  Travancore,  Dr.  Claudius  Buchanan  found  many  simple  and 
amiable  communities  of  these  worshippers ;  and  he  put  them  on  a  plan  of  having  the 
Scriptures  translated  into  the  Malabaric,  the  vernacular  language  of  the  country. 
SyroRomitii       Thosc  wlio  havc  been  converted  to  the  church  of  Rome  are  chiefly  on 
ciinsiians.       |  jj^^^  sca-coast.     Aftcr  yielding  to  the  doctrines  and  practices  of  the  sub- 


INDOSTAN.  205 

jects  of  the  pope  and  the  inquisition,  they  made  a  firm  stand  when  required  to  give 
up  the  Syriac  as  the  sacred  language  appropriated  to  divine  service,  and  to  adopt  the 
Latin  in  its  stead ;  and  the  missionaries  were,  by  their  obstinacy,  necessitated  so  far 
to  relax  in  this  point  as  to  allow  them  to  retain  the  Syriac.  They  are  distinguished 
by  the  appellation  of  the  Syro-Romish  Christians.  The  total  number  of  Christians 
on  the  Malabar  coast  is  estimated  at  200,000,  of  whom  about  90,000  are  in  the  Tra- 
vancore  country.  The  villages  of  Malabar  are  the  neatest  in  India ;  the  houses  are 
contiguous,  in  a  straight  line,  built  of  mud  of  an  excellent  quality,  well  smoothed  and 
painted ;  but  being  thatched  with  palm  leaves,  to  prevent  the  mud  from  being  washed 
away,  they  are  extremely  combustible.  The  higher  ranks  use  little  clothing,  but  are 
remarkably  cleanly  in  their  persons ;  so  that  cutaneous  disorders  are  only  known 
among  slaves  and  the  lowest  castes.  The  beauty  and  elegant  dress  of  the  Brahmin 
women  give  some  lustre  to  the  general  aspect  of  society.  Common  fowls  were  not 
known  among  the  original  natives,  but  since  they  have  been  introduced  by  Europeans, 
tliey  are  to  be  had  in  abundance. 

Hyder,  when  he  took  this  province  in  1761,  found  in  it  large  quanti-  H^'er^nd"*** 
ties  of  treasure,  which  had  been  accumulated  by  the  inhabitants  for  ages,  xippoo. 
He  drove  out  all  the  Rajas  except  those  who  instantly  submitted  to  him.  He  pro- 
ceeded gradually  to  settle  them  after  frequent  outbrcakings.  Tippoo,  however,  in 
1788,  firmly  established  his  sway,  and  enforced  his  religion  by  an  overwhelming  army, 
circumcising  all  those  whom  ho  could  lay  hold  of.  The  British,  on  subduing  Tip- 
poo, restored  the  expelled  Rajas,  and  reinstated  them  in  their  possessions;  but,  in 
three  successive  settlements,  these  failed  to  fulfil  their  engagements ;  they  maintain- 
ed a  rule  over  the  people  of  the  most  oppressive  description,  and  the  country  was 
distracted  by  insurrections.  The  Rajas  were,  for  these  reasons,  ultimately  deprived 
of  all  authority,  and  allowed  a  fifth  part  of  the  revenue  to  support  their  rank.  The 
refractoiy  among  them  have  been  subdued  by  military  force,  and  local  arrangements 
have  been  made  by  which  tranquillity  is  now  restored.  The  population  in  1800  was 
reckoned  600,000,  but  must  be  considerably  greater.  More  than  one-third  are  Ma- 
hometans. 

The  sea-port  town  of  Tellicherry,  in  lat,  11°  45'  was  long  the  chief  |  Xeiiicherrj-. 
English  settlement  on  this  coast,  but  has  declined  since  the  Company's  commerce 
was  removed  to  Mahe.  The  richest  natives  still  reside  here,  _and  the  inhabi- 
tants are  far  more  civilized  than  in  the  rest  of  the  province.  It  contains  an  arsenal, 
and  is  a  great  mart  for  pepper  and  cardamom,  sandal  and  teak  wood,  cotton  stufis, 
and  other  Malabaric  goods.  Mahe  is  the  principal  French  settlement  |  Mah6. 
on  this  coast.  It  is  finely  situated  on  high  ground,  at  the  mouth  of  a  river  ;  the 
situation  being  much  better  thau  that  of  Tellicherry.  The  French  have  in  general 
been  guided  by  more  enlarged  and  judicious  views  in  the  selection  of  their  stations 
than  the  English,  who  seem  to  have  been  attracted  solely  by  the  temporary  resort  of 
commerce. 

The  city  of  Calicut,  in  lat.  11°  15',  is  a  place  of  great  trade.  It  has  |  caiicot. 
been  the  scene  of  some  sanguinary  contests,  in  which  the  Portuguese  in  the  first 
instance,  and  afterwards  Tippoo  and  the  English  were  concerned.  It  contains  5000 
houses.  The  Raja  of  the  Calicut  district,  or  the  Tamuri  Rajah,  called  the  Zaniorin 
by  Europeans,  is  one  of  the  most  respected  native  chiefs.  The  males  of  the  family 
are  called  Tamburans,  and  the  females  Tamburettis.  It  would  be  reckoned  scandalous 
for  the  ladies  to  have  any  intercourse  with  their  husbands.  The  Namburi  Brahmins 
are  generally  the  fathers  of  their  children.  The  oldest  man  of  the  family  by  the 
female  line  is  the  Tamuri  Raja,  and  he  pretends  to  be  higher  than  the  Rrahmins,  and 
inferior  only  to  the  gods  ;  but  these  pretensions  are  not  acquiesced  in  by  the  Brah- 
mins. At  present  he  has  a  revenue,  but  no  authority.  The  town  of  Paniany,  thirty- 
six  miles  south  from  the  preceding,  is  inhabited  chiefly  by  Moplays,  Account  of  the 
or  Mahometan  descendants  of  Arabs,  who  settled  here  at  an  early  pe-  ^*°P'*y'- 
riod  of  the  Mahometan  rehgion.  It  is  the  residence  of  their  Tangul,  or  chief  priest, 
and  contains  forty  mosques.  They  use  a  peculiar  written  character,  totally  diflerent 
from  the  Arabic,  that  language  being  known  to  very  few  among  them  except  the 
priests.  They  had  no  government,  but  were  completely  subject  to  the  Hindoo  chiefs, 


206  BOOK  FORTY-EIGHTH. 

till  Tippoo  encouraged  them  to  make  the  most  wanton  attacks  on  the  Hindoos, 
and  thus  transformed  them  into  a  set  of  lawless,  blood-thirsty  ruffians,  who  have 
with  difficulty  been  in  any  degree  reformed  by  the  subsequent  rule  of  the  British. 
The  Tangul  is  still  their  spiritual  head,  who  names  the  Im^m  of  the  mosque,  gene- 
rally giving  the  appointment  to  the  sister's  son,  or  heir,  of  the  preceding  functionary. 
This  shows,  even  among  that  race,  a  tendency  to  comply  with  the  native  customs  of 
the  country. 

Cochin.  I      To  the  south  of  the  British  Malabar  lies  the  small  principality  of  Co- 

chin, so  named  from  a  word  signifying  *'  a  morass."  It  contains  a  considerable 
variety  of  valuable  forest  trees,  which  contribute  greatly  to  the  beauty  of  the  scenery, 
and  the  picturesque  appearance  of  the  dwellings  of  the  inhabitants. 
Christians.  |  In  this  province  are  many  Christian  villages,  inhabited  chiefly  by  the 
Christians  of  St.  Thomas,  which  are  generally  well  built  and  cleanly.  A  great  num- 
ber of  Jews  live  about  Cochin,  of  whom  there  are  two  classes,  distinguished  by  the 
White  and  I  appellation  of  white  Jews  and  black  Jews.  The  white  Jews  are  con- 
biackJews.  j  gijjgj-ejj  Qg  later  emigrants  than  the  black,  and  of  purer  blood,  the 
black  being  partly  descendants  of  Hindoo  proselytes,  and  partly  of  a  mixed  breed. 
They  have  a  synagogue  in  the  town  of  Cochin  ;  but  the  greater  part  of  them  live  in 
the  interior.  Trittoor,  Paroor,  Chenotta,  and  Maleh,  are  the  chief  settlements  of 
the  black  Jews.  The  white  Jews  keep  a  historical  record  of  their  emigration, 
which  they  date  as  far  back  as  the  building  of  the  second  temple.  Their  first  set- 
tlement was  at  Cranganor,  where  they  continued  a  thousand  years,  and  during  that 
time  were  joined  by  many  others  who  had  heard  of  their  prosperity  ;  but  at  last,  in 
consequence  of  intestine  discord,  a  Hindoo  prince  who  was  called  to  the  assistance 
of  one  of  the  parties,  destroyed  many  of  them,  and  dispersed  the  remainder,  a  catas- 
trophe compared  to  the  sufierings  of  the  Jews  at  Jerusalem  as  related  by  Josephus. 
They  show  a  brass  plate,  on  which  an  ancient  grant  of  land  and  certain  privileges 
from  an  Indian  king,  is  inscribed  in  the  Malabaric  character,  and  in  so  old  a  hand  as 
to  be  scarcely  intelligible.  The  Rev.  Dr.  C.  Buchanan  caused  a  fac  simile  of  this 
plate  to  be  engraved  at  Cochin,  which  is  now  deposited  in  the  library  of  the  univer- 
sity of  Cambridge.*  Among  the  black  Jews  the  same  zealous  inquirer  found  several 
Hebrew  books,  partly  printed  and  partly  manuscript.  Some  of  the  tombs  in  their  bu- 
rial grounds  are  handsomely  constructed.  In  building  their  houses  it  is  a  rule  to 
leave  a  part  unfinished,  as  an  emblem  of  the  desolation  of  Jerusalem,  and  to  write 
on  it  words  signifying  "  in  memory  of  the  desolation."! 

Political  con-  j  fhe  Raja  of  Cochin  maintained  his  independence  to  a  later  period 
chin.  I  than  most  of  the  other  Hindoo  chiefs.     Tippoo  was  the  first  who  com- 

pelled him  to  pay  tribute,  which  he  now  does  to  the  English.     Having  in  1809  made 
an  attack  on  the  latter,  supposed  to  be  instigated  by  a  hostile  European  power,  he 
was  reduced  to  a  more  dependent  condition,  and  his  tribute  augmented. 
City  of  Co-      1       The  city  of  Cochin  was  the  station  of  the  first  Portuguese  fortress  in 
«'""•  I  India,  begun  in  1503.     The  Dutch  took  it  in  1663.     Under  them  Co- 

chin was  a  place  of  great  commerce.  This  city  contains  a  great  many  protestants, 
in  consequence  of  colonies  planted,  and  conversions  made,  by  the  Dutch.  It  is  on 
the  sea  coast,  in  lat.  9°  57'.  It  is  still  a  place  of  great  trade  in  pepper,  cardamoms, 
precious  stones,  teak  wood,  and  other  articles  of  export.  Several  vessels  are  built 
at  it.  The  white  and  black  Jews,  Moors,  and  Parsees,  have  their  own  bazars.  The 
town  has  a  handsome  appearance,  and  contains  within  it  large  plantations  of  cocoa 
trees,  and  other  palms,  which  diffuse  a  delicious  fragrance. 

Cranganor.  |  Crangauor,  sixteen  miles  north  from  Cochin,  is  the  place  where  the 
apostle  Thomas  is  said  to  have  landed  from  Aden  in  Arabia.  Both  the  town  and  tlie 
Portuguese  fort  are  now  in  ruins.  It  is  still  the  seat  of  an  archbishop,  under  whom 
are  forty-five  churches. 

The  western  coast  from  Cochin  to  Cape  Comorin  is  occupied  by  the 
province  of  Travnncore,  which  lies  between  the  eighth  and  tenth  degrees 

*  Buchanan's  Christian  Researches  in  Asia,  3d  edition  p.  207 — 210. 


Province  of 
Travancorc. 


INDOSTAN.  207 

of  north  latitude.  At  these  latitudes  there  is  only  one  chain  of  tlic  Ghauts,  the  west- 
ern, and  no  elevated  table  land;  the  eastern  Ghauts  having  terminated  more  to  the 
north.  This  province,  comprehending  the  continuation  of  the  western  Ghaut  chain, 
is  bounded  on  the  east  by  the  Carnatic.  Agriculture  is  conducted  here  |  its  produce, 
on  principles  somewhat  different  from  what  it  is  in  the  Carnatic.  No  tanks  are  re- 
quired for  irrigation ;  the  seasons  always  affording  sufficient  moisture  for  the  cultiva- 
tion of  rice,  which  is  called  the  wet  cultivation,  and  is  of  considerable  extent  in  this 
province.  The  principal  dry  cultivation  is  that  of  pepper,  betel  nut,  and  cocoa  nuts. 
Inland  trade  is  cruelly  restricted  by  the  exaction  of  duties  at  every  stage  of  the  transit 
of  goods,  passes  being  unknown,  except  for  articles  already  farmed.  There  are 
tuxes  on  Christian  festivals,  on  nets  and  fishermen,  and  a  capitation  tax  on  all  males 
from  sixteen  to  twenty,  except  Nairs,  Moplays,  and  artificers.  The  number  sub- 
jected to  this  tax  is  250,000.  The  British  have  had  some  obstacles  to  civU  and  poii. 
encounter  in  fixing  the  administration  of  justice  in  this  province.  The  *'«ai  state. 
Hindoo  law  is  the  basis  of  procedure ;  but  owing  to  the  number  of  Christians  and 
Mussulmans,  that  law  will  not  universally  apply.  It  makes  the  killing  of  a  cow  a 
capital  crime.  It  sanctions  the  trial  by  ordeal,  and  other  absurd  practices.  In  one 
case,  property  which  had  been  awarded  by  a  judge  to  one  of  the  litigants  in  conse- 
quence of  his  oath,  was  referred  to  an  assembly  of  pundits  by  the  Resident,  before 
whom  the  cause  had  been  brought  by  appeal;  that  property  was  found  by  the  pundits 
to  be  due  to  the  opposite  party,  because  the  man's  oath  had  been  rendered  null  by 
the  death  of  a  cow  in  his  house  within  forty  days!  The  trial  by  ordeal  has  even  found 
its  way  among  the  Jews.  One  of  them  complained  to  the  Resident  that  he  had  been 
obliged  by  a  court  of  justice  to  put  his  hand  in  boiling  oil,  and,  because  he  could  not 
sustain  it,  lost  both  his  cause  and  the  use  of  his  hand.  The  British  functionaries  are 
generally  applied  to  by  the  Raja,  or  by  the  Ranny  or  queen,  the  leading  Tamburetti, 
to  conduct  the  national  affairs,  on  account  of  the  great  partiality  and  turbulence  which 
so  commonly  attend  the  administration  of  native  Dewans  and  other  ministers.  It  is 
among  the  hills  of  Travancore  that  the  Syrian  Christians  are  most  completely  natu- 
ralized. Hindoo  temples  are  so  rare,  and  plain  Christian  churches  so  abundant,  that 
a  European  traveller  would  scarcely  believe  himself  to  be  in  India.  The  customs 
with  regard  to  the  intercourse  of  the  sexes,  which  we  have  already  no-  Lawsof  suo- 
ticed  under  the  head  of  Malabar  in  speaking  of  the  Nairs,  operate  in  """'"• 
Travancore  to  their  full  extent,  and  regulate  the  succession  to  the  throne,  and  to 
property.  The  husbands  of  the  Tamburettis,  or  princesses,  have  no  influence  in  the 
state,  and  are  sent  back  to  their  villages  on  the  death  of  the  Tamburettis  to  whom 
they  have  been  married.  This  perverted  system  of  domestic  relations,  together  with 
the  oppressive  character  of  the  government,  has  generated  a  peculiar  turpitude  of 
character  in  this  country,  showing  itself  in  the  prevalence  of  an  uncommon  degree 
of  idleness,  treachery,  and  turbulence.  The  male  offspring  of  the  Tamburettis  are 
the  only  legal  heirs  to  the  throne ;  but  certain  forms  are  indispensable  in  order  to 
become  Tamburettis.  In  remote  times  the  Tamburettis  themselves  were  the  sove- 
reigns. But  about  the  year  1740  the  power  was  transferred  from  the  princesses  to 
their  sons.  Superstitious  scruples,  as  well  as  political  feelings,  often  contribute  to 
perplex  the  royal  succession,  and  though  not  now  attended  with  actual  turbulence, 
prove  a  source  of  difficulty  which  the  British  power  always  waits  to  see  removed 
before  it  gives  its  sanction  to  the  succession. 

Travancore,  the  ancient  capital,  is  twenty-seven  miles  N.N.W.  from  Cape  Como- 
rin;  The  present  capital  is  Trivanderam,  in  lat.  8*"  29',  fifty-two  miles  |  Trivandtram. 
from  Cape  Comorin.  It  is  the  usual  residence  of  the  Travancore  Rajas.  The  cas- 
tle is  extremely  ill  built.  The  royal  palace  is  large  and  well  built,  in  (  The  palace, 
the  Furopean  taste,  containing  a  great  variety  of  paintings,  clocks,  and  other  Euro- 
pean ornaments.  But  the  Raja  prefers  living  in  a  house  of  a  more  humble  appear- 
ance, where  he  is  surrounded  with  Brahmins.  The  town  is  populous,  and  in  1785 
it  had  a  garrison  of  10,000  Sepoys  disciplined  in  the  European  manner,  1000  Nairs, 
and  400  Patau  cavalry.  Now,  however,  the  force  at  the  Raja's  dfeposal  must  be 
much  less  considerable.     There  is  a  small  sea  port,  seventy-eight  miles  from  Cape 


208  BOOK  FORTY-NINTH. 

Attfnga.         ]  Comorin,  called  Anjengo,  near  to  which  is  Attinga  (named  in  most  maps 
Attancal)  where  the  Tamburettis  principally  reside. 

Cape  Comorin,  the  terminating  point  of  the  Indian  continent,  is  situated  just  at  the 
boundary  between  Travancore  and  the  Carnatic,  and  comes  into  view  in  our  account 
of  that  province. 


BOOK  .XLIX. 

INDOSTAN  CONTINUED. 

Island  of  Ceylon,  the  Laccadives,  and  the  JWaldives. 

Leaving  now  the  continent  of  British  India,  we  shall  give  a  description  of  some 
islands  which  form  natural  appendages  to  that  country.  The  most  conspicuous  is 
Island  of  Cey-  the  large  and  rich  island  of  Ceylon  ;  in  which  we  have  been  told  that 
^°'  the  stones  are  rubies  and  sapphires,  that  amomum  scents  the  marshes, 

and  cinnamon  the  forests,  and  that  the  most  common  plants  furnish  precious  per- 
fumes. Elephants  of  the  most  handsome  and  valuable  kind  run  here  in  flocks  as 
the  wild  boars  do  in  the  forests  of  Europe,  while  the  brilliant  peacock  and  the  bird 
of  Paradise  occupy  the  place  of  our  rooks  and  our  swallows.* 
Its  name,  |  This  island  has  received  different  names  at  different  periods  with  dif- 
ferent authors.  Cosmas  calls  it  Sielen  Diva,  or  the  island  Sielen,  from  which  we 
have  in  European  languages  Selan  and  Ceylon.  But,  as  Ammianus  Marcelhnus 
calls  the  inhabitants  Serandives,  and  as  the  Arabic  name  Serandib  is  a  corruption  of 
Selan  Div,  the  latter  must  be  traced  to  a  very  ancient  period,  and  probably  is  con- 
tained in  the  Simundu,  (which  should  be  read  Silundu)  of  Ptolemy.  This  term 
indeed  has  the  syllables  Palai  preceding  it;  but  these  are  merely  the  Greek  adverb 
for  "  old,"  and  should  not  be  confounded  with  the  name  itself.  Another  Indian  name 
Salabha,  or  "  the  rich  island,"  may  be  recognised  in  the  Salike  of  the  same  geogra- 
pher. But  the  more  ancient  Sanscrit  name,  Langa,  and  that  which  is  now  most  used 
among  the  natives  and  their  neighbours,  Singala,  were  unknown  to  our  ancient  au- 
thors. Singala  signifies  the  country  of  "  lions."  Some  think  that  Sinhal-Dwipa, 
(or  the  "  lion  island,")  is  the  origin  of  the  term  Sielendiba  of  Cosmas.  It  was  called 
also  Taprobrane  by  the  older  writers,  a  name  unknown  before  the  time  of  Alexan- 
der, and  of  uncertain  application.  Tabobon  is  a  name  which  it  receives  in  San- 
scrit. 

Situation, siie,  This  island  is  situated  between  the  parallel  of  5*^  56',  and  9°  46'  N. 
^"^  latitude,  and  between  76°  36',  and  81°  58'  E.  longitude.     Part  of  its 

length  lies  due  east  from  the  coast  of  Coromandel,  at  a  distance  of  thirty  miles.  Its 
form  is  ovate  ;  its  northern  extremity  being  the  most  pointed,  with  the  island  of  Jaff- 
napatam,  of  a  very  irregular  form,  appended  to  it.  It  is  almost  two-thirds  of  the 
size  of  Ireland,  containing  a  surface  of  20,770  square  miles.  The  sea-coast  is  low 
and  flat,  and  encircled  with  a  broad  border  of  cocoa-nut  trees,  surrounded  by  rocks 
and  shoals.  The  interior  is  filled  with  mountains,  which  are  seen  from  the  ocean 
rising  in  successive  ranges  ;  many  of  them  beautiful  and  verdant,  others  huge, 
rocky,  and  peaked.  The  highest  and  most  conspicuous  mountain  is  that  of  Adam's 
peak. 

Climate.         |       In  this  country  winter  is  unknown  ;  the  perennial  summer  is  only 
diversified  by  the  difference  of  a  few  degrees  of  temperature. 
Monsoons.       |       Over  most  of  the  island,  and  particularly  the  maritime  provinces,  the 

•  LiniiaHis,  Musteum  Ceylanicum,  Pjierat. 


INDOSTAN.  209 

wind  blows  during  a  certain  period  of  the  year  from  the  south-west,  and  a  certahi  period 
from  the  north-east,  the  same  monsoons  which,  under  local  variations,  prevail  over 
India ;  the  south-west  monsoon  blows  while  the  sun  is  north  of  the  line,  the  temperature 
of  the  continent  being  then  higher  than  that  of  the  ocean.    This  continues  from  the 
end  of  April  to  the  beginning  of  November.     The  period  of  the  other  monsoon 
is  when  the  sun  is  to  the  south  of  the  line,  when  the  ocean,  taken  along  with 
the  southern  part  of  Africa,  is  of  a  higher  temperature  than  the  Indian  continent. 
The  difference  of  temperature  being  less  than  in  the  first  period,  the  duration  of 
this  monsoon  is  shorter  than  the  other,  beginning  in  November,  and  ending  in  March. 
The  south-west  wind  is  generally  felt  over  the  island,  but  the  north-east  wind  does 
not,  during  half  its  duration,  reach  across  the  mountains  to  Columbo  on  the  west  coast. 
The  proportion  of  rain  which  falls  is  great,  most  particularly  among  the  mountains, 
and  on  those  parts  of  the  coast  which  are  most  subjected  to  the  influence  of  the 
monsoon.     The  rains  are  periodical  and  extremely  heavy,  two  or  three  inches  often 
falling  in  the  course  of  a  day.     At  the  northern  extremity,  and  along  the  east  coast, 
the  rainy  season  begins  in  November,  lasting  about  two  months  witii  great  violence; 
the  rest  of  the  year  is  dry,  and  rarely  visited  by  scanty  showers.    On  the  west  coast, 
most  rain  falls  about  the  setting  in  of  the  south-west  monsoon,  but  it  is  not  so  heavy 
nor  so  constant  here  as  on  the  opposite  side ;  the  dry  season,  too,  is  more  liable  to 
be  interrupted  by  showers.    Hence  the  west  coast  is  seldom  parched,  and  exhibits  at 
all  times  the  most  inviting  aspect  to  strangers.     The  seasons  among  the  mountains 
participate  more  of  those  of  the  opposite  coasts  in  different  places,  in  proportion  to 
their  local  situation  and  aspect.     Rains  are  frequent  in  the  interior,  hence  the  coun- 
try is  well  watered.    The  heat  varies  in  different  places.    The  west  coast  is  remark- 
able for  equality  of  temperature,  exceeding  in  this  respect  any  other  part  of  the 
world,  except  a  few  small  islands  at  a  great  distance  from  land,  such  as  St.  Helena 
and  Ascension  island.     The  mean  temperature  is  about  78°,  and  the  atmosphere  is 
exceedingly  moist.     The  east  coast,  about  Trincomalee,  is  remarkable  for  intense 
heats,  the  mean  temperature  of  the  hot  months  being  82.8.     Among  the  mountains, 
the  temperature  is  generally  cooler  than  might  be  expected,  and  the  vicissitudes  are 
greater.     The  mean. annual  temperature  of  Kandy  is  about  73.  5.*     Ceylon  suffers 
much  less  ft-om  violent  storms  and  hurricanes  than  islands  in  general,  especially  be- 
tween the  tropics.    Instances  of  this  kind,  however,  have  occurred.    In  1819,  at  the 
foot  of  the  mountains  in  the  south-eastern  part  of  the  island,  there  was  a  violent 
thunder  shower,  with  wind  and  hail,  which  unroofed  the  houses  in  an  instant,  tore  up 
many  trees,  and  broke  others  across  which  were  fourteen  feet  in  circumference."]" 
The  most  healthy  parts  of  the  island  are  the  south-west  coast,  and  the  |  Salubrity, 
loftier  grounds  of  the  interior  situations,  which  coincide  in  being  well  ventilated,  and 
refreshed  with  frequent  showers.    The  most  unhealthy  regions  are  the  wooded  parts 
between  the  mountains  and  the  sea,  in  all  directions  except  to  the  south-west.  These 
parts  resemble  the  Terriani  in  the  north  of  Indostan.     The  lower  mountamous  dis- 
tricts, and  the  northern  and  the  eastern  shores,  hold  in  this  particular  an  intermediate 
character.    Trincomalee  is  never  sickly  while  subjected  to  the  north-east  wind,  com- 
ing directly  from  the  sea  ;  but  it  changes  for  the  worse  during  the  south-west  winds, 
which  blow  over  an  extent  of  a  low  unwholesome,  territory.     The  diseases  arc  in 
general  those  which  prevail  in  hot  climates.     Elephantiasis,  and  various  cutaneous 
affections,  are  very  common  among  the  natives.   Dysentery  is  more  frequent  than  in 
India,  and  is  formidable  from  its  fatality,  and  the  rapidity  fif  its  course.     Palsy  and 
insanity  are  frequent  both  among  the  natives  and  among  Europeans. 

The  principal  river  is  the  Mahawclle-ganga,  which,  winding  extensively  |  Rivers, 
among  the  highest  of  the  mountains  of  the  interior,  and  supplied  with  many  tributaries, 
receives  all  the  water  which  falls  on  that  region,  and  empties  itself  on  the  east  coast, 
between  Trincomalee  and  Batticaloe.  It  is  only  partially  navigable.  Shallows, 
rocks,  and  rapids  interrupt  the  navigable  communication  between  its  higher  parts 
and  the  sea.     The  Kalane-ganga,  which  runs  from  Adam's  Peak  in  a  westerly  di- 

•  Dr.  John  Davy's  Account  of  the  Interior  of  Ceylon,  1821,  p.  68. 
t  Ibid.  p.  73. 

YoL.  II.— Dd 


210  BOOK  FOliTY-NINTH. 

rection,  falling  in  the  sea  at  Colnmbo,  tliouwVi  of  much  smalh>r  dimensions,  is  more 
important,  on  account  of  its  being  navigable  for  boats  for  tl nee-fourths  of  its  course. 
Hence  it  is  rruich  used  for  inland  carriage,  and  is  likely  to  be  more  so  in  future. 
Perhaps  by  an  artificial  communication  with  tlic  navigable  part  of  the  Mahawelle- 
ganga,  the  general  internal  communications  may  be  materially  facilitated.* 
Minerals.  |  The  Avliole  of  tlus  island  consists  of  what  mineralogists  call  primitive 
rock,  chiefly  granite  and  gneiss,  with  some  quartz  rock  in  large  veins,  hornblende, 
and  dolomite  rock,  which  last  is  both  in  veins  and  imbedded.  Limestone  is  confined 
to  the  province  of  Jairnapatam,  and  is  of  the  shell  kind,  and  mixed  with  coral  rock. 
Gfrey  and  blackish  sandstone  is  of  general  occurrence  along  the  shore.  This  island 
is  remarkable  for  its  richness  in  gems,  and  for  the  variety  of  its  minerals.  The  pri- 
mitive rock  contains  ores  of  iron  and  manganese,  the  former  of  which  is  worked  by 
the  natives,  the  species  being  those  called  red  hematite  and  bog  ore.  Rock  crystal, 
amethyst,  prase,  and  cat's-eyc,  tlie  latter  particularly  fine,  topaz,  schorl,  common 
garnet,  and  the  variety  of  corundum  called  the  cinnamon  stone,  are  also  found.  This 
last  is  an  interesting  mineral.  Ceylon  is  richer  in  zircon  than  any  other  part  of  the 
world.  It  has  long  been  celebrated  for  rul)ies  of  different  species.  The  country 
contains  several  nitre  caves. 

Vegetables.  |  Thc  Vegetable  productions  of  Ceylon  are  valuable.  The  cocoa-nut 
holds  the  fust  rank  for  utility,  from  its  agreeable  fniit,  the  oil  which  it  yields,  the  tod- 
dy produced  from  it,  and  its  leaves  universally,  employed  for  the  walls  and  roofs  of 
the  dwellings.  Thc  borassus  flabdlijormin,  or  palmyra,  is  also  valuable,  its  leaves 
being  used  for  writing  on  all  over  India,  and  its  wood  durable,  and  not  liable  to  the 
devastations  of  (he  white  ants.  In  the  north  part  of  the  island  the  sweet  fruit  of  this 
tree  forms  a  leading  article  of  food  among  the  poor  inhabitants.  The  sago  tree,  the 
large  talipot  palm,  thc  leaves  of  which  serve  for  umbrellas ;  two  species  of  bread  fruit, 
the  Jlrtocarpus  inlegrifoUa  and  incisa,  the  singular  j^cn^  religiosa,  or  banyan  tree,  ca- 
shew, tamarind,  and  arcca  nut  trees,  yield  their  respective  fruits.  There  are  two 
annual  crops  of  oranges,  and  for  two  months  in  each  season  that  iruit  is  to  be  ob- 
tained in  a  good  state  for  eating.  They  are  of  a  delicious  flavour,  but  different  from 
those  to  which  we  are  accustomed,  their  colour,  when  ripe,  being  green  instead  of 
yellow.  Guavas,  papaw,  pomegranate,  bamboo,  stigar  cane,  pepper,  tobacco,  and 
various  articles  of  export,  grow  here.  Very  little  grain  is  cultivated  besides  rice,  of 
which  they  have  four  kinds.  There  is  not  a  sufficiency,  however,  for  the  inhabitants, 
so  that  a  considerable  importation  of  this  article  is  rendered  necessary.  Of  all  thevege- 
cinnamoii.  |  table  productions  of  theisland  that  for  which  it  is  most  celebrated  is  its  cin- 
namon, the  bark  of  the  Laurus  Cinnamomii/in,  called  by  the  natives  coorundoo.  On  this 
the  riches  of  the  island  in  a  great  measure  depend;  therefore  the  cultivation  of  the 
trees,  and  the  gathering  of  the  bark,  are  objects  of  careful  attention.  In  April,  soon 
after  the  fruit  is  ripe,  the  business  of  decortication  begins.  May  and  June  are  reck- 
oned the  most  favourable  months,  the  three  following  not  so  good,  but  November 
and  December  are  favourable,  and  are  called  the  little  harvest.  The  labourer  first 
selects  a  tree  which  appears  to  him  ripe,  tlien  he  ascertains  it  by  striking  his  hatchet 
obliquely  into  a  branch ;  if,  on  drawing  it  out,  the  bark  separates  from  the  wood,  the 
cinnamon  has  attained  maturity;  if  not,  it  must  remain.  He  cuts  down  a  number  of 
shoots,  from  three  to  fi\c  feet  long,  and  throe-fourths  of  an  inch  in  diameter,  carries 
his  load  to  a  hut  or  shed,  and,  with  the  assistance  of  a  companion,  strips  off  and  cleans 
the  bark.  The  cinnamori*tree  flourishes  only  in  one  small  district  of  the  island,  being 
confined  to  the  soutl)-west  angle,  from  Negumbo  to  Matura.  There  is  none  on  thc 
western  side  beyond  ('hilau,  nor  on  the  eastern  side  beyond  Tengalle.  Within 
this  range  the  nature  of  the  soil,  and  the  warmth,  moisture,  and  steadiness  of  the 
climate,  contril)ute  to  cherish  it.  The  largest  plantation  is  near  Columbo,  and 
is  about  twelve  miles  in  circumference.  In  some  inland  places,  it  grows  without  cul- 
tivation, but  of  interior  quality.  The  cultivation  of  cinnamon  was  the  result  of  the 
experimental  enterprise  of  the  Dutch  governor  Falk,  who  presided  in  Ceylon  for 
thirty  years  before  its  conquest  by  the  If'.nglish.     He  met  with  great  opposition  from 

*  Dr.  Davy, 


INDOSTAN.  211 

the  piejmlices  and  iuiagiticd  iiitorcslt^  of  t!io  natives,  some  of  wiioni  slily  attempted 
to  thwart  his  endeavours  by  s[)riiikhrig  the  plants  in  the  evcniiiy  with  liot  water.  His 
exertions  were  thus  a  httle  retarded,  but  ultimately  sueceeded.  Tlie  quantity  of  cin- 
namon annually  sent  to  jjrilain  anutunts  to  308,000  lbs.  lor  which  the  East  India 
Company  pays  to  government  (as  this  island  is  immediately  subject  to  the  king) 
;tJGO,000  Sterling,  and  they  carry  it  home  at  their  own  cxi)ense.^  A  great  quantity 
is  used  by  the  slaves  in  the  South  American  mines  as  a  preservative  against  noxious 
exhalations,  and  it  is  dispersed  througli  the  dill'erent  countries  ot"  the  cast.  The 
wood  of  the  tree  has  no  smell,  and  is  chiefly  used  as  fuel. 

All  the  larger  animals  of  Ceylon  are  common  to  it  wilh  continental  |  Animals. 
India;  subject  to  accidental  modilications  in  the  (pialitics  of  their  respective  breeds. 
Some  of  the  continental  species  are  not  fovmd  in  the  island.  The  clc-  |  Kkphants. 
{ihant  stands  at  the  head  of  the  class  of  its  quadrupeds.  Of  this  animal  there  are 
two  varieties, — one  with  very  long  teeth,  called  ullcia,  and  another,  which  has  either 
very  short  teeth,  or  none  at  all;  these  are  called  (tela.]'  Elephants  are  caught  in 
('eylon,  chiefly  by  such  snares  as  have  been  described  in  Book  XLVI.;|'  Of  these 
tliere  is  one  at  Kotawy  in  this  island,  which  rc(pures  300  men  to  guard  it  when  ele- 
phants are  caught.  On  the  flrst  day  of  a  hunt,  Mr.  Cordincr  mentions  that  they  had 
caught  twenty,  which  he  reckoned  a  small  niunber;  but  he  thought  that  the  opera- 
lion  might  be  rendered  nnich  more  speedy  by  additional  expedients.§  On  another 
day  sixty  were  secured.  ^Vhen  caught,  an  elephant  is  tamed  in  the  course  of  eight 
days.  They  arc  conveyed  to  Jalliiapatam,  where  they  are  sold  by  auction  before 
they  are  transported  to  the  continent.  The  elephants  of  Ceylon  are  generally  from 
ten  to  eleven  feet  in  height.  The  feet,  and  some  other  parts  of  the  flesh  of  this 
animal,  are  very  palatable.  The  Kandians  are  in  the  habit  of  catching  theni  some- 
times by  laying  nooses  for  their  feet,  sometimes  chasing  Ihcm  on  tame  elephants, 
throwing  ropes  romid  the  neck  and  Icet  of  the  wild  animal,  and  then  beating  them 
into  subjection.  The  uses  to  which  this  noble  animal  is  applied  in  Ceylon  are,  as 
elsewhere,  innumerable.  IJesides  carrying  all  sorts  of  burdens  in  peace  and  w'ar, 
they  are  employed  in  thinning  plantations,  or  clearing  away  forests,  which  they  do  by 
pulling  U})  the  trees  with  their  trunks,  with  as  great  facility  as  a  man  pulls  up  stocks 
of  cabbage.  The  neighbourhood  of  Matiua,  in  the  southern  part  of  the  island,  is 
the  place  where  thosef  arc  chiefly  cauglit  that  are  intended  for  exportation.  The  hunts 
take  place  once  in  three  or  four  years.  The  Indian  bufl'alo  is  also  found  in  a  wild 
state  in  Ceylon ;  and  when  tamed,  employed  in  labour.  It  is  a  diflercnt  animal  from 
the  bufllilo  of  the  south  of  Europe  and  Egypt;  being  inferior  in  size  and  statme  even 
to  the  English  ox,  and  the  horns  bending  back.  They  show  their  com-  ,f,"Jr'"uad^"'' 
munity  of  nature  with  the  large  buffaloes  by  having  the  same  instinct  to  mpeds. 
roll  in  the  mud,  and  remain  immersed  in  water  tluring  the  heat  of  the  day.  In  the 
wild  state  they  are  Hercc,  and  rather  dangerous  to  meet  in  travelling.  Common  oxen 
of  various  colours,  but  mostly  black,  with  a  hump  on  the  shoulders,  arc  reared  in 
considerable  numbers,  and  employed  in  labour.  Both  these  and  buflaloes  arc  liable 
to  very  destructive  epidemics.  Hogs  are  plentiful,  and  much  eaten  by  the  Dutch 
and  Portuguese.  Sheep  and  goats  are  not  native  here,  and  few  of  them  arc  reared, 
though  they  thrive  very  well,  especially  about  Jaflhapatam.  The  horse  is  not  a  na- 
tive of  Ceylon,  and  the  only  ones  in  the  island  arc  a  few  which  have  been  imported 
for  the  pleasure  of  the  European  inhabitants.  Some  have  been  bred  at  .laflha[>atani, 
and  the  small  island  of  Delft.  They  were  flrst  introduced  there  by  the  Portuguese, 
who  called  the  islands  Illuis  de  Cavalcs.  The  woods  abound  with  deer,  of  which  a 
beautiful  small  species,  not  larger  than  a  hare,  is  very  common.  It  is  called  the 
moose  deer,  and  nearly  corresponds  with  the  Ccrvus  s;uinensis  of  Linnaius.  The 
royal  tiger  is  not  found  in  Ceylon ;  but  a  smaller  species,  called  Chela,  spotted  like 
the  leopard,  is  numerous.  Monkeys  swarm  as  they  do  in  Indostan,  and  among  others 

•  Cordiner's  Description  of  Ceylon,  vol.  i.  p.  46,  (published  in  1807. 
t  Asiat.  Kei^ister,  1800.     Miscell.  Tracts,  p.  3.  ^  See  {)age  127  of  this  volume. 

§   See  Cordiner's  Account  of  Ceylon,  vol.  i.  j).  213 — 247,  where  an  animated  account  of  an 
elephant  hunt  is  given,  accompanied  by  a  plate  of  the  snare. 


212  BOOK  FORTY-NINTH. 

the  white-bearded  and  the  black-bearded  species.  The  musk  animal  called  by  natu- 
ralists Moschus  memana,  and  the  jackal,  are  among  the  quadrupeds  which  people  the 
Birds.  I  island.     Its  birds  form  a  more  numerous  class.  Domestic  fowls,  ducks, 

and  geese,  are  plentiful  at  the  European  settlements.  The  jungle  fowl,  which  re- 
sembles the  pheasant,  is  in  great  abundance.  Green  pigeons  of  beautiful  plumage, 
and  forming  a  delicacy  for  the  table;  snipes,  green  parroquets  in  considerable  va- 
riety, peacocks,  fly-catchers,  tailor-birds,  kites,  vultures,  crows,  and  numerous  others, 
either  peculiar  to  the  tropical  regions,  or  more  or  less  allied  to  species  familiar  in 
Reptiles.  |  Europc,  abound.  Reptiles  of  various  sizes,  from  the  most  minute 
lizard  to  the  largest  alligator,  are  in  great  variety,  and  among  others  the  house-lizard, 
which  is  the  largest  animal  that  can,  like  a  fly,  walk  in  an  inverted  situation,  a  me- 
chanism accomplished  by  a  muscular  power  in  the  webs  of  the  feet,  by  means  of 
which  it  can  cling  to  any  surface  by  taking  advantage  of  the  atmospheric  pressure, 
like  a  leech  fixing  on  the  skin,  or  a  child  sucking  the  mother's  nipple.  When  a  lamp 
is  hung  on  a  house  wall,  it  is  soon  surrounded  with  lizards  in  quest  of  flies.  Snakes 
of  different  sizes  and  species,  abound  here  as  in  Indostan;  and  in  this  island  Dr. 
Davy  has  lately  made  some  interesting  experiments  on  the  operation  of  their  respec- 
insects.  I  tive  poisons.*  Like  all  warm  countries  of  luxuriant  vegetation,  it  swarms 

with  insects  in  every  direction.  That  valuable  product  of  this  class  of  the  animal 
creation,  honey,  is  abundant  in  Ceylon,  and  is  commonly  used  for  seasoning  and  pre- 
serving meat,  as  salt  is  used  in  other  countries.!  There  are  many  kinds  of  ants; 
the  most  remarkable  are  the  destructive  white  ant,  the  great  red  ant,  which  builds  its 
nest  on  trees  by  connecting  together  a  number  of  leaves  with  a  glutinous  cement; J 
the  common  red  ant,  which  abounds  in  houses,  and  several  others,  red  and  black.  A 
curious  advantage  is  taken  of  the  combative  instincts  of  the  ants,  all  the  species  of 
which  are  enemies  to  one  another,  so  that  one  exclusively  occupies  any  particular 
haunt.  The  white  ant,  being  the  smallest,  is  destroyed  by  the  red  ant.  Therefore 
it  is  a  common  practice  to  strew  sugar  on  the  floors  of  houses  to  attract  the  larger 
species,  and  thus  procure  the  extinction  of  the  white  ant.  The  grasshoppers  are 
extremely  curious;  some  resembling  pieces  of  straw  awkwardly  joined  together; 
others  the  branches  of  trees;  while  the  wings  of  others  bear  a  perfect  resemblance 
to  the  leaves  of  trees.  There  are  some  very  large  spiders;  one  of  them,  which  has 
legs  four  inches  long,  and  the  body  covered  with  hair,  is  said  to  be  poisonous  in  its 
Ceylon  leech.  |  bite,  but  fortunately  it  is  rare. — One  of  the  most  troublesome  animals  of 
Ceylon  is  a  small  leech,  which,  if  not  peculiar  to  this  island,  has  no  where  else  at- 
tracted so  much  attention,  though  it  is  perhaps  the  same  animal  which  is  mentioned 
by  Mr.  Marsden  as  found  in  Sumatra.  It  is  confined  to  the  moist  parts  of  the  island, 
which  are  of  moderate  elevation,  and  visited  by  frequent  showers.  In  dry  weather 
it  retires  into  the  shade  of  bushes  and  jungle,  but  during  the  rain,  it  abounds  over 
every  part  of  the  surface,  and  fastens  on  the  legs  and  feet  of  travellers  in  such  enor- 
mous numbers,  and  with  such  perseverance,  that  it  is  impossible  to  keep  them  off". 
The  only  preventive  is  to  have  the  limbs  well  covered  with  boots  and  trowsers. 
Smearing  them  with  oil,  especially  with  castor  oil,  or  the  juice  of  acrid  plants,  such  as 
tobacco,  answers  tolerably  well,  as  long  as  it  is  not  removed  by  the  friction  and  mois- 
ture in  travelling ;  but  in  general  it  is  not  a  permanent  defence.  This  leech  is  smaller 
than  the  medicinal  species,  and  some  varieties  of  it  are  extremely  minute.  Its  co- 
lour is  brown,  and  its  texture  to  a  considerable  degree  transparent.  It  tapers  from 
a  broad  flat  tail  to  a  fine  pointed  mouth,  and  can  stretch  itself  out  as  fine  as  a  thread, 
so  as  to  pass  through  very  small  openings.  The  bites,  if  properly  attended  to,  are 
easily  healed,  but  if  neglected  they  occasion  a  great  loss  of  blood,  and  degenerate 
into  tedious  ulcers ;  hence  some  have  pronounced  this  animal  to  be  the  cause  of 
Fish.  I  more  deaths  than  any  other  on  the  island.  §  The  lakes  and  rivers  abound 

with  fish,  but  generally  of  a  small  size.     The  common  fishes  of  the  Indian  Ocean 

•  Dr.  Davy's  Account  of  the  Interior  of  Ceylon,  p.  89,  90. 
t  Texeira,  Hist.  I'eraic.  B.  I.  chap.  35, 
+  Valentyn's  Description  of  Ceylon,  in  Dutch,  p.  54, 
§  Dr.  Davy's  Account,  Qtc,  p.  102.  105, 


IND03TAN.  21 


<-» 


are  found  on  the  shores.     Many  cowries  are  got  here,  which  pass  as  a  circulating 
medium  of  low  value  in  petty  Irallic  through  the  whole  of  India. 

The  marine  animal  most  deserving  of  our  notice  is  the  oyster  which  |  ivari  Fisiiciy, 
yields  the  pearl,  and  which  is  taken  for  the  purpose  of  procuring  that  valuable  article. 
One  of  the  most  celebrated  and  productive  pearl  fisheries  is  on  the  west  coast  of 
Ceylon,  off  the  Bay  of  Condatchy,  about  twelve  miles  south  from  the  island  of  INIa- 
naar.  This  bay  is  the  great  rendezvous  for  the  boats  employed,  and  all  the  persons 
concerned  in  it.  This  part  of  the  country  is  sandy,  and  scarcely  inhabited  at  all 
excepting  on  these  occasions.  But  during  the  pearl  fishery  it  branches  out  into  a 
populous  town,  with  many  streets  a  mile  long.  The  most  active  persons  in  erecting 
the  huts  are  the  Mahometan  natives  of  the  island.  None  of  the  Singalese  are 
divers,  which  some  ascribe  to  the  timidity  of  their  character;  but  many  of  them 
resort  to  the  place  as  to  a  fair,  particularly  fishermen,  to  supply  the  multitude  with 
fish.  About  the  end  of  October,  in  the  year  preceding  a  pearl  fishery,  |  Peaii,  Fishery, 
during  a  short  interval  of  fine  weather,  an  examination  of  the  banks  takes  place,  a 
few  oysters  being  taken  for  a  specimen.  The  banks  extend  over  a  space  thirty  miles 
long,  and  twenty-four  broad,  and  fourteen  in  number.  The  largest  bed  is  ten  miles 
long  and  two  in  breadth.  When  the  fishery  is  determined  on,  advertisements  arc 
circulated  for  all  concerned^  to  repair  to  the  place  on  the  20th  of  the  succeeding 
February,  when  the  boats  come  from  Jaffna,  Ramisseram,  Nagore,  Tutakoreen, 
Travancore,  Kilkerry,  and  other  parts  on  the  coast  of  Coromandel.  The  banks  are 
about  fifteen  miles,  (or  three  hours  saihng,)  from  the  shore  of  Condatchy.  The 
pearl  oysters  are  all  of  the  same  species,  but  vary  in  their  qualities  according  to  the 
nature  of  the  ground  to  which  they  are  attached,  and  the  appearance  of  the  numerous 
and  often  large  zoophytes  which  adhere  to  the  outsides  of  their  shells.  Their  num- 
ber on  the  banks  varies  considerably,  being  sometimes  washed  away  by  the  current 
of  the  tide,  and  sometimes  buried  in  the  sand  deposited  from  the  water.  The  pearls 
are  in  the  fleshy  part  of  the  oyster,  near  one  of  the  angles,  at  the  hinge.  Each 
generally  contains  several  pearls.  The  fishery  is  rented  to  one  individual  tor  a  stipu- 
lated sum,  two-thirds  of  which  are  paid  in  advance.  In  1804,  the  renter  brought 
with  him  a  large  family,  with  thirteen  palanquins,  to  each  of  which  thirteen  well- 
dressed  bearers  were  attached.  He  is  allowed  150  boats  fishing  for  thirty  days. 
The  boatmen  and  their  attendants,  to  the  number  of  6000,  are  roused  a  little  before 
midnight  with  immense  bustle,  and,  after  their  ablutions  and  incantations,  set  sail. 
About  half  past  six  in  the  morning  the  diving  begins.  A  kind  of  open  scaffolding  is 
projected  from  each  side  of  the  boat,  from  which  the  diving  tackle  is  suspended ; 
consisting  of  three  stones  fifty-six  pounds  in  weight  on  one  side,  and  two  on  the 
other.  The  diving  stone  hangs  by  a  rope  and  slip  knot,  descending  a  little  way  into 
the  water.  In  the  rope  just  above  the  stone,  there  is  also  a  strong  loop,  to  receive, 
like  a  stirrup,  the  foot  of  the  diver.  The  latter  puts  one  foot  in  the  loop,  and  the 
other  in  a  basket  formed  of  a  hoop  and  net-work.  When  duly  prepared,  he  grasps 
his  nostrils  with  one  hand,  and  with  the  other  gives  a  sudden  pull  to  the  running  knot, 
and  instantly  descends;  both  the  rope  of  the  stone  and  that  of  the  basket  follow 
him.  The  moment  he  reaches  the  bottom  he  disengages  his  foot  from  the  stone, 
which  is  immediately  drawn  up,  to  be  ready  for  the  next  diver.  The  diver  at  the 
bottom  throws  himself  on  his  face,  and  collects  every  thing  he  can  lay  hold  of  into 
the  basket.  When  ready  to  ascend,  he  gives  a  jerk  to  the  basket-rope,  and  is  speedily 
hauled  up  by  the  persons  in  the  boat ;  using  in  the  mean  time  his  own  exertions  in 
working  up  by  the  rope,  he  arrives  at  the  surface  a  considerable  time  before  the 
basket.  He  swims  about,  or  remains  at  rest,  laying  hold  of  an  oar  or  rope,  till  his 
turn  comes  to  descend  again.  Some  of  the  divers  perform  the  dip  in  one  minute ; 
a  minute  and  a  half,  or  two  minutes  are  assigned  as  the  utmost  that  any  one  remains 
under  water.  The  basket  is  often  so  heavy  as  to  require  more  than  one  man  to  haul 
it  up.  The  shark-charmers  form  an  indispensable  part  of  the  establishment.  All 
these  impostors  belong  to  one  family.  The  natives  will  not  descend  without  knowing 
that  one  of  them  is  present  in  the  fleet.  Two  are  constantly  employed,  one  in  the 
head  pilot's  boat,  and  another  performing  ceremonies  on  shore.  Sharks  are  often 
•seen  from  the  boats,  and  by  the  divers  while  in  the  water,  but  an  accident  rarely 


214  BOOK  FORTY-NINTH. 

occurs.  This  [)rcjiulice  operates  as  a  protection  to  the  oyster  banks  from  plunder 
at  other  times. 

Whore  the  bed  is  rich,  a  diver  often  puts  upwards  of  150  oysters  into  his  basket 
at  one  dip  ;  when  they  are  tliinly  scattered  sometimes  no  more  than  live.  After 
diving,  a  small  quantity  of  blood  usually  issues  from  the  nose  and  ears,  which  is 
considered  as  a  favourable  symptom,  and  they  perform  the  operation  with  greater 
comfort  after  the  bleeding  has  commenced.  They  seem  to  enjoy  the  labour  as  a 
pleasant  pastime,  and  never  complain  of  fatigue  unless  the  banks  are  poor  in  oysters. 
Two  divers  are  attached  to  each  stone,  and  go  down  alternately.  The  period-  allot- 
ted for  this  operation  continues  from  five  to  six  hours.  About  one  or  two  o'clock, 
at  the  setting  in  of  the  sea  breeze,  on  a  signal  given  by  the  head  pilot,  the  fleet  sets 
sail  for  the  shore,  and  arrives  about  four  or  five,  amidst  an  immense  concourse  of 
people.  They  never  fish  on  Sundays,  all  the  pilots,  and  many  divers,  being  Romish 
Christians,  and  the  day  of  rest  is  also  convenient  for  the  Hindoos.  Each  diver  has 
a  fourth  part  of  the  oysters  which  he  brings  up,  from  which,  however,  he  has  vari- 
ous claims  to  satisfy.  He  sells  his  share  on  the  spot  to  the  numerous  adventurers 
who  resort  to  the  place.  In  a  successful  fishery,  each  man  carries  home,  at  the  end 
of  the  season,  forty  or  fifty  pagodas.  A  boat  has  been  known  to  land  in  one  day 
33,000  oysters,  and  in  another  not  more  than  300.  Those  belonging  to  the  renter 
are  piled  up  in  enclosures  formed  by  palisades,  and  the  opening  of  them  does  not 
commence  till  the  fishery  is  considerably  advanced ;  adventurers  on  a  small  scale 
open  them  when  they  buy  them,  or  on  the  following  morning.  By  some,  the  oysters 
are  now  thrown  away,  by  others  they  are  left  to  putrefy  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining 
with  greater  certainty  the  remaining  pearls,  particularly  those  of  a  small  size.  Two 
days  are  generally  required  for  the  putrefaction.  Many  precautions  are  employed  to 
prevent  the  secreting  of  pearls,  but  not  with  complete  success.  When  the  })carls 
are  separated  from  the  putrid  flesh  of  the  oysters,  and  from  the  sand  along  with 
which  the  mass  has  been  agitated  in  boats  for  that  purpose,  they  are  sorted  into 
sizes,  by  being  passed  through  sieves  or  saucers  full  of  round  holes,  those  with  the 
largest  holes  being  first  used,  and  the  others  in  succession.  The  large  ones  are 
examined,  to  see  if  they  contain  any  blemishes.  They  are  then  drilled  with  great 
skill,  though  by  very  rude  and  simple  tools.  Many  of  the  native  merchants,  who 
resort  hither  from  Madras  and  other  parts,  are  extremely  wealthy,  and  make  a  great 
display  of  opulence  in  their  personal  appearance,  their  retinue,  and  the  quantity  of 
specie  which  accompanies  them.  Pearls  sell  at  a  higher  price  in  the  market  of  Con- 
datchy  during  the  fishing  season,  than  in  any  other  part  of  India. — No  fishery  took 
place  between  the  years  1768  and  1796.  The  fishery  of  the  latter  year  was  rented 
by  some  natives  of  Jaftnapatam  at  J660,000  Sterling,  and  they  cleared  three  times 
that  sum  by  the  adventure.  In  1797,  the  net  proceeds  were  iSl44,000,  and  in  1798, 
jlBl92,000.  That  of  1799  only  yielded  £30,000.  There  was  a  fishery  olT another 
part  of  the  coast,  Chilaw,  in  1803,  which  yielded  d£l5,000,  and  one  at  Aripo,  in 
1806,  which  yielded  £35,000.  The  fisheries,  on  the  whole,  present  an  amusing 
scene,  from  the  number  of  strange  characters,  deformed  persons,  jugglers,  dancers, 
tumblers,  mechanics,  and  retailers,  who  resort  to  the  place  from  the  remotest  parts  of 
India. 

Poimiation,  |  This  whole  island  is  but  thinly  inhabited,  and  this  is  more  the  case 
with  the  Kandian  than  with  the  maritime  provinces.  In  1814,  when  a  census  was 
taken  of  the  old  English  possessions,  the  population  amounted  to  476,000  souls, 
and  it  is  believed  that  the  population  of  the  whole  island  does  not  exceed  800,000, 
or  about  thirty-eight  to  the  square  mile. 

Different  The  inhabitants  may  be  divided  into  the  aboriginal  race,  and  natural- 

classes,  j^ed  foreigners.     Of  the  former,  who  are  called  Singalese,  the  inhabit- 

ants of  the  interior  exclusively  consist.  The  greater  part  of  the  naturalized 
foreigners  are  Malabars  and  Moors.  The  Malabars  are  confined  chiefly  to  the 
northern  and  eastern  parts,  while  the  Moors  are  scattered  over  all  the  maritime  dis- 
tricts. The  Kandians  or  Singalese  of  the  interior,  and  those  who  are  mingled  with 
the  other  classes  in  the  low  country,  seem  to  be  of  one  stock,  and  probably  exhi- 
bited, three  Iiundrcd  years  ago,  ong  uniform  character-     But  now  there  is  a  marked 


INDOSTAN.  215 


Sing:alcse  eha- 
racter. 


distinction  in  their  language,  manners,  and  customs,  varying  in  degree  according  to 
their  proximity  to  the  European  settlements.     The  Kandians,  there- 
lore,  may  be  considered  as  the  living  examples  of  the  ancient  national 
character,  and  their  state  of  political  subjection  will  now  probably  operate  a  gradual 
alteration  of  their  character.     Their  features  differ  very  little  from  those  of  the  Eu- 
ropeans.    Their  colour  varies  from  light  brown  to  black  ;  they  have  almost  univer- 
sally hazel  eyes.     In  a  very  few  the  eyes  are  grey,  and  the  hair  red.     They  are 
inferior  in  size  to  the  Europeans,  but  larger  than  the  lowland  Singalese.     They  are 
of  a  stout  make,  have  capacious  chests,  but  are  more  remarkable  for  agility  and  flexi- 
bility than  for  strength  of  limb  ;  and  capable  of  long  continued  rather  than  great 
exertion.     They  are  divided  into  castes,  but  they  have  not  the  ridicu-  |  Castes, 
lous  pride  of  caste  which  prevails  in  India.     A  Singalese  will  not  refuse  to  eat  in 
company  with  any  respectable  European.     The  leading  divisions  of  their  castes  are 
four.     The  first  two  are  the  royal  caste,  and  the  Brahminical,  which  comprehend  a 
very  small  proportion  ;  the  other  two  are  the  Wiessa,  and  the  Kshoodra ;  the  former 
of  whom  comprehend  the  cultivators  and  the  shepherds.     The  Wiessa  cultivators 
are  higher  than  the  shepherds.     They  so  far  intermarry  that  a  man  of  the  higher 
rank  may  take  a  wife  from  the  other,  but  a  man  of  the  shepherd  caste  is  not  allowed 
to  take  one  from  the  class  of  cultivators.     To  this  class  belongs  the  savage  race 
called  Weddahs,  or  Bedas,  who  inhabit  the  extensive  forests  on  the  south-eastern 
side  of  the  island.     Their  appearance  is  completely  wild,  and  their  habits  disgusting. 
Some  of  them  live  in  villages  :  another  set  of  them,  who  have  no  intercourse  with 
the  village  Weddahs,  being  both  feared  and  hated  by  them,  live  in  huts  made  of 
the  bark  of  trees,  and  eat  the  flesh  of  wild  animals,  with  a  little  maize  and  roots. 
They  live  in  pairs,  only  occasionally  collecting  in  greater  number.     They  seem 
ignorant  of  all  social  institutions.     It  appears   that  they  do  not  distinguish  one 
another  by  proper  names ;  and  their  arts  consist  of  making  bows  and  arrows,  rude 
cords  from  tough  vegetable  fibres,  scratching  the  ground,  and  sewing  a  few  seeds. 
They  do  not  count  beyond  five.     They  believe  in  demons,  and  offer  them  homage, 
without  entertaining  any  notion  of  a  beneficent  Deity.     Dr.  Davy,  who  witnessed 
one  of  their  scenes  of  amusement,  which  seemed  to  be  their  nearest  approach  to 
dancing  and  singing,  says  that  they  began  by  jumping  about  with  their  feet  together. 
As  they  became  warm,  their  hands  were  employed  in  patting  their  bellies :  becom- 
ing more  animated,  they  clapped  their  hands  as  they  jumped,  and  nodded  their  heads, 
throwing  their  long  entangled  locks  from  behind  over  their  faces.     They  generally 
acknowledge  some  Singalese  of  rank  of  the  adjoining  country  for  their  chiefs,  and 
these  now  and  then  used  to  call  them  together  to  renew  their  acquaintaince  and  re- 
tain their  influence.     Dr.  Davy  mentions  as  belonging  to  the  Goewansc  caste,  or 
that  of  cultivators,  a  sort  of  Singalese  Christians,  who  have  been  lately  discovered  in 
the  interior,  viz.  at  Wayacotte  in  Matele,  and  at  Galgomua  in  the  seven  Korles,  about 
200  in  each  village,  who  worship  the  Virgin  Mary,  bow  before  a  crucifix,  believe  in 
a  purgatory,  and  baptize,  marry,  and  bury  according  to  the  rites  of  the  church  of 
Rome.     Their  only  minister  is  a  man  who  cannot  read,  and  can  only  repeat  a  few 
prayers.     They  are  said  to  visit  occasionally  the  temple  of  Buddha.     These  must 
be  descendants  of  the  numerous  converts  made  by  the  Portuguese,  while  they  were 
masters  of  the  interior.     A  few  years  ago,  they,  for  the  first  time,  received  from  an 
English  clergyman  a  copy  of  the  New  Testament.     The  fourth,  or  lowest  caste,  is 
called  Kshoodra  or  Sudra,  and  is  subdivided  into  numerous  classes,  at  the  head  of 
whom  the  Moormen  or  Mahometans  are  placed.     These  are  a  stout,  active,  shrewd, 
enterprising  race,  and  monopolize  the  trade  of  the  country.     In  appearance  and 
manners  they  hardly  differ  from  the  Singalese.     Some  have  land,  and  were  obliged 
to  appear  when  required,  with  tiieir  bullocks,  to  carry  the  king's  rice  to  the  store. 
There  is  a  class  of  toddy  drawers,  but  their  number  is  small,  as  the  religion  of  the 
country  proscribes  the  use  of  intoxicating  liquors.     There  is  a  class  of  artizans  in 
wood,  stone,  and  metals,  who  were  all  obliged  to  work  for  the  king  without  compen- 
sation, except  the  carpenters  and  sculptors,  who,  when  employed,  were  allowed  pro- 
visions, because  the  materials  in  which  they  wrought  afforded  no  opportunity  for 
purloining.     There  is  a  class  of  potters,  who  are  numerous,  and  much  employed : 


216  HOOK  POUTY-NINTII. 


n.> 


for  after  any  feast,  at  which  people  of  different  castes  have  been  entertained,  the 
earthen  vessels  are  all  broken,  lest  any  person  siiould  luidergo  the  disgrace  of  after- 
wards drinking  out  of  vessels  which  have  touched  the  hps  of  an  inferior.     The  caste 
of  barbers  is  little  employed,  as  each  man  shaves  himself,  but  they  have  a  ridiculous 
religious  ceremony  to  perform,  the  shaving  of  Buddha ;  the  barber  merely  makes  the 
appropriate  motions  with  a  razor,  without  coming  in  contact  with  the  image,  which 
is  all  the  time  behind  a  curtain,  whilst  a  priest  holds  vip  a  looking  glass  before  it. 
This  duty  they  perform  as  a  condition  for  holding  the  land  on  which  they  live. 
There  is  a  caste  of  washermen  for  furnishing  white  cloths  to  spread  on  the  ground, 
line  rooms,  and  cover  chairs.     The  others,  of  whom  as  many  as  twenty-one  are  enu- 
merated by  Dr.  Davy,  are  all  in  like  manner  distinguished  by  the  duties  they  had  to 
perform  to  royalty,  in  consideration  of  the  lands  which  they  held. 
Outcasts.         I       Beneath  all  these,  there  used  to  be  two  sets  of  outcasts,  one  of  them 
called  Gattaroo,  which  consisted  of  persons  degraded,  and  cast  out  of  society  by  the 
king,  for  infamous  conduct;  the  dreaded  sentence  being,  "Let  the  offender  be  ex- 
empted from  paying  taxes,  and  performing  services,  and  be  considered  a  Gattaroo." 
The  other  was  called  Rhodees,  who  were  descended  from  persons  cast  out  of  society 
for  eating  beef  after  it  was  prohibited.     They  are  not  allowed  to  live  in  houses  built 
in  the  usual  way,  but  only  in  sheds  open  on  one  side.     They  are  obliged  to  go|out  of 
the  way  or  turn  back,  when  a  person  of  higher  caste  meets  them  on  the  road.     Yet 
the  Rhodees  are  a  robust  race,  and  their  women  particularly  handsome.     These  are 
less  shunned  than  the  men.     They  ramble  about  the  country,  telling  fortunes. 
TheKandians.  |       The  govcrmnent  of  the  kingdom  of  Kandy  in  the  interior,  lately 
abolished,  was  a  regular  and  somewhat  limited  monarchy  ;  it  was  accompanied,  in 
some  degree  with  that  rapacity  on  the  part  of  the  sovereign  and  his  ministers,  which 
characterizes  the  native  governments  of  the  Brahminical  nations  of  Indostan,  in 
which  a  transference  even  to  the  harsh  rule  of  the  Mahometans  brought  with  it  some 
advantages  to  the  people.     The  succession  was  hereditary,  but  conditions  were  im- 
posed on  the  sovereign  on  his  receiving  the  regal  dignity  ;  and  when  cogent  reasons 
appeared,  the  succession  was  liable  to  be  modified  without  tumult  or  bloodshed.  The 
atrocious  character  of  the  last  king  was  rather  a  glaring  exception,  than  an  exempli- 
fication of  the  usual  character  of  the  sovereigns.     It  was  necessary  that  the  queen 
should  be  of  the  Soore  Raja-wanse.     Queens  were  therefore  procured  from  the 
continent  of  India,  generally  from  the  state  of  Madura.     The  marriage  ceremony 
w-as  long,  complicated,  and  extensive,  but  attended  with  an  extraordinary  festivity 
and  relaxation  of  court  discipline.     The  Kandians  have  four  great  annual  festivals  ; 
one  at  the  new  year,  which  is  in  April ;  a  second  in  honour  of  Vishnu  and  the  gods; 
a  third  called  the  feast  of  the  fortunate  hour,  celebrated  for  the  prosperity  of  the 
kingdom ;  and  the  last  in  honour  of  the  completion  of  harvest,  and  called  the  feast 
of  new  rice.     The  manner  in  which  these  festivals  are  conducted  is  creditable  and 
decorous,  without  riot  or  disturbance,  and,  as  onlookers  have  testified,  without  any 
instances  of  drunkenness.*    The  public  exhibitions  are  quite  free  from  the  indecency 
and  licentiousness  which  characterize  those  on  the  continent  of  India,  having  nothing 
to  shock  the  feelings  of  the  most  modest  and  refined. 

Laws.  I      The  code  of  legislation  seems  to  have  consisted  of  a  sort  of  common 

law,  very  well  adapted  to  the  social  state  of  the  people.  They  had  not  the  code  of 
Menu,  but  only  a  few  of  its  precepts  scattered  through  their  books  of  religion.  When 
an  instance  of  suicide  occurred,  or  when  the  perpetrator  of  a  murder  could  not  be 
discovered,  a  fine  was  inflicted  on  the  village,  unless  the  crime  had  occurred  in  the 
jungle,  or  at  a  distance  from  the  village.  No  magistrate  or  judge,  except  the  king, 
had  the  power  of  passing  sentence  of  death.  Neither  suicide  nor  murders  seem  to 
be  common.  An  elderly  man,  when  questioned  on  the  point,  could  not  recollect  of 
having  heard  of  more  than  five  instances.  A  sort  of  ordeal  was  sometimes  employed. 
When  two  persons  took  contrary  oaths,  calling  down  the  vengeance  of  heaven  on 
the  perjured,  the  party  who  first  sustained  any  personal  or  domestic  calamity  was  con- 
cluded to  be  the  perjurer.     Plunging  the  hand  in  boiling  oil  was  also  practised,  but 

»  Dr.  Davy's  Account  of  the  Interior  of  Ceylon,  p.  177^ 


INDOSTAN.  217 

disapproved  of  by  tlio  mtoUigont.  The  huidost  laws  were  those  against  insolvency. 
The  debtor  was  doomed  to  slavery,  along  with  his  family,  till  his  debt  was  paid, 
without  any  regard  to  distinction  of  caste.  The  slaves,  however,  are  kindly  used  j 
their  whole  number  in  the  interior  is  supposed  to  amount  to  30U0.  Regular  usury 
was  not  allowed,  but  an  agreement  was  sometimes  made  that  the  sum  borrowed  should 
be  returned  augmented  by  ouc-half,  at  whatever  future  time  it  was  repaid.  The 
Moors  take  twenty  per  cent,  of  annual  interest.  The  land  was  the  property  of  the 
king,  but  held  by  the  possessor  on  easy  terms,  and  sometimes,  when  appropriated  to 
a  temple,  exempt  from  rent  or  civil  service. 

The  peojjle  profess  the  religion  of  Buddha,  which  has  by  some  been  |  iicUgton. 
called  atheistical,  because  it  allows  of  no  Creator  existing  before  the  universe,  and 
pays  worship  only  to  the  souls  of  good  men,  who  have  suflered  a  transmutation  re- 
sembling deification.  In  other  points  of  view  wo  find  as  much  fanciful  detail  on  tlic 
history  of  heaven,  earth,  and  distant  worlds,  and  as  much  imagery  of  supernatural 
powers,  as  in  the  generality  of  eastern  systems.  They  believe  in  the  transmutation  of 
men  into  gods  and  demons,  and  of  gods  into  animalcules.  Death  tliey  consider  as  a 
mere  change  of  form.  These  changes  they  hold  to  be  infinite,  and  bounded  only  by 
annihilation,  which  they  esteem  the  acme  of  happuiess.  The  universe  they  consider 
as  eternal,  though  in  a  constant  state  of  alteration.  The  learned  among  them  arc  as 
familiar  with  the  details  of  the  system  as  with  the  events  and  interests  of  their  own 
villages  or  families.  They  beheve  in  beings  called  lirachmcas,  who  are  of  greater 
purity  than  the  goda.  These  vary  in  rank,  and  reside  in  different  departments  of 
tiio  heavens.  They  have  infernal  regions,  of  a  heat  varying  in  intensity  with  the 
guilt  of  the  individuals  doomed  to  dwell  in  them.  The  term  Buddha  is  considered 
by  learned  etymologists  as  meaning  wisdom,  and  is  ai)i)lied  to  persons  of  extraordi- 
nary endowments  and  destiny,  a  certain  number  of  whom  is  fated  to  appear  in  each 
grand  period  of  the  world.  One  of  these,  the  fourth  in  order,  is  the  present  object 
of  adoration.  This  being  had  the  power  of  assuming  any  form,  and  of  multiplying 
himself  to  infinity.  Ho  now  exists  in  a  mysterious  abode  or  state,  which  they  call 
Niwane.  The  Buddhists  of  Ceylon  have  numerous  sacred  writings,  which  are  ex- 
tremely obscure,  and  are  reproached  for  that  quality  even  by  the  Brahmins.  At  Kandy 
there  are  two  regular  colleges  ;  and  the  religious  establishment  is  as  regularly  organ- 
ized as  in  any  country  whatever.  The  priests  are  dressed  in  yellow,  and  live  in  a 
state  of  celibacy,  but  they  arc  permitted  to  resign  their  ofiice,  and  may  tlien  marry. 
Their  books  are  greatly  venerated.  They  are  not  touched  without  a  preliminary 
obeisance  :  a  person  will  not  sit  down  where  a  book  is  present,  unless  it  is  in  a  higher 
situation  than  himself.  The  priests  do  not  worship  the  gods,  being  reckoned  their 
superiors.  When  they  preach,  they  invite  the  gods  to  be  of  their  audience.  They 
are,  like  Buddha,  entitled  to  be  worshipped  ;  and  no  person,  not  even  a  king,  nmst 
sit  in  their  presence.  They  were  tlie  only  persons  allowed  by  the  Kandian  govern- 
ment to  go  beyond  the  bounds  of  the  kingdom,  and  often  wandered  over  tlie  whole 
island.  The  religion  of  Ceylon,  uniting  the  worship  of  the  gods  with  that  of  Bud- 
dha, and  under  the  same  names,  (such  as  Vishnu,)  which  are  used  by  the  Bralimini- 
cal  Hindoos,  shows  either  an  original  connection  or  an  accidental  incorporation  of 
the  two  systems.  They  say  that  the  Brahminical  system  prevailed  before  Buddha 
appeared  to  revive  tlieir  own  religion,  then  extinct,  which  was  600  years  l>efore  the 
Christian  era. 

The  Singalese  language,  like  the  other  Indian  dialects,  has  its  origin  |  Littiaturc.i 
in  the  Sanscrit,  mixed  with  what  is  called  the  Pali.  It  is,  however,  a  i)eculiar  language, 
and  not,  as  some  have  asserted,  the  same  with  the  Siiimcse.  It  has  also  a  peculiar 
written  character,  unknown  in  any  other  country.*  It  is  always  written  from  left 
to  right.  Among  this  people  language  is  almost  the  only  subject  that  is  carefully 
studied.  There  are  various  dialects  appropriated  to  different  cases  and  to  dillerent 
occasions.  Reading  and  writing  are  general  acquirements  among  the  men,  but 
form  no  part  of  female  education.  Their  books  are  written  on  talipot  leaves,  which 
are  duly  prepared,  cut  to  a  uniform  shape,  and  connected  together  into  books  by  a 
string  passing  through  holes  in  the  leaves.     They  arc  fond  of  intricacies  and  displays 

*  See  a  specimen  of  it  In  Mr.  Coidincr's  Dcsciintion  of  Ceylon,  vol.  i.  p.  130. 
Vol.  II.— E  e 


218  BOOK  FORTY-NINTH. 

of  art  in  language.  One  poem  is  considered  as  an  extraordinary  effort  of  genius, 
because  it  admits  of  being  read  from  left  to  right,  up  and  down,  and  various  other 
ways,  making  sense  in  each.  The  compositions  which  approach  nearest  to  poetry 
are  addresses  to  the  chiefs,  expressive  of  respect,  or  sohciting  them  for  favours. 
They  have  seven  tunes  to  which  they  modulate  these  compositions  in  the  recital. 
Their  instruments  of  music  are  of  rude  simplicity,  and  most  of  them  noisy,  con- 
sisting of  different  sorts  of  drums,  a  wind  instrament  resembling  a  claiionet,  and  a 
fiddle  of  two  strings.*  Having  no  numeral  characters  of  their  own,  they  use  the 
Tamul  figures,  which  follow  the  decimal  series.  The  currency  consists  of  copper. 
Arts.  I  silver,  and  gold  coin.     All  the  last  consists  of  Indian  pagodas.     In  tlie 

arts  of  drawing  and  painting  they  are  far  behind.  They  are  extremely  fond  of  laquer 
painting,  which  they  perform  with  a  good  deal  of  skill  and  taste;  producing  a  pretty 
and  brilliant  effect.  In  statuary,  as  applied  to  the  fabricating  of  representations  of 
Buddlia,  they  have  acquired  excellence  by  practice.  Such  representations  are  in  re- 
quest in  every  temple.  They  have  the  art  of  casting  small  figures  very  neatly;  and 
there  are  good  specimens  of  large  ones  in  the  temples.  Their  architecture  is  chiefly 
displayed  in  their  temples.  Their  dwelling  houses  have  a  simplicity  suited  to  a 
climate  which  requires  no  houses  excepting  as  shelter  from  rain,  and  a  shade  from  a 
scorching  sun.  The  floors  of  their  houses  are  of  clay,  plastered  with  cow-dung, 
an  article  conducive  to  cleanliness  and  to  the  keeping  down  of  insects.  The  houses 
of  the  chiefs  are  in  the  form  of  square  courts  built  of  mud,  roofed  with  tile.  This 
last  circumstance  serves  to  distinguish  them  from  the  dwellings  of  the  people,  who 
are  allowed  nothing  but  thatch.'f' — They  work  in  gold  and  silver  with  considerable 
ingenuity  and  taste,  although  their  tools  and  apparatus  are  all  portable,  and  charac- 
terized by  a  simplicity  unknown  in  Europe.  Their  pottery  is  coarse  and  unglazed, 
but  perfectly  well  adapted  for  its  appropriate  uses.  The  only  weaving  is  of  the 
coarse  strong  cotton  cloth  which  is  worn  by  the  common  people.  Agriculture  is 
very  much  respected  by  them.  No  manure  is  used,  which  is  a  great  drawback  from 
the  productiveness  of  their  labours.  The  land,  when  exhausted,  is  allowed  to  over- 
run with  weeds  and  jungle,  which  it  soon  does,  and  this  is  afterwards  cut  down  and 
burned  on  the  soil,  to  qualify  it  for  bearing  useful  crops.  The  implements  of  hus- 
bandry are  remarkably  simple.  J 

Domestic  ha-  The  Singalcse  of  the  interior  are  rarely  collected  in  large  villages. 

neH?"'*  "'^  The  only  group  of  this  kind  seems  to  be  Kandy,  the  capital  of  the  coun- 
try. They  live  either  in  very  small  villages,  consisting  of  a  few  houses,  or  in  de- 
tached habitations.  These  are  usually  in  low  sheltered  situations,  near  their  rice 
fields,  as  they  have  a  particular  aversion  to  wind.  The  men  are  engaged  in  the 
more  laborious  occupations  of  ploughing  and  banking,  the  women  in  weeding  and 
reaping.  Their  grain  is  ground  at  home  in  hand  mills.  The  Singalese  rise  at  dawn, 
and  go  to  bed  about  nine  or  ten  at  night.  They  sleep  on  mats,  generally  with  a  fire 
in  their  room.  Cakes  of  cow-dung  constitute  their  ordinary  fuel.  Their  principal 
meal  is  at  noon,  and  consists  of  rice  and  curry.  Though  not  prohibited  from  the 
use  of  beef  by  tlieir  religion,  they  abstain  from  it  because  it  was  forbidden  by  one  of 
their  kings ;  another  instance  in  which  Brahminical  ideas  and  customs  have  become 
intermingled  with  their  original  code  of  faith  and  practice.  Thougii  unacquainted 
with  what  we  denominate  conviviality,  they  are  a  social  people,  fond  of  conversation 
and  mutual  visits.  The  men  and  women  form  separate  circles,  and  are  never  seen 
mixed  in  society.  They  are  courteous  and  ceremonious,  but,  like  other  Asiatics, 
unacquainted  with  all  the  sentiments  which  constitute  gallantry.  Matrimonial  alli- 
ances are  fixed  by  the  parents  alone.  Concubinage  and  polygamy  are  contrary  to 
their  religion,  but  are  both  indulged,  particularly  polygamy;  and  here,  as  in  Thibet, 
a  plurality  of  husbands  is  much  more  common  than  of  wives.  This  practice  prevails 
among  all  castes  and  ranks,  and  the  joint  husbands  are  always  brothers.  Matrimo- 
nial infidelity  is  not  uncommon,  and  easily  forgiven,  unless  when  aggravated  by  a  low 

*  They  are  enumerated  and  fityurcd  by  Dr.  Davy  at  p.  240,  241, 

t  See  some  representations  of  the  temples  and  houses  ia  the  work  of  Dr.  Davy,  p.  257", 
358,  259. 

4:  See  Dr.  Davy's  vvuuJ  cuts,  ibid.  p.  2/3—4. 


INDOSTAN.  2'19 

attachment  on  the  part  of  the  female.  But  the  manners  of  the  people  jsre  by  no 
means  marked  by  extreme  licentiousness.  They  have  their  own  notions  of  propriety 
and  decency,  which  no  one's  inclinations  allow  him  to  violate.  In  the  relation  of 
parents  and  children  they  appear  particularly  amiable.  A  woman  has  seldom  more 
than  four  children,  a  circumstance  which  probably  arises  from  the  period  of  suckling 
being  so  long  protracted,  which  it  often  is  to  four  or  five  years.  The  children  are 
named  when  they  are  able  to  eat  rice,  the  name  then  given  being  called  "  the  rice 
name."  Their  family  attachments  are  strong.  During  the  late  rebellion,  instances 
occurred  of  fathers  giving  tliemselves  up  as  soon  as  they  knew  that  their  families 
were  taken.  Children  are  never  exposed,  except  in  some  of  the  wildest  situations, 
and  under  the  pressure  of  necessity.  They  do  not,  as  some  have  asserted,  turn  their 
sick  relations  out  of  doors  to  die  in  the  fields ;  though,  in  order  to  save  their  houses 
from  pollution,  they  sometimes  remove  them  to  an  adjoining  shade  to  breathe  tlieir 
last.  The  care  which  they  take  of  the  bodies  of  the  dead  is  very  great,  many  cere- 
monious attentions  being  bestowed  preparatory  to  the  ceremony  of  burning.  Low 
caste  people  not  being  allowed  to  burn  their  dead,  bury  them  with  little  ceremony,, 
with  the  head  to  the  west.  In  civihzation,  this  people  is  nearly  on  a  General  ch». 
par  with  the  Hindoos.  In  intellectual  acquirements  they  resemble  the  "''^•''• 
state  of  Europeans  in  the  dark  ages.  They  are  attentive  to  natural  objects,  and  ac- 
quainted with  the  names  and  qualities  of  the  minutest  plant  that  grows  within  their 
district.  In  courtesy  they  are  equal  to  any  nation ;  in  character  they  are  low,  tame, 
and  .undecided,  with  few  prominent  virtues  or  vices  \  their  natural  affections  are  strong, 
their  passions  moderate,  and  their  moral  feelings  weak. 

The  Singalese  of  the  provinces  which  have  been  for  some  generations  Smgalcseof 
habitually  subject  to  Europeans  are  more  remarkable  for  mildness,  bash-  pro"inc"i™^ 
fulaess,  timidity,  and  indolence.  In  consequence  of  this  last  characteristic,  they  are 
generally  in  a  state  of  indigence.  They  shave  their  beards,  while  the  Kandians  do 
not.  Before  undergoing  that  operation  for  the  first  time,  a  young  man  must  give  a 
sumptuous  entertainment  to  his  relations  and  neighbours.  Those  who  cannot  afford 
it,  retain  their  beards  till  their  circumstances  are  improved.  The  men  of  influence, 
called  Modelears,  retain  the  insignia  of  greatness,  but  their  power  has  been  abridged 
by  their  European  masters.  One  of  them  is  now  placed  at  the  head  of  every  de- 
partment of  government,  under  the  control  of  the  British  agents.  The  dignity  of  a 
Modelear  is  always  conferred  by  the  British  governor  in  person,  and  is  of  great  im- 
portance in  the  eyes  of  a  Singalese.  Those  who  enjoy  good  incomes  do  not  indulge 
habitually  in  any  luxurious  style  of  living.  A  Modelear,  when  retired  to 'his  own 
dwelling  is  found  stripped  to  the  skin,  sitting  in  an  armed  chair,  with  no  covering 
except  a  piece  of  muslin  on  his  loins;  but  in  giving  entertainments  he  will  expend 
large  sums.  They  sometimes  give  a  breakfast,  or  a  ball  and  supper,  to  their  Eu- 
ropean friends  in  a  splendid  style,  on  particular  festive  occasions,  such  as  the  birth 
of  a  child,  or  the  obtaining  of  any  honourably  distinction.  One  of  those  erections  . 
common  in  the  east,  called  Bungaloes,  which  are  spacious  open  apartments,  covered 
with  roofs  which  serve  for  an  agreeable  and  elegant  awning,  is  sometimes  made  for 
the  use  of  a  single  evening  of  pleasure  and  display,  when  it  is  embellished  and  light- 
ed up  in  a  most  magnificent  manner.  The  higher  orders  of  the  Singalese  in  the 
maritime  parts  profess  Christianity,  and  perform  their  maniage  ceremonies  according 
to  the  usages  of  the  Dutch.  This  is  generally  done  on  Sunday,  accompanied  with 
music,  dancing,  and  feasting,  to  which  is  sometimes  added  tumbling,  performed  by 
expert  natives.  When  a  Singalese  pair  marries,  the  thumbs  of  their  right  hands  are 
tied  together  with  a  slip  of  cotton  cloth,  and  water  is  poured  on  them  by  the  man's 
father's  brother,  and  the  woman's  mother's  sister. 

A  part  of  tlie  low  country  has,  from  time  immemorial,  been  inhabited  TiieMaiabar, 
by  Malabars.  These  wear  large  bunches  of  ear-rings,  and  encourage  fnhabifams. 
the  artificial  apertures  in  the  flap  of  the  ear  to  grow  to  an  enormous  size,  so  that  a 
man's  hand  may  pass  through  them  ;  the  lower  parts  being  stretched  till  they  reach 
the  shoulder.  A  considerable  number  of  Malabars  are  Mahometans,  and  go  under 
the  name  of  Moors  or  Lubbies.  They  follow  the  occupation  of  Pedlars,  tailors^ 
fishermen,  and  sailors.     These  differ  from  the  Singalese  in  concealing  their  womeu* 


220  BOOK    FOrvTY-NINTlL 

When  a  Moorish  woman  is  moved  from  one  place  to  anofhor,  if  a  palanquin  cannot 
bo  affordod,  she  is  placed  cross-legged  on  an  ox,  and  covered  completely  with  a 
white  sheet,  the  husband  walking  by  her  side.  A  considerable  number  of  free  Ma- 
lays reside  at  Ceylon,  some  of  whom  are  persons  of  rank  who  have  gone  into  exile 
Christians.  I  on  account  of  political  troubles. — The  maritime  parts  contain  many 
Christians,  both  of  the  Romish  and  Protestant  church.  The  Portuguese,  when  they 
settled  in  the  island,  destroyed  every  monument  of  the  existing  religion  along  the 
sea-coast,  converted  the  temples  into  Romish  churches,  and  compelled  the  natives 
to  adopt  the  forms  of  their  religion.  Fifteen  priests  educated  at  Goa  still  exert 
themselves  with  daily  success  in  making  proselytes.*  The  Dutch,  in  their  turn, 
disseminated  their  religion,  not  by  positive  persecution,  but  by  enacting  that  no  na- 
tive could  be  raised  to  the  rank  of  a  modclear,  or  enjoy  any  employment  under  the 
government,  without  conforming  to  the  creed  and  observances  of  the  reformed 
church.  Hence  the  higher  orders  assumed  the  name  of  Protestant  Christians,  which 
they  still  retain.  Under  the  British  rule  some  exertions  have  been  made  to  convey 
to  the  natives  farther  instruction  in  the  Protestant  religion,  particularly  by  dissemi- 
nating translations  of  the  Scriptures,  as  the  standard  of  Christianity. 
Historical  ro-  The  history  of  Ceylon,  previously  to  the  visits  paid  to  it  by  distant 

volutions.  nations,  is,  like  that  of  continental  India,  enveloped  in  uncertainty.    We 

know  that  the  island  was  frequented  by  the  Arabians  and  Persians  from  very  distant 
times,  but  these  have  not  recorded  any  particulars  which  elucidate  its  history.  The 
Singalese  traditions  are  destitute  of  historical  accuracy.  Their  first  king  they  main- 
tain to  have  had  a  lion  for  his  father.!  Rfimfi  makes  a  great  figure  in  their  legends, 
and  probably  was  a  real  personage  of  illustrious  eminence,  by  whose  name  a  king- 
dom and  city  were  known.  They  give  a  narrative  of  the  different  invasions  of  the 
island  by  the  Malabars  ;  of  their  battles  with  the  natives  ;  of  their  success  at  one 
time  in  subjugating  the  whole  of  the  island,  with  the  exception  of  Magam  and  Roona 
in  the  Magampattoo,  and  of  their  subsequent  expulsion  by  king  Wijeyabahoo. 
Discovery  by  The  Portugucsc  discovcrcd  Ceylon  in  1505.     They  formed  a  settlc- 

guese?'  '  ment  about  1520,  and  became  firmly  established  here  in  1536.     It  was 

in  their  hands  that  the  natives  first  saw  fire  arms  employed.     By  taking  a  part  in  the 
dissensions  of  the  royal  families,  they  sometimes  had  possession  of  Kandy.     The 
natives,  after  having  long  suffered  oppression  and  insult,  formed  an  alliance  with  the 
Dutch  for  the  expulsion  of  the  Portuguese.     For  this  service  tliey  agreed  that  the 
Dutch   should  receive  all  the  maritime  provinces,  except  Batticaloe  and  Putlam. 
The  Portuguese  were  expelled,  and  the  Dutch  established,  in  1658.  The 
Kandians  had  now  a  succession  of  kings  who  have  left  behind  them 
different  characters,  some  having  reigned  in  wisdom  and  peace,  others  tyrannized 
with  cruelty  over  a  reluctant  and  a  rebellious  people.     The  religion  of  the  country 
having  been  neglected,  and  in  a  great  measure  effaced  by  wars  and  intestine  troubles, 
Rajah  Singah  (during  whose  reign  the  interesting  traveller  Knox  was  detained  for 
many  years  a  prisoner)  sent  to  Siam,  with  the  assistance  of  the  Dutch,  for  priests  in 
order  to  operate  a  reformation.     The  king,  Rajadi  Rajah  Singha,  who  co-operated 
with  the   British   in  1790,  to  expel  the  Dutch  from  the  maritime  provinces,  had  the 
character  of  a  voluptuous  and  indolent  man.     By  this  foreign  alliance 
he  obtained  no  sea  port,  as  he  had  expected,  and  the  only  alteration  in 
his  condition  was,  that  he  got  a  more  powerful  neighbour  in  the  marilime  provinces. 
The  English  afterwards  attempted  to  take  possession  of  Kandy,  and  were  for  some 
time  in  possession  of  the  metropolis,  when,  in  1803,  the  English  garrison  was  at- 
tacked, overpowered,  and  treacherously  massacred.     A  desultory  war- 
fare was  afterwards  carried  on  for  two  years.     Between  the  years  1805 
and  1815,  no  active  hostilities  took  place,  but  the  court  and  kingdom  of  Kandy  were 
now  a  scene  of  the  most  sanguinary  proceedings  on  the  part  of  the  tyrannical  sove- 
reign, scarcely  equalled  in  history  for  their  atrocity,  and  giving  rise  to  a  desperate 
resistance  on  the  part  of  his  subjects.     The  king  evinced  a  jealousy  towards  his 
minister  Pilime  Talawe,  and  inflicted  on  him  some  indignities,     A  rebellion  was  in 

■*  Cordiner  f  Dr.  Davy's  Account,  p.  293. 


Who  were 
succeeded  by 
the  Dutch. 


And  these  hy 
the  English. 


Causes  of  their 
occupation  of 
the  interior. 


INDOSTAN.  221 

consoqijcnco  raised,  and  followed  by  the  beheading  and  impahne;  of  .some  chiefs, 
and  the  execution  of  the  minister  in   1812.     His  successor  in  office  fell  under  tho 
displeasure  of  his  master  in  his  turn,  and  was  obliged  to  fly.     An  execution  of  se- 
venty respectable  persons  followed.     The  wife,  children,  and  near  relations  of  the 
minister  were  executed.     The  mother,  after  being  forced  publicly  to  bray  the  head 
of  her  sons,  one  after  another,  in  a  morter,  immediately  after  they  were  separated 
from  the  body,  was  then,  along  with  her  sister-in-law,  drowned  in  the  adjacent  tank. 
No  person  was  safe.     The  most  innocent,  and  even  the  highest  of  the  sacerdotal 
order,  who  Avere  supposed  almost  inaccessible  to  just  punishment  for  crimes,  were 
sacrificed  to  the  whimsical  suspicions  of  this  barbarian.     Some  native  merchants 
belonging  to  the  British  provinces  having  gone  into  the  Kandian  kingdom,  were 
sent  back  cruelly  mutilated.     The  governor,  Licut.-General  Rrownrigg,  declared 
war,  prosecuted  the  contest  with  vigour,  and  the  king  was  secured  in  a  house  to 
which  he  had  gone  to  take  shelter,  in  January,  1815,  was  sent  to  Columbo,  and  from 
(hence  to  Vellorc,  where  he  is  retained  in  confinement.     His  name  is  Sree  Wikrime 
Rajah  Singha.     The  country  submitted  to  the  British  power,  under  the  condition  of 
the  old  laws  and  administration  of  the  kingdom  being  maintained.     Only  1000  men 
were  kept  in  the  interior,  and  confined  to  a  few  military  posts.     A  dissatisfaction, 
however,  with  their  new  masters  soon  sprung  up.  The  chiefs  conceived  that  they  were 
treated  with  no  respect,  except  on  official  occasions,  the  EngHsh  soldiers  having  from 
ignorance,  continually  offended  them  by  neglect.  The  English  were  somewhat  disre- 
spectful in  their  mode  of  catering  the  temples  and  of  addressing  the  priests.  A  rebel- 
lion broke  out  under  a  native  pretender  to  the  Kandian  throne,  in  October  |  A  rebellion. 
1817.     The  war  was  carried  on  by  the  operation  of  small  bodies,  and  was  irregular 
and  severe,  and  (he  retaliations  made  by  the  English  military  were  often  exceedingly 
inhuman,  as  in  such  a  situation  it  was  not  practicable  to  maintain  a  strict  obedience 
to  general  orders.    In  a  few  months  the  revolt  was  suppressed.    Kandy     imupprcs- 
was  taken,  and  with  it  the  sacred  tooth  of  Buddha,  a  relic,  the  possessor  of    """' 
which  is  considered  by  the  people  as  rightful  sovereign  of  their  country.   Simpler  and 
less  oppressive  arrangements  were  now  formed  for  conducting  the  government  and  ap- 
portioning Ihc  revenue,  which  are  likely  to  prove  more  conducive  to  the  happiness 
and  the  satisfaction  of  the  natives.     It  is  an  island  which,  throughout  the  interior  as 
well  as  along  the  sea-shore,  possesses  admirable  natural  advantages,  and,  mider  an 
enlightened  and  generous  management,  might  be  rendered  one  of  the  most  flourish- 
ing spots  in  the  world. 

We  shall  now  take  a  rapid  view  of  its  chief  localities,  particularly  I  Account  of  th© 
the  towns,  beginning  with  those  along  the  sea-coast  which  have  been  |  otiiVr'iocai'ities. 
longest  known.  At  the  northern  extremity  of  the  island  are  the  fort  and  town  of 
Jafi'napatam,  in  9°  47'  of  N.  lat.  and  80°  9'  of  E.  long.  The  fort  is  the  |  Jaffi,apntam. 
most  modern,  the  best  constructed,  and  handsomest  in  Ceylon.  It  is  situated  on  a 
piece  of  land  called  Jaffiia,  which  is  sometimes  denominated  an  island,  sometimes  a 
peninsula.  It  seems  to  be  connected  with  the  main  island  by  a  fordablc  strait,  which 
is  pcrliaps  a  dry  isthmus  at  low  water.  Within  the  fort  is  a  Dutch  church,  contain- 
ing a  tolerable  organ,  and  one  of  the  most  respectable  places  of  Cbrisfian  worship 
now  in  the  island.  There  are  also  a  house  for  the  commandant,  buildings  for  tho 
public  offices,  and  houses  belonging  to  Dutch  proprietors,  which  are  rented  to  flie 
British  officers ;  a  street  of  barracks,  and  one  occupied  by  the  mechanics,  and  Iho 
lower  orders  of  the  people.  The  pettah,  or  outer  town,  half  a  mile  from  the  fort, 
contains  several  thousand  inhabitants,  mostly  Europeans ;  its  streets  are  regularly 
built  and  kept  clean,  and  the  chief  street  finely  shaded  by  rows  of  large  trees  on 
each  side.  Almost  all  the  Dutch  families  which  formerly  resided  at  Tricomalee  have 
removed  to  this  place,  which  is  recommended  by  cheapness  and  agreeableness.  The 
country  is  fruitful ;  an  air  of  business  prevails,  and  some  regular  trade  its  naiRhbour- 
is  kept  up  with  the  opposite  coast  of  India.  Mr.  Cordincr  remarked,  '"'°*'* 
that  this  country  yielded  vegetable  produce  in  great  variety  ;  but  that  the  culture  of 
the  common  English  potato  had  not  succeeded  either  here  or  in  any  other  part  of 
Ceylon.  The  surface  is  flat,  but  rich  in  every  spot,  and  in  high  cultivation  as  far  as 
Point  Pedro,  tiie  northern  extremity,  at  a  distance  of  twenty-two  miles  from  the 


222  BOOK  FORTY-NINTH. 


town.     Here  tho  supreme  court  of  judicature  is  frequently  held,  and  the  govornofr 
Prevalent  of  the  island  comes  from  Columbo  to  preside.*     Many  thefts  and  mur- 

crimcs.  (j^,j.g  occur  iu  the  province.     A  common  form  of  robbery  is  to  cut  open 

the  flaps  of  men's  ears  during  sleep,  and  carry  off  their  ear-rings.  Yet  the  peo- 
ple habitually  sleep  in  their  houses  without  locking  their  doors,  or  in  the  open  air  in 
their  verandcsi  The  native  inhabitants  are  Malabars,  one  half  of  whom  are  of  the 
Brahminical  religion,  the  other  consists  of  Christians,  with  a  very  few  Mahometans. 
Agriculture  being  in  a  flourishing  state,  and  a  small  military  force  being  sufficient  to 
keep  possession,  this  is  the  only  province  of  Ceylon  the  revenue  of  which  exceeds 
its  expenses.  Tobacco  is  cultivated  in  large  quantities,  and  is  a  standing  article  of 
commerce,  and  a  fruitful  source  of  revenue.  The  timber  of  the  palmyra  tree,  which 
is  used  for  rafters  in  the  building  of  houses,  and  chanque  shells  which  are  much  used 
as  ornaments  in  dress  among  the  Hindoos,  are  tho  other  principal  articles  of  com- 
merce. In  this  province  are  to  be  seen  the  remains  of  thirty-two  Portuguese  churches, 
and  there  are  a  few  chapels  in  which  the  Romish  worship  is  still  celebrated.  In  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  town  there  are  some  humble  Hindoo  temples  of  recent  con- 
struction, built  since  universal  toleration  in  rehgion  has  been  re-established. 
North-west  Proceeding  round  the  western  coast  we  traverse  a  country  which  is 

'"*'*•  completely  laid  under  water  in  the  rainy  season,  though  not  to  such  a 

depth  as  to  prevent  travelling.  Here  we  have  on  the  right  two  small  islands,  called 
"  the  Two  Brothers,"  then  another  large  one  called  Manaar,  containing  a  fort.  A 
Aripo  and  little  farther  south  is  Aripo,  the  place  where  the  governor  fixes  his  head 

Condatchy.  quarters  during  the  pearl  fishery.  Here  and  at  Condatchy  the  country 
is  bare,  and  at  other  times  almost  deserted. 

Peninsula  of  Proceeding  farther  south,  we  come  to  the  long  peninsula  of  Calpen- 

caipenteen.  ^^^^^  j^jj^g  parallel  to  the  line  of  the  coast  for  about  sixty  miles,  and 
connected  with  it  by  an  isthmus  at  its  south  end.  It  has  a  fort,  (without  guns,)  an 
excellent  wharf,  and  a  small  village  adjoining,  containing  a  Portuguese  priest.  The 
inhabitants  are  pretty  numerous,  and  export  salted  fish  to  Columbo,  for  which  they 
bring  back  rice.  The  peninsula  is  low,  and  flat,  sandy,  and  covered  with  cocoa-nut 
trees.  The  coast  of  Ceylon,  at  this  place,  is  at  all  seasons  beautiful  and  verdant, 
and  possesses  much  natural  fertility.  Elephants  and  other  wild  animals,  birds  of 
Putiam,  I  beautiful  plumage,  and  a  great  variety  of  insects,  are  seen  here.    Putlam, 

lying  opposite  to  the  peninsula,  is  one  of  the  largest  and  most  commercial  native  vil- 
lages in  Ceylon.  Here  the  areca  nuts,  cardamoms,  black  pepper,  and  coffee  of  the 
Kandian  provinces,  are  exchanged  for  the  manufactures  of  Coromandel,  chiefly  by 
Mahometan  merchants.  Oysters  are  gathered  along  the  shore  at  all  times  in  great 
numbers,  and  the  sands  contain  many  beautiful  shells.  The  country  is  periodically 
inundated  by  the  sea  to  a  distance  of  sevoral  miles  from  the  shore,  and  considerable 
quantities  of  salt  are  crystallized  by  the  heat  of  the  sun,  and  collected  by  the  natives, 
chiiaw.  I       About  a  day's  journey  south  from  this  is  Chilaw,  a  comfortable  vil- 

lage, lying  between  two  branches  of  a  large  river.  A  pearl  fishery  is  occasionally 
carried  on  here.  At  this  part  of  our  progress  along  the  coast,  the  inhabitants  begin 
to  consist  of  Singalese  instead  of  Malabars.  Here  the  mountains  of  Kandy  come 
in  sight.  No  mountains  are  seen  between  Juffiiapatam  and  Chilaw.  Negumbo  is 
Negurabo.  |  a  bcautiful  village,  which  we  enter  by  passing  through  a  cocoa  nut  grove 
with  a  shaded  avenue.  It  contains  a  pentagonal  fort.  Several  Dutch  families  live  in 
it,  apparently  happy,  but  reduced  in  their  circumstances  by  the  political  vicissitudes 
of  the  country.  At  this  place  the  cinnamon  plantations  commence,  extending,  with 
few  interruptions,  a  great  way  beyond  Columbo.  The  country  is  well  cultivated, 
and  the  people  wear  an  air  of  comfort.  The  finest  fruits  are  reared,  and  sell  at  very 
low  prices.  From  this  to  Columbo  the  country  is  luxuriant,  well  cultivated,  and  the 
road  lined  with  excellent  houses,  indicating  the  approach  of  the  traveller  to  the  capi- 
tal of  the  present  government. 

Columbo  lies  in  7°  of  N.  latitude.     The  fort  is  composed  of  sevdn 
bastions  with  intervening  curtains.     It  measured  a  mile  and  a  quarter  ia 


City  of  Co- 
lumbo, 
The  fort. 


•  Cordlner's  Description,  vol.  i.  p.  327. 


INDOSTAN.  223 

circumfoi'ence,  and  is  almost  entirely  surrounded  with  water,  being  situated  on  a  pro- 
jecting piece  of  land  belonging  to  a  stripe  which  lies  between   the   sea  and  a  large 
fresh  water  lake.     Two-thirds  are  encompassed  by  the  sea,  the  other  is  bounded  by 
the  lake;  two  narrow  necks  of  land,  like  causeways,  connect  it  with  the  main  land 
on  two  sides.     None  but  small  vessels  can  lie  close  to  the  wharf,  and  there  is  no 
good  harbour  where  vessels  can  at  all  times  ride  ia  safety.     The  interior  of  the  fort 
is  beautiful,  the  streets  regular  and  shaded  with  trees.     The  houses  in  general  have 
only  one  story,  and  verandas  in  front.     The  water  within  the  fort  is  brackish.    That 
which  is  used  is  brought  from  a  distance  of  a  mile  and  a  half.     Rich  and  beautiful 
views  are  obtained  from  an  excellent  walk  surrounding  the  ramparts  of  the  fort.  The 
pcttah  is  situated  a  few  hundred  yards  to  the  east  of  the  fort,  on  the  |  The  pettaii. 
same  piece  of  doubly  peninsulatcd  land.     It  is  larger  tlian  the  town  within  the  fort. 
The  streets  are  regular  and  clean.     It  contains  an  orphan  asylum  for  the  children  of 
Europeans.     The  boys  educated  in  it  perform  the  business  of  clerks  in  the  various 
ofhcos  of  government.     It  is  bounded  on  the  north  by  the  sea,  on  the  south  by  the 
lake,  on  the  west  by  the  esplanade  of  the  fort.     On  the  east,  where  it  is  connected 
with  the  main  land,  it  was  formerly  defended  by  a  fortified  wall.  Beyond  [  Suburbs, 
this,  many  straggling  streets  extend  for  several  miles  into  the  country.     The  fort  is 
chiefly  inhabited  by  English,  the  pettah  by  Dutch  and  Portuguese,  and  the  suburbs, 
which  ai-e  the  most  populous  of  all,  by  native  Singalese.     Columbo  contains  in  all 
upwards  of  50,000  inhabitants.     The  houses  of  the  Singalese,  here,  and  indeed 
over  all  the  island,  are  much  more  comfortable  than  the  huts  of  the  Hindoos  on  the 
continent,  especially  about  Madras.  Bathing  in  fresh  water  is  a  daily  practice  among 
the  native  inhabitants  of  Columbo,  who  frequent  the  lakes  and  canals  in  large  com- 
panies. Men,  women,  and  children,  are  intermixed,  but  without  stripping  themselves 
naked.     They  stand  immersed  nearly  up  to  the  shoulders,  and  from  a  pitcher  pour 
water  over  their  heads  continually  for  half  an  hour  or  longer.     A  dread  of  sharks 
prevents  them  from  bathing  in  the  sea. — The  neighbourhood  of  Co-     Neighbour- 
lumbo  contains  a  great  variety  of  hill  and  dale,  and  furnishes  a  number     ^"^• 
of  delightful  rides,  scarcely  equalled  any  where  else  within  so  small  a  compass.  The 
face  of  the  country  is  chiefly  covered  with  trees.     Much  constant  attention  is  re- 
quired to  keep  any  spot  in  the  state  of  a  cultivated  open  field.     Even  when  a  road  is 
formed,  shrubs  spring  up  upon  it  so  rapidly,  that  if  it  be  neglected  for  two  months, 
the  traces  of  it  can  hardly  be  discovered.     Several  pleasant  rides,  from  three  to 
eight  miles  in  extent,  are  formed,  leading  from  one  gate  of  the  fort,  traversing  the 
intennediate  country,  and  returning  by  the  other  gate ;  along  these  many  pleasing 
villas  have  been  erected,  and  sometimes  light  and  elegant  bangaloes  of  wooden  pil- 
lars, roofed  with  cocoa  nut  leaves.     The  borders  of  the  lake  are  finely  diversified, 
and  it  affords  an  opportunity  for  taking  pleasant  aquatic  excursions.     It  contains  a 
large  peninsula,  of  fertile  soil  and  varied  surface,  originally  connected  with  the  shore 
at  the  side  opposite  the  fort,  and  also  joined  to  the  fort  itself  by  an  artificial  cause- 
way.    This  piece  of  land,  with  its  indented  borders,  thus  divides  the  lake  into  two. 
It  was  formerly  occupied  by  slaves  in  the  service  of  the  Dutch  government.     The 
construction  of  the  fishing  boats  used  here,  and  on  the  Calany-ganga  river,  is  curi- 
ous.    Each  consists  of  a  canoe  made  of  one  tree  scooped  out,   about  fifteen  feet 
long,  which  is  too  light  to  allow  a  person  to  step  into  it  without  oversetting,  were  it 
not  lor  a  parallel  log  of  wood,  with  pointed  ends,  floating  alongside  at  a  little  dis- 
tance, and  connected  with  the  canoe  by  two  sets  of  elastic  poles.     This  is  called  an 
outrigger.    To  this  the  ropes  of  the  sail  extend,  by  which  it  is  lowered  in  an  instant. 
Strabo,  Pliny,  and  Solinus  describe  a  similar  boat  as  used  in  their  time  in  the  same 
seas.     Columbo  enjoys  one  of  the  most  salubrious  climates  in   the  world.     TIfose 
who  remain  within  doors  during  the  heat  of  the  day  find  it  agreeably  temperate.   Out 
of  a  thousand  British  soldiers,  it  often  happens  that  not  one  is  lost  in  two  months. 
The  thermometer  fluctuates  about  80°  of  Fahrenheit's  scale,  being  seldom  more 
than  seven  degrees  under  or  above  it.     The  insulated  situation  of  the  place,  its  par- 
taking of  the  salutary  influence  of  both  monsoons,  the  frequency  of  refreshing  show- 
ers, the  land  and  sea  breezes,  and  the  bibulous  soil,  preventing  the  stagnation  of 
water,  arc  circumstances  whicli  uU  contribute  to  tliis  happy  ellcct. 


224  BOOK  FOUTY-NINTH. 


Courts  of  ju9. 
ticc. 


In  1802,  a  supreme  court  of  judicature  was  established  at  Columbo, 
consisting  of  a  chief  justice,  and  one  puisne  justice,  and  annexed  to  it 
was  the  advocate  fiscal,  the  registrar,  a  sheriff  or  fiscal,  and  a  competent  number  of 
clerks  and  oilier  officers.  Two  Dutch  gentlemen  who  had  learned  the  English  lan- 
guage were,  in  Mr,  Cordiner's  time,  (1805,)  the  only  persons  who  acted  as  advocates 
and  proctors.  There  are  three  subordinate  courts  for  setthng  less  important  causes, 
civil  and  criminal.  The  number  of  causes  which  come  before  them  is  great,  the 
people  being  extremely  litigious,  and  fond  of  having  their  complaints  heard  and  in- 
styieofso-  vcstigatcd.  Persons  in  the  small  circle  of  genteel  English  society  at 
ciety.  Columbo,  find  it  extremely  agreeable,  and  prefer  it  to  that  of  the  other 

stations  in  India;  but  the  habits  of  that  nation,  making  conviviality  a  necessary  in- 
gredient in  all  easy  social  intercourse,  operate  as  a  cause  of  separation  from  the 
Dutch  and  other  Europeans,  except  on  pubhc  occasions  of  infrequent  occurrence, 
Remarks.  |  when,  howcvcr,  they  show  sufficient  cordiality.  Much  advantage  would 
accrue  to  the  English  nation,  and  those  with  whom  they  come  in  contact,  if  they 
could  more  readily  surmount  this  awkwardness,  and  resign  their  slavish  attachment 
to  particular  modes  of  intercourse,  which  are  often  too  expensive  to  admit  of  a  due 
extension  of  the  bonds  of  society.  The  institution  of  literary  and  scientific  asso- 
ciations, such  as  the  Asiatic  and  other  literary  societies  in  Calcutta,  have  had  a 
happy  effect  in  bringing  together  individuals  who,  though  mutually  allied  by  a  com- 
munity of  taste  and  pursuit,  would  otherwise  have  been  unknown  to  one  another.  It 
is  certainly  agreeable,  for  example,  to  find  the  Danish  Missionaries  and  other  orien- 
tal literati  becoming  associated  with  the  well  informed  English  at  Calcutta.  Cey- 
lon aflx)rds  an  ample  field  for  philosophical  investigation,  as  well  as  the  formation  of 
economical  active  institutions,  which  might  afibrd  agreeable  employment  for  persons 
associated  in  liberal  pursuits,  and  some  such  might  undoubtedly  be  found  among 
the  Dutch  and  other  inhabitants  of  that  island.  The  spirit  might  at  least  be  cho- 
'rished.  The  cultivation  of  elegant  and  cheap  pleasures  of  this  kind  would  give  a 
happiness  and  a  dignity  to  the  society  of  the  country,  which  mere  extemporaneous 
agreeableness,  however  desirable  in  its  own  place,  never  can  impart, 
caitura.  |       Proceeding  southward  from  Columbo,  we  pass  Caltura,  a  village  plea- 

santly situated  on  the  banlcs  of  a  river,  with  a  small  fortification,  and  inhabited  by 
Singalese  and  some  descendants  of  the  Portuguese  : — Also  Barbareen,  a  place  famed 
Point  deGaiie.  |  for  its  oystcrs  ; — and  afterwards  arrive  at  a  more  important  place,  Point 
de  Galle,  at  a  distance  of  seventy  miles  from  Columbo.  The  road  lies  along  a  low 
sandy  shore,  luxuriant  in  cocoa-nut  trees.  At  Point  de  Gallc  there  is  a  large  fort, 
within  which  almost  all  the  Europeans  five.  There  are  very  few  large  houses  built 
without  it.  There  is  a  manufacture  of  ropes  from  the  fibrous  rind  of  the  cocoa-nut ; 
these  are  called  coiar  ropes.  A  considerable  trade  is  carried  on  in  small  craft.  The 
fort  is  on  a  rocky  promontory.  Its  works  are  extensive,  but  it  is  commanded  by 
other  eminences.  The  harbour  is  tolerable,  and  ranks  the  second  in  the  island,  be- 
ing commodious  and  secure,  though  small,  and  somewhat  difficult  of  entrance.  It 
is  commanded  by  the  fort.  From  this  place  the  productions  of  the  island  were 
shipped  for  Europe  by  the  Dutch,  and  part  of  them  still  is.  The  disease  called  ele- 
phantiasis, because  the  legs  of  the  patient  swell  so  as  to  resemble  the  elephant, 
prevails  here  among  the  natives.  It  has  not  been  known  to  attack  Europeans,  ex- 
cept such  as  were  in  extreme  poverty. 

Maiura.  |       Beyond  this  is  the  fertile  province  of  Matura,  filled  with  beautiful 

scenes  resembling  the  parks  of  European  gentlemen.  Near  Belligam,  in  this  pro- 
Tompieor  vince,  is  a  Singalese  temple  of  Buddha,  called  Agra-boddha-ganni,  with 
Agra-woddha-  ^^^^^^  •  j^j^  ^^^j  hicroglyphical  paintings  representing  the  history  of  their 
kings.  The  statues  of  Vishnu  and  Siva  are  conjoined  with  that  of  Buddha.  The 
architecture  is  peculiar  but  elegant,  and  near  it  is  a  tomb  of  Buddha,  resembling  a 
boll  of  the  most  tasteful  form.*  Near  this  temple  is  a  large  statue  sculptured  out  of 
the  solid  rock,  and  known  by  the  name  of  the  Crusta  Raja,  and  supposed  to  reprc- 
BeUisam.        j  sent  an  Indian  prince  who  subdued  this  part  of  the  island.  Belligam  is  a 

*  A  plate  of  il  is  given  by  the  Kcv.  Mr.  Cordinei'  in  vol.  i.  p.  188  of  his  Description. 


Mulgeerelen' 
na  rock. 


INDOSTAN.  223 

populous  fishing  village.  The  right  of  fishing  is  let  by  the  govcnimeut  |  FUhing  timle. 
to  men  of  property.  This  is  the  case  along  the  whole  coast  of  the  island.  Hence 
fish  are  expensive,  and  the  fishermen  arc  not  allowed  to  supply  vessels  as  they  pass, 
lest  they  should  misrepresent  to  the  renter  the  quantity  of  fish  which  they  have  caught, 
of  whicli  he  is  entitled  to  one-third.  Eacli  of  the  villages  along  this  coast  contains 
a  Christian  school.  Farther  on  is  tlie  little  town  of  Matura,  on  the  Neel-ganga 
river,  to  which  a  small  fort  is  attached.  It  contains  several  comfortable  houses  be- 
longing to  families  of  Dutch  extraction. 

Three  miles  to  the  east  is  Dondra-liead,  the  southernmost  point  of  |  Dondra-iiead. 
the  island,  which  seemed  to  Mr.  Cordiner  to  be  a  low  stripe  of  land  covered  with 
cocoa-nut  trees,  but  a  mile  to  the  east  there  is  a  higher  and  more  rugged  promontory. 
Just  at  the  extremity  of  Dondra  are  to  be  seen  the  remains  of  a  Hindoo  temple, 
probably  once  the  most  magnificent  structure  in  the  island.  They  consist  chiefly  of 
a  long  avenue  of  200  stone  pillars,  the  stone  frame  of  a  door  carved  with  stern  look- 
ing heads  and  borders  of  foliage,  and  the  shattered  relics  of  several  images.  Close 
to  this  is  a  temple  of  Buddha.  There  is  also  a  mud-built  sanctuary  dedicated  to 
Vishnu,  divided  into  several  apartments,  hung  round  with  calico,  on  which  arc  printed 
figures  of  some  sanguinary  deities.  It  contains  a  stone  image  of  Ganesa,  having 
the  head  of  an  elephant  on  the  body  of  a  man.  Here  the  Singalese  come  to  be 
sworn,  when  about  to  give  legal  evidence.  A  few  miles  inland  from  the  Dondra- 
head  is  the  stupendous  mountain  of  stone  called  by  the  Singalese  Mulgccrelcnna, 
and  by  the  Dutch  Adam's  Brecht,  being  one  entire  rock  of  a  cubical 
form,  300  feet  high.  A  winding  flight  of  545  steps  leads  to  the  s.ummit, 
said  to  have  been  formed  1500  years  ago.  On  the  summit  is  a  bell-shaped  tomb  of 
Buddha,  similar  to  that  which  accompanies  all  his  temples  in  the  island.  From  this 
situation  the  view  is  rich  and  magnificent.  A  little  way  from  the  top  there  is  a  re- 
markable natural  cave,  and  two  artificial  caverns,  forming  gloomy  temples  of  Buddha, 
containing  many  statues,  and  hieroglyphical  paintings.  At  the  foot  of  the  rock  arc 
the  houses  of  ten  priests.  The  province  of  Matura  is  very  populous  ;  it  contains 
many  temples  and  about  2000  priests.  It  is  well  cultivated,  and  yields  a  considera- 
ble revenue  ;  but  unhealthy,  and  very  liable  to  epidemic  fevers.  Agriculture  is  now 
likely  to  flourish  in  it;  as  it  is  relieved  from  the  discouragement  which  its  Dutch  mas- 
ters threw  in  its  way  for  the  sake  of  creating  an  exclusive  market  for  the  rice  of 
Batavia. 

After  we  have  passed  to  the  east  of  Dondra-head,  and  begun  to  take  |  Tengaiie. 
a  northerly  direction  by  travelling  along  the  coast,  we  come  to  Tengaiie,  an  old 
Dutch  fortress  in  a  district  allotted  to  the  hunting  of  elephants.     Here  a  great  many 
of  these  animals  are  caught.     The  village  contains  300  inhabitants,  chiefly  fisher- 
men. 

Between  Tengaiie  and  Batticaloc,  the  country  is  inhospitable  from  its  neglected 
state,  and  the  multitudes  of  ferocious  animals  which  it  contaii.s,  so  that  the  traveller 
often  prefers  a  coasting  voyage  to  a  land  journey  over  this  interval.  The  wildest 
part,  though  of  great  natural  fertility,  is  called  Mahagampattoe,  on  the  Mniiagampat- 
shores  of  which  are  the  salt  bays  of  Magam,  by  which  the  Kandians  *""•"• 
were  always  supplied  with  salt  while  at  war  w  ith  the  masters  of  the  marine  districts. 
It  never  was  in  the  power  of  the  latter  to  prevent  them  from  supplying  themselves  at 
this  place.  The  sugar  cane  and  maize  grow  here  with  imconmion  luxuriance,  but 
cultivation  cannot  be  carried  on  for  want  of  protection  from  the  depredations  of  wild 
beasts.  Agriculture  in  this  quarter  would  also  stand  in  need  of  tanks  to  aflbrd  a  due 
supply  of  water,  as  the  climate  is  much  more  liable  to  protracted  droughts  than  on 
the  western  shore.  Some  tanks  had  been  formerly  maintained  here,  but  in  Mr.  Cor- 
diner's  time  they  had,  through  the  selfishness  of  some  individuals,  and  the  supine 
ness  of  others,  gone  to  decay.  There  are  several  marks  of  former  cultivation,  some 
small  villages  at  great  mutual  distances,  and  some  traces  of  old  religious  monuments. 

Batticaloe,  on  the  east  side  of  the  island,  lies  much  more  to  the  north  |  Batticaioe. 

than  Columbo  on  the  west,  being  nearly  in  the  latitude  of  Chilaw.     The  fort  is  on 

an  island  of  the  same  name,  three  miles  and  a  half  in  circumference,  contained  in  an 

inlet  of  the  sea.     There  is  a  small  village,  all  the  inhabitants  of  which  speak  the 

Vol.  II.—F  f 


226  BOOK   FORTY-NINTH. 

Malabaric  language,  and  chiefly  consist  of  Hindoos  and  Mahometans,  some  Romish 
Portuguese,  and  a  very  few  Protestants.  There  are  several  islands  adjacent.  The 
country  is  flat,  but  the  ground  gradually  rises  towards  the  interior  till  it  terminates  in 
high  mountains,  amonc  which  is  a  rocky  eminence  of  a  cubical  form,  on  the  top  of 
which  is  a  palace  belonging  to  the  king  of  Kandy.  Batticaloe  is  garrisoned  by  sixty 
sepoys,  and  fifteen  gun  Lascars.  The  surrounding  country  is  one  of  the  cheapest 
and  most  fertile  in  the  island.  Fish  are  in  great  plenty.  The  native  inhabitants  are 
described  as  extremely  civil  and  obliging.*  They  have  a  contented  and  happy  ap- 
pearance. The  scenery  is  adorned  with  the  magnificent  talipot  tree,  the  largest  of 
the  palms.  Mr.  Cordiner  saw  one  which  measured  100  feet  high,  and  six  in  cir- 
cumference. 

Trincomaiee.  |  Nearly  a  degree  north  from  Batticaloe,  is  Trincomalee,  the  most  im- 
portant station  on  the  coast  of  Ceylon,  from  the  noble  and  commanding  harbour 
which  it  possesses,  capable  of  aflbrding  ample  protection  to  an  extended  commerce. 
It  is  situated  in  N.  lat.  8^  28'.  From  its  position,  and  the  ready  entrance  and  egress 
which  it  affords  at  all  seasons,  it  is  better  adapted  for  a  marine  dep6t  than  any  other 
station  in  India ;  yet  it  has  been  unaccountably  neglected  by  the  English,  since  they 
obtained  possession  of  the  island.  The  soil  here  is  rather  dry,  and  the  climate  un- 
healthy, and  in  tliesc  particulars,  the  Dutch  did  not  improve  it;  they  wished  to  ob- 
viate the  cupidity  of  rival  nations,  by  discouraging  the  visits  of  strangers.  The  ter- 
ritory might,  however,  be  cultivated  with  success.  As  it  is,  it  presents,  in  point  of 
verdure,  a  marked  contrast  to  the  sandy  and  flat  shore  of  Madras,  with  its  rugged 
cliffs,  its  woods,  its  plains,  and  its  villages.  It  contains  a  copious  variety  of  romantic 
and  sublime  prospects.  The  fortifications  are  principally  of  Portuguese  workman- 
ship; a  little  was  added  to  them  by  the  French,  but  scarcely 'iny  thing  by  the  Dutch. 
While  it  is  the  most  likely  place  for  an  enemy  to  attack  on  account  of  its  value,  it  is 
at  the  same  time  capable  of  being  made  stronger  than  any  other  in  Ceylon.  Every 
convenience  is  aflorded  except  that  of  wet-docks,  for  which  there  is  not  a  sufficient 
rise  of  the  tide.  While  Mr.  Cordiner  was  there,  it  had  a  neglected  aspect,  and  the 
houses  in  the  fort  were  in  great  disrepair.  At  one  time,  the  English  garrison  had 
suffered  from  a  neglect  to  provide  fresh  animal  food,  being  subsisted  five  days  in  the 
week  on  salt  provisions.  Six  miles  to  the  north-west  are  the  hot  wells 
of  Cannia,  which  have  a  temperature  of  106  g,  and  are  regarded  with  re- 
ligious veneration  by  the  Hindoo  natives,  who  have  built  a  temple  at  the  place. 

The  road  leading  west  from  Trincomalee  towards  Jaffnapatam,  part 
of  which  is  well  adapted  for  carriages,  is  in  many  places  rich  in  romantic 
prospects;  and  rest-houses  for  the  accommodation  of  travellers  are  built 
in  different  parts.  The  inhabitants  of  the  country  have  the  appearance  of  innocence 
and  happiness.  Cocoa-nut  trees  are  rare  on  this  side  of  the  island  compared  to  the 
other.  A  few  oxen  and  buffaloes  are  kept.  Wild  elephants  inhabit  the  woods,  and 
alligators  the  rivers  and  their  banks.  Moletive,  on  the  sea  shore,  is  a  neat  com- 
fortable village,  with  some  spacious  houses.  A  garrison  is  kept  in  it,  but  it  seems 
to  have  been  made  a  military  post  for  keeping  open  the  communication  between 
Trincomalee  and  Jafinapatam.  Ancient  redoubts  are  found  in  different  parts,  but 
scarely  any  other  monuments  of  human  labour,  though  the  district  was  once  highly 
cultivated.  The  places  dedicated  to  religious  uses  were  razed  by  the  Portuguese, 
and  private  houses  have  always  been  formed  of  too  perishing  materials  to  leave  any 
permanent  traces  of  their  former  existence. 

A  few  prominent  objects  in  the  interior  of  Ceylon,  the  late  kingdom  of  Kandy,  re- 
cityofKamiy.  j  main  to  be  noticed.  In  the  first  place,  the  capital  city,  Kandy,  in  a  dis- 
trict called  Yattineura,  is  at  the  head  of  an  extensive  valley,  and  about  1400  feet 
above  the  level  of  the  sea,  on  the  boarders  of  an  artificial  lake  made  by  the  late  king, 
surrounded  by  wooded  hills  and  mountains,  varying  from  200  to  2000  feet  in  height. 
Its  situation  is  beautiful  and  romantic,  but  in  a  military  view  insecure,  and  hardly  ad- 
mits of  defence.  The  houses  are  all  of  clay,  of  one  story,  and  all  thatched,  except 
those  of  the  chiefs,  which  are  tiled.     There  is  one  street  which  used  to  be  exclus- 

*  Cordiner,  vol.  i.  p.  251,  262. 


Wells  of  Can 
nia. 


Country  be- 
tween Trinco- 
inalee  and 
Jaffnapatam. 


IN DOST AN.  227 

ively  inhabited  by  Malabars,  relatives  aiul  dependants  of  the  king,  in  whom  he  could 
place  more  confidence  than  in  his  own  subjects.  The  palace  occupied  a  con-  |  The  palace, 
siderable  area.  Its  front,  about  200  yards  long,  has  rather  an  imposing  appearance ;  it 
rises  above  a  handsome  mole,  and  looks  towards  the  principal  temples.  It  is  termi- 
nated at  one  extremity  by  a  hexagonal  two-storied  building,  in  which  the  king  pre- 
sented himself  on  great  occasions  to  the  people  collected  below;  at  the  other  it  is 
terminated  by  the  women's  apartments,  on  which  the  sun,  moon  and  stars,  as  insignia 
of  royalty,  were  carved  in  stone.  Here  tlie  king  and  his  ladies  stationed  themselves 
to  witness  the  processions  at  the  public  festivals.  This  city  abounds  in  temples, 
which  seem  to  have  been  considered  as  a  necessary  appendage  to  a  |  Temples, 
royal  palace.  Every  royal  residence  in  the  island  had  a  number  of  them,  some  of 
which  have  survived  the  palaces  to  which  they  were  attached.  Tho  Dalada  Malc- 
gawa,  the  domestic  temple  of  tho  king,  is  the  most  highly  venerated  of  any  in  the 
country,  as  it  contains  thepreciousrelic,  the  tooth  of  Buddha,  to  which  Tooth  of 
the  whole  island  was  dedicated.  It  has  two  stories,  and  is  in  the  Chi-  UucWha. 
nesG  stylo  of  architecture,  but  small.  The  sanctum  is  an  inner  room  in  the  upper 
story,  about  twelve  feet  square,  without  a  window,  and  never  visited  by  the  light  of 
tho  sun.  It  is  a  place  of  the  most  striking  splendour.  The  doors  have  polished 
brass  pannels,  and  a  curtain  before  and  behind  them.  The  roof  and  walls  are  lined 
with  gold  brocade,  and  scarcely  any  thing  is  to  be  seen  but  gold,  gems,  and  sweet 
smelling  flowers.  On  a  low  stage  occupying  half  the  room,  there  is  a  profusion  of 
flowers  tastefully  arranged  before  two  or  three  small  figures  of  Buddha,  one  of  crys- 
tal, and  one  of  gilt  silver,  and  four  or  five  caskets  called  karanduas,  containing  relics. 
All  the  karanduas  except  one  are  small,  not  more  than  a  foot  high,  and  wrapped  up 
in  numerous  folds  of  muslin.  One  is  much  larger,  uncovered,  and  decorated  with 
the  utmost  brilliancy.  It  is  five  feet  four  inches  high,  and  nine  feet  ten  in  circumfer- 
ence at  the  base.  It  is  of  silver  gilt  on  tho  outside,  of  neat  but  plain  workmanship, 
and  studded  with  a  few  gems.  Rich  ornaments  are  attached  to  it,  consisting  of  gold 
chains,  and  a  great  variety  of  gems  suspended.  Here,  among  the  rest,  is  a  bird 
formed  entirely  of  diamonds,  rubies,  blue  sapphires,  emeralds,  and  cat's-cycs  set  in 
gold,  the  metal  being  hid  by  tho  profusion  of  stones.  This  great  karandua  is  the 
receptacle  of  the  "  Dalada,"  which  is  considered  as  the  tooth  of  Buddha.  It  is  en- 
closed, first  in  a  small  karandua,  which  is  in  a  larger,  and  there  are  four  of  these,  one 
within  another,  besides  the  great  karandua. 

Two  institutions  called  the  Malwatte  Wihare,  and  the  Asgirie  Wihare,  |  College*, 
both  without  the  town,  are  at  the  head  of  the  ecclesiastical  establishment  of  the 
country.  They  are  a  sort  of  monasteries,  or  colleges,  the  one  containing  about 
forty  priests.  The  sacred  buildings  are  rendered  ornamental  by  the  groves  of  cocoa- 
nut  trees,  and  the  venerable  banyans  around  them,  which  are  carefully  preserved. 
The  appearance  of  Kandy  altogether  has  declined  since  it  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
English.  They  do  nothing  towards  the  repairing  of  the  temples ;  they  have  pulled 
down  much  and  have  built  but  little.* 

The  high  mountain  called  Adam's  Peak,  is  one  of  the  chief  curiosities  |  Adara'»Peak. 
of  the  island.  The  approach  to  it,  for  a  considerable  way  oft',  is  rugged  and  difficult. 
The  peak  is  of  a  conical  form,  rising  rapidly  and  majestically  to  a  point.  The  ascent 
near  to  the  top  is  precipitous,  and  lives  are  sometimes  lost  in  climbing  it,  although 
iron  chains  are  fixed  in  the  rocks,  to  aid  the  numerous  pilgrims  who  visit  it.  Those 
who  have  been  on  the  summit  describe  the  beauty  and  grandeur  of  the  prospect 
enjoyed  from  it  in  the  highest  terms. f  The  area  here  is  very  narrow,  and  walled  in 
to  prevent  accidents.  Here  Baddha  is  supposed,  when  he  landed  on  his  first  visit  to 
the  island,  to  have  left  the  mark  of  his  foot.  A  superficial  hollow,  five  feet  long,  is 
venerated  by  the  natives  as  the  sacred  impression.  It  is  ornamented  with  a  margin 
of  brass  studded  with  a  few  ordinary  gems,  and  covered  with  a  roof  which  is  supported 
by  four  wooden  pillars  fixed  to  the  rock  by  four  iron  chains.  The  roof  is  lined  with 
coloured  cloths,  and  its  margin  decked  with  flowers  and  streamers.  Lower  down  in 
the  same  rock,  there  is  a  little  niche  of  masonry  dedicated  to  Samen,  the  guardian 

•  Dr.  Davy's  Account  of  the  Interior  of  Ceylon,  p.  564—371.  j  Ibid.  p.  342. 


228  BOOK  FORTY-NINTH. 

god  or  saint  protector  of  the  mountain,  with  a  small  house  of  one  room  for  the  offi- 
ciating priest. — This  peak  is  visited  by  numerous  pilgrims,  who,  assisted  by  a  priest, 
perform  devotions  according  to  a  ritual.  It  is  the  custom,  at  the  conclusion  of  the 
ceremony,  for  relations  young  and  old,  to  salute  one  another,  and  the  usage  is  ac- 
companied with  symptoms  of  the  hvehest  affectionate  feeling.  Each  pilgrim  makes 
a  small  offering;  these  are  placed  on  the  sacred  impression,  and  removed  by  a  servant. 
They  are  the  perquisites  of  the  chief  priest  of  the  Malwatte  Wihare.  The  height 
of  the  peak  is  about  7000  feet  above  the  suvface  of  the  sea.  The  temperature,  when 
Dr.  Davy  visited  it,  fluctuated  between  51°  and  59',  being  sufficiently  low  to  give  a 
chilly  feehng  to  persons  used  to  the  high  temperature  of  the  plains.  The  name  of 
"Adam's  Peak,"  was  given  to  the  mountain  by  the  Mahometans  of  Ceylon.  The 
Singalese  call  it  Sree-pada,  which  is  also  the  name  of  the  impression  which  gives  it 
sanctity ;  sometimes  Samenella,  from  the  name  of  its  guardian  angel. 
General  ajpeci  The  wholo  of  the  interior  of  Ceylon  is  interesting  from  its  natural 
ofthecountiy.  fertility,  and  the  beautiful  and  romantic  views  which  it  often  displays. 
Much  of  it,  however,  consists  of  impenetrable  and  gloomy  forests.  Clumps  of  fra- 
grant lemon  grass  diffuse  in  most  places  a  delicious  odour.  The  climate,  being 
diversified  by  elevation  and  exposure,  yet  every  where  fine,  contributes  with  the  fer- 
tility of  the  soil  to  impress  us  with  the  high  capabilities  which  might  here  be  brought 
into  operation  under  enlightened  management,*  but  the  country  does  not  present 
many  objects  either  natural  or  artificial,  which  would  appear  interesting  in  topogra- 
Lake  of  Mi-  phical  detail.  We  may  notice,  however,  two  large  lakes  or  tanks  in  the 
"^'^^"  interior,  on  the  north-east  side  of  the  mountains,  in  the  direction  of  Trin- 

comalee.  The  one  is  the  lake  of  Miner^,  fifteen  or  twenty  miles  in  circumference, 
the  waters  of  which  are  confined  by  an  embankment  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  long. 
The  outlet  is  formed  by  very  large  masses  of  rock.  This  was  probably  a  source  of 
great  and  extensive  fertility  at  a  former  period,  when  its  waters  were  directed  by 
man,  but  these  are  now  allowed  to  run  waste,  forming  swamps,  and  supporting  a 
rank  vegetation,  which  contributes  to  the  unwholesomeness  of  that  part  of  the  coun- 
Kandeiid.  j  try. — Twenty-nine  miles  north-east  from  this  is  the  lake  of  Kandelle 
which  has  embankments  of  greater  magnitude  than  that  of  Minere  ;  one  is  about  a 
mile  and  a  half  long,  and  twenty-feet  high,  besides  which  there  is  another  of  smaller 
size.  The  outlets,  or  sluices,  are  of  vast  strength,  and  constructed  with  great  art  5 
but  the  lake  itself  is  of  much  smaller  extent  than  that  of  Miner^,  being  only  three  or 
four  miles  in  circumference. 

The  Laccadive  islands,  lying  seventy-five  miles  to  the  west  of  Mala- 
bar, are  thirty-two  in  number,  besides  rocks  and  dry  spots  too  small  to 
be  inhabited.  They  extend  from  the  10th  to  the  12th  degree  of  N.  latitude.  They 
are  separated  by  wide  channels.  The  largest  of  them  does  not  contain  six  square 
miles  of  land.  They  are  surrounded  by  coral  rocks  and  shoals,  which  render  the 
approach  dangerous.  They  yield  no  grain,  their  only  produce  being  cocoa-nuts, 
betel-nuts,  and  plantains.  The  inhabitants,  who  are  poor,  subsist  on  cocoa-nuts  and 
fish  ;  they  are  of  Malabaric  extraction,  and  profess  the  Mahometan  religion.  They 
export  coir  (the  fibrous  husk  of  the  cocoa-nut)  either  in  the  raw  state  or  manufac- 
tured into  ropes.  The  best  coir  cables  in  the  west  of  the  peninsula  are  made  at  An- 
jengo  and  Cochin,  from  the  fibres  of  the  Laccadive  cocoa-nuts.  Some  coral  is 
carried  from  the  surrounding  reefs  to  the  continent  of  India,  where  it  is  carved  into 
images,  and  burned  for  quicklime.  These  islands  were  discovered  by  Vasco  do 
•Gama,  but  they  have  not  been  properly  explored.  They  are  politically  dependent  on 
Canara,  and  under  the  dominion  of  the  English. 

The  Maldives.  |  To  the  Bouth  of  the  Laccadivcs,  and  extending  between  the  eighth 
degree  of  north  latitude  and  the  equator,  are  the  Maldives,  consisting  of  numerous 
islands  and  islets,  grouped  into  twelve  clusters  called  Altollons,  some  of  which  are 
round,  others  oval;  a  rampart  of  rocks  surrounding  each  cluster  serves  to  defend  it 

•  Mr.  Cordiner  states,  vol.  i.  p.  326,  that  the  attempts  to  rear  potatoes  at  Jaffna,  or  any  other 
part  of  Ceylon,  had  not  been  successful.  But  Dr.  Davy,  however,  p.  437,  tells  us,  that  this 
vahiable  root  succeeded  at  Maturatta,  a  post  about  2700  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea. 


laccadive 
islaodi. 


t^^DOBTAN.  229 

from  the  sea,  which  rages  here  with  great  fury.     The  large  islands  are  inhahited  and 
cultivated,  but  a  great  number  are  mere  rocks  and  shoals,  many  of  which  are  flooded 
at  spring  tides.  They  have  never  been  completely  explored.  Between  tho  |  internal  trade, 
diftcrent  attollons  a  considerable  trade  is  carried  on,  as  the  different  branches  of  manu- 
facturing industry  are  confined  to  distinct  groups  of  islands,  some  being  inhabited 
by  weavers,  others  by  goldsmiths,  locksmiths,  potters,  mat-makers,  joiners,  or  other 
mechanics,  all  of  which  are  separate.     The  traders,  going  from  island  to  island  are 
sometimes  a  year  from  home.     Here,  as  in  tho  Laccadivcs,  tho  cocoa-nut  tree  is 
the  chief  vegetable  production ;  yet  tho  trees  aro  in  greater  variety  than  those  of  tho 
Laccadives ;  they  have,  among  others,  the  wood  called  candu,  which  is  compared 
to  cork  for  its  lightness.     Ambergris  and  coral  are  collected  in  great  abundance  on 
the  shores.     An  important  fishery  of  cowries  is  carried  on.     Cattlo  aro  rare  in  these 
islands.     Dogs  are  banished  from  them.     Poultry  is  in  great  abundance.     Dreadful 
depredations  are  committed  both  by  the  rats  and  the  ants.     The  Maldi-  |  inhabitants, 
vians  are  well  made;  their  complexions  are  olive  ;  they  seem  to  be  of  Hindoo  ori- 
gin, with  a  mixture  of  Arabian  blood,*  as  their  beards  aro  bushy  and  their  bodies 
hairy.     Some  of  their  women  are  as  fair  as  Europeans.     They  have  a  peculiar  lan- 
guage.    They  profess  the  Mahometan  religion  but. retain  some  traces  of  an  older 
creed.     They  are,  for  instance,  in  the  practice  of  sacrificing  annually  to  the  god  of 
the  winds,  by  launching  on  the  sea  barks  crowned  with  garlands,  and   filled  with 
amber  and  fragrant  wood,  which  they  have  set  on  fire.     They  dress  in  light  silk  and 
cotton  stuffs.     The  more  learned  among  them  speak  Arabic,  expound  the  Koran, 
and  possess  some  ideas  in  astronomy  and  medicine.     Peyrard,  who  suffered  ship- 
wreck here  in  1602,  describes  the   natives  as  an  ingenious,  brave,  and  industrious 
race,  but  of  warm  temperaments  and  dissolute  morals.     By  some  Euro- 
peans who  have  visited  them,  they  are  praised  for  their  inofiensiveness 
and  hospitality.     In  1777,  a  French  vessel,  with  some  ladies  of  rank,  was  wrecked 
on  the  island  of  Imetay,  and  all  the  sufferers  met  with  tho   kindest  treatment  from 
the  chief  and  his  subjects.     In  1812,  Lord  Minto,  governor-general  of  Britisii  India, 
received  from  the  suUan  of  the  Maldives  a  letter,  stating  that  the  vessel  Europa, 
under  British  colours,  had  been  cast  away  on  the  uninhabited  island  of  Andue,  and 
that  the  crew  and  passengers,  amounting  to  fifty-three  in  number,  were  treated  in 
the  most  hospitable  manner,  although  the  conduct  of  several  of  them  was  insolent 
nnd  outrageous  in  the  extreme.     The  complaint  received  duo  attention,  reparation 
was  made  for  the  injuries  inflicted,  and  the  whole  transaction  served  to  place  tlio 
character  of  these  people  in  a  most  favourable  light.     We  are  little  ac-  |  Government, 
quainted  witli  their  internal  government,  but  it  does  not  appear  that  the  groups  of 
islands  ever  engage  in  mutual  warfare.     The  houses  of  the  inhabitants  in  general 
are  of  cocoa-wood  and  leaves.     Some  of  tho  richer  traders  have  stone  houses.    Tho 
sultan's  palace  is  a  low  stone  building,  regularly  fortified.     The  sultan  has  long  been 
accustomed  to  send  an  annual  embassy  to  Ceylon,  which  has  been  continued  since 
that  island  came  under  the  dominion  of  the  English. 

At  one  time,  a  vessel  or  two  from  the  BriUsh  settlements  used  to  visit  |  Foreign  trade, 
the  Maldives  to  load  cowries,  but  owing  to  the  unhcalthiness  of  the  climate  and  the 
long  detention  found  necessary,  these  visits  were  discontinued,  and  the  trade  is  now 
carried  on  by  Maldivian  vessels,  which  arrive  at  Balasore  in  Ori.ssa  in  the  months  of 
June  and  July,  loaded  with  the  various  produce  of  the  cocoa  tree,  and  with  marine 
products,  such  as  cowries,  turtle  shell  and  salted  fish.  They  leave  it  in  December, 
carrying  home  sugar  and  some  other  manufactures,  but  cliiefly  rice.  Ships  frojn 
eastern  India  sometimes  resort  to  the  Maldives  to  procure  shark  fins  for  the  Chinese, 
among  whom  they  are  valued  as  an  excellent  seasoning  for  soup. 

•  Asiat.  Annual  Register,  1802,  Characters,  p.  17, 18. 


Their  hospi- 
tarity. 


230  BOOK  FIFTIETH. 


BOOK  L.     • 

INDOSTAN  CONTINUED. 


PART  IV. 

A  Historical  and  JVIoral  vietu  of  India. 

The  extensive  countries  now  described  have,  both  from  physical  and  liistorical  data, 
been  supposed  to  be  the  earHest  seat  of  a  regularly  organized  civil  society.  The  warm 
climate  and  abundant  productions  of  India  rnust  have  afforded  every  facility  to  its  inha- 
bitants for  uniting  in  the  social  state.  When  we  consult  the  historic  page,  we  find  that 
an  intercourse  between  it  and  western  Asia  existed  from  the  most  remote  ages.  The 
Antiquities  of  books  of  Moses  make  mention  of  the  aloe  wood,  the  ebony,  the  cinnamon, 
the  Hindoo*.  ^^^  ^l^g  prccious  stoncs  of  India,  though  the  country  was  not  then  known 
hy  name.  At  a  later  period  we  find  the  Phenicians,  the  Egyptians,  the  Greeks,  and 
the  Romans,  repairing  to  the  coasts  of  Malabar  for  the  light  stuffs,  the  indigo  and  other 
colouring  drugs,  the  gum-lac,  the  articles  of  ivory  and  mother-of-pearl,  which  that  coun- 
try exported.*  Consequently  a  certain  degree  of  civilization  must  have  existed  among 
some  Indian  nations,  and  they  must  have  lived  in  political  society  some  ages  before 
they  were  brought  into  a  state  of  regular  communication  with  the  rest  of  the  world 
hy  the  invasion  of  Alexander.  We  find  the  religious  and  political  system  of  India, 
at  the  era  of  Alexander  and  the  Ptolomies,  the  same  with  those  of  modern  Indostan. 
The  division  into  castes,  separated  from  one  another  by  rigorous  laws,  formed,  at 
that  period,  an  essential  and  fundamental  Indian  institution.  Arrian  and  Strabo  enu- 
merate seven  castes,  while  we  only  acknowledge  four  leading  divisions  of  this  kind, 
laut  it  is  well  known  that  the  subdivisions  are  numerous,  and  that  there  are  anomalous 
groups  of  persons  which  might  be  reckoned  separate  castes.  Such  are  the  shep- 
herds, or  nomadic  and  predatory  tribes,  and  also  the  principal  functionaries  of  the 
state. — The  Macedonians  found  the  same  varieties  of  fantastic  devotees,  called  fa- 
keers,  who  have  been  viewed  with  so  much  astonishment  by  our  modern 
travellers.  Some  lived  in  forests,  feeding  on  roots,  and  using  the  bark 
of  trees  for  their  only  clothing ;  others  sold  amulets  and  miraculous  remedies  to  the 
•ci-edulous  ;  others  lay  whole  days  on  the  ground,  exposing  themselves  to  torrents  of 
'drenching  rain  with  consummate  patience  ;  while  others  sat  on  stones  heated  almost 
to  redness,  and  braved  at  the  same  time  the  rays  of  an  ardent  sun  and  the  stings  of 
numerous  insects. "f"  All  of  them  wore  an  immense  quantity  of  hair  on  the  head, 
■which  was  encouragxsd  to  grow  to  its  utmost,  never  cut  nor  cleaned.J  Strabo  re- 
jected as  fabulous  the  accounts  which  he  received  of  their  practice  of  bending  the 
lingers  backward  and  the  toes  of  the  feet  forward,  so  as  to  walk  on  the  upper  part  of 
the  foot  ;§  yet  these  are  exercises  to  which  the  fakeers  are  daily  addicted. 
Kemaie attend-  In  those  ancicut  times  there  were  also  courtezans  attached  to  the  tem- 
temVes,  &c.  plcs,  and  placed  under  an  inspector,  who  called  them  together  at  the 
sound  of  his  bell.||  The  self-immolation  of  widows  on  the  funeral  piles  of  their  hus- 
bands ;1T  the  use  of  ivory  rings  on  the  arms,  of  parasols  and  of  white  slippers,**  charac- 
terized the  Indians  before  the  Christian  era.  The  abuses  which  had  crept  into  their 
religious  system  ;  the  extravagant  superstitions  with  which  it  was  loaded  ;  and  the 

*  See  our  History  of  Geography,  Books  viii.  and  xi. 

I  Onesicritus,  Megasthenes,  and  Clitarchus,  quoted  by  Strabo.  Geogr.  lib.  xv. 
4:  Dionys.  Perieg.  v.  1012.  §  Strabo,  ii.  xv. 

II  Aristobulus,  quoted  by  Strabo.  1  Cicero,  Qusst.  Tuscul.  v.  27. 
••  Arrian,  lad.  c.  30.  p.  330.  edit,  Gronovii. 


Ancient  de- 
votees. 


INDOSTAN.  231 

grossnesa  of  the  allegorical  emblems  employed  to  represent  the  Divinity,  are  con- 
sidered by  some,  though  rather  theoretically,  as  decisive  proofs  of  a  highly  remote 


ongm. 


Extravagant 
pretensions. 


But  we  must  not,  on  this  point,  give  way  to  the  exaggerations  of  some 
persons,  who  have  been  actuated  by  party  spirit.  There  is  no  monu- 
ment possessing  the  slightest  pretensions  to  authenticity  that  leads  us  farther  back 
than  the  epoch  of  Moses.  Some  of  the  astronomical  tables  of  India  claim  a  higher 
antiquity  ;  but  these  have  been  shown  by  an  illustrious  mathematician  to  be  drawn 
up  from  a  retrograde  calculation  ;*  and  the  Surya-Siddhanta,  their  oldest  book  of 
astronomy,  which  they  pretend  to  have  been  given  them  by  revelation  two  millions  of 
years  ago,  must  have  been  composed  within  these  800  years. "j" 

The  JVEaha-Bharat,  or  universal  history,  the  Ramayana,  and  the  Puranas,  are 
mere  legends  and  poems,  from  which  no  plausible  chronology  can  be  obtained,  and 
none  of  any  kind  prior  to  Alexander.  J  The  European  literati  who  have  assigned  to 
these  treatises  a  higher  antiquity,  still  acknowledge  that  they  have  suffered  numerous 
interpolations. §  The  Vedas,  the  oldest  of  all  the  sacred  books  of  the  Indians,  if  we 
may  draw  a  conclusion  from  the  calendar  annexed  to  them,  and  the  position  of  the 
colure  of  the  solstices  which  that  calendar  indicates,  may  be  3200  years  old,  that  is, 
nearly  as  ancient  as  Moses.  [| 

Adopting  these  moderate  opinions  on  the  antiquity  of  Indian  civilization,  we  still 
find  enough  left  to  excite  our  admiration.  The  Hindoo  nation,  united  for  about  3000 
years  under  the  same  religious  creed,  the  same  laws  and  institutions,  presents  a  phe- 
nomenon so  much  the  more  rare  and  interesting  as  their  country  has  been  invaded 
by  many  foreign  hordes,  attracted  by  the  fertility  of  the  soil,  and  the  unwarlike  cha- 
racter of  the  aboriginal  people. 

Population  of 


opi 

lUO 


Indostan. 


Mixture  ot 
races. 


The  population  of  Indostan,  amounting,  at  the  lowest  calculation,  to 
134,000,000,  is  composed  of  two  distinct  classes ;  descendants  of  the 
ancient  inhabitants,  and  tribes  of  foreign  extraction.  The  real  Indians  call  the  lat- 
ter JVIilytch,  a  term  equivalent  to  barbarian  among  the  Greeks  and  Romans.  tT  The 
number  of  these  tribes  amounts  to  thirty,  if  we  include  among  them  the  nomades 
who  occupy  the  mountains  and  the  deserts.  The  most  conspicuous  are 
the  Tartars  and  Mongols,  the  Afghans  or  Patans,  of  whom  the  Rohillas 
form  a  branch,  the  Belooches,  who  seem  to  have  come  from  Arabia,  the  Malays,  the 
Persians,  particularly  the  Guebres  or  Parsees,  the  Arabs,  the  black  and  white  Jews, 
and  the  black  Portuguese,  a  mixed  breed  of  Europeans  and  Hindoos  who  are  widely 
spread  over  the  coasts  of  the  Deccan  and  the  province  of  Bengal.  These  foreign 
races  have  come  under  our  view  in  the  course  of  our  topographical  details.  Their 
manners  and  laws  are  greatly  diversified.  Their  total  number  has  been  rated  at  ten 
millions. 

The  indigenous  inhabitants  are  the  Hindoos,  or  descendants  of  the  |  The  Hindoos, 
ancient  Indians.  They  formerly  were  the  exclusive  possessors  of  India,  and  still 
occupy  the  finest  and  most  extended  tracts  of  the  country.  Some  of  them  have 
mingled  with  foreign  blood,  and  adopted  foreign  religions  and  manners,  in  whole  or 
in  part.  In  this  list  we  may  mclude  the  Buddhists  of  the  north-east  of  Bengal  and 
the  kingdom  of  Assam,  and  the  Singalese.  The  Seiks  are  distinguished  from  the 
rest  by  a  new  creed  and  certain  institutions  to  which  it  has  given  birth.  The  Lac- 
cadivians,  Maldivians,  Batnians,  Gookers,  and  several  other  local  communities  of 
the  ancient  Hindoos,  have  lost  the  purity  of  their  blood,  by  mixing  with  Mahometans 
from  Arabia  and  Persia.  Some  Hindoo  tribes,  have,  without  mingling  with  others, 
either  degenerated  from  the  primitive  character  of  the  nation  in  the  sequestrated 
abodes  which  they  have  chosen  in  the  midst  of  mountains  and  forests,  still  preserv- 

•  De  Laplace,  Systeme  du  Monde,  p.  330. 

f  Bentley,  in  the  Asiat.  Researches,  vol.  vi.  p.  537,  and  Ix.  p.  195. 

i  Paterson  on  the  Chronology  of  the  Mayadha  Emperors  of  India,  and  the  epochs  of  Vit- 
tramadytya,  &c.    Asiat.  Keg.  vol.  ix. 

§  Edinb.  Review,  vol.  xx.  p.  455,  xxiii.  p.  42, 

II  Colebrooke's  Memoir  on  the  Vedas,  Asiat.  Kesearches,  vol.  viii  p.  493. 

%  Wahl,  ii.  p.  866. 


Physical  cha- 
rs cter  of  the 
Hindoos, 


232  BOOK    FIFTIETH. 

ing  traits  of  coincidence  sufficient  to  identify  their  origin  ;  or  else  they  retain  a  cJia- 
racter  still  more  ancient  than  that  of  the  other  Hindoos,  and  which  has  never  become 
Savage  tribes.  ]  thoroughly  conformed  to  their  widely  predominating  polity.  Such  are 
the  Nepalese,  the  Rookies,  the  Gonds,  the  Bheels,  the  Kallis,  and  other  similar 
hordes,  whose  mode  of  life  has  separated  them  from  the  civilized  mass  of  their  coun- 
trymen. Herodotus  speaks  of  a  savage  tribe  of  this  description  under  the  name  of 
Paclmi,  who  not  only  ate  raw  flesh,  being  mere  savage  hunters,  but  even  killed  and 
devoured  the  bodies  of  their  relatives  when  exhausted  by  age  and  infirmity,  a  custom 
which  was  probably  the  result  of  some  fixed  law,  or  transmitted  by  traditionary  pre- 
cept. The  same  horrible  custom  is  said  to  prevail  to  this  hour  among  the  Battahs 
in  the  north  of  Sumatra,  a  people  afterwards  to  be  described.  Knox  accuses  the 
Bedahs  of  Ceylon  of  cannibalism.  The  ancient  books  called  the  Puranas  mention 
a  cannibal  tribe  which  lived  in  the  forests  of  Indostan,  and  was  called  in  Sanscrit 
Vyada,  a  term  which  originally  signified  "  tormentors,"  and  "  man-eaters,"  though 
now  employed  simply  to  denote  "  hunters."  Whether  these  common  features  of 
resemblance  are  to  be  considered  as  denoting  a  community  of  origin,  or  are  merely 
the  eftect  of  an  independent  but  similar  set  of  causes  moulding  the  human  character 
in  different  places  to  the  same  pattern ;  these  races  are  to  be  viewed  aa  most  proba- 
bly bands  of  savages  whose  mode  of  life  withdrew  them  some  way  or  other  from  the 
influence  of  the  laws  of  Menu,  by  which  the  great  mass  of  the  Hindoo  nation  was 
united  in  one  political  and  religious  community. 

The  genuine  Hindoos  being  the  most  numerous,  as  well  as  the  most  remarkably 
artificial,  claim  our  most  particular  attention,  and,  although  in  the  preceding  details 
several  traits  of  their  character  have  presented  themselves,  they  are  worthy  of  a 
more  regular  description  in  this  place. 

The  Hindoos  may  be  considered  as  belonging  to  the  first  variety  of 
the  human  race.  In  the  form  of  the  cranium,  the  features  of  the  coun- 
tenance, and  the  proportions  of  the  limbs,  they  resemble  the  European  nations  more 
than  they  do  the  Persians  and  the  Arabs.  But  their  complexions  are  almost  black 
in  the  south  of  the  Peninsula,  and,  though  lighter  in  the  northern  mountains,  they 
always  retain  an  olive  tint,  and  do  not  partake  of  the  white  and  red  of  the  Europeans. 
Languages  The  languages  spoken  by  the  ditTerent  Hindoo  tribes  form  a  family  of 

and  dialects.  dialects  mutually  akin  and  widely  difilised.  Their  common  source,  or 
rather  their  most  ancient  form,  is  the  Sanscrit  or  Sanskrada,  in  which  all  their  an- 
cient books  are  written.  It  is  said  to  be  remarkably  perfect  in  its  structure.  From 
this  springs  the  Cashmerian,  which  makes  the  nearest  approach  to  the  ancient  San- 
scrit, and  preserves  its  written  characters.  The  Marashta  language,  or  that  of  the 
Mahrattas;  the  Telinga,  which  is  spoken  in  Golconda,  in  Orissa,  and  on  the  banks 
of  the  Krishna,  as  far  as  the  mountains  of  Balaghaut:  the  Tamul,  or  Malabaric,  which 
prevails  on  the  shores  of  the  Deccan  from  Cape  Comorin  to  the  north-eastern  extre- 
mity of  the  coast  of  Coromandel,  and  along  the  Malabar  side  to  the  northern  limits 
of  the  Concan;  and,  finally,  the  Hindostanee,  which,  next  to  the  Sanscrit  and  Cash- 
merian, seems  to  be  the  purest  Indian  language.  It  is  also  called  the  JYagari  or 
Dehmnagari,  a  term,  however,  which  rather  denotes  the  character  in  which  it  is 
written  than  the  language  itself.  It  is  divided  into  several  dialects,  the  purest  of 
which  is  called  Wradsha,  and  is  spoken  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Agra  and  Mathra. 
The  dialect  of  central  Indostan,  mixed  with  that  of  the  Afghans,  or  Patans,  and  with 
that  of  the  Mongolian  armies,  has  given  birth  to  the  idiom  formerly  spoken  at  the 
Mogul  court,  and  still  prevalent  among  the  Mahometans  of  India.  It  should  be  call- 
ed the  Mongol-Hindostanee,  but  is  generally  known  by  the  name  of  the  Moorish  or 
Moors'  language.  The  other  dialects  are  those  of  the  Punjab  and  of  Guzerat,  which 
last  is  spoken  not  only  in  that  country  but  also  in  the  Sinde,  at  Surat,  among  the 
mountains  of  Balaghaut,  of  Nepal,  Assam,  Bengal,  and  Balasore,  and  also  extends 
over  the  coast  of  Orissa  as  far  as  Coromandel.* 

Amidst  the  uncertainties  which  abound  in  the  researches  of  the  learned,  the  fol- 
lowing facts  may  be  considered  as  established. 

*  Adelung's  Mithridate,  B.  i.  183—232. 


INDOSTAX.  233 

The  Sanscrit,  tltat  dead  language  in  wliich  the  most  of  tlie  sncrcd  |  The  Sanscrit, 
books  of  the  Hindoos  are  written,  approaches,  both  in  its  roots  and  its  inflexions,  to 
the  Zend,  the  Persian,  the  Greek,  the  Latin,  and  even  to  the  Teutonic  or  old  Ger- 
man, the  Gothic,  and  the  Icelandic*  These  affinities  are  equally  surprising,  whether 
we  consider  their  decided  character,  or  their  wide  diffusion.  .  The  Sanscrit  form  of 
the  verb  is  in  some  parts  identical  with  that  of  the  Latin,  in  others  with  the  Greek. f 
Roots  not  found  in  the  German  language  are  common  to  the  Icelandic  and  the  San- 
scrit, though  separated  by  a  fourth  part  of  the  circumference  of  the  globe. J  The 
remains  of  a  vocabulary  and  a  grammar  common  to  so  many  nations,  seem  to  prove, 
either  that  they  descend  from  one  common  source  now  lost,  or  that,  at  a  nmote 
epoch,  the  people  who  spoke  them  have  had  mutual  tics  of  friendly  and  commercial 
intercourse,  which  are  not  easily  conceived,  yet  cannot  bo  denied.  The  Sanscrit  is 
written  with  filly-two  letters,  for  several  of  which  we  have  no  corresponding  charac- 
ters in  Europe.  It  has  also  thousands  of  syllal)ic  abbreviations.  Harmonious  and 
grave,  with  a  just  proportion  of  consonants  and  vowels,  rich  in  terms,  free  and  flow- 
ing in  its  pronunciation,  possessing  numerous  conjugations,  tenses,  cases,  and  parti- 
ciples, this  language  may  be  compared  to  those  which  we  regard  as  the  most  perfect 
and  refined  original  tongues. 

The  Pracrit,  or  ''softened  language,"  is  spoken  by  the  females  in  the  |  ThePraerit. 
work  entitled  Sacontala,  while  the  men  speak  the  Sanscrit.  Under  this  denomination 
may  be  included  aU  the  common  dialects,  of  which  the  learned  Colebrook  believes 
he  has  made  out  ten  distinct  and  leading  varieties,  viz.  1.  The  Sdrm-waUt,  \  iwdiaiecu. 
spoken  formerly  in  the  Punjab,  on  ttie  banks  of  a  river  of  that  name.  2.  The 
Canyacuhja,  or  the  dialect  of  Canojc,  the  source  of  the  modern  Hindi,  from  which 
is  derived,  by  a  mixture  of  Arabic,  the  Hindostance.  3.  The  Gaura,  or  dialect  of 
Bengal,  of  which  Gaur  was  the  capital.  4.  The  Murihila,  spoken  in  Tirhut  and 
some  adjoining  districts,  and  closely  allied  to  the  {preceding.  5.  The  Ulcala,  used 
in  the  province  of  Orissa.  6.  The  Tamla  or  Tamitl,  the  hmiiviagc  oC  Dravira  Pro- 
per, or  the  countries  south  of  the  Krishna.  7.  The  MaJuiraslitra  or  JMahrutta, 
which,  besides  various  intermixtures,  contains  words  of  peculiar  and  unknown  origin. 
8.  The  Carnata,  spoken  in  the  ancient  Carnataca.  9.  The  Tdinf^n,  called  formerly 
liLa/mo-rt,  and  used  in  Telingana.  And,  10.  The  Gxirjnra,  or  dialect  of  Guzerat.§ 
These  languages  must  have  belonged  to  a  corresponding  number  of  distinct  civilized 
nations;  but  the  enumeration  is  not  complete.  The  Punjabi  and  the  J\Iathara  are 
not  the  only  dialects  which  must  be  added  to  the  list.  |]  The  JMaghada  deserves  to 
be  particularized  as  an  ancient  Indian  language,  being  that  of  Bahar,  the  native 
country  of  Buddha.  The  priests  of  this  deified  prophet  seem  to  have  employed  it; 
and  it  is  undoubtedly  the  ancient  Pali  known  to  the  Ceylonese  and  the  Birmans. 
We  must  also  add  the  Pa'isachi,  which  seems  identical  with  the  Apahransha.  This, 
according  to  some,  is  a  jargon  formed  by  the  poets,  and  put  into  the  mouths  of 
foreigners;  according  to  others,  it  is  the  language  of  the  mountain  tribes,  whose 
origin  is  diffcrtrnt  from  that  of  the  Hindoos,  a  ditlerence  of  opinion  which  can  only 
be  settled  by  some  new  researches.  If  . 

The  Hindoo  nation  continues  to  be  divided,  as  it  has  been  from  the 
most  remote  antiquity,  into  four  ichadi,  or  what  are  best  known  to  us  by 
the  name  of  "  castes,"  a  Portuguese  term,  which  all  the  Europeans  have  adopted  to 
express  these  classifications.  Each  has  its  pccidiar  privileges,  duties,  and  laws. 
The  more  honourable  the  caste  is,  the  more  numerous  are  the  restrictions  under 
which  its  members  are  laid,  and  the  prerogatives  which  it  enjoys  are  the  more  valua- 
ble.    The  fourth  caste  has  the  fewest  observances  to  follow,  but  it  has  also  the  least 

♦  Wilkins'  Sanscrit  Grammar.     London,  1808.     Paul  de  St.  Bartholome  dissert,  de  antiq.  et 
affin.  llnguarum  Zend.  Sanscr.  et  German.     Adcluiig'.  p.  149. 

f  E.  Schlezel.     Sur  la  langue  et  la  sagesse  des  Indiens. 

i  Mem.  dans  les  Annal.  des  Voyages.     See  also  p.  425  of  our  preceding  volume. 

§  H.  T.  Colebrooke  on  the  Sanscrit  and  Pracrit  languages,  in  tlie  Tth  vol.  of  the  Asiatic 
Researches,  p.  10. 

H   Edinburgh  Keview,  vol.  ix.  p.  092. 

H  Colebrooke,  and  the  I'.dinburgh  Review,  he.  citat. 
Vol.  H.— Gg 


Division  into 
castes. 


Example  of 
the.  rigidity 
of  caste. 


234  KOOK  FIFTIETH. 

portiou  of  respect,  and  is  the  most  limited  in  its  rights.     Every  indiridual  remains 
invariably  in  the  caste  in  which  he  is  born,  practises  its  duties,  and  is  debarred  from 
ever  aspiring  to  a  higher,  whatever  may  be  his  merit  or  his  genius.     Cruel  are  the 
penalties  which  await  the  person  who  ventures  to  dispense  with  the  most  absurd  of 
the  rules  laid  down  by  the  law  of  his  caste.     To  this  point  of  honour  the  Hindoo 
patiently  sacrifices  health  and  life.     A  Brahmin  of  Calcutta,  while  labouring  under 
a  severe  disease,  had  himself  exposed  on  the  banks  of  the  Ganges,  where  he  passed 
some  hours  in  contemplation  and  prayer.     Ho  waited,  motionless,  for 
the  tide  to  advance  and  bear  him  into  the  sacred  waves,  where  a  death 
the  most  blessed  that  imagination  was  able  to  figure  awaited  him.     A  party  of  En- 
glish people  passed  near  him  in  a  boat,  one  of  whom,  commiserating  the  situation 
of  a  person  whom  he  believed  to  be  falling  a  victim  to  some  unfortunate  accident, 
took  the  Brahmin  on  board  the  boat,  recalled  him  to  animation  by  administering  a 
cordial,  and  brought  him  to  Calcutta.     His  brother  Brahmins  now  pronounced  him 
infamous,  degraded  from  his  caste,  and  unworthy  of  being  spoken  to  by  any  Hindoo. 
It  was  to  no  purpose  that  the  Englishman  showed  by  undeniable  testimony  that  the 
fault  was  his,  and  not  the  Brahmin's,  whom  he  found  in  a  state  of  utter  insensibility. 
The  law  of  Menu  was  inflexible ;  he  had  received  drink  and  food  from  a  stranger ; 
for  this  he  must  be  deprived  of  all  his  means  of  subsistence,  and  condemned  to 
civil  death.     The  English  courts  of  justice  devolved  his  maintenance  on  the  person 
Avho  had  saved  his  life.     Deserted  by  all  his  triends,  followed  every  where  by  de- 
monstrations of  contempt  and  scorn,  the  unhappy  Brahmin  dragged  out  a  miserable 
existence  for  three  years.     Seized  after  this  interval  with  a  new  attack  of  disease, 
he  again  determined  to  die  by  his  own  hands,  a  resolution  which  his  now  impove- 
rished benefactorj  did  not  prevent  him  from  putting  in  execution. — This  anecdote, 
which  is  perfectly  authentic,  delineates  the  intolerance  of  the  Hindoos  in  enforcing 
the  laws  of  caste.     These  laws  are  scrupulously  enjoined  by  a  code  at  once  civil 
and  religious,  which  has  been  in  force  for  thousands  of  ages,  and  the  rigour  of  which 
the  Hindoos  have  never  thought  of  moderating. 

The  leading  castes,  as  we  have  already  had  occasion  to  observe,  are  four:  1.  The 
Brahmins ;  2.  The  Kshatriyas,  or  soldiers,  including  the  princes  and  sovereigns, 
and  sometimes  called  the  caste  of  Rajas,  or  Rajepootras  ;  3.  The  Vaisyas,  consist- 
ing of  agriculturists  and  shepherds  ;  and  4.  The  Sudras,  or  labourers. 
TheBrah-  1  Amidst  many  subdivisions,  local  refinements  or  relaxations,  uncertain 
"'"*  I  claims,  and  infractions  of  the  order  arising  from  circumstances,  the  most 

certain  and  universal  part  of  the  system  is  that  by  which  the  rank  and  importance  of 
the  caste  of  Brahmins  are  maintained.  This  is  the  sacred  or  sacerdotal  caste  ;  and 
its  members  have  maintained  an  authority  more  exalted,  commanding,  and  extensive, 
than  the  priests  of  any  other  people.  Their  current  tradition  is,  that  the  Brahmins 
proceeded  from  the  mouth  of  the  Creator,  which  is  the  seat  of  wisdom. — There  are 
seven  subdivisions  of  the  Brahmins,  which  derive  their  origin  from  seven  Rishis,  or 
penitents,  the  holiest  persons  acknowledged  by  the  Hindoos,  and  who  are  beheved 
to  have  occasionally  inflicted  the  effects  of  their  sacred  wrath  on  some  of  the  gods, 
when  guilty  of  debauchery.  These  persons  are  of  high  antiquity,  and  mentioned  in 
the  Yedas.  Their  residence  was  fixed  in  the  retired  regions  of  the  north,  and  hence 
the  Brahmins  of  the  north,  who  are  nearest  to  the  great  fountain,  are  esteemed  the 
noblest.  The  Brahmins  of  antiquity  were  much  more  secluded  than  those  of  mo- 
dern times,  tliough  the  latter  show  a  predilection  for  a  life  of  retirement  from  the 
bustle  of  the  world.  They  have  made  no  alteration  in  their  rules  of  abstinence, 
ablutions,  and  multiplied  ceremonies.  Their  great  prerogative  is  that  of  being  the 
sole  depositories  and  expounders  of  the  Vcdas,  or  sacred  books.  Of  these  there 
are  in  number  four,  and  for  each  there  is  a  separate  order  or  branch  of  the  Brah- 
mins. They  have  a  story  in  general  circulation,  that  if  a  Sudra,  or  other  profane 
person  should  ever  attempt  to  read  the  title  of  these  books,  his  head  would  instantly 
cleave  asunder.  Yet  it  is  remarkable,  that  they  make  an  exception  in  these  miracu- 
lous efTects  as  applied  to  Europeans.  A  Brahmin  bold  enough  to  show  these  sacred 
volumes  to  profane  eyes  would  incur  the  penalty  of  irretrievable  expulsion  from  his 
tribe. 


INIJOSTAN.  235 

The  great  body  of  thctn  profess  to  pay  equal  veneration  to  the  three  parts  of  the 
godhead,  Brahma,  Vishnu,  and  Siva.  But  some  attach  themselves  exclusively,  or 
with  great  preference,  to  one  more  than  the  others.  The  worship  of  Vishnu  and  Siva, 
in  particular,  become  the  objects  of  partiality  with  individuals,  who  form  themselves 
into  sects  founded  on  these  predilections.  The  Vishnuvites  are  called  Their  diffw 
also  Namadhari,  from  bearing  in  their  foreheads  the  mark  called  JVama,  «><«»• 
consisting  of  three  perpendicular  lines  joined  by  a  crossing  line  at  the  base,  so  as  to 
represent  a  trident.  Tlieir  clothes  are  of  a  deep  orange  colour.  The  devotees  of 
Siva  are  called  Lingainites,  from  wearing  the  Lingam  stuck  in  the  hair,  visimuvitei 
or  attached  to  the  arm  in  a  gold  or  silver  tube.  The  former  are  noto-  »'»d  sivite*. 
rious  for  intemperance,  and  on  that  account,  those  of  them  especially  who  lead  the 
lives  of  mendicants,  are  disliked  by  the  people,  while  the  Lingamites  observe  great 
moderation  in  eating  and  drinking.  The  Vishnuvites  pay  a  high  veneration  to  the 
ape,  the  bird  called  garuda,  and  the  capclla  serpent.  Any  of  them  who  inadvertently 
kills  one  of  these  animals  is  obliged  to  expiate  his  crime  by  a  ridiculous  sacrifice,  in 
which  a  human  victim  is  pretended  to  be  immolated  and  brought  to  life  again;  the 
fact  is,  that  a  little  blood  is  drawn  from  a  superficial  wound  in  the  thigh,  inflicted  with  a 
knife;  the  individual  lies  still,  apparently  lifeless,  till  the  farce  of  resuscitation  is  per- 
formed. This  is  done  with  immense  ceremony,  and  gives  occasion  to  a  great  con- 
course of  people,  who  arc  feasted  on  the  fine  levied  from  the  culprit.*  A  similar  pun- 
ishment is  awarded  for  some  other  offences. — Sometimes  these  two  sects  not  only 
strive  to  exalt  their  own  divinity,  but  revile  that  of  their  opponents.  The  Vishnuvites 
consider  the  wearing  of  the  Tiingam  as  the  most  heinous  of  all  sins,  while  the  Sivites 
maintain  that  all  who  bear  the  Nania  shall,  when  they  die,  be  tormented  in  hell  by  a 
three-pronged  fork  resembling  that  mark.  These  sectarian  notions  are  less  preva- 
lent, however,  among  the  Riahmins  than  in  the  other  castes.  Vishnuvite  Brahnnns 
are  only  to  be  found  in  the  provinces  which  lie  to  the  south  of  the  river  Krishna;  and 
they  are  viewed  with  contempt  by  the  tolerant  Brahmins,  who  will  not  admit  them  to 
their  tables  or  to  their  ceremonies,  nor  will  they  confer  on  them  any  public  employ- 
ments Avhich  happen  to  be  at  their  disposal.  These  seels  are  farther  split  into  subdi- 
visions, which  dispute  warmly  on  the  subjects  of  their  dillerences,  but  are  ready  to 
unite  whenever  the  general  interests  of  the  sect  require  their  protection. 

A  Brahmin  is  subject  to  four  dilTerent  states.  The  first  takes  its  com- 
mencement a!)out  the  age  of  seven  or  nine;  when  the  individual  is  in- 
vested with  "the  trij)le  cord,"  a  badge  which  hangs  from  his  left  shoulder,  previously  to 
which  he  is  not  considered  as  a  Brahmin  at  all.  The  young  man  thus  ,  Biachma- 
initiated  is  called  Brachmachari.  In  this  state  his  duty  consists  in  learn-  «i»a". 
ing  to  read  and  write,  in  learning  the  Vedas,  and  the  efficacious  forms  of  prayer  called 
the  Mantras;  in  acquiring  other  sciences,  and  abstaining  from  the  use  of  betel.  He  uses 
no  ornaments  in  his  hair,  bathes  daily,  and  offers  the  sacrifice  called  Homam  twice  a- 
day.  Subjects  so  young  do  not  in  general  observe  the  rules  strictly.  A  certain  pro- 
ficiency is  enjoined  in  learning  the  books  by  heart,  but  neither  in  this  nor  in  the  acqui- 
sition of  the  lessons  deemed  by  them  scientific,  is  there  much  general  emulation. 
They  learn  afterwards  to  understand  the  diflerent  privileges  belonging  to  their  caste, 
and,  among  others,  their  right  to  ask  alms,  which  they  do  not  in  the  style  of  mendi- 
cants, but  of  confident  yet  not  insolent  claimants.  Another  is  exemption  from  taxes. 
They  are  also  exempted  from  capital,  and  generally  from  corporal  punishment,  how- 
ever heinous  crimes  they  may  commit,  imprisonment  being  the  only  punishment  to 
which  they  arc  liable.  They  learn  all  the  points  of  bodily  purity  which,  as  good  Brah- 
mins, it  is  necessary  to  observe  through  life.  Not  only  are  they  liable  to  be  consi- 
dered as  polluted  by  the  touch  of  a  dead  body,  but  even  by  attending  at  a  funeral. 

Childbirth  and  constitutional  changes  render  females  impure;  and  ablutions  and 
forms  of  prayer  are  requisite  to  remove  the  stain.  An  earthen  vessel,  if  ever  it  has 
been  used  by  a  profane  person,  or  applied  to  any  one  of  a  specified  number  of  uses, 
becomes  so  polluted  that  it  cannot  be  used  again,  and  must  be  broken;  metallic  vcs- 

•  Abbe  J.  A.  Dubois's  Description  of  llie  Character,  Manners,  and  Customs  of  the  People 
of  India,  p.  ol,  &c.  (Englibh  Iraublalioii.) 


Four  states  of 
a  Brahmin. 


236  BOOK  FIFTIETH. 

sels  admit  of  punfioation  by  washing.  Leather,  and  every  kind  of  skin,  except 
those  of  the  tiger  and  the  antelope,  are  held  to  be  very  impure ;  hence  the  boots  and 
gloves  of  the  Europeans  are  in  their  eyes  the  most  disagreeable  of  all  objects  as 
articles  of  dress.  A  Brahmin  must  take  care,  in  walking,  or  sitting,  that  he  docs 
not  touch  a  bone,  a  broken  pot,  a  rag,  or  a  leaf  from  which  any  one  has  eaten.  In 
drinking,  they  must  pour  the  liquid  from  above,  without  touching  the  vessel  with 
their  hps.*  They  must  not  touch  the  greater  part  of  animals;  the  most  polluting  is 
the  dog.  The  water  which  they  drink  must  be  carefully  drawn,  and  by  no  means  by 
any  Sudra.  If  two  Brahmins  draw  water  together,  their  pitchers  must  not  touch 
one  another,  otherwise  one  or  botli  must  be  broken.  They  must  eat  no  animal  flesh, 
nor  eggs.  This  is  particularly  the  case  with  the  Lingamites,  yet  this  sect  is  re- 
marked for  great  external  slovenliness  in  their  habits.  The  Brahmins  are  also  taught 
to  entertain  a  horror  for  defilement  of  soul,  as  the  consequence  of  perverseness  of 
the  will,  or  sin;  and,  though  the  particulars  of  which  such  defilement  consists  are 
obscurely  explained,  the  rules  for  purification  by  ablution,  penances,  and  ceremonies, 
are  both  precise  and  ample. 

2,  Grihftitha.  |  The  second  stage  of  a  Brahmin's  life  is  called  that  of  Grihastha,  and 
takes  place  when  he  is  married  and  has  children.  Mere  marriage  does  not  consti- 
tute this  state,  for  that  ceremony  takes  place  at  a  very  early  age,  and  the  parties 
remain  for  some  years  in  the  houses  of  their  respective  parents. 
Marriage.  |  Marriage  is  an  essential  object  to  a  Brahmin,  being  necessary  to  any 
sort  of  respectability  in  society.  When  he  becomes  a  widower,  he  falls  from  his 
station,  and  is  under  an  urgent  necessity  of  resuming  the  married  state.  The  case 
is  quite  different  with  widowed  females,  v/ho  are  not  permitted  to  marry  a  second 
time.  There  are,  however,  some  hermits  or  penitents  called  Smmyases,  who  lead 
lives  of  celibacy,  and  the  acting  priests,  who  arc  called  Gurus,  also  live  in  a  single 
state,  though  it  is  known  that  their  morality  in  this  particular  is  sufficiently  relaxed. 
There  is  no  such  thing  now  as  celibacy  adhered  to  among  women  from  any  religious 
motive;  but  their  ancient  books,  speaking  of  the  five  celebrated  virgins,  intimate, 
that  in  former  times  there  were  religious  nuns.  Marriage  is  conducted  in  the  same 
manner  which  we  have  already  described  in  our  account  of  local  manners.  The 
parents  fix  the  alliance  which  is  to  be  formed,  and  the  wife  is  purchased  by  the  bride- 
groom for  money.  The  money  given,  however,  is  employed  by  the  father  of  the 
lady  in  the  purchase  of  ornaments  for  his  daughter;  and  these  become  the  inalien- 
able property  of  the  wife.  The  father  does  not  give  his  answer  to  any  young  man's 
offer  till  one  of  the  small  lizards  which  creep  on  the  wall  gives,  by  one  of  its  chirps, 
a  favourable  augury.  The  ceremony  of  marriage  is  operose,  and  lasts  five  days. 
There  is  a  set  of  functionaries  called  Parohitas  or  astrologers,  who  go  through  the 
various  ceromonies  on  this  and  some  other  interesting  occasions.  The  gods  are  pro- 
pitiated by  sacrifices,  particularly  Vislmesivara,  "  the  god  of  obstacles,"  who  is 
feared  on  account  of  the  power  which  he  possesses  to  thwart  the  plans  of  human 
prudence.  This  image  is  set  up  in  the  Pandal,  a  sort  of  alcove  erected  in  front  of 
a  Bramin's  house.  When  he  takes  his  wife  home,  and  has  children  by  her,  he  is  now 
Duties  of  a  in  his  second  state,  that  of  a  Grihastha;  his  daily  duties  and  ceremonies 
Grihartha.  bccome  more  multiplied  and  more  strictly  incumbent.     Every  act  of  his 

life  is  to  be  performed  according  to  certain  rules,  some  of  them  very  foreign  to  all 
Corporeal  pn-  European  notions  of  propriety.  They  consider  some  of  our  customs  as 
"'?•  liighly  abominable,  such  as  that  of  blowing  the  nose  and   stuffmg  the 

excreted  matter  into  the  pocket.  While  the  act  of  cleaning  the  nostrils,  and  some 
others  considered  as  conveying  an  impine  stain  to  the  individual,  are  performed,  a 
Brahmin  never  omits  the  ceremony  of  putting  his  cord  over  his  riglit  ear,  which  is 
supposed  to  have  the  virtue  of  purifying  him  from  corporeal  pollution.  The  clean- 
ing of  the  teeth  is  performed  with  a  well  chosen  piece  of  wood,  fresh  cut  from  the 
tree;  to  rub  them  with  brushes  made  of  the  hair  of  animals,  is  an  act  of  indecorum 

Abbe  J.  A.  Dubois's  Description  of  the  Character  and  Customs  of  the  People  of  India,  p. 
112.  (English  translation.) 


. IN DOST AN.  237 

to  which  nothing  whatever  would  make  him  descend.     When  he  bathes,  he  thinks 
of  the  Ganges ;  and  on  coming  out  of  the  water,  salutes  each  of  his  fingers  and 
toes,  and  all  the  parts  of  his  body  in  detail.    Several  regular  days  of  fasting  are  ob- 
served in  the  course  of  the  year,  which  amount  altogether  to  a  considerable  space 
of  time.     These,  and  many  other  burdensome  observances,  become  so  habitual, 
that  nothing  galling  is  felt  in  submitting  to  them.     They  go  through  them  all  witli 
cheerfulness,  and  no  innovation  in  tlicm  is  ever  proposed.  Some  philosophers  among 
the  Hindoos  hare  turned  them  into  ridicule,  but  oven  these  do  not  omit  them  in 
practice.    The  Abbe  Dubois  observes  that  those  authors  who  have  ridi-  |  on  Koffcn. 
culed  them  in  their  writings,  were  never,  so  far  as  he  could  learn.  Brahmins,  but  ge- 
nerally Sudras.      Vemana,  AgasOja,   Patanaltipulai,  and  Tirtivaluvm,  a  Pariah,  the 
chief  authors  of  this  description,  are  modern.     If  any  ancient  ones  wrote  in  the 
same  strain,  their  works  are  not  now  to  be  found.     Transgressions  in  practice,  how- 
ever, are  secretly  indulged  in,  especially  in  large  towns,  where  concealment  is  most 
easy. — Many  of  the  Brahmins  engage  in  employments  which  appear     ocoipntioiM  of 
incongruous  with  their  general  professions.     They  are  usually  the  po-     Brahmins, 
litical  functionaries  of  the  native  princes  and  of  the  Mahometan  governments,  which 
find  it  convenient  to  manage  the  people  through  their  medium.     Some  of  them,  par- 
ticularly in  Guzerat,  engage  in  commerce-     They  often  carry   messages  between 
distant  places,  an  employment  very  convenient  for  them,  as  the  veneration  in  which 
tliey  arc  held  prevents  any  lawless  person  from  molesting  them.     Sometimes  they 
act  as  coolies  or  porters,  in  which  characters  they  are  exempt  from  the  molestations 
of  the  officers  of  the  revenue. — They  are  certainly  an  artful  set  of  im-     subtiuyofdis- 
postors.     The  Hindoos  are  all  expert  in  disguising  the  truth,  but  the     poMi'un. 
Brahmins   much  more   so  than  any  other.      Flattery  is  one   of  their  prime  re- 
sources, which  they  lavish  in  the  most  extravagant  manner  on  any  person  from 
whom  they  have  a  favour  to  expect.    One  of  the  features  which  we  con-     ReUgious  toie- 
template  with  the  greatest  pleasure,  is  their  toleration  in  religious  opi-     "tion. 
nion.     They  do  not  anathematize   Mussulmans,  Christians,  and  others,  with  the 
decision  which  generates  an  impatient  spirit  of  prosclytism  or  of  persecution.    This 
is  ascribed  sometimes  to  the  low  estimation  in  which  they  hold  the  objects  of  their 
own  worship,  and,  undoubtedly,  they  sometimes  treat  the  latter  with  an  indiftcrence 
bordering  on  contempt,  and  in  their  adorations,  are  influenced  by  their  secular  inte- 
rests rather  than  by  the  spirit  of  devotion,  flattering  those  divinities  whose  functions 
they  connect  with  their  secular  concerns.     The  distance  at  which  they  keep  them- 
selves from  the  Europeans,  and  their  unwillingness  to  admit  them  to  their  temples  or 
their  ceremonies,  arise  from  the  uncleanness  which  they  attach  to  the  habits  of  the 
latter,  who,  if  they  would  conform  a  little  to  their  manners  and  practical  prejudices, 
would  experience  from  all  the  Hindoos  unbounded  toleration.    It  is  a  very  prevalent 
sentiment  among  them,  that  different  religions  are  formed  for  diflTcrent  nations,  and 
that  each  serves  every  purpose  to  the  souls  of  its  believers  and  professors.    The  ex- 
cellent Abbe  Dubois,  who  studied  the  manners  of  the  Hindoos  more  carefully  than 
any  one  who  describes  them,  was,  in  consequence  of  the  tenderness  and  respect 
with  which  he  always  treated  their  habits,  often  invited  by  the  l?rahmins,  to  whom 
he  and  his  mode  of  living  were  known,  to  enter  their  temples,  and  join  tlicm  in  their 
ceremonies.     The  Brahmins  entertain  an  unbending  spirit  of  bigotry,     Political  w- 
however,  in  their  attachment  to  their  civil  institutions,  considering  every     6«<'y- 
thing  different  from  them  as  worthy  of  none  but  barbarians.     The  IMoors  they  hate 
for  their  arrogance,  and  despise  for  their  ignorance  of  some  physical  branches  of 
science  known  to  themselves,  such  as  those  which  are  connected  with  the  construc- 
tion and  explanation  of  the  almanack.     They  think  well  of  some  good  qualities  of 
their  European  masters,  such  as  their  humanity  in  war,  the  moderation  and  impar- 
tiality of  their  government,  and  their  other  benevolent  features;  but  they  soon  forget 
these  favourable  impressions,  when  they  think  of  the  grossness  and  hatefulness  of 
some  of  their  prevailing  habits.     M.  Dubois  thinks  that  the  latter  ought  to  have  de- 
nied themselves  the  use  of  beef,  which  is  an  insipid  food  in  that  country,  and  should 
not  have  admitted  the  detested  Pariahs  into  their  domestic  service.  It  would,  indeed, 


3.  VanaPrtu- 
tha. 


238  BOOK  FlFTIEtll. 

be  wroiig  to  countenance  them  in  their  inhuman  treatment  of  the  inferior  castes,  and 
of  persons  who  are  considered  as  of  no  caste ;  yet  regulations  might  have  been 
adopted  by  which  the  gross  insult  which  their  present  modes  imply  might  have  been 
avoided  or  molhfied,  and  every  humane  purpose  obtained. 

The  third  state  of  a  Brahmin  is  that  of  Vana-Prastha,  or  that  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the  desert.  This  order  prevailed  at  a  former  period,  but 
it  is  now  scarcely  to  be  found,  and  appears  indeed  to  be  extinct.  These  were  the 
same  persons  whom  we  commonly  call  penitents.  They  were  honoured  by  kings, 
and  respected  by  the  gods,  who  are  said  to  have  considered  them  as  a  sort  of  supe- 
riors. They  observed  a  number  of  peculiar  rules  of  self-denial,  and  practised 
peculiar  sacrifices  and  religious  observances.  It  was  imagined  that  their  pious  acts 
and  intentions  were  often  thwarted  by  giants  and  even  by  gods.  They  were  the  depo- 
sitories of  some  of  the  sublime  doctrines  of  theology,  and  practised  magical  incanta- 
tions. These  last  are  now  taken  up  by  other  individuals,  who,  on  account  of  their 
supposed  power,  are  frequently  held  in  a  sort  of  horror. 

4.  sannyasi.  |  The  fourth  State  of  a  Brahmin  is  called  Sannyasi,  which  is  reckoned 
so  peculiarly  holy,  tliat  it  imparts  in  a  single  generation  a  greater  stock  of  merits 
than  ten  thousand  could  produce  in  any  other  sphere  of  life.  A  Sannyasi,  when  ho 
dies,  is  believed  to  pass  straightway  to  the  world  of  Brahma  or  of  Vishnu,  exempt 
from  the  penalty  of  being  ever  re-born  on  earth,  or  passing  from  one  body  into  an- 
other. He  performs  all  the  rigid  rites  of  the  Vana-Prasthas,  and  in  addition, 
renounces  all  worldly  connexions,  takes  up  the  profession  of  mendicity,  and  lives 
solely  on  alms.  Before  this,  however,  he  must  devote  several  years  to  the  married 
and  paternal  state,  and  thus  discharge  a  debt  which  he  owes  to  his  forefathers. 
When  a  Brahmin  is  qualified  and  disposed  for  this  state,  he  is  installed  in  it  with 
Ruietofiife.  |  many  man tras  and  other  ceremonies. — He  must  now,  every  morning, 
rub  his  whole  body  all  over  with  ashes  ;  must  restrict  himself  to  one  meal  in  the  day ; 
give  up  the  use  of  betel ;  avoid  looking  at  women  ;  shave  his  beard  and  head  every 
month  ;  wear  wooden  clogs  always  on  his  feet ;  must,  in  travelling,  carry  in  one 
hand  his  seven-knotted  bamboo  staff,  in  the  other  his  gourd,  and  the  antelope  skin 
under  his  arm,  these  being  the  three  badges  of  his  order.  He  must  erect  a  hermi- 
tage on  the  bank  of  a  river  or  a  lake.  Such  is  a  specimen  of  his  regulations.  Con- 
templation, and  a  supposed  communion  with  the  Deity,  amounting,  in  its  highest 
form,  to  a  participation  of  a  divine  nature,  are  the  ulterior  duties  of  this  class  of  de- 
votees. Nothing  can  exceed  the  fantastic  exercises  in  which  they  engage,  such  as 
suppressing  their  breath  for  as  long  a  time  as  possible,  till  they  are  almost  in  a  swoon, 
thus  bringing  on  violent  perspiration.  These  efforts  are  made  during  the  night,  and 
succeeded  by  endless  wanderings  of  the  imagination,  to  which  they  blindly  attach  a 
superlative  value.  They  put  themselves  in  the  most  irksome  and  ridiculous  postures 
of  body,  such  as  standing  long  on  one  leg  till  it  swells  and  ulcerates  ;  standing  also 
a  long  time  on  the  head.  The  act  of  highest  merit  among  them  is  "  to  subdue  all 
sensations,  and  retain  the  breath  with  such  determined  perseverance,  that  the  soul, 
quitting  the  body,  bursts  through  the  crown  of  the  head,  and  flies  to  re-unite  itself 
Avilh  the  great  Being,  or  Para-Brahma."  The  tricks  which  they  perform  are  endless, 
but  their  most  extravagant  and  fatal  efforts  are  said  to  be  confined  to  former  times. 
The  Sannyasis  are  not,  like  the  Vana-Prasthas,  burned  when  they  die,  but  are  inter- 
red. This  is  tlie  case  with  the  Lingamites,  or  worshippers  of  Siva  ;  but  a  Sannyasi, 
even  though  during  life  he  has  attached  himself  to  the  worship  of  Vishnu,  is  interred 
when  dead,  and  the  ceremony  is  pompous  and  expensive,  being  done  at  the  expense 
of  some  relation  or  friend,  who  reckons  the  act  in  the  foremost  rank  of  good  works. 
From  the  classes  of  Vana-Prastha  and  Sannyasi  have  issued  numer- 
ous sets  of  fanatics,  such  as  the  Djogis,  who  exert  themselves  to  please 
)y  strange  mutilations  of  their  bodies,  braving  the  force  of  fire,  and  the 
extremity  of  the  seasons;  the  Panduris,  who  disseminate  little  figures  of  the  most 
indecent  description,  as  subordinate  to  devotion ;  the  Vairagis,  who  are  a  sort  of  or- 
der of  monks  and  nuns,  consecrated  to  the  god  Krishna  and  his  mistress  Rada,  whose 
history  they  celebrate  with  songs,  accompanied  by  the  noise  of  cymbals.     It  is  said 


Anomalous  de' 

VOtfCf. 

the  Deity 


INDOSTAX.  339 


Infldels. 
General  cfaa- 

racter  of  the 
Brahmins. 


that,  some,  oren  of  the  Biahmins,  under  the  name  of  Pashaiidla  aud  the 
Sarwaginn,  maintain  opinions  completely  libertine  and  atheistical.  To 
some  respectable  travellers,  it  appears,  on  the  whole,  that  the  number 
of  persons  of  the  Brahminical  caste  who  are  respectable  for  their  knowledge  and 
their  virtues  is  very  small,  while  the  great  body  of  these  hereditary  priests  and  sages 
are  completely  devoted  to  ambition,  intrigue,  and  voluptuousness, — their  character 
being  disgraced  by  an  avarice,  a  meanness,  and  a  cruelty,  which  inspire  a  stranger 
with  no  sentiments  towards  them  but  those  of  contempt*  The  charity  which  they 
hold  so  high  in  the  list  of  duties  and  of  virtues,  has  no  human  beings  except  Brahmins 
for  its  objects.  Towards  the  other  castes,  they  cherish  no  feeling  of  humanity,  but 
claim  every  thing  from  them,  while  they  give  them  nothing. 

The  caste  immediately  beneath  the  Brahminical  is  that  of  the  Ksha-  caste  of  K$iia- 
triyas,  or  the  military  class.  They  are  also  called  Rajepoots,  from  be-  '"^'" 
ing  the  descendants  of  rajas  or  princes.  Encroachments,  however,  seem  to  have 
been  early  made  on  the  prerogatives  of  this  class ;  the  military  profession  being  em- 
braced by  inferior  castes,  according  as  necessity  obliged  the  governments  to  employ 
them,  or  lawless  propensities  led  individuals  to  lead  lives  of  habitual  violence,  till 
they  became  established  in  the  military  profession  by  the  success  of  their  insurrec- 
tions or  incursions.  The  Rajepoots  are  now  rather  a  tribe  than  a  caste.  They 
claim,  and  generally  receive,  a  greater  degree  of  respect  than  other  warriors.  In 
this  tribe,  as  in  the  military  body  in  general,  the  feebleness  and  insignificance  of  the 
Hindoo  give  place  to  a  ferocious  courage,  a  savage  ambition,  and  an  insatiable  ava- 
rice, rarely  compensated  by  any  real  virtues,  or  even  by  that  generosity  of  conduct 
which  so  frequently  accompanies  the  military  character  among  Europeans. 

The  Vaisyas  are  the  third  caste  of  the  Hindoos.  Their  duties  con-  casteorvoi*- 
sist  in  the  labours  of  the  field  and  the  garden,  the  breeding  of  cattle,  and  '"'•• 
the  sale  of  landed  produce.  When  these  Vaisyas  travel  to  other  countries  in  mer- 
cantile pursuits,  they  go  under  the  name  of  Banyans.  They  are  privileged  with  ex- 
emption from  military  duty;  but  since  the  Indian  princes  have  been  in  the  practice 
of  maintaining  mercenary  troops,  many  of  this  caste  have  become  soldiers.  It  is  of 
them  that  the  Mahrattas  in  general  consist.  They  are  bound  to  pay  the  profoundcst 
respect  to  Brahmins  and  to  Kshatriyas,  but  they  receive  the  same  awful  submission 
from  the  caste  next  to  be  described. 

This  is  the  fourth  and  most  numerous  of  any,  and  is  called  the  Kshoo- 
dra,  or  Sudra  caste.  The  business  of  this  caste  is  servile  labour,  and 
wherever  the  original  spirit  of  the  institution  has  not  been  infringed  on  by  a  train  of 
political  accidents,  their  degradation  is  inhuman.  They  are  compelled  to  work  for 
the  Brahmins,  being  considered  as  created  solely  for  their  use.  They  are  not,  by 
the  laws  of  Menu,  allowed  to  collect  property,  "  because  such  a  spectacle  would 
give  pain  to  the  Brahmins."  To  them  the  Vedas  must  never  be  read,  nor  spiritual 
counsel  given  ;  and  whoever  shall  dare  to  instruct  them  in  the  mode  of  expiating 
sin,  is  doomed  to  sink  with  them  into  Asamvrita,  one  of  the  hells  with  whiph  the 
world  of  spirits  is  provided. 

Any  one  of  the  three  higher  castes,  though  possessing  their  separate  spheres  of 
occupation,  is  allowed  occasionally,  and  under  circumstances  of  necessity,  to  engage 
in  the  employments  which  belong  to  the  inferior  castes  ;  but  the  latter  are  in  no  case 
permitted  to  interfere  with  those  of  the  superior.  Hence  in  times  of  distress,  the 
Sudras  are  subjected  to  peculiar  sufferings  from  being  thrown  out  of  employment  by 
swarms  of  interlopers  from  all  the  other  castes,  while  to  them  no  corresponding  re- 
source, either  then  or  at  any  other  time,  is  open, 

In  consequence  of  irregular  intermarriages  occurring  among  the  dif-  |  Mixed  castes, 
ferent  castes,  children  were  born  who  belonged  to  no  caste,  and  for  whom  there 
was  no  employment.  These  were  called  Burren  Svmker.  They  lived  either  on 
charity,  or  by  plunder,  and  acquired  a  savage  and  lawless  character.  For  them  dif- 
ferent new  arts  and  manufactures  were  ultimately  contrived,  by  which,  from  being  the 
pests  of  the  community,  they  were  converted  to  its  service.     Thirty-six  branches  of 

•  SolvyHs  on  the  Hindoos.     Lord  Yalenlla's  Travels. 


Caste  of  Su- 
dras, 


240  ROOK  FIFTIKTH. 

this  impure  class  are  specified  in  the  sacred  books,*  difforii:ig  in  the  clei«6nts  of  their 
spurious  origin,  and  in  tlic  degrees  of  humiHation  attached  to  the  labours  respectively 
assigned  to  them.  All  of  them  are  obliged  to  keep  at  a  greater  distance  from  the 
rest  of  society. 

Various  circumstances,  however,  have  in  different  places  produced  more  or  less 
intermixture  and  encroachment  of  the  castes  on  one  another.  Hence  the  purity 
which  they  claim  is  not  always  conceded  to  them  by  others  who  pass  under  tlie  same 
name.  Many  of  those  who  occupy  the  place  of  the  higher  castes,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  Brahminical,  are  by  birth  entitled  to  no  higher  rank  than  that  of  Sudras. 
ThePBriahs.  |  But  beneath  these,  and  beneath  even  the  Burren  Sunker,  there  is  a 
race  of  most  degraded  and  universally  insulted  outcasts,  called  Pariahs,  whom  we 
have  more  than  once  had  occasion  to  mention.  In  many  places  their  very  approach 
is  sufficient  to  pollute  a  whole  neighbourhood.  They  must  not  enter  a  street  where 
the  Brahmins  live.  When  they  transgress,  the  higher  castes  will  not  assault  them, 
for  it  is  pollution  even  to  touch  them  with  a  long  pole  ;  but  through  the  medium  of 
others,  they  beat  them  at  pleasure,  and  have  often  put  them  to  death  without  dispute 
or  inquiry.  The  degree  of  this  detestation  in  which  the  Pariahs  are  held  is  greatest 
in  the  southern  parts  of  the  peninsula.  The  Europeans,  however,  are  under  the 
necessity  of  employing  them  as  domestic  servants,  as  a  great  part  of  their  work  could 
not  be  done  by  persons  of  any  other  caste;  such  as  the  cooking  of  beef,  the  pulling 
off  and  cleaning  of  boots.  This  arrangement  is  attended  with  the  disadvantage  of 
preventing  individuals  of  reputable  character  from  engaging  in  the  service  of  a  Eu- 
ropean, for  fear  of  being  confounded  with  the  Pariahs.  They  act  as  scavengers  ; 
they  have  the  care  of  distributing  the  waters  of  the  tanks  over  fields.  Some  have 
the  charge  of  domestic  animals.  Of  late  they  have  been  occasionally  admitted  into 
the  Etiropean  and  Indian  armies,  where  they  have  given  considerable  satisfaction  to 
their  masters.  They  are  not  inferior  to  the  other  Hindoos  in  courage,  but  cannot 
without  groat  difTifulty  be  subjected  to  military  discipline,  and  are  abandoned  to  all 
sorts  of  vice  and  irregularity.  They  are  as  coarse  and  sensual  as  the  Brahmins  are 
refined  and  knavish.  Their  features  are  harsh  and  rugged,  their  manners  gross. 
They  get  drunk  on  the  juice  of  the  palm  when  it  is  in  a  state  which  gives  them  a 
most  offensive  odour.  They  engage  in  frequent  quarrels,  treat  their  wives  with  cruel- 
ty, often  beating  them  brutally  even  in  a  state  of  pregnancy.  They  feast  on  any 
rotten  carcase  that  falls  in  their  way.  In  order  that  a  race  so  abominable  may  be 
deprived  of  every  chance  of  conveying  contamination  to  their  superiors,  they  are 
obliged  to  have  their  wells  surrounded  with  the  bones  of  animals,  to  warn  others 
against  making  use  of  the  same  water. 

Other  out-  Besidcs  the  Pariahs,  who  are  spread  over  all  the  provinces,  there  are 

'^"''  other  local  outcasts,  some  of  whom  are  still  more  debased.     Such  arc 

the  Pallis  of  Madura,  and  the  Pulias  in  the  mountainous  parts  of  Malabar,  who  are 
not  permitted  to  erect  houses,  obhged  to  Uve  in  open  sheds  supported  by  bamboo 
pillars,  and  dare  not  even  walk  along  the  common  road  for  fear  of  defiling  it. 

The  shoemakers  are  every  where  held  inferior  to  the  Pariahs,  and  are  in  reality  of 
a  grosser  character,  and  more  destitute  of  honour.  Players  on  wind  instruments, 
and  all  sorts  of  vagrants,  are  also  despised  and  hated  as  a  portion  of  the  infamous 
dregs  of  Hindoo  society. t 

The  religion  of  the  Hindoos  is  so  intricate  and  cumbrous  in  its  le- 
gends, and  so  inconsistent  in  its  doctrines,  as  to  defy  the  powers  of  ana- 
lysis ;  and  for  the  same  reason,  it  becomes  too  absurd  to  merit  much  interest,  except 
as  a  conspicuous  monument  of  the  weakness  of  the  human  understanding,  and  a 
leading  political  engine  in  full  operation.  From  some  detached  expressions  in  their 
writings,  apparently  mystical  and  sublime,  the  Brahminical  religion  has  been  sup- 
posed to  be  originally  founded  on  just  and  elevated  views  of  divine  power. — A\  c 
The  triraurti.    [  havc  already  mentioned  the  Trimurti,  or  Indian  trinity,  consisting  of 

•  Colebrook  on  the  Indian  Classes,  Asiat.  Hesearclies,  vol.  v.  p.  53. 

t  See  Abbe  Dubois's  "Description  of  the  People  of  India,"  p.  454—476.  (Knglisl>  trans- 
lation.) 


-"to 

Hindoo  reli 
gion. 


INDOSTAN.  241 

Brahma,  the  creator  :  Vishnu,  the  preserver ;  and  Siva,  the  destroyer.  Some  have 
been  impressed  with  sentiments  of  respect  for  the  views  thus  unfolded,  though  im- 
perfect, and  corrupted.  They  have  even  been  considered  as  participating  of  doc- 
trines bearing  a  relation  to  the  catholic  theology.  But  when  we  enter  more  largely 
into  the  Hindoo  mythology,  we  find  that  this  trimurti  is  not  eternal,  but  sprung  from 
a  female,  who  is  known  by  a  name  signifying  "  the  original  power."  Wc  find  the 
trimurti  engaged  in  shameful  amours,  subjected  to  humiliation  and  disgrace,  and  re- 
stored to  its  dignity  by  the  good  nature  of  a  virtuous  female,  who  had  punished  it 
for  an  unsuccessful  attempt  at  seduction.  The  trimurti  is  introduced  into  the  first 
pages  of  the  Eddo  of  Snorro. — The  perpetuity  of  manners,  as  well  as  |  idolatry, 
of  ideas  in  India,  is  strikingly  exemplified  in  their  adherence  to  the  same  sacred  em- 
blems by  which  their  views  were  originally  represented.  Hence  we  see  the  strarige 
figures  with  four  heads,  and  eight  arms  ;  the  frightful  visages,  the  monsters  which 
tear  men  in  pieces,  and  all  the  horrid  and  disgusting  oddities  which  characterize  the 
representations  of  tlie  Indian  deities.  What  a  shocking  contrast  to  the  graceful  con- 
ceptions of  the  Grecian  imagination!  They  show  that  the  system  existed  previously 
to  the  formation  of  a  correct  or  elegant  taste  ;  but  they  are  not  on  that  account  as 
some  have  alleged,  conclusive,  or  independent  proofs  of  its  high  antiquity.  In  some 
instances  we  must  allow  that  these  symbols  are  sufficiently  expressive.  Vishnu, 
the  preserving  principle,  holds  in  one  hand  a  leaf  of  the  lotos,  which  is  an  aquatic 
plant,  to  sliow  that  every  thing  is  sprung  from  the  sea.  The  horn  which  he  holds  in 
another  hand  denotes  his  creative  voice,  which  is  capable  of  animating  the  chaotic 
void.  The  club  in  a  third,  indicates  his  power  to  punish  and  destroy  the  wicked. 
The  wheel  in  a  fourth,  is  the  symbol  of  the  eternal  circle  of  life  and  creation.  The 
triple  crown  on  his  head,  teaches  that  he  reigns  over  the  sea,  the  earth,  and  the  sky. 

The  god  of  Brahma  is  described  as  a  much  more  scandalous  charac-  nrahmaand 
ter  than  even  the  Jupiter  of  the  Greeks.*  Vishnu,  the  redeemer  or  pre-  "V'isiinu, 
server,  has,  in  order  to  execute  his  incumbent  ofiices,  been  obliged  to  appear  in  dif- 
ferent earthly  forms,  called  avataras,  of  which  ten  are  enumerated.  F>irst,  he  was 
transformed  into  a  fish ;  second,  into  a  tortoise;  third,  into  a  boar;  fourth,  into  a 
monster,  half  man  and  half  lion;  fifth,  into  a  dwarf  Brahmin;  sixth,  into  the  god 
called  Paraswarama;  seventh,  into  the  hero  Rama;  eighth,  into  the  god  Krishna; 
ninth,  into  the  tree  ravi,  or  aruli.  This  is  the  last  which  has  taken  place;  but  another 
is  yet  expected,  to  which  the  Hindoos  look  forward  with  the  same  ardour  as  the  Jews 
to  the  coming  of  the  Messiah.  This  is  a  transformation  into  a  horse.  The  books 
do  not  assign  the  period  of  its  arrival,  nor  explain  by  what  means  it  will  be  brought 
about;  but  the  Hindoos  trust  that  it  will  restore  the  Satya-yuga,  or  the  age  of  happi- 
ness.    Each  of  these  avataras  is  the  subject  of  a  curious  but  monstrous  fable.f 

The  god  Siva,  who  is  chiefly  characterized  as  the  destroying  power,  |  siva. 
is  generally  represented  under  a  shape  so  contrived  as  to  inspire  terror,  with  large 
impassioned  eyes,  his  ears  decked  with  serpents,  his  hair  plaited  and  curled  in  an  ex- 
traordinary manner,  and  holding  the  weapon  called  siila  in  his  hand.  His  amours, 
and  his  battles  with  the  giants  and  tyrants  of  the  earth,  in  which  the  four  Vedas  or 
sacred  books  were  his  horses,  the  mountain  IMandara  Parvata  his  bow,  and  Vishnu 
his  arrow,  and  who,  in  order  to  prepare  for  battle,  cut  the  world  in  twain,  and  took  one 
half  of  it  for  his  armour,  are  related  in  the  book  called  the  Bhagavata,  which  in  fame 
is  next  to  the  Ramayana.  In  order  to  obtain  a  wife,  he  subjected  himself  to  a  long 
and  austere  penitence,  and  thus  prevailed  on  the  mountain  Parvata  to  give  him  his 
daughter  Parvati  in  marriage.  The  origin  of  the  worship  of  the  Lingam  is  connected 
with  a  ridiculous  passage  in  the  story  of  this  god's  debaucheries.  The  Bhagavata  is 
a  book  of  matchless  obscenity ;  yet  it  is  the  delight  of  the  Hindoos,  and  the  first  which 
they  puti  nto  their  children's  hands,  when  learning  to  read.  Vighncswara,  the  god  of 
obstacles,  derived  his  birth  from  the  excrement  of  Parvati,  and  his  head  being  cut  off 
by  some  malignant  deily,  was  replaced  with  the  head  of  an  elf  phant  by  the  power  of 
his  father  Siva. 

•  A  specimen  of  his  nefarious  conduct  is  given  by  Dubois,  p.  429,  430. 
■j-  Dubois,  ibid.     See  also  an  excellent  account  of  this,  and  other  parts  of  the  Hindoo  my- 
thologv,  in  Murray's  Historical  Account  of  Discoveries  and  Travels  in  Asia,  vol,  ii.  p.  251,  St 
Vol.  II.— H  h 


242  BOOK  FIFTIETH. 


Worship  ol 
ftuimals* 


Tlie  Hindoos  are  more  oxliavagant  than  even  the  ancient  Egyptians  in 
the  worship  of  animals,  as  they  make  almost  every  living  creature  the  ob- 
ject of  their  devotion,  although  some  species  excel  the  others  in  the  interest  which 
they  excite.  Such  are  the  cow,  the  ox,  the  ape,  the  serpent  capella,  and  a  bird  of 
prey  called  garuda.  They  worship  also  a  variety  of  malignant  demons  under  the 
name  of  Bhuta. 

T  ansmi-  -^^^^  doctrine  of  the  transmigration  of  souls  from  one  body  into  another, 

gration.  is  an  essential  dogma  of  the  Brahminical  faith,  and  from  this  source  the 

Grecian  philosopher  Pythagoras  undoubtedly  derived  it.  It  was  under  this  belief 
that  Pythagoras  prohibited  his  disciples  from  eating  the  flesh  of  animals,  as  implying 
cannibalism,  or  even  the  devouring  of  one's  own  ancestors;  and  for  the  same 
reason  the  Hindoos  deem  it  sinful  to  put  any  animal  to  death,  except  when  offered 
in  sacrifice;  but  it  is  well  known  that  in  this,  as  in  many  other  particulars,  their  prac- 
tices are  inconsistent,  and  that  they  have  among  them  both  butchers  and  hunters  by 
profession.  The  Hindoos  recognise  two  leading  causes  of  transmigration;  one  is 
for  the  punishment  of  transgression,  and  the  reward  of  virtue,  by  sending  the  wicked 
into  the  bodies  of  Pariahs,  or  of  mean  and  wretched  animals,  and  those  of  the  righ- 
teous into  bodies  of  the  happiest  and  most  dignified  kind.  The  other  is  for  the  pur- 
pose of  removing  the  impurities  implied  in  particular  generations,  which  can  only  be 
done  by  many  more  transmigrations,  if,  instead  of  purifying  themselves  from  old 
.stains,  they  contract  new  ones  by  a  dissolute  life. 

The  hell  of  the  They  maintain  the  existence  of  a  hell,  in  which,  as  in  that  of  the 
Hindoos.  Greeks,  some  whimsical  punishments  are  awarded,  such  as  plunging  the 

guilty  souls  several  times  a-day  in  a  lake  of  mucus.  The  retributions  of  that  hell 
are  long  and  severe,  but  not  eternal.  They  are  supposed  to  be  succeeded  by  a 
universal  restoration  of  the  world. 

Ceremonies.  |  We  have  already  found  that  some  of  the  ceremonies  of  the  Brahmi- 
nical worship  are  horrible  in  the  extreme,  such  as  the  worship  of  Vishnu,  under  the 
name  of  Juggernaut.*  Some  of  them  are  more  tumultuous  and  licentious  than  the 
worship  of  Bacchus  himself,  and  accompanied  with  prostrations  before  the  most  im- 
modest figures  exhibited  as  sacred  emblems.  Ablutions  and  purifications  form  a 
leading  part  of  Brahminical  devotion.  The  images  of  the  gods  are  purified  by 
bathing  them  in  the  rivers,  or  the  sacred  tanks.  Fire  is  held  in  religious  veneration, 
and  receives  frequent  offerings  of  butter  thrown  into  it.  Every  Brahmin  cherishes 
a  sacred  fire.  The  sacrifices  chiefly  consist  of  vegetable  substances,  but  animals 
also  are  often  immolated,  and  in  the  last  century  the  popular  superstition  which 
Hamansacri-  authorizes  humau  sacrifices  in  extreme  cases  was  countenanced  by 
^*^*'  some  ignorant  Brahmins.     The  burning  of  widows  is  a  relic  of  these 

horrid  sacrifices,  and  still,  in  epidemic  diseases  and  other  public  calamities,  it  some- 
times happens  that  Brahmins  are  sufficiently  fooUsh  and  sufficiently  disinterested  to 
throw  themselves  from  the  top  of  a  tower,  in  order  to  propitiate  the  mercy  of  a  divine 
being  in  favour  of  their  contemporaries. 

Birthi.  I       An  infant,  as  soon  as  it  enters  the  world,  becomes  a  subject  of  reli- 

gious ceremony.  The  Brahmins  give  it  a  name,  and  fix,  by  the  study  of  the  stars, 
Marriages.  |  its  future  destinies.  The  Hindoo  marriages  are  celebrated  with  much 
ceremony.  A  piece  of  cloth  is  held  extended  over  the  pair  while  the  priest  implores 
the  blessing  of  heaven  on  their  union.  Promises  of  unalterable  fidelity,  written 
on  palm  leaves,  are  mutually  exchanged. 

Fanerali.  |  Thc  funerals  are  accompanied  by  some  curious  observances.  A  dying 
Brahmin  is  laid  in  the  open  air  on  a  bed  of  cusa  grass,  is  sprinkled  over  with  the 
holy  water  of  the  Ganges,  and  verses  of  the  Vedas  are  chaunted  over  him.  When 
his  breath  is  gone,  the  body  is  washed,  perfumed,  and  crowned  with  flowers.  Thc 
funeral  pile  is  lighted  with  a  match  from  thc  sacred  fire,  by  which  thc  body  is  purified 
and  fitted  for  ascending  into  heaven.  The  following  arc  some  of  the  verses  chaunted 
on  such  occasions : 

*  See  page  177  of  this  vol. 


IXDOSTAN.  243 

"  It  is  folly  to  expect  tuiy  tiling  peiniiuieut  in  the  lot  of  man,  which  is  empty  like 
the  tnink  of  the  bauanu,  fleeting  like  the  froth  of  the  sea." 

"  To  receive  the  clue  recompense  of  its  actions,  the  human  body,  composed  of 
five  elements,  returns  to  its  native  principles ;  and  what  occasion  have  we  for  lamen- 
tation?" 

"  The  earth  pcrislies,  the  sea,  and  even  the  gods,  pass  away  ;  yet  vain  man  aspires 
at  immortality." 

"  Whatever  is  low  must  disappear,  whatever  is  high  must  fall.  Every  compound 
being  must  be  dissolved,  and  life  must  end  in  death." 

The  relations  of  the  deceased  collect  the  ashes,  which  are  put  up  into  a  parcel 
with  the  leaves  of  the  Butea  frondosa,  are  first  consigned  to  the  earth,  and,  after  a 
time,  thrown  into  the  Ganges  with  a  new  set  of  ceremonies.  Sacrifices  of  cakes  are 
ollered  to  the  manes  of  the  three  nearest  progenitors  by  the  father's  and  the  mother's 
side. 

The  building  of  temples  is  reckoned  an  act  of  great  merit  among  the  |  Temi>ie». 
Hindoos.  Elevated  erounds  are  the  situations  chosen  for  these  buildings.  Most 
of  them  are  miserable  structures,  resembling  ovens  rather  than  places  of  worship. 
Some  of  them  are  used  as  courts  of  justice,  and  choultries  for  travellers,  as  well  as 
temples.  The  larger  temples,  or  pagodas,  however,  sometimes  exhibit  a  magnificent 
architecture.  Their  form  is  always  the  same.  The  gate  of  entrance  is  cut  through 
a  huge  pyramid  fronting  the  east.  In  those  of  the  first  order  there  is  a  large  court 
beyond  the  pyramid  ;  at  the  end  of  this  a  second  gate,  cut  through  another  massy 
pyramid  less  lofty  than  the  first,  leading  to  another  court,  at  the  end  of  which  stands 
the  temple  for  the  residence  of  the  idol.  In  the  middle  of  the  second  court  a  figure 
is  placed  in  a  niche  or  on  a  pedestal.  This  is  a  cow,  a  bull,  a  lingam,  a  serpent,  or 
some  other  object  of  worship,  to  which  some  mark  of  reverence  is  paid  by  all  the 
votaries  who  visit  the  place.  They  are  now  admitted  into  the  temple  by  a  low  nar- 
row door,  which  is  the  only  entrance  for  air  and  Hght.  The  interior  is  divided  into 
two  or  three  apartments,  all  on  a  level.  But  here  the  air  is  polluted  and  noxious  in 
the  highest  degree,  from  the  smell  of  burning  lamps,  and  the  eflluvia  of  decayed 
flowers,  as  well  as  the  repeated  respirations  of  the  worshipjiers.  To  unpractised 
persons,  the  horrid  filth  in  which  the  divinities  are  kept  is  extremely  disgusting. 
Here  arc  the  ugly  and  monstrous  productions  of  a  wretched  art,  before  which  the 
poor  superstitious  Hindoo  prostrates  both  body  and  soul.  Numerous  figures  are  set 
up,  both  within  the  temple  and  around  it,  many  of  them  clothed  in  splendid  garments, 
and  decked  with  precious  jewellery,  which  heighten  their  grotesque  and  horrific 
aspect.  In  the  best  endowed  institutions  of  this  kind,  numerous  persons 
are  maintained  in  an  official  capacity.  The  first  in  rank  are  the  sucri- 
ficers,  whose  duties  are  numerous  and  daily.  Next  in  importance  are  the  Dcvadassi 
or  handmaids  of  the  gods ;  they  have  the  charge  of  the  sacred  lamps,  and  generally 
are  concubines  to  tlie  Brahmins,  and,  in  fiict,  low  and  abandoned  in  their  morals. 
They  dance  and  sing  to  the  impure  songs  in  which  the  licentious  actions  of  their 
gods  are  celebrated.  These  persons  are  sometimes  dedicated  to  this  fife  by  their 
parents,  and  are  not  considered  as  reflecting  any  disgrace  on  the  family  to  which 
tiiey  belong.  They  arc  the  only  females  who  learn  to  read,  to  sing,  and  to  dance. 
Such  accomplishments  are  held  in  abhorrence  by  all  the  virtuous  matrons  of  India. 
These  women  use  the  same  arts,  by  means  of  dress  and  manners,  which  arc  em- 
ployed by  common  women  in  other  jjarts  of  the  world,  but  without  th(>.  glaring  impu- 
dence which  is  ))ractised  in  many  parts  of  Europe.  To  the  temples  are  also  attached 
bands  of  musicians,  who  play  with  a  kind  of  clarionets,  cymbals,  and  drums.  On 
the  authority  of  the  Abbe  Dubois,  we  must  believe  that  in  some  of  these  temples, 
scenes  of  indiscriminate  debauchery  arc  practised.  Accounts  of  such  scenes,  even 
when  described  as  existing  among  the  nations  of  antiquity,  have  been  rejected  with 
scorn  by  the  sceptical  critics  of  modern  times.  Yet  they  are  now  in  full  operation  in 
India.  One  temple  of  this  kind  is  at  Junjinagati,  a  desert  i)lacc  on  the  banks  of  the 
Cavery  ;  another  near  the  village  of  Kari-madai,  in  the  province  of  Coimbatoor,* 

"  Dubois's  Description,  5cc.  p.  109,  &c. 


Tlicir  attend- 
ants. 


344  BOOK  FIFTIETH. 

and  another  at  Tirupati,  in  the  north  of  the  Carnatic.  A  sort  of  vows  common 
among  the  devotees  is  that  of  suffering  corporal  mutilation  or  tortures.  Some  of 
these  are  described  by  Dubois,  and  would  appear  quite  incredible,  if  not  supported 
by  testimony  so  respectable.* 

Buddhists,  After  the  particulars  which  have  come  in  our  way  on  former  occasions, 

Jains,  &c.  there  is  little  to  be  stated  on  the  subject  of  the  dissenting  religions  in 

India,  such  as  that  of  the  Buddhists  and  the  Jains.  The  latter  follow  similar  doc- 
trines to  the  Buddhists,  but  differ  from  them  in  allowing  the  Hindoo  division  of  the 
community  into  castes. 

Mahometanism,  as  we  have  found,  has  many  followers,  and  in  some  places  gains 
proselytes.  Judaism  and  Christianity  have  not  made  much  progress.  This  is  as- 
cribed to  the  conduct  of  the  missionaries,  which  has  been  too  often  impolitic  and 
harsh,  so  as  to  inflame  rather  than  conciliate  the  minds  of  the  Pagans. 
Architecture.  |  The  tcmplcs,  palaccs,  and  pyramids  found  in  various  parts  of  India, 
are  considered  as  proofs  of  a  former  state  of  greater  civilization  among  this  people 
than  now  exists ;  but  these  remains  only  show  that  some  individuals  had  sufficient 
riches,  or  sufficient  power,  to  command  an  enormous  expenditure  of  human  labour, 
and  sufficient  ambition  to  project  monuments  which  promised,  by  their  magnitude, 
to  subsist  for  many  ages.  Good  taste  is  an  ingredient  rarely  if  ever  found,  and  far 
less  proof  is  there  that  civilization,  in  this  particular,  was  ever  prevalent  in  the  com- 
munity at  large. 

Science,  |       The  scicnccs  were  cultivated  in  very  early  times  by  the  Hindoos,  the 

Brahmins  being  the  only  depositaries  of  knowledge.  Besides  the  false  sciences  of 
astrolofry  and  magic,  by  means  of  which  they  impose  on  the  ignorant,  they  also 
possessed  some  sound  mathematical  and  astronomical  knowledge,  and  were  ac- 
quainted with  some  processes  of  algebraical  calculation,  which  implied  considerable 
patience  and  study.  It  is  uncertain,  however,  in  what  degree  these  were  original, 
and  to  what  extent  they  were  imported  from  Western  Asia.  These  points  are  sub- 
jects of  controversy  among  the  learned :  yet  there  is  something  creditable  in  having 
made  them  objects  of  attention.  Some  Hindoo  books  of  algebra  and  arithmetic 
have  been  published  in  European  translations  ;  which  consist  rather  in  the  adoption 
of  such  abridged  methods  as  are  found  to  give  true  results,  than  in  the  unfolding  of 
scientific  principles. 

Literature.  |  The  literature  of  the  Hindoos  consists  chiefly  of  poetry.  AH  their 
ancient  books  are  in  verse.  Even  their  books  on  medicine  are  not  excepted.  Not 
only  the  works  in  the  original  Sanscrit,  but  also  the  translation  of  them  into  modern 
Indian  dialects,  are  executed  in  poetry.  They  have  their  verses  arranged  variously 
in  feet,  composed,  like  those  of  the  Greek  and  Latin,  of  specific  intermixtures  of 
lono'  and  short  syllables.  Their  rhyme  is  of  the  nature  of  alliterations,  foiling  some- 
times on  the  first  letter  or  syllable  of  a  line,  sometimes  on  the  second.  The  poetical 
expression  errs  in  the  extreme  loftiness,  and  is  obscured  by  quaint  phrases  and  per- 
petual allegories.  Tlicir  descriptions  arc  tediously  long  and  minute,  the  likenesses 
beinw  never  drawn  Avith  a  single  stroke  in  the  approved  style  of  the  ancient  and 
modern  classics  of  Europe.  Their  epic  poems  relate  to  the  exploits  of  their  gods 
and  heroes,  which  are  far  more  stupendous  than  any  that  we  are  accustomed  to  read 
with  interest,  being  conformed  to  that  extravagant  taste  in  miracles  which  charac- 
terizes the  genius  of  the  Hindoo  religion.  One  of  the  most  interesting  productions 
is  the  dramatic  \nece  called  Sacontala,  which  has  been  translated  and  read  through 
all  Europe,  yet  is  characterized  by  a  suflicient  portion  of  Hindoo  extravagance. 
The  fables  of  Pilpai  or  Bidpai  are  by  some  thought  to  be  the  foundation  of  those  of 
Esop  and  of  Lokman.  Such  fables  may  be  considered  as  a  very  natural  mode  of 
writin^T  among  a  people  who  believe  that  the  souls  of  men  pass  into  the  bodies  of 
Modeof  animals.     The  epistolary  style  of  the  Brahmins  is  solemn  and  compli- 

M-riting.  mentary,  beginning  with  the  name  of  the  writer  and  that  of  the  person 

addressed,  followed  by  a  string  of  compliments,  and  concluding  with  business.    No 
respects  or  compliments  are  ever  sent  .to  wives.     Any  thing  of  that  kind  A\'0uld  be 

*  Dubois's  Description,  p.  413,  £tc. 


INDOSTAN.  245 

considered  ridiculous  and  rudo.  AVhcn  notice  of  a  dcutli  is  communicated,  the 
custom  is  to  singe  a  little  the  i)oint  of  the  palm  Jcaf  on  whicli  the  news  is  written. 
Though  the  diflbrent  Indian  dialects  are  closely  akin,  they  are  written  in  |  characters, 
very  diflerent  characters.  They  also  ditier  in  the  form  of  their  nrilhmetical  ciphers, 
thou'T^h  they  all  follow  the  decimal  series.  The  Tclinga  notation  corresponds  almost 
exactly  with  that  which  was  communicated  to  Europe  by  the  Arabs  at  the  end  of 
the  tenth  century,  and  which  we  now  universally  use  for  calculation.  The  Tamul 
notation  rather  resembles  that  of  the  Romans,  consisting  of  letters  of  their  own 
alphabet,  and  denoting  ten,  a  hundred,  and  a  thousand,  by  single  letters.  They 
have  a  paper  made  of  the  bark  of  a  particular  plant,  (not  of  cotton,  as  has  been 
supposed,)  but  they  generally  use  the  leaves  of  the  latanier  palm.  Their  w  riting, 
in  the  first  instance,  consists  of  mere  scratching  with  an  iron  point,  while  the  leaf  is 
supported  on  the  middle  finger  of  the  left  hand.  The  right  or  writing  hand  is  not 
moved  along  the  leaf,  as  with  us,  but  the  leaf  is  from  time  to  time  pushed  to  the  lelt 
with  the  iron  point  stuck  in  the  letter  last  formed.  In  this  manner  the  process  is 
conducted  with  great  facility,  and  a  Hindoo  is  often  seen  writing  as  he  walks  along. 
The  leaf  is  afterwards  covered  over  with  a  black  substance,  which  adheres  to  the 
written  lines,  and  renders  them  more  distinct. 

It  is  only  in  a  very  few  mechanical  arts  that  the  Hindoos  make  any  |  indolence, 
figure.  Indulging  in  their  natural  indolence,  they  have  scarcely  any  want  but  that 
of  ease.  Bloderate  and  sober,  a  simple  piece  of  linen  or  cotton  stuff  suffices  them 
for  clothing;  their  dwellings  are  the  shghtest  and  simplest  that  can  be  imagined;  their 
support  consists  of  rice  and  water ;  little  trouble  is  required  to  satisfy  their  few  wants. 
Yet  some  rich  individuals,  habituated  to  the  conveniencies  of  life,  display  in  their 
houses  all  the  luxury  of  the  east.  AVe  find  the  persons  of  the  Rajas  and  the  Nabobs 
surrounded  by  numerous  slaves ;  their  garments  glittering  with  gold,  silver,  and  em- 
broidery; their  apartments  adorned  with  painting  and  gilding,  and  perfumed  with  va- 
rious valuable  essences.  Their  wives  participate  in  the  taste  of  their  Luxury  of  iiie 
husbands,  and  pass  their  lives  in  utter  inactivity.  The  zenanas  are  the  ^^"""e"- 
abodes  of  voluptuous  repose,  where  pure  water  falls  in  cascades,  or  displays  its  re- 
freshing surface  on  broad  marble  basins.  The  richest  tapestry  is  used  tor  covering 
their  floors,  adorning  their  walls,  and  lining  their  doors.*  We  find  that  in  the  time 
of  Alexander,  the  Indian  beauties  made  use  of  a  rich  profusion  of  pearls,  diamonds, 
sapphires,  and  rubies. I  Even  to  the  nose  and  the  feet  were  hung  rings  which  tinkled 
at  every  motion,  to  which  splendid  embellishments  was  added  the  sweeter  charm  of 
thousands  of  fair  flowers  and  odoriferous  plants.;]:  A  variety  of  paints  constituted, 
from  a  remote  antiquity,  a  conspicuous  article  in  Indian  coquetry. 

All  classes  of  society  among  the  Hindoos  are  in  the  habit  of  smoking 
tobacco  and  chewing  betel, — acts  as  essential  with  them  as  eating  and 
drinking.  In  all  the  houses  of  persons  in  good  circumstances  there  are  terraces  or 
Hat  roofs,  where  a  part  of  the  day  is  spent  in  smoking.  In  travelling,  they  use  dif- 
ferent sorts  of  palanquins,  which  are  often  adorned  in  a  most  luxurious  style,  a  mode 
of  travelling  well  suited  to  a  country  where  there  are  few  roads  practicable  for  car- 
riages. § 

The  Hindoo  character  is  a  strange  mixture  of  strength  and  weakness, 
of  ferocity  and  of  gentleness.  This  portion  of  the  human  race  has, 
without  passing  through  the  various  steps  of  a  free  civilization,  been  enslaved,  refined, 
and  degraded,  by  a  political  system  which  is  both  a  theocracy  and  a  despotism.  Here 
the  man  who  sacrifices  life  to  the  observance  of  an  absurd  law  of  caste,  never  has 
the  daring  to  raise  the  arm  of  self-defence  or  of  vengeance  against  the  oppressors  of 
his  person  and  country.  He  gives  all  the  extent  of  his  protection  to  a  sacred  cow, 
but  sees  without  emotion  his  nation  consigned  to  be  massacred.  AV  e  have  seen  w  hat 
an  extreme  degree  of  self-abasement,  mortification,  voluntiiry  torture,  and  self-sacri- 

•  Yalentyn's  Engraving  oithe  Zenana  of  Nourmahal.     See  also  a  plate  hi  Mr.  Hodge's  Tra- 
vels, p.  24. 

t  Q.  Curtius,  viii.  cIi.  9. 

i  (iita-Govinda,  p.  357 — 359.     Sacontala,  p.  HT,  (Geniiaii  Uarislatiuu.) 

§  Solvyus,  les  Indous,  tome  iii. 


MiscellamoHs 
custums. 


Siimmarj-  of 
tile  Hindoo 
tliaracler. 


<J46  BOOK  FIFTIETH. 


<4t 


fice,  the  spirit  of  religious  system  has  generated  in  tliis  singular  race.  Even  the  fe- 
males arc  scarcely  behind  in  the  intrepidity  with  which  they  brave  a  voluntary  death, 
in  one  of  its  most  dreadful  forms.  Dressed  in  her  gayest  attire,  the  Indian  widow 
walks  forward  triumphantly  to  the  sound  of  music,  to  place  herself  on  the  flaming 
l)ile  which  consumes  the  dead  body  of  her  husband.  A  sacred  joy  sparkles  in  the 
eyes  of  her  attending  children,  while  they  contemplate  the  heavenly  happiness  and 
never-ending  glory  to  which  their  mother's  self-devotion  conducts  her.  "  Will  you 
not,"  says  the  European,  "  entreat  your  mother  to  preserve  her  life  for  the  sake  of 
the  young  offspring  whom  she  renders  helpless  orphans'?"  "  Nay,"  says  the  youth, 
"  she  must  not  so  disgrace  herself.  Should  my  mother  hesitate  for  a  moment,  I 
would  encourage,  I  would  urge  her  to  the  utmost,  to  complete  the  sacrifice  which 
religion  and  honour  demand."*  It  is  not  the  dread  of  future  punishment,  but  the 
hope  of  additional  bliss,  that  forms  the  inspiring  motive  of  such  acts.  But  even  when 
no  sublime  objects  of  either  kind  are  presented  to  the  mind,  we  have  found  some 
dunominations  among  this  strange  people  devoting  their  lives  to  a  mere  point  of  high 
moral  principle  and  honour,  or  to  an  object  of  benevolence.")"  Their  political  feelings 
seem  to  be  deadened  by  total  despair,  generating  resignation  and  contentment.  Per- 
haps it  is  only  where  they  conceive  the  object  which  they  aim  at  to  be  of  certain 
attainment  that  they  are  capable  of  acting  the  hero;  but  in  cases  in  which  a  risk  of 
ultimate  disappointment  stares  them  in  the  face,  they  do  not  know  how  to  muster 
courage  for  exertion.  They  are  averse  to  that  state  of  mind  which  implies  turbulence, 
or  even  vigdance,  though  willing  to  surmount  one  obstacle,  however  much  against 
their  first  feelings,  or  to  submit  to  a  train  of  passive  sufferings,  the  nature  of  which 
is  known  and  foreseen,  and  the  ability  to  bear  which  is  habitually  cultivated.  In  one 
point  of  view,  tliey  furnish  a  conspicuous  example  of  the  plasticity  of  human  nature, 
^vhich  admits  of  being  moulded  into  a  form  so  fantastic.  In  another,  they  exemplify 
the  obstinacy  of  long  habits,  hereditary  opinions,  manners,  and  institutions,  and  the 
necessity  of  a  very  profound  and  well-directed  policy  for  any  political  or  philanthropic 
speculators  who  propose  to  govern  them  well,  to  meliorate  their  condition,  or  to  im- 
prove their  character.  In  this  point  of  view,  all  the  historical  facts  arising  from  their 
intercourse  with  other  people,  and  the  instances  of  success  and  of  failure  in  all  ne- 
gociations  and  projects  of  which  they  have  been  the  objects,  furnish  interesting  prac- 
tical instruction. 

Although  the  Hindoos  might  have  carried  on  a  splendid  commerce  by 
conveying  to  other  nations  the  rich  productions  of  their  soil,  they  have 
always  remained  faithful  to  that  law  which  forbids  them  to  leave  their  native  country. 
Hence  other  nations,  with  whom  these  productions  were  in  demand,  have  been 
obliged  to  conduct  the  whole  trade  which  the  wealth  of  India  offered.  This  circum- 
stance has  prevented  the  commerce  of  the  Hindoos  from  reaching  its  due  extent. 
Yet  it  has  in  every  age  existed  in  great  activity.  The  Hindoos  have  been  long  ac- 
quainted with  bills  of  exchange,  and  with  the  use  of  coin. T  In  all  the  Indian  states, 
pieces  of  silver  are  coined  into  rupees,  which  become  the  standard  to  which  other 
coins  are  referred.  "  The  rupee,"  says  Legoux  de  Flaix,  "  may  be  considered  as 
the  Indostan  crown;  (ecu;)  it  has  nearly  the  value  of  that  piece,  (about  two  shillings, 
or  half-a-crown  English.)  There  are  likewise  gold  rupees  and  gold  pagodas,  worth 
about  eight  or  nine  shillings  each.  The  lowest  circulating  medium  consists  of  cowrie 
shells,  of  which  fifty  make  a  poni,  ten  ponis  a  fanon,  and  thirteen  fanons  a  pagoda. 
Jjarge  sums  are  reckoned  by  the  lak,  which  is  a  sum  of  100,000  rupees,  or  100,000 
pagodas, — the  one  or  the  other  being  always  specified  when  the  term  lak  is  employed. 
The  European  coins  are  also  now  current  in  that  country,  particularly  the  dollar,  the 
liouis,  and  the  crown." 

rroUuctsof  The  ])roductions  of  Indian  industry  form  a  leading  object  of  trade  bc- 

iniiustry.  twccn  India  and  Europe.     The  hulian  stufis,  in  a  particular  manner,  are 

in  request  among  the  lOuropcan  nations,  both  for  their  durablcncss  and  beauty.   Even 
in  the  days  of  Job  we  find  that  they  had  great  celebrity.  §     In  the  language  of  trade, 

♦  Jloinbay  Courier,  April,  1811.  f  See  p.  136  aiul  242  of  this  volume. 

f  Legoux  de  I'liiix,  Essui,  c.  i.  p.  210.  §  Job.  x.wiii. 


Trade  and  in' 
dustry. 


INDOSTAK.  247 

pieces  of  Indian  stnfl'  liavc  received  the  name  of  jruinea  j^oods  or  guineas.  It  is  in 
the  north  part  of  the  Coromandel  coast  that  we  find  the  most  extensive  manufactures 
of  these  articles.  The  blue  kinds  are  exported  to  Airica.  The  j^cvJ.als,  so  called 
from  a  Tamul  word  signifying  "  superfine,"  are  made  in  the  Carnatic,  of  a  long 
silky  cotton,  which  is  particularly  abundant  in  the  plain  of  Arcot.*  There  is  ano- 
ther description  of  white  goods,  called  salampoori,  got  from  Ceylon,  made  of  the 
cotton  of  IMalealama  and  the  Carnatic.  The  district  of  Condaver  furnishes  the 
beautiful  handkerchiefs  of  Masulipatam,  the  fine  colours  of  which  are  partly  obtained 
from  a  plant  called  chage,  which  grows  on  the  banks  of  the  Krishna,  and  on  the 
coast  of  the  Bay  of  Bengal,  j  The  handkerchiefs  of  Paliamcotta,  more  diversified 
in  their  designs  as  well  as  in  their  colours  than  those  of  Masulipatam,  are  exported 
in  great  quantities  to  America  and  Africa,  where  they  arc  used  for  female  dress.  It 
is  at  Masulipatam,  Madras,  and  St.  Thome,  that  the  printed  cottons  or  chiles,  impro- 
perly called  Persian  calicoes,  are  made.  Their  superiority  has  been  ascribed  to  the 
good  quality  of  the  water  in  these  particular  places ;  but,  since  the  Europeans  have 
succeeded  in  imitating  the  Indian  processes,  the  exportation  has  been  considerably 
diminished.  The  long  and  broad  webs  covered  with  strange  designs,  and  intended  for 
bed-covers,  are  exported  in  great  quantities  to  the  Levant  and  the  colonies.  On  the 
coast  of  Coromandel,  a  striped  muslin  is  made,  called  dorea,  and  in  the  Tamul  lan- 
guage betille,  quantities  of  which  are  exported  by  the  caravans  to  Persia,  Arabia,  and 
the  Levant.  Very  little  of  it  goes  to  Europe,  where  the  fabric  is  skilfully  imitated. 
The  case  is  different  with  another  stuff  called  organdi,  which  is  made  in  the  Car- 
natic, and  much  esteemed  in  Europe.  The  basins,  or  basinets,  come  from  tiic 
Northern  Circars,  and  the  ginghams  from  Madras,  St.  Thome,  and  Paliamcotta. 
The  latter  are  no  longer  exported  in  considerable  quantity,  except  to  the  other  coun- 
tries of  Asia,  where  they  are  much  used  for  clothing.  Surat  produces  silks  sewed 
with  gold  and  silver  thread,  which  are  sent  to  Persia,  Thibet,  and  China,  where  they 
are  preferred  to  those  of  Lyons  for  their  lightness.  Cashmere  furnishes  its  shawls 
and  woollens.  In  the  country  of  Dacca,  the  neusooks  are  made,  a  species  of  cot- 
ton stuff  of  great  fineness  and  transparency.  The  Bengal  cotton  goods  whicli  go 
under  the  names  of  cusses,  amdns,  and  garcds,  have  been  exported  in  considerable 
quantity  by  the  English  ;  also  the  handkerchiefs  called  Burgoses  and  Steinkirkes. 
It  is,  says  M.  Legoux  de  Flaix,  by  the  combination  and  the  happy  mixtures  of  dif- 
ferent kinds  of  cotton,  adapted,  by  their  strength,  flexibility,  and  other  qualities,  to 
the  frabric  of  ditTerent  muslins,  and  by  the  experiments  and  observations  of  their 
ancestors,  transmitted  from  father  to  son,  that  the  Hindoos  have  brought  the  arts 
which  depend  on  dexterity  of  hand  to  a  degree  of  perfection  from  which  we  are  still 
far  removed.  Much  is  also  to  be  attributed  to  the  physical  constitution  and  the  pa- 
tient habits  of  the  people.  Though  deficient  in  muscular  energy,  they  have  a  deli- 
cacy, flexibility,  and  docility  of  hands,  which  enable  them  to  succeed  admirably  in 
the  finer  sorts  of  manufactures,  with  looms  and  tools  of  a  rude  construction. 

The  English  have  greatly  extended  the  plantations  of  indigo  in  Ben-  |  Dyes, 
gal.  The  best,  however,  is  from  Agra.  It  is  exported  to  Europe,  Persia,  and  Ara- 
bia. Through  the  exertions  of  the  English  East  India  Company,  the  production  of 
cochineal  has  been  so  much  extended  over  the  Coromandel  coast,  as  to  form  at 
this  time  a  branch  of  commerce.  The  sapan  or  red  dye-wood  is  produced  in  great 
quantity  in  the  eastern  Ghauts,  and  is  exported  to  Europe.  Gum  lac  is  furnished  by 
several  provinces  of  Indostan,  especially  Lahore,  the  Punjab,  and  Mooltan,  where 
it  is  of  the  best  quality.  Legoux  de  Flaix  states,  that  by  the  Ganges  alone  this  ar- 
ticle is  exported  to  the  amount  of  three  millions  of  livres.|  Sandal  wood,  whicli 
grows  abundantly  on  the  Ghauts  and  between  the  two  ranges  of  these  mountains, 
becomes  an  object  of  commerce  in  different  forms  ;  in  blocks  and  planks  for  making 
small  pieces  of  furniture;  in  powder  for  burning  with  incense;  and  in  chips  for  dye- 
ing. The  Hindoos  also  extract  from  it  a  valuable  essence,  to  which  they  ascribe  sa- 
lul)rious  virtues.     At  Mangalore,  and  several  of  the  larger  towns  on  the  Malabar 

*  Legoux  de  Flaix,  ii.  p.  24.  f  Ibid.  p.  53. 

t  Legoux  de  Flaix,  ii.  p.  408.  , 


fci 


Commerce  in 
eatables. 


248  BOOK  FIFTIETH. 

coast,  there  are  extensive  stores  of  sandal  wood  for  exportation  to  Europe  and  dif- 
ferent parts  of  Asia.  China,  in  particular,  consumes  a  great  quantity  of  it.  About 
sixteen  quintals  are  sent  annually  to  China  by  the  English  Company. 
Piantj  used  in  Cotton  is  Cultivated  in  almost  every  part  of  India.  The  finest  grows 
manufacture,  in  the  light  rocky  soil  of  Guzerat,  Bengal,  Oude,  and  Agra.  The  culti- 
vation of  this  plant  is  very  lucrative,  an  acre  producing  about  nine  quintals  of  cotton 
in  the  year.*  The  cotton  of  Guzerat  is  bought  by  the  Chinese  for  the  manufacture 
of  nankeens.  The  English  have  paid  great  attention  to  the  culture  of  silk,  which  is 
obtained  from  different  provinces  of  India.  The  best  is  that  of  Cossimbazar,  an 
island  formed  by  the  Ganges,  as  already  described, f  and  which  alone  yields  2000 
quintals.  A  great  part  of  the  silk  of  India  is  used  in  the  manfactures  of  the  country ; 
the  remainder  is  exported  to  Europe,  and  to  the  ports  of  the  Red  Sea  and  the  Per- 
sian Gulf.  In  the  northern  parts  of  Indostan  there  is  a  particular  kind  of  worm, 
wliich  produces  a  coarser  and  stronger  silk  than  that  of  the  common  silk  worm. 
Among  the  manufactures  of  Bengal  is  a  kind  of  thin  gauze,  much  employed  for  mus- 
quito  curtains;  these  are  thrown  in  one  piece  over  the  bed  frames  during  the  night, 
to  exclude  these  troublesome  insects,  while  they  do  not  confine  the  air  in  the  same 
manner  as  closer  fabrics  would  do. 

The  Malabar  coast  derives  a  large  income  from  the  culture  of  pepper, 
which  is  exported  to  the  extent  of  120,000  quintals  in  the  year.  The 
principal  pepper  marts  are  Calicut,  Mahe,  Mangalore,  Cochin,  and  other  towns  on 
that  coast.  Another  aromatic,  cardamom,  which  grows  with  much  luxuriance  in  the 
western  Ghauts,  is  bought  in  great  quantities  by  the  Persians,  the  Arabs,  the  Chinese, 
the  Japanese,  and  other  Asiatics,  who  make  much  use  of  it  for  giving  a  higher  zest 
to  their  betel.  The  Company  enjoys  an  exclusive  monopoly  in  the  trade  of  opium, 
the  finest  of  which  comes  from  the  province  of  Bahar.  The  same  is  nearly  the  case 
with  saltpetre,  in  which  India  abounds,  and  of  which  the  district  of  Patna  alone  yields 
600,000  quintals  annually.  The  sharks  on  the  coast  of  Malabar  are,  like  those  of 
Maldives  already  mentioned,  fished  for  the  sake  of  the  fins  for  the  Chinese  market.;|; 
These  exports  to  foreign  countries  are  productive  of  an  immense  influx  of  money  to 
India. 

At  present  the  import  trade  is  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  English,  consisting  of 
cloths,  velvet,  iron,  copper,  lead,  fire  arms,  wine,  spirits,  lace,  gold  embroidery,  coral, 
and  fruit  dried  and  preserved.  From  Ceylon  there  is  an  importation  of  palm  wood, 
areca  nuts,  and  cinnamon;  of  spices  from  the  Molucca  islands;  teak  wood  from  Pe- 
gu; coffee,  incense,  corals,  and  dates  from  Arabia.  The  European  vessels  bring  a 
large  quantity  of  tea  from  China.  The  coast  of  Africa  sends  cargoes  of  shells, 
which  are  in  great  request  among  the  Hindoos  as  an  article  of  ornamental  dress. § 
t]Ie"EH''ifsh'^  Recently  the  Indian  trade  has  become  a  subject  of  considerable  in- 

company.  tcrcst  in  Great  Britain,   particularly  in  relation  to  the  exclusive  privi- 

leges enjoyed  by  the  East  India  Company,  to  the  prejudice  of  other  British  mer- 
chants. It  has  been  particularly  complained  that  the  latter  were  prohibited  from  en- 
gaging in  certain  branches  of  trade  which  were  freely  allowed  to  the  vessels  of  Ame- 
rica and  other  nations,  such  as  the  liberty  of  conducting  the  trade  between  India  and 
other  nations  not  English.  It  appears  altogether  incredible  that  so  unmeaning  a 
sacrifice  of  national  profit  should  ever  have  been  made,  a  sacrifice  more  senseless 
than  the  self-immolations  of  the  Hindoos,  because  they  are  without  any  assignable 
motive.  In  the  last  renewal  of  the  charter  given  to  the  Company  by  the  government, 
the  privileges  of  British  subjects  have  been  considera])ly  extended.  This  object  was 
the  more  easily  effected,  as  the  trade  was  found  to  yield  little  or  no  profit  to  the  Com- 
pany. Indeed  the  China  trade  was  the  only  source  of  the  commercial  profit.  Here, 
therefore,  the  monopoly  has  been  continued.  It  has,  by  some,  been  considered  as 
conducive  to  a  more  orderly  and  safe  intercourse  between  two  nations  so  different 
from  one  another  in  their  manners  and  ideas  as  the  English  and  Chinese,  and  so  lia- 
ble to  fall  into  serious  disputes  arising  from  the  imprudence  or  ignorance  of  individu- 

•  I.eguox  deFlalx,  ii.  p.  175.  f  See  page  160  of  this  vol.  i  Seepage  229  of  this  vol. 
§  For  a  more  detailed  view  of  this  subject  see  the  work  entitled  Manuel  du  Commerce  de 
Inde,  par  M.  Blancard,  negociant  de  Marseille. 


INDOSTAN.  •  249 

als,  most  especially  when  the  latter  are  not  under  due  responsibility  and  control.  Com- 
merce, however,  is  always  conducted  in  a  much  more  expensive  manner  by  such  a  Com- 
pany than  by  private  adventurers,  and  branches  of  trade  which  are  a  losing  concern  to 
the  former  are  sufficiently  lucrative  to  the  latter.  Hence,  since  the  year  1815,  the  trade 
between  Great  Britain  and  India  has  been  materially  improved,  and  the  cotton  manufac- 
tures of  England  have  been  introduced  into  Asia  to  an  extent  which  was  not  anticipated. 
The  results  of  these  modern  changes  of  arrangement  have  been  such  as  to  generate 
a  strong  sentiment  in  England  in  favour  of  a  still  freer  system  of  trade,  by  the  removal 
of  many  or  most  of  the  restrictions  which  now  exist.  Much  information  has  been 
laid  before  the  public  by  the  parliamentary  inquiries  which  this  question  has  elicited. 
The  Report  from  the  House  of  Lords,  laid  before  the  Commons,  of  date  May  7,  1821, 
contains  an  ample  collection  of  facts,  which  bear  chiefly  on  the  trade  with  China,  but 
also  touch  on  that  of  Indostan.  Extensive  details  and  discussions  on  this  subject 
are  foreign  to  our  work;  but  we  shall  give  an  extract  from  some  of  the  tables  of  that 
report,  which  will  serve  to  show  the  extent  as  well  as  the  nature  of  the  commercial  in- 
tercourse of  Europe  with  India. 

The  first  table  which  we  copy  blends  the  trade  of  China  and  India 
together,  and  gives  chiefly  a  comparison  between  the  proportion  of  the 
trade  which  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Company  and  of  free  traders,  the  latter  includ- 
ing those  who  had  privileges  or  licenses  from  the  Company  for  those  branches  over 
which  they  possessed  a  control,  as  well  as  those  which  were  thrown  open  to  the 
public. 

Value  of  Imports  from  India  and  China  into  Great  Britain,  during   |  imports. 

the  following  years. 

1814.     By  the  Company, ^£7,227,663 

Free  and  privileged  trade,  -----         4,061,892 

Total,         -         -         -    £11,289,555 


Table  illus- 
trating the  In- 
dia trade. 


1815.     By  the  Company, 7,154,130 

Free  and  privileged  trade,  -----         5,769,459 

Total,         -         -         -    £12,923,589 


1816.     By  the  Company, 7,855,312 

Free  and  privileged  trade,  -         -         -         -         -         5,703,912 

Total,         -         -         -    £13,559,224 


1817.     By  the  Company, 7,361,802 

Free  and  privileged  trade,  -----         5,097,748 


Total,         -         -         -    £12,459,550 


1818.     By  the  Company, 5,192,804 

Free  and  privileged  trade,  -----         7,098,650 

Total,         -         -         -    £12,291,454 


1819.     By  the  Company, 5,792,406 

Free  and  privileged  trade, 6,297,510 


Total,         -        -         -    £12,089,916 


Vol.  II.— I  i 


250  '  BOOK  FIFTIETH. 


Exports.         I  Exports  to  India  and  China. 


1814.  By  the  Company, £1,732,720 

Free  and  privileged  trade,  ....  870,177 


Total,         -         £2,602,897 


1815.  By  the  Company, 1,753,302 

Free  and  privileged  trade,  _         -         -         -  1,454,728 


Total,         -  £3,208,030 


1816.  By  the  Company, 1,539,130 

Free  and  privileged  trade,  -         -         -         .  1,868,396 


Total,         -  £3,407,526 


1817.  By  the  Company, 1,313,494 

Free  and  privileged  trade,  .         .         -         _  2,708,024 

Total,         -  £4,021,518 


1818.  By  the  Company, 1,250,064 

Free  and  privileged  trade,  -         .         .         .  3,052,741 


Total,  -  £4,302,805 


1819.  By  the  Company, 1,368,327 

Free  and  privileged  trade,  -         -         -         .  1,650,338 


Total,         -  £3,008,665 


Remarks.  j  In  this  table  we  find  the  imports  to  Great  Britain  far  exceeding  the 
exports.  This  seems  chiefly  to  arise  from  those  remittances  which,  independently 
of  an  exchange  of  commodities,  constitute  an  essential  part  of  the  wealth  of  Great 
Britain,  forming  an  income  which  is  spent  in  the  country,  promoting  its  internal 
trade,  and  swelling  the  national  revenue.  It  is  here  that  we  see  one  of  the  leading 
causes  of  the  opulence  of  that  nation,  and  of  the  credit  of  her  government.  This 
is  saved  to  the  country  after  much  has  been  squandered  by  the  servants,  civil  and 
military,  during  their  residence  in  India.  Its  operation  has  no  connection  with  the 
question  of  profit  or  loss  on  the  part  of  the  East  India  Company, — a  question  too 
often  confounded  with  that  of  the  influence  of  the  colonial  possessions  on  the  pecu- 
niary interests  of  the  nation  and  government. 

The  kind  of  intercourse  which  India  maintains  with  the  mother  country  will  be 
exhibited  in  the  following  tabular  view  of  the  particular  articles  of  import  and  export 
for  the  year  1819,  those  of  which  the  Company  was  the  medium,  and  those  which 
were  carried  by  free  traders  being  included  in  one  number. 

Imports  from  India  and  China  to  Great  Britain  for  the  year  1819. 

Value. 

Borax,  -         -      £23,887 

Camphor, 15,022 

Cassia-hgnea, -_..         25,352 


Carried  forward,  £64,261 


INDOSTAN.  251 

Value. 

Brought  forward,           -  .£64,261 

Cinnamon, 127,479 

Cloves,              637 

Coffee,               193,547 

Cotton  Wool, 2,452,344 

Gum-lac, 56,365 

Indigo,               1,106,715 

Mace,                -         .         -         -  22,810 

Mother-of-pearl  shells,       -         -         -         -      '   -         -         -  13,176 

Nutmegs, 145,489 

Pepper,             198,745 

Piece  goods,     -   .      -         -         -         -         .         -         -         -  978,687 

Rhubarb, 16,905 

Rice,                 374,954 

Sago,                 21,095 

Saltpetre,          -         - 446,713 

Raw  silk  of  Bengal, 953,817 

Ditto       of  China, 197,855 

Sugar,               431,605 

Tea,                  3,859,442 

Turmeric, -         -         -  13,705 

Other  articles, 413,570 

Total,  £12,087,916 


Exports  from  Great  Britain  to  India  and  China,  during  the  year  1819. 

Value. 

Apothecary  ware,              -         -         -         -         -         -         -  £23,168 

Apparel,          ,__------  30,811 

Beer  and  ale, 40,398 

Printed  books, 40,844 

Brass,               5,813 

Cabinet  and  upholstery  wares,            .         .         -         -         _  6,998 

Carriages,        _._------  12,859 

Coals,               1,124 

Cochineal, 13,722 

Colours  for  painters,          -         -         -         -         -         -         -  13,661 

Copper  in  bricks  and  pigs,          __.---  231,951 

in  sheets  and  nails,        ------  58,289 

wrought, 39,985 

Cordage,          ---------  5,827 

Cotton  manufactures,        -------  461,367 

Cotton  twist  and  yarn,       -------  138 

Earthen- ware,           --------  10,577 

Glass,              77,145 

Guns  and  pistols,      -----.--  25,541 

Haberdashery,          --------  15,895 

Hardwares, 29,601 

Hats,      -         -         - 13,543 

Iron  in  bars,             --------  88,892 

bolt  and  rod,             -------  5,182 

cast  and  wrought,      -------  41,214 

Lace  and  thread  of  gold  and  silver,     -----  7,514 

Lead  and  shot, 60,668 

Carried  forward,        -  £1,362,727 


252  BOOK  FIFTIETH. 


Value. 

Brought  forward, 

- 

jei  ,362,727 

Leather  and  saddlery, 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

30,510 

Linen  manufactures, 

- 

-         .         - 

- 

- 

- 

22,275 

Military  stores, 

- 

_ 

- 

- 

■• 

20,951 

Musical  instruments, 

- 

_ 

- 

- 

- 

14,220 

Ordnance  of  brass  and 

iron. 

_         _         _ 

- 

r 

- 

33,706 

Plate,  plated  ware,  jewellery, 

and  watches. 

- 

- 

- 

46,353 

Provisions, 

- 

.         _         - 

- 

- 

- 

40,658 

Quicksilver, 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

93,614 

Silk  manufactures. 

- 

_         _         - 

- 

- 

- 

6,251 

Soap  and  candles. 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

5,676 

Spirits,  British, 

- 

. 

- 

-. 

- 

1,406 

Foreign, 

- 

_ 

- 

- 

- 

51,634 

Stationary, 

- 

_ 

- 

- 

- 

31,757 

Steel,  unwrought, 

- 

_         _         - 

- 

- 

- 

20,508 

Sugar,  refined 

- 

-         _         - 

- 

- 

- 

975 

Swords, 

- 

-         -         - 

- 

- 

- 

939 

Tin  unwrought. 

- 

"                 "                  • 

- 

- 

- 

47 

Tin  and  pewter  wares, 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

7,198 

Wines, 

- 

_         -         - 

- 

- 

- 

49,450 

Woollen  manufactures. 

- 

_ 

- 

- 

- 

938,100 

All  other  articles,     - 

Total, 

' 

229,710 

^3,008,665 

From  the  most  cursory  inspection  of  this  last  table,  it  will  appear  that  a  great  pro- 
portion of  the  goods  carried  from  Europe  to  India  are  for  the  consumption  of  the 
Europeans  resident  in  that  country. 

The  small  quantity  of  Tin  included  in  this  list  is  sent  by  the  Company.  Tin 
abounds  so  much  in  India,  and  more  especially  in  China,  that  it  cannot  be  exported 
from  this  country  except  at  a  loss,  and  the  Company  sends  it  out  only  in  compliance 
with  a  very  absurd  article  in  their  charter. 

Since  trade  has  received  additional  activity  by  the  removal  of  some  restrictions, 
the  sale  of  British  woollens  has  been  greatly  increased.  The  cotton  manufactures 
of  England  are  the  only  articles  altogether  new  that  have  found  a  sale  among  the 


•to 

natives 


Political  I  "^^^  political  vicissitudes  to  which  Indostan  has  been  subjected,  are 
revolutions.  |  of  a  kind  peculiar  to  that  country.  Among  persons  who  have  taken  a 
cursory  and  partial  view  of  modern  events,  it  has  been  a  common  mistake  to  repre- 
sent its  native  inhabitants  as  the  most  peaceful  people  in  the  world,  becoming  the  un- 
characterof  fortunate  prey  of  rapacious  foreign  conquerors.  In  so  far  as  regards 
governments,  their  dispositions  towards  other  countries,  the  Hindoos  certainly  have 
never  shown  any  disposition  to  give  the  slightest  molestation.  It  is  with  them 
a  principle  of  religion  not  to  travel  beyond  the  sacred  territory  which  has  given 
them  birth,  and  in  which  alone  opportunities  are  afforded  for  continuing  the 
observances  of  their  fathers,  many  of  which  have  local  references.  But,  when 
it  is  supposed  that  among  themselves  the  Hindoos  originally  enjoyed  peace  and 
happiness,  under  native  governments  characterized  by  patriotic  feelings,  and 
watching  with  paternal  solicitude  over  their  interests,  we  shall  find  such  pictures 
to  be  mere  gratuitous  assumptions,  as  soon  as  we  endeavour  to  trace  any  particulars 
of  the  Hindoo  history  and  character.  The  attacks  and  spoliations  committed  by 
others  have  been  sufficiently  barbarous;  but  they  are  not  chargeable  with  the  de- 
struction of  a  native  golden  age.  The  only  difference  on  the  fate  of  this  people 
has  been,  that  they  have  been  oppressed  and  plundered  by  strangers  instead  of  their 
o^vn  countrymen. — Although  the  political  and  religious  fabric  of  Brabminism  has, 
from  an  antiquity  more  remote  than  history  can  trace,  extended  over  Indostan,  yet 
we  have  no  evidence  of  that  country,  or  even  any  large  division  of  if,  having  been 
united  under  one  political  sovereign.     The  history  of  the  emperor  Yicramaditya  is 


INDOSTAN.  253 

too  ridiculous  to  be  allowed  the  least  historical  credit,  and  must  be  consigned  to  the 
department  of  mythology.*  All  the  monuments  that  can  be  admitted  as  throwing 
light  on  the  early  state  of  that  country  represent  it  as  divided  into  numerous  small 
principalities  which  were  habitually  at  war  with  one  another,  and  subjected  to  an 
internal  government  which  combined  the  harshness  of  the  savage  character  with  the 
systematic  oppression  of  an  ill  directed  refinement,  allowing  no  play  to  the  freedom 
of  action,  and  no  opportunities  for  industry  to  improve  the  means  of  comfort  or  en- 
joyment. Revolutions  were  frequent,  and  their  contests  conducted  with  unsparing 
cruelty.  Some  of  the  most  important  documents  found  in  that  country  are  the 
inscriptions  declaratory  of  grants  of  land  made  by  Hindoo  princes.  In  these  the 
princes  are  always  described  as  successful  warriors,  surrounded  by  enemies  over 
whom  they  had  triumphed.  In  the  inscription  found  at  Tanna,  part  of  the  panegyric 
of  the  donor  prince  runs  thus:  "Having  raised  up  his  slaughtered  foe  on  his  sharp 
sword,  he  so  afflicted  the  women  in  the  hostile  palaces,  that  their  fore-locks  fell 
disordered,  their  garlands  of  bright  flowers  dropped  from  their  necks  on  the  vases 
of  their  breasts,  and  the  black  lustre  of  their  eyes  disappeared :  a  warrior,  the  plant 
of  whose  fame  grows  up  over  the  temple  of  Brahma's  egg,  (the  universe,)  from  the 
repeated  watering  of  it  with  the  drops  that  fell  from  the  eyes  of  the  wives  of  his 
slaughtered  foe."  Such  are  the  traits  of  the  rulers  who  flourished  in  Indostan,  and 
such  the  subjects  of  panegyric  and  the  ideas  of  merit  and  honour,  which  prevailed. 
The  penal  laws  were  cruel  and  partial  in  the  extreme,  and  the  practical  conduct  of 
the  petty  despotisms  was  in  every  thing  the  reverse  of  mild.  "  A  thunderbolt,"  says 
the  author  of  the  Hetapodesa,  "  and  the  power  of  kings  are  both  dreadful,  but  the 
former  spendeth  its  fury  at  once,  while  the  latter  is  constantly  falling  on  our  heads." 
"The  conduct  of  princes,"  says  the  same  work,  "Hke  a  fine  harlot,  is  of  many 
colours;  true  and  false;  harsh  and  gentle ;  cruel  and  merciful ;  niggardly  and  gene- 
rous; extravagant  of  expense  and  insatiably  solicitous  of  the  influx  of  treasure." 
"A  man  of  good  principles  is  hard  to  be  found  in  a  country  governed  for  the  most 
part  by  the  rod.  Princes,  alas,  in  general,  turn  away  their  faces  from  a  man  of  good 
qualities,  "f 

It  appears  from  ancient  historians  that  Indostan  has  always  been  sub- 
ject to  incursions  and  devastations  in  the  direction  of  Western  Tartary 
and  the  Paropamisan  mountains.  One  of  the  most  valuable  of  the  satrapies  of  Da- 
rius Hystaspes  was  in  India.  The  conquests  of  Alexander  did  not  extend  quite  so 
far  as  the  previous  possessions  of  that  monarch.  Part  of  India,  as  far  as  the  mouth 
of  the  river  Indus,  was  included  at  one  time  in  the  kingdom  of  Bactria,  possessed 
by  the  Grecian  successors  of  Alexander. 

More  sweeping  conquests  were  afterwards  made  by  the  Mahometans  Mahometans, 
from  Afghanistan,  and  by  Tamerlane  and  his  successors.  These  began 
thirteen  centuries  after  the  death  of  Alexander.  In  the  year  1000  of  the 
common  era,  Mahmood  of  Ghiznee  subdued  the  greater  part  of  Indostan,  exercised 
the  greatest  cruelty  on  the  nation,  and  did  what  he  could  to  abolish  all  former  sys- 
tems of  government.  Death  prevented  this  savage  warrior  from  adding  southern 
India  to  his  conquests.  Kuttub,  one  of  his  generals,  founded  the  Afghan  (called  by 
the  Hindoos  the  Patau)  dynasty.  In  1398,  Tamerlane  overran  India,  |  Tamerlane, 
and  in  five  months  acquired  in  that  region  the  epithet  of  "  the  Destroyer."  The 
Monguls  whom  he  commanded  pillaged  Delhi,  committed  every  where  the  greatest 
cruelties,  and  carried  off  an  immense  booty.  In  1526,  they  returned  under  Tamer- 
lane's descendant  Bauber,  overthrew  the  Patau  throne,  and  made  Bau-  (  Bauber. 
ber  emperor  of  Delhi.  During  these  tremendous  invasions,  several  Indian  tribes  of 
the  warlike  caste  retired  to  the  mountains,  where  they  formed  independent  states  of 
greater  strength  than  the'  former  kingdoms  of  India,  and  better  qualified,  as  well  as 
better  situated,  for  maintaining  their  independence.  Some  of  these  have  become,  in 
modern  times,  formidable  conquerors,  under  the  designation  of  Mahrattas,  Seiks, 

•  See  Mill's  History  of  British  India,  Book  ii.  Chap.  10.    Also  Capt.  Wllford's   Essay  on 
Vicramaditya  and  Salivahana,  in  the  9th  vol.  of  the  Asiatic  Researches,  p.  158. 
t  Wilkins's  Hetapodesa,  p.  161.  82.  160.  166. 


Persian  and 
Grecian  con- 
quests. 


Mahmood  of 
Ghiznee. 


254  BOOK  FIFTIETH. 

Ghoorkas,  and  other  independent  states.  Bauber  was  the  first  Indian  sovereign  who 
received,  in  Europe,  the  title  of  the  Great  Mogul.  Humayoon,  his  son  and  suc- 
cessor, had  an  active  and  warlike,  but  very  troubled  reign.  He  was  deprived  of  his 
kingdom,  which  fell  into  the  possession  of  Ferid,  the  Patau.  This  prince  paid  some 
attention  to  the  prosperity  of  his  kingdom,  by  forming  great  roads  between  Bengal 
and  the  Indus,  establishing  colonies,  posts,  and  caravanseras  for  travellers.  On  his 
Akber.  |  death,  the  king  of  Persia  placed  Humayoon  again  on  the  throne.     He 

was  succeeded  by  his  son  Akber,  a  prince  renowned  for  valour,  wisdom,  and  justice. 
He  subdued  Bengal,  extended  his  empire  both  to  the  north  and  to  the  south,  and  di- 
vided it  into  twelve  provinces,  or  soobabies,  each  of  which  was  subdivided  into  dis* 
tricts  or  circars,  comprehending  a  certain  number  of  cantons  or  pergunnahs.  The 
AyenAkbery.  |  history  of  Akber,  written  by  his  vizier  Abel  Fazel,  describes  the  divi- 
sions, the  population,  industry,  revenues,  and  topography  of  this  emperor's  posses- 
sions. The  work  is  known  under  the  title  of  Ayen  Akbery,  or  "  The  Mirror  of 
Aurengzebe.  |  Akber."  Arrived  at  the  summit  of  its  splendour,  the  kingdom  was 
thrown  into  confusion  by  Aurengzebe,  the  grandson  of  Akber,  who,  after  deposing 
his  father,  took  violent  possession  of  the  throne,  and  oppressed  the  nation  by  all 
sorts  of  vexations.  He  is  said  to  have  drawn  from  the  rent  of  cultivated  land  a  re- 
venue of  900  miUions  of  francs,  and  to  have  kept  an  army  of  a  million  of  men. 
Aurengzebe  is  in  a  great  measure  the  author  of  the  modern  political  constitution  of 
Indostan.  He  placed  at  the  head  of  each  province  a  Soobah,  or  lieutenant,  under 
the  name  of  nabob,  to  whom  were  consigned  the  command  of  the  troops,  and  the 
disposal  of  civil  employments.  Each  nabob  possessed  in  a  different  province  a  por- 
tion of  land  from  which  he  drew  his  own  maintenance,  and  was  thus  deprived  of  the 
means  of  harassing  the  principalities  in  which  he  commanded.  Several  provinces 
contained  principalities  governed  by  their  own  rajahs,  who  paid  tribute,  and  furnished 
troops  to  the  emperor.  The  circars  were  governed  by  zemindars,  a  sort  of  feuda- 
tory nobles,  who  acted  as  judges,  and  collectors  of  the  revenue.  Aurengzebe  was 
obliged  to  make  war  on  the  Mahrattas,  and  in  the  end  paid  them  a  fourth  part  of  his 
revenues.  The  Seiks  also  made  incursions  into  his  territories,  and  were  repulsed. 
Aurengzebe  died  in  1707,  at  the  age  of  90.  Under  his  reign,  the  Mogul  empire 
extended  from  the  10th  to  the  35th  degree  of  latitude,  and  included  a  population  of 
more  than  sixty-four  millions. 

Dedineof  the  '^^^^  succcssors  of  Aureugzebe,  too  weak  to  defend  so  vast  an  em- 
Mogui  empire,  pire  against  the  warlike  nations  by  which  it  was  surrounded,  saw  it,  in 
the  space  of  fifty  years,  reduced  by  unsuccessful  wars  to  a  most  deplorable  condi- 
tion. Nadir  Shah  of  Persia  made  an  incursion,  in  which  he,  with  little  trouble, 
carried  off  immense  treasures  from  Delhi,  though  he  afterwards  lost  one  half  of  it 
in  recrossing  the  desert.  The  Afghans  having  obtained  possession  of  a  part  of  this 
booty,  now  disputed  the  empire  of  India  with  the  Mahrattas.  In  1761,  150,000 
Mahometans  under  Abdala  king  of  the  Afghans,  were  victorious  in  the  famous  battle 
of  Delhi,  in  which  they  were  opposed  by  200,000  Mahrattas.  But  the  prospects 
thus  afforded  them  were  not  followed  up  with  sufficient  zeal,  and  the  empire,  broken 
down  into  a  plurality  of  governments  under  nabobs  who  set  up  for  independence, 
Intrusion  of  ^^^  Undermined  by  another  race  of  invaders,  who  from  Europe  visited 
Europeans.  India,  actuated  by  national  ambition  and  commercial  enterprise;  accom- 
panied in  some  instances,  with  an  ardent  spirit  of  religious  proselytism. 

An  extensive  commerce  between  India  and  the  countries  of  the  Mediterranean 
had  been,  by  different  routes,  maintained  from  remote  times.     The  Romans  esta- 
bUshed  a  communication  by  the  way  of  Egypt,  which  was  destroyed  by  the  Saracens; 
but  restored  again  by  the  Mamalukes,  and  conducted  by  the  Venetians. 
Enterprises  of         At  length  the  Portugucsc,  under  Vasco  de  Gama,  having  discovered 

the  Portii-  o  '  '  c?         ^ 

gueie.  '  the  passage  by  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  landed  at  Calicut  in  1498, 
and,  after  acquiring  considerable  influence  by  their  political  intrigues  among  the 
native  princes,  took  possession  of  Goa,  under  Albuquerque,  in  1508,  and  enjoyed  a 
lucrative  trade,  as  well  as  great  power,  in  various  parts  of  India,  though  weakened 
The  Dutch.  |  by  internal  jcalousies  and  discords,  till  supplanted  by  the  Dutch.  The 
latter  began  their  commercial  enterprises  in  1594,  and  in  1660,  and  1663,  after  hav- 


Origin  of  their 
power. 


INDOSTAN.  255 

ing  deprived  the  Portuguese  of  their  establishments  in  Malacca  and  Ceylon,  they 
drove  them  from  the  most  of  their  possessions  on  the  coast  of  Malabar,  and  obtained 
establishments  of  factories  for  themselves  on  the  Coromandel  coast. 

The  French,  after  some  unsuccessful  attempts  on  Surat  and  Trinco-  |  The  French, 
malee,  took  St.  Thome,  near  Madras,  in  1672,  which  was  afterwards  taken  from 
them  by  the  native  king  of  Golconda,  aided  by  the  Dutch ;  and  the  French  set- 
tlement at  Pondichcrry  was  formed  of  the  wreck  of  that  prior  establishment.     In 
1720,  a  small  Austrian  fleet  from  Ostend,  appeared  off  the  coast  of  Ma-  |  Austrians. 
labar,  but  tine  interference  of  that  power  was  discontinued  by  agreement.     The 
Danes  without  engaging  in  measures  of  hostility  with  any  power.  Euro-  |  Danes, 
pean  or  native,  obtained  liberty  from  the  Raja  of  Tanjore  to  form  a  settlement  at 
Tranquebar. 

England,  however,  has  proved  much  more  successful  in  acquiring  an  |  English, 
ascendancy  in  this  part  of  the  world  than  any  other  power. 

It  was  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  about  the  year  1600,  after  the  favourable  accounts 
of  India  brought  home  by  Sir  Francis  Drake,  that  the  English  first  engaged  in  mer- 
cantile enterprises  in  this  direction.  They  obtained  establishments  of  factories  at  dif- 
ferent places  in  succession ;  at  Surat,  in  1612 ;  at  Madras,  in  1653  ;  and  on  the 
Hoogly,  in  Bengal,  in  1645.  In  1668  the  strong  island  of  Bombay,  which  Charles  II. 
had  received  when  he  married  the  Infanta  of  Portugal,  was  given  to  the  East  India 
Company.  In  1690  they  obtained  a  settlement  at  Fort  St.  David,  near  Madras. 
Fort  William  was  built  in  1700.  The  different  factories  contained  valuable  stores 
which  always  furnished  ready  cargoes  for  the  ships.  The  native  go- 
vernments being  sometimes  insecure  in  themselves,  or  unable  to  give 
the  English  factories  the  necessary  protection,  the  latter  was  strongly  fortified  and 
garrisoned  with  their  own  soldiers.  These  defensive  arrangements  became  the  ru- 
diments of  their  future  power. 

About  the  year  1744,  the  English  power  in  India  obtained  a  decided  |  Abuse*, 
ascendancy  over  that  of  the  other  European  nations ;  and  in  the  first  instance,  no 
rapacity  or  injustice  could  exceed  those  which  were  practised  by  the  servants  of  that 
Company,  particularly  in  Bengal,  where  they  insisted  on  engrossing  the  whole  inter- 
nal trade  of  the  country ;  deposed  one  nabob,  and  established  another  different  times 
in  succession ;  securing  at  each  revolution  an  aggrandizement  of  their  own  posses- 
sions, together  with  a  boon  of  ready  treasure  :  For  raising  the  latter,  the  Mahometan 
rulers  were  obliged  to  oppress  the  people  to'the^utmost,  and  after  all,  were  deposed  for 
not  fulfilling  engagements  which  were  really'impracticable.  The  Company  at  home 
sometimes  remonstrated  against  these  and  other  nefarious  practices  ;  and,  sometimes 
aimed  at  a  more  decent  and  moderate  manner  of  conducting  them ;  but  the  avarice 
of  their  servants  on  that  distant  station,  which  removed  them  in  a  great  measure 
from  immediate  control,  and  rendered  ultimate  responsibility  a  matter  both  tedious 
and  difficult,  so  far  prevailed  as  to  stifle  the  voice  of  justice  and  humanity.  In  1765 
the  political  subjugation  of  Bengal  to  the  direct  power  of  the  English  was  completed, 
and  Lord  Clive  assumed  the  supreme  command  in  India.  The  servants  of  the 
Company  now  enriched  themselves,  while  the  Company  was  reduced  to  poverty  and 
difficulty.  The  Company,  in  order  to  realize  their  views  of  profit,  took  into  their 
own  hands  the  collection  of  the  revenue  from  the  land,  a  measure  which,  by  sub- 
verting all  former  arrangements  in  property,  was  followed  by  a  wide  spread  scene  of 
defalcation,  oppression,  and  misery.  The  ruin  of  the  fertile  but  unfortunate  Bengal 
was  completed  by  a  famine  in  1770  and  1771,  arising  not  from  a  monopoly  in  rice 
as  has  been  asserted,  but  from  a  failure  of  two  successive  crops,  by  which  about 
one-third  of  the  inhabitants  perished.  Yet  the  revenue  was  violently  kept  up  to  its 
former  standard.  In  other  parts  of  [ndia  the  British  power  continued  to  extend.  In 
1765  the  Circars  were  given  up  to  that  nation.  In  1769  Hyder  Ali  was  defeated. 
In  1774  the  British  conquered  Rohilcund.  In  1778  they  took  some  of  the  finest 
parts  of  Guzerat  and  the  Concan  from  the  Mahrattas.  They  wore,  in  1780,  involved 
in  another  war  with  Hyder  Ali,  which  terminated  in  1784  in  the  conclusion  of  peace 
with  his  successor  Tippoo. 


356  BOOK  FIFTIETH. 


The  following  is  a  table  of  the  political  divisions  of  Indostan,  as  they 
existed  in  1784. 


Political  state 
of  India  in 
1734. 

,9., — British  possessions. 

1.  The  whole  soobah  of  Bengal  in  full  sovereignty. 

2.  The  greater  part  of  Bahar. 

3.  The  district  of  Benares. 

4.  The  district  of  Midnapore  in  Orissa. 

5.  Four  of  the  five  northern  Circars. 

6.  The  Jaghire  in  the  Carnatic,  with  a  little  additional  territory. 

7.  The  islands  of  Bombay  and  Salsette. 

8.  The  Doab  between  the  Jumna  and  Ganges,  extending  to  within  forty  miles 

of  Delhi,  taken  from  the  Nabob  of  Oude. 
B. — Belonging  to  the  Seiks. 

1.  The  province  of  Lahore. 

2.  The  principal  part  of  Mooltan. 

3.  The  western  part  of  Delhi. 
C— To  the  Mahrattas. 

1.  The  State  of  Poonah,  called  the  western  Mahratta  State. 

2.  That  of  Berar,  or  the  eastern  State. 

These  two  included  the  territory  lying  between  the  confines  of  Agra 
and  the  river  Krishna,  and  great  part  of  Adjimere. 
D. — To  the  Nizam. 

1.  Golconda. 

2.  The  principal  part  of  Dowletabad. 

3.  The  western  part  of  Berar. 

4.  Guntoor,  one  of  the  northern  Circars. 
JE. — To  the  Nabob  of  the  Carnatic,  Mahomet  AH. 

The  whole  country  lying  between  the  Circar  of  Guntoor  and  Cape  Comorin. 
F.— To  Tippoo  Sultan. 

1.  Mysore. 

2.  Bednore. 

3.  Coimbatoor. 

4.  Canara. 

5.  Dindigul. 

6.  Some  countries  in  the  north,  conquered  by  Hyder. 

The  district  of  Rampoor,  at  the  foot  of  the  northern  mountains,  was  held  by  a 
Rohilla  chief.  Some  of  the  Rajepoot  states  enjoyed  a  precarious  and  feeble  inde- 
pendence, subjected  to  perpetual  insults  from  the  Mahrattas  ;  and  the  northern  moun- 
tains continued  in  the  possession  of  obscure  independent  sovereigns,  who  took  no 
part  in  the  pohtical  disturbances  of  Indostan. 

The  evident  contrast  between  this  table  and  the  present  pohtical  state 
of  this  extensive  country,  as  it  has  been  unfolded  in  the  preceding  pages, 
renders  it  unnecessary  to  detail  the  particular  political  and  military  transactions,  by 
means  of  which  the  British  power  in  India  has  been  extended,  and  secured  against 
the  different  interests  which  had  been  opposed  to  it.  Nor  would  it  suit  our  work  to 
delineate  the  characters,  or  appreciate  the  conduct,  of  those  governors  and  military 
leaders,  to  whom  the  affairs  of  India  have  been  committed. 

British  policy.  |  Thoir  general  policy  has  been  already  sufficiently  apparent.  The  jea- 
lousies of  the  political  parties  have  been  turned  to  account  by  them  for  effecting  gra- 
dual encroachments.  These  have,  in  the  course  of  time,  lost  much  of  their  charac- 
ter of  violence.  An  appearance  of  moderation  has  been  kept  up,  sometimes  founded 
in  principle,  and  sometimes  in  the  dictates  of  a  cautious  system  of  aggrandizement. 
Offers  made  by  princes  to  subject  themselves  and  their  country  to  the  English,  have 
been  refused.  In  many  cases  the  acceptance  of  such  offers  would  have  embroiled 
them  in  disputes  with  other  petty  states,  to  the  disturbance  of  their  present  rule,  and 
the  injury  of  their  future  prospects.  It  is  also  true  that  the  dread  of  possessing  too 
exlciidod  an  empire,  one  which,  to  use  a  common-place  phrase  of  little  meaning. 


Its  present 
state. 


General  re- 
lulu. 


Internal 
clianges. 


State  of  lanil- 
eil  property. 


INDOSTAN.  257 

would  fall  to  pieces  by  its  own  weight,  has  had  some  influence,  especially  with  tlae 
East  India  Company;  but  this  dread  has  yielded  to  circumstances  apparently  impos- 
ing on  them  the  imperious  necessity  of  taking  the  reins  into  their  own  hands,  some- 
times in  order  to  avoid  perpetual  molestation  from  a  turbulent  neighbour,  sometimes 
to  give  order  to  a  territory  which  otherwise  was  a  certain  prey  to  a  wretched  anarchy, 
and  sometimes  to  terminate  scenes  of  wanton  inhumanity  which  would  have  other- 
wise been  perpetuated.  These,  and  other  necessities  have  often  been  perceived  and 
acted  on  by  the  servants  of  tho  Company  in  India,  who  have  taken  on  themselves 
more  responsibility  than  was  allowed  them. 

Different  princes  who  have  submitted  to  the  English  from  necessity,  have  still 
sighed  for  independent  rule,  have  cherished  against  their  masters  all  sorts  of  hostile 
designs,  have  broken  their  pledged  faith,  and  raised  the  arm  of  ineffectual  opposition, 
after  repeated  forgiveness  of  their  former  treacheries. 

The  fate  of  the  native  and  Mahometan  rulers  has  excited  the  sympa- 
thy of  many  Europeans,  whose  feelings  are  chiefly  reserved  for  persons 
of  rank  and  power,  while  the  lot  of  the  mass  of  the  population  has  met  with  less  con- 
sideration. With  those  who  cherish  extended  philanthropy,  the  present  preponde- 
rance of  Great  Britain  in  India  will  not  be  a  matter  of  regret.  Principles  of  huma- 
nity,- moderation,  and  justice,  to  the  benefits  of  which  the  Hindoos  had  from  time 
immemorial  been  strangers,  are  thus  introduced  among  them  in  full  operation. 

The  proceedings  of  all  who  are  concerned  are,  at  this  moment,  brought 
more  and  more  into  the  view  of  an  impartial  European  public,  and  a 
great  desire  is  every  where  manifested  to  render  the  existing  influence  as  beneficial 
as  possible  to  all  classes  of  the  numerous  inhabitants  of  India.  In  the  internal  ar- 
rangements, much  improvement  has  been  attempted.  Tho  land  which,  in  that  coun- 
try, had  always  been  considered  as  the  property  of  the  government,  has  been  given 
to  the  natives  as  their  permanent  property.  The  zemindars,  who,  though 
persons  of  rank  in  the  country,  had  formerly  been  merely  hereditary  col- 
lectors of  the  land-tax,  are  made  the  land-holders,  and  the  ryots,  or  cultivators,  de- 
pendent on  them,  in  the  same  manner  as  the  farmers  in  Great  Britain.  It  must  be 
acknowledged,  however,  that  in  many  cases  the  privileges  of  the  ryofs  are,  by  this 
arrangement,  abridged;  and  the  zemindars,  not  having  acquired  the  proper  feelings 
of  land-holders,  have  acted  the  part  of  avaricious  extortioners  towards  their  tenantry. 
In  other  cases,  this  natural  aristocracy  has  made  use  of  the  power  which  was  given 
them,  to  sell  their  estates,  which  have  in  the  transfer  been  parcelled  out  among  small 
proprietors.  In  some  districts, the  partition  of  the  inheritances  among  a  numerous  family 
has  co-operated  with  the  cause  now  mentioned,  to  extinguish  the  order  of  landed  gentry. 

The  estabUshment  of  an  efficient  police,  and  the  administration  of  civil     ^9''?^  ^^.^  ^^• 

,..,..  ,  II-  fi--  •  ministration  of 

and  crnnmal  justice,  have  been  made  objects  of  solicitous  attention,  justice. 
These  objects  have  presented  great  difficulties,  and  the  discussions  to  which  they 
have  given  birth  have  been  greatly  extended.*  In  the  government  of  Bengal  the 
Mahometan  system  of  law  has  been  adopted,  because  it  had  already  been  established 
in  the  practice  of  the  courts  under  the  government  to  which  the  English  Company 
succeeded.  The  business  of  the  courts,  however,  is  burdensome  in  the  extreme, 
from  the  inordinate  propensity  to  civil  litigation  which  exists  among  the  natives,  as 
well  as  other  causes  now  to  be  mentioned  as  applicable  to  the  Indian  empire  at  large. 
The  expense  of  the  judicial  establishments  is  enormous,  and  the  Directors  of  the 
East  India  Company  do  not  think  that  they  have  cause  to  be  satisfied  with  the 
arrangements  which  are  made  by  the  colonial  authorities,!  In  the  governments  of 
Bombay  and  Madras,  Hindoos  and  Mahometans  are  respectively  tried  by  their  own 
laws,  both  in  civil  and  criminal  cases.  This  is  found  necessary  to  secure  their  con- 
fidence. J     For  this  reason  an  apparent  partiality  is  exercised  in  favour  of  the  Brah- 

»  See  Papers  relating  to  Police,  and  Ailmlnistiation  of  Justice,  uiuler  llie  governments  of 
Bengal,  Fort  George,  and  Uombay,  from  1810  to  1819.  Printed  by  order  of  the  House  vi'  Com- 
mons. 

f  See  a  Letter  tVom  iljc  Court  of  Directors  to  the  Governor-General  in  Council,  19th  Feb. 
1819,  among  the  above  Papers,  p.  ~8o. 

^  Observations  of  Mr,  Dunlop.     P^ipers,  p.  Z45. 
Vol.  II.— K  k 


258  HOOK  FIFTIETH. 

mina,  when  any  one  of  that  caste  is  convicted  of  a  capital  crime.  He  is  not  sub- 
jected to  capital  punishment,  and  he  is  cxemptetl  from  the  punishment  of  hard  labour. 
He  has  been  sometimes  merely  banished  to  a  distant  part  of  India,  and  thus  dan- 
gerous characters  have  been  let  loose  on  society.  On  this  account  the  punishments 
now  most  approved  are  either  solitary  and  perpetual  imprisonment,  or  transportation 
beyond  the  boundaries  of  India.  The  influence  of  this  last  is  conceived  to  be  quite 
equal  to  that  of  capital  execution,  while  it  is  much  less  revolting  to  the  feelings  of 
the  well-disposed.*  The  selection  of  fit  persons  for  the  judicial  office  is  another 
important  problem.  European  judges  are  free  from  the  motives  to  partiality  which 
operate  among  many  of  the  natives  ;  and  for  this  reason,  as  well  as  their  superior 
character,  their  decisions  are  in  many  places  regarded  with  particular  respect  and 
confidence.!  But,  labouring  under  a  want  of  practical  knowledge  of  the  Hindoo 
character,  they  are  disqualified,  in  many  cases,  for  appreciating  the  value  of  evi- 
dence. They  are  liable  to  be  imposed  on  by  the  falsehoods  of  witnesses,  and  they 
are  apt  to  impute  cunning  to  persons  who  are  merely  simple  and  awkward.  Sir  H. 
Strachey,  judge  and  magistrate  of  Midnapoor,  in  his  Report  for  January,  1802,  says, 
"  Wo  perhaps  judge  too  much  by  rule.  We  imagine  things  to  be  incredible  because 
they  have  not  before  fallen  within  our  experience.  We  constantly  mistake  extreme 
simplicity  for  cunning.  We  make  not  sufficient  allowance  for  the  loose,  vague,  and 
inaccurate  mode  in  which  the  natives  tell  a  story  ;  for  their  not  comprehending  us, 
and  our  not  comprehending  them.  We  hurry,  terrify,  and  confound  them,  with 
our  eagerness  and  impatience." 

For  these  and  other  reasons,  some  give  the  preference  to  the  decisions  of  heads 
of  villages,  or  other  persons  whom  the  natives  are  accustomed  to  respect.  Lieut. 
Wilks,;}:  Col.  Munro,  Col.  Read,  and  others  who  enjoyed  the  advantage  of  practical 
experience  in  the  Mysore  country,  recommend  the  administration  of  justice  through 
the  viWage  potails,  (or  chiefs,)  and  the  punchaits  (juries  of  five.) §  Col.  Munro  says, 
that  a  native  who  has  a  good  cause  applies  for  a  punchait,  while  he  who  has  a  bad 
one  seeks  the  decision  of  an  Knglish  collector  or  judge,  whom  he  knows  it  is  much 
easier  to  deceive.  This,  however,  does  not  apply  to  the  Bombay  presidency,  where 
these  institutions  had  gone  into  disuse,  and  the  natives  in  those  ranks  of  life  had,  by 
unfavourable  events,  become  demoralized  and  ignorant.  [|  The  punchaits  are  said 
also  to  found  their  decisions  on  considerations  different  from  the  real  merits  of  the 
case.  With  the  best  evidence  before  them,  they  seldom  award  the  whole  of  the 
amount  claimed  by  the  party,  and  rarely  dismiss  the  most  ill-founded  demand  with- 
out awarding  a  certain  sum,  determined  by  their  opinion  of  the  defendant's  wealth, 
and  other  considerations  still  more  foreign  to  substantial  justice.  A  third  expedient 
is  the  appointment  of  native  commissioners  by  the  government  to  the  functions  of 
judges.  In  some  places  this  measure  meets  with  praise  ;ir  in  others  it  is  condemned, 
on  account  of  the  want  of  respectabihty  of  the  individuals  who  are  willing  to  under- 
take such  a  set  of  duties  for  the  small  salaries  allowed  them.**  Delays  of  justice, 
arising  from  the  accumulation  of  casesf"!"  and  the  latitude  of  appeal,  J  J  have  also  been 
felt,  and  called  forth  proposals  for  reform,  such  as  the  substitution  of  oral  instead  of 
written  pleadings  ;  a  limitation  of  the  right  of  appeal  ;  and  the  restriction  of  the 
higher  courts  to  causes  of  a  certain  magnitude. §§  It  is  to  be  regretted,  however,  that 
among  the  means  of  simplifying  the  functions  of  courts,  recourse  has  been  had  to 
the  imposition  of  stamp  duties  on  law  proceedings,  and  thus,  by  throwing  an  obsta- 
cle of  greater  expense  in  the  way,  refusing  justice  and  protection  to  a  certain  num- 
ber of  individuals  who  are  as  well  entitled  to  these  blessings  as  their  neighbours. 
With  all  these  deductions,  however,  much  has  undoubtedly  been  done,  as  has  already 
appeared  in  some  of  o\u-  topographical  sketches,  particularly  for  the  prevention  of 
crime.     One  of  the  obstacles  which  stood  in  the  way  of  that  object  was  the  prac- 

•  Judicial  Letter  from  Bombay.  Ibid.  p.  346.  Case  of  Uoop  Sunker,  who  was  imprisoned 
for  life,  and  another  Hrahmin,  guilty  of  administering  poison,  who  was  transported  to  Prince 
of  Wales'  Island  for  life.     Ibid.  p.  321. 

t  Ibid.  p.  r>25.  328.  t  Historical  Sketches  of  the  South  of  India. 

§  Papers,  &.C.  p.  289.  H  Ibid.  p.  327.  1  Ibid.  p.  327. 

••  Ibul.  p.  297.  ft  Ibid.  p.  299.  tj  Ibid.  p.  294,  301.  5^  Ibid.  p.  340. 


Proceedings  of 
niissiunories. 

ous  nietho- 


INDOSTAN.  259 

tice  followed  by  powerful  depredators,  of  intimidating  persons  fi-oni  giving  evidence. 
It  is  not  to  bo  supposed  that  the  progress  of  improvement  in  these  j)articulars  has 
yet  reached  its  limit. 

While  the  prejudices  of  the  people  arc  in  general  respected,  some  criminal  prac- 
tices, founded  on  hereditary  delusions,  are  resisted.  The  murder  of  female  infants, 
among  the  Rajepoots  and  some  others,  is  prohibited,  and  the  burning  of  widows 
every  where  discouraged.  A  length  of  time,  however,  will  be  requisite  to  bring  these 
and  other  savage  practices  into  universal  disrepute. 

Attempts  are  made  to  introduce  among  the  natives  the  principles  of 
Christianity.  None  of  the  violence  which  characterized  the  Romish 
missionaries  is  practised  by  the  English  clergy,  or  even  by  the  more  zoa 
dists.  Some  of  the  latter,  while  endeavouring  to  promote  their  cause  by  reviling  the 
character  of  Mahomet,  have  been  prohibited  by  the  government  from  following  a 
method  of  address  which  tended  so  much  to  excite  displeasure  in  the  Mahometan 
part  of  the  population.  There  is  no  reason  to  apprehend  that  prudent  efforts  to  dis- 
seminate the  truth  can  be  more  dangerous  in  the  hands  of  the  present  predominant 
race  than  they  proved  to  those  of  the  Dutch  nation  in  the  island  of  Ceylon. 

An  English  author  who  was  in  India  during  the  latest  great  political  changes 
which  were  effected,  expresses  a  hope  for  futurity,  which  every  woU-disposed  ))er- 
son  must  wish  to  entertain.  '*  Perhaps,  in  some  future  age,  when  the  genius  of  Bri- 
tain shall  no  longer  lord  it  over  the  prostrate  realms  of  Asia,  tliis  germ  of  liberal 
institutions  of  internal  polity  may  be  referred  to  as  the  commencement  of  a  happier 
era  in  theso  ample  regions, — as  the  first  lesson  of  self-government  which  Euro- 
peans shall  have  taught  to  the  now  slavish  minds  of  the  Hindoo  race,  and  which 
may  have  afterwards  lotl  to  the  gradual  diffusion  of  political  liberty  and  moral  im- 
provement."* 

Many  causes  of  instability  have  been  pointed  out  by  politicians  in  the  f,ai^i'|"t*;'J,r"i, 
tenure  by  wliich  the  British  nation  holds  the  empire  of  India.  The  ex-  British  power, 
tensive  population  of  that  anomalous  empire ;  its  great  distance  from  the  country 
of  the  ruling  nation;  the  small  number  of  English  resident  in  India;  the  wide  dif- 
ference of  religion,  manners,  and  mode  of  life;  the  contempt  and  odium  in  which, 
on  these  accounts,  the  persons  of  the  rulers  are  held ;  the  disappointment  of  those 
natives  whose  power  in  the  land  of  their  fathers  is  diminished  or  threatened;  the 
dread  of  future  attempts  to  thwart  their  opinions,  and  subvert  their  institutions ;  the 
opposition  of  interests  and  inclination  which  is  liable  to  occur  between  the  British 
who  are  resident  in  India,  and  their  government  at  home;  the  increase  of  the  num- 
ber of  persons  of  a  mixed  European  and  Indian  breed,  who  are  kept  in  a  subordinate 
rank,  but  disposed  to  claim  political  rights  which  they  do  not  enjoy,  and  whose  man- 
ners are  considered  by  the  proud  and  timid  part  of  the  English  as  offensively  arro- 
gant ; — to  these,  and  many  other  internal  sources  of  insecurity,  has  been  added  the 
chance  of  invasion  from  surrounding  nations,  whether  as  already  oiganized,  or  as 
they  may  become  hereafter  united  under  energetic  leaders,  to  show  that  the  present 
state  of  things  must  be  of  short  duration.  Any  opposition  arising  from  a  patriotic 
spirit  among  a  people  so  contracted  in  their  sentiments,  and  so  slavish  in  all  their 
I)olitical  feelings  as  the  Hindoos,  is  the  least  likely  of  all  the  conceivable  sources  of 
future  revolutions.  The  sepoys,  or  native  troops  in  the  service  of  England,  partici- 
pating in  the  universal  political  apathy,  are  always  ready  to  serve  with  exclusive 
fidelity  the  power  which  pays  them  most  liberally  and  most  punctually.  Their 
deeply-rooted  prejudices,  however,  recjuire  to  be  scrupulously  respected.  Serious 
mutinies  have  arisen  from  instances  of  imprudence  in  this  particidar,  which  were 
allayed  as  soon  as  satisfactory  pledges  of  this  necessary  respect  were  given  to 
them. 

One  part  of  the  policy  of  England  has  hitherto  been,  to  prevent  the  springing  up 
of  a  numerous  race  of  their  own  descendants  as  colonial  settlers.  Hence,  though 
there  is  much  unoccupied  territory,  no  native  European  is  permitted  to  establish  him- 

•  Pririsep's  Narrative  of  the  Folitical  and  Military  Transactions  of  British  India,  under  the 
AJmlnistrulion  of  llie  Marquis  of  Uastingb,  from  1813  to  iyit>j  p.  436. 


260 


BOOK  FIFTIETH, 


self  as  a  landholder.  All  the  EngUsh  consequently  are  mere  sojourners,  most  of 
them  bound  to  their  native  country  by  early  recollections,  and  the  hopes  of  revisit- 
ing it  after  acquiring  a  fortune.  The  pleasure  of  finding  in  the  eastern  world  another 
England,  as  those  do  who  emigrate  to  America,  who  find  that  country  in  most  par- 
ticulars presenting  the  same  social  comforts  and  habits  to  which  they  have  been  early 
bred,  and  separated  only  by  its  political  independence,  this  pleasure  is  never  granted 
to  the  Englishman  in  India.  He  goes  not  to  live  among  a  race  of  friends,  but  in 
a  nation  of  inferiors  and  slaves.  Whether  this  policy  is  wise,  or  the  reverse; 
whether  it  should  bo  pronounced  contracted  or  liberal ;  whether  this,  or  an  opposite 
course,  would  be  productive  of  greatest  advantage  to  the  human  race,  and  of  the 
most  agreeable  terms  of  future  intercourse  in  the  event  of  India  being  by  any 
means  politically  detached  from  England,  these  are  questions  merely  fitted  to  oc- 
cupy the  speculative  politician  in  his  closet,  and  perhaps  not  necessarily  involved 
in  the  great  objects  of  an  ultimate  diffusion  of  intelUgence  and  of  happiness  over 
India. 

Table  of  the  Area  and  Pojndation  of  the  Modern  States  of  Indostanfor  1820. 


British  Territory. 

Bengal,  Bahar,  and  Benares      .--...--. 

Additions  in  Indostan  since  A.  D.  1765  ------ 

Ourwal,  Kumaoon,  and  the  tract  between  the  Sutledge  and 
Jumna 

Total  under  the  Bengal  Presidency    -     -     -     -     - 

Madras  Presidency 

Bombay  Presidency    ------..--.- 

Territories  in  the  Deccan,  &c.  acquired  since  1816,  and  not 
yet  attached  to  any  Presidency   -------- 


Total  British  territory 


British  Allies  and  Tributaries. 
The  Nizam 

The  Nagpoor  Raja     ------------ 

The  King  of  Oude     ------------ 

The  Guicowar      ----2-------- 

Kotah,  6500— Boondee,  2500— Bopaul,  5000    -     -     -     - 

The  Mysore  Raja      ------------ 

The  Satarah  Raja       ------------ 

Travancore,  6000— Cochin,  2000 -     - 

Under  the  Rajas  of  Joodpoor,  Jeypoor,  Odeypoor,  Bica- 
nere,  Jesselmere,  and  other  Rajepoot  chiefs;  Holcar, 
Ameer  Khan,  the  Row  of  Cutch,  and  numerous  other 
petty  native  chiefs  ;  Seiks,  Gonds,  Bheels,  Coolies,  and 
Catties,  all  comprehended  within  the  line  of  British  pro- 
tection      


Total  British  and  their  Allies 


Independent  States. 

The  Raja  of  Nepal ■ 

The  Raja  of  Lahore  (Runjeet  Singh) 

The  Ameers  of  Sinde 

Scindia's  Dominions 

Belonging  to  the  Afghan  Empire    -     -     ■ 


British, 
Sq.  Miles. 


162,000 
148,000 


18,000 


328,000 

154,000 

11,000 

60,000 


Total 


553,000 

96,000 
70,000 
20,000 
18,000 
14,000 
27,000 
14,000 
8,000 


283,000 


1,103,000 

53,000 
50,000 
24,000 
40,000 
10,000 


Population. 


39,000,000 
18,000,000 

600,000 


57,500,000 

15,000,000 

2,500,000 

8,000,000 


83,000,000 

10,000,000 
3,000,000 
3,000,000 
2,000,000 
1,500,000 
3,000,000 
1,500,000 
1,000,000 


16,000,000 


1,280,000 


123,000,000 

2,000,000 
3,000,000 
1,000,000 
4,000,000 
1,000,000 


134,000,000 


INDOSTAN. 


261 


Table  of  the  Military  Forces  of  the  British  in  India,  as  laid  before  Parliament 

in  1819. 


King's  Troopa,  Cavalry        -         -         . 
Do.  Infantry       -         .         - 

East  India  Company's  European  Artillery 
Do.  European  Infantry 

Do.  Native  Cavalry 

Do.  Native  Infantry 

Do.  •     Native  Artillery 

Irregular  Native  Cavalry       -         -         - 
Do.      Native  Infantry      -         .         - 

Invalids  and  Pensioners         .         .         - 


Grand  Total   - 


4,692 

17,858 
4,583 
3,120 

11,011 

132,815 

8,759 

7,659 

17,082 
5,875 

213,454 


Efficient  British  Annies  in  the  Field  in  1818 
With  nine  followers  to  every  two  fighting  men 

Making  an  aggregate  of        -         -         -         - 


-  95,000 

-  427,500 

-  622,500 


Revenue  of  every  Description  in  1817,  1818 
AcdUISITIONS  IN  1818  .  -  -  _ 


Or,  £19,862,680 


Sicca  Rupees. 
156,871,060 
.  14,358,953 

171,230,013 


Table  of  the  Principal  Geographical  Positions  of  Indostan,  according  to  the  most  re- 
cent Astronomical  Observations. 


Cape  Comorin 
Anjengo  road 


Cochin 
Cranganorc 
Telicherry 
Cananore 
Goa     .     . 

Idem    . 

Idem  . 
Bombay   . 

Idem  . 
Bassein  . 
Diu,  (cape) 

Idem     . 


Lat.  N. 

Long^.  E. 
from  Lond. 

Authorities. 

deg.  min.«ec. 
7  55     0 

deg.  min.  sec. 

77  39   15 

Hamilton  Moore. 

8  40    0 

76  55  15 

Elmore,  British  Mariner's 

Di- 

9  56  30 

76  16  15 

rectory. 
Connaiss.  des  Tems. 

10  52    0 

75     5  15 

Brit.  Mar.  Direct. 

11  45    0 

75  26   15 

Idem. 

11  51     0 

75  24  15 

Connaiss.  des  Tems. 

15  38    0 

73  45  15 

Brit.  Mar.  Direct. 

15  31     0 

Id. 

Connaiss.  des  Tems. 

15  28  20 

Id. 

Pennant,  Rennel. 

18  58    0 

72  38  15 

Brit.  Mar.  Direct. 

18  55  43 

Id. 

Niebuhr. 

19  19    0 

72  40   15 

Connaiss.  des  Tems. 

20  42    0 

70  47  15 

Idem. 

20  44    0 

70  42  45 

Elmore. 

262 


BOOK  FIFTY-rinsT. 


Table  Continiied. 


Maddi  Bender,  (at  the  mouth 

of  the  Indus)       .     .     .     .    25  40    0 

Pondicherry 11  56  41 

Fort  St.  George,  (Madras)    .    13    4  54 

Point  Devy 16    6    0 

Point  Godavciy       .     .     .     .    16  45    0 

Ganjam 19  22  30 

Balasore 21  30  20 

Calcutta 122  35    0 


Lat,  N. 


Long.  E. 
from  Lond, 


68 
79 

SO 
80 

82 
85 
87 
88 


50 
51 
29 
30 
40 
18 
10 
10 


15  Rosily. 


45 
0 
15 
15 
15 
15 
0 


Authorities. 


Connaiss.  des  Terns. 

Idem. 
Brit.  Mar.  Direct. 

Idem. 
Connaiss.  des  Terns. 
Ritchie  and  Playstcd. 
Hlmore. 


Cape  Dondra 
Trincornalee,  (road) 


Caroly 


North  Point 

Idem     . 
South  P<Mnt 


Ceylon. 
5  47    OiSO  41  45      Idem. 
8  35    0 Is  1   27  15      Idem. 
Laccadives. 
|10  30    0|72  34   15|Manncvillctte. 
Maldives. 


7 

7 


5 
15 


0  40  S. 


74 
73 

74 


4 
40 
45 


15 
15 
15 


Topping,  quoted  by  llennel 
Brit.  Mar.  Direct. 
Idem. 


BOOK  LI. 


CHIN-INDIA 


PART  I. 

Containing  a  General  Account  of  this  region;  and  a  Description  of  the  liirman  Em- 
pire. 


Names  of 
ehin-Indift, 


The  only  region  which  remains  to  complete  our  description  of  Asia 
is  that  situated  between  China  and  Indostan,  comprehending  the  Birman 
empire,  the  kingdoms  of  Tonquin,  Cochin-China,  Cambodia,  Laos,  and  Siam,  and 
the  peninsula  of  Malacca.  Wo  have  at  present  no  generic  name  in  universal  use 
for  this  region.  There  has  been  a  want  of  etymological  felicity  in  the  formation  of 
such  as  have  been  proposed  for  it.  It  is  often  called  "  the  Peninsula  beyond  the 
Ganges."  It  contains  two  well-marked  peninsulas;  but,  as  a  whole,  it  is  even  less 
entitled  to  bo  called  a  peninsula  than  the  Deccan  of  Indostan,  since  a  portion  of  it 
would  be  comprehended  within  the  general  outline  of  the  continent,  supposing  the 
projections  to  be  left  out.  Probably  this  appellation  was  first  applied  by  persons 
who  only  had  in  view  the  peninsula  of  Malacca,  and  was  extended  to  the  remainder 
with  a  mixture  of  carelessness  and  reluctance  for  want  of  a  better.  Among  other 
appellations  also  in  use,  are  the  less  exceptionable  ones  of  "  India  beyond  the  Gan- 


Extcrior  India,"  and  "  Further  India."     As  part  of  this 


region  was  once 


subject  to  the  Chinese  government,  and  most  of  the  races  which  inhabit  it  resemble 
the  Chinese  more  or  less  in  figure,  physiognomy,  and  complexiuu,  as  well  as  in  man- 


CllIN-lNDIA.  263 

ners,  religion,  and  langut^ge,  the  new  name  of  Indo-China  has  been  invented  for  i(, 
and  concoivod  to  possess  the  recommendations  of  euphony  and  expressiveness.  But 
wo  have  no  evidence  of  the  suhjection  of  this  entire  region  at  any  period  to  the  Chi- 
nese. The  name  of  China  belongs  to  one  well-known  empire,  and  could  not,  with- 
out impropriety,  be  applied  to  another  country,  unless  it  were  to  another  empire  or 
kingdom,  which  might,  in  that  case,  bo  distinguished  by  the  addition  of  some  epithet. 
This  is  done  in  the  instance  of  the  kingdom  called  Cochin-China,  (or  Marshy  China.) 
Even  that  name  has  an  awkwardness  which  is  repugnant  to  good  taste,  though  sanc- 
tioned by  so  long  usage  that  no  alteration  is  likely,  in  that  instance,  to  bo  proposed. 
But  it  docs  not  alRird  an  example  worthy  of  being  followed  in  fabricating  a  new  name, 
especially  for  a  country  consisting  of  a  plurality  of  states.  It  will,  therefore,  be  better 
to  retain  the  term  India  as  the  leading  name  of  this  region.  There  will  be  less  vio- 
lence in  extending  the  name  of  India  to  the  confines  of  China,  than  in  extending  that 
of  China  over  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Bay  of  Bengal.  India  is  more  of  a  generic 
torm  than  China,  and  this  whole  territory  resembles  India  in  various  particulars,  and, 
among  others,  in  the  political  feature  of  being  divided  into  several  independent  states, 
which  have  seldom  been  long  united  either  by  federal  co-operation  or  by  conquest. 
It  will  bo  very  proper,  at  the  same  time,  to  make  the  partial  Chinese  character  which 
it  exhibits,  the  foundation  of  a  subordinate  part  of  its  name.  The  term  China  may 
bo  attached  to  that  of  India  in  the  form  of  a  genitive  or  adjective  epithet.  That 
country  is  not  an  Indo-China — a  China  resembling  India.  It  is  rather  a  Chinese 
India — an  India  with  Chinese  features.  We  would,  therefore,  propose  a  name  for 
it  expressive  of  this  idea  in  a  condensed  form,  by  prefixing  a  single  syllable  to  the 
term  India.  Influenced  by  these  considerations,  we  shall  use  with  our  readers  the 
freedom  (which,  after  this  explanation,  we  hope  will  not  appear  a  great  one)  of 
henceforth  designating  this  region  under  the  appellation  of  Chin-India.  We  employ 
it  with  some  confidence,  as  one  which  will,  not  only  like  other  names,  be  rendered 
smooth  by  familiar  use,  but  will  secure  the  acquiescence  of  philological  criticism. 

This  vast  country,  extending  from  Bengal  Bay  to  the  Chinese  Sea, 
is  scarcely  known  except  along  its  shores.  The  interior  presents  a  field 
of  useless  and  troublesome  conjectures.  The  whole,  however,  seems  to  be  formed 
by  three  or  four  chains  of  mountains,  which  proceed  from  Thibet,  and  run  south 
in  directions  parallel  to  one  another.  Between  these  mountain  ranges  are  situated 
three  long  and  magnificent  valleys,  besides  several  of  a  subordinate  rank.  These 
valleys  are  watered  by  three  great  rivers ;  that  of  xVva,  that  of  Siam,  and  that  of 
Cambodia.  The  higher  parts  of  these  rivers,  though  laid  down  in  our  maps,  are 
unknown.  It  is  not  ascertained  whether  all  the  three  arise  in  the  high  mountains, 
or  if  this  is  the  caso  only  with  one  of  them,  which,  from  that  cause,  has  a  much 
longer  course  than  the  other  two. 

The  Tsan-poo  of  Thibet,  which  d'Anville  considered  as  identical  with 
the  river  of  Ava,  is  decidedly  the  Brahmapootra,  (commonly  called  the 
Booram-pooter,)  w^hich  joins  the  Ganges,  and  falls  into  the  Bay  of  Ben- 
gal. The  first  river  of  Chin-India  is  the  Irawaddy  or  Irabalty,  the  great  river  of 
Ava,  which  is,  perhaps,  the  Ken-poo  of  Thibet,  though  the  point  is  not  substantiated. 
Supposing  this  to  be  the  case,  we  know  nothing  for  certain  of  the  length  of  Ken- 
poo:  only,  it  is  quite  unlikely  that  four  or  five  great  rivers  should  descend  from  the 
same  table-land,  preserving  a  perfect  parallelism,  and  so  close  together,  that  the 
breadth  of  territory  allowed  scarcely  ufibrds  room  to  mark  them  in  our  maps.  If 
the  Thaluan,  or  the  river  of  Martaban,  has,  as  some  assert,  a  longer  course  than 
the  Irabatty,  we  must  consider  the  Ken-poo  as  one  of  its  tributaries;  and  it  would, 
in  that  case,  be  the  chief  river  of  the  great  valley  lying  between  the  mountains  of 
Arracan  and  those  of  Siam.  D'Anville  considers  the  rivers  of  Martaban  and  Pegu 
as  two  mouths  of  one  groat  river.  Modern  English  travellers  tell  us  that  the  river 
of  Pegu  is  small,  and  rises  but  a  short  way  from  the  sea.  But  these  undoubtedly 
mean  some  small  stream  which  falls  into  the  Pegu  river  of  d'Anville. 
Thus  d'Anville,  in  assigning  the  course  of  the  Noo-Kian,  which  comes 
from  Thibet  through  China  to  the  river  of  Pegu,  and  liuchanan,  in  giving 
that  course  to  the  Thaluan  or  river  of  Martaban,  have  told  us  precise  y  the  .same 


Physical 
stniciiire. 


Uncertainties 
about  ilm 
oi  igiii  of  the 
ri  vers. 


D'Anville 
siippoiiecl  in 
(ippositicin  to 
Buchanan. 


Different  ac- 
counts of  the 
river  Mei- 
Kong. 


264  BOOK  FIFTY-FIRST. 

thino- ;  and  the  whole  correction  which  Dr.  Buchanan  beUeves  himself  to  Imve  made 
reduces  itself  to  that  of  giving  a  different  application  from  d'Anville  to  the  designa- 
opinionon  the  tion  of  "  tiver  of  Pegu."  For  our  own  part,  we  consider  the  Noo-Kian 
river  of  siam.  gg  ^gj.y  probably  the  river  of  Siam,  the  Meinam.  Of  all  the  rivers  of 
these  countries  this  has  the  highest  and  most  regular  inundations;  whence  it  is  rea- 
sonable to  trace  its  sources  to  the  most  distant  mountains  in  the  centre  of  Thibet. 
Besides,  we  find  that  great  gulfs  generally  receive  largo  rivers.  Loubere  has  given 
no  plausible  reason  for  the  opposite  opinion.  He  never  saw  the  pretended  sources 
to  which  he  assigns  a  much  more  southerly  situation.  Yet  his  views  are  hitherto 
followed  in  all  the  maps,  nor  have  we,  in  our  atlas,  represented  it  agreeably  to  the 
opinion  which,  after  mature  reflection,  we  have  hero  ventured  to  express.* 

The  course  of  the  Mei-Kong,  the  river  of  Cambodia,  is,  on  the  con- 
trary, represented  as  very  long.  It  is  considered  as  the  same  which  passes 
through  Laos.  But  Duhalde  says,  that,  according  to  the  accounts  of 
tho  Chinese,  the  capital  of  Laos  was  situated  on  a  river  which  falls  into  that  of  Siam* 
D'Anville  and  Arrowsmith  agree  in  making  it  proceed  from  the  Thibetian  Alps, 
where,  according  to  the  former  of  these  geographers,  it  is  called  Lantsang-Kiang, 
and,  according  to  the  latter,  Sat-Choo.  Both  make  it  pass  through  Yunnan.  It 
would  be  somewhat  singular  for  so  long  a  river  to  travel  to  the  extremity  of  a  penin- 
sula before  finding  an  outlet.  That  course  requires  also  to  be  reconciled  with  the 
testimony  of  the  Chinese,  who  make  the  chief  river  of  Laos  to  communicate  with 
that  of  Siam.  Shall  we,  for  this  purpose,  admit,  with  Dalrymple,  an  arm  of  the 
river  called  Annan,  to  unite  the  Meinam  to  the  Mei-Kong,  in  the  same  way  as  the 
Cassiquiari  connects  the  Rio-Negro  with  the  Orinoco?  AH  this  is  again  contradicted 
by  the  account  of  tho  Dutch  envoy,  M.  Wusthof,  who,  after  saying  that  the  Mei- 
Kong,  or  the  river  of  Cambodia,  has  a  course  of  300  miles,  represents  its  sources 
as  in  the  north  of  Pegu,  fifty  miles  from  the  capital  of  Laos  ;  two  data  which,  even 
taken  abstractedly,  are  not  easily  rendered  consistent.  We  are  informed  too,  by  a 
recent  traveller,  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  country  describe  Laos  as  a  table  land 
without  any  largo  river. f  Admitting  this  opinion,  we  can  easily  conceive  that  the 
two  rivers  of  Siam  and  Cambodia  have  some  communication,  but  we  should  always 
consider  that  of  Siam  as  having  the  most  distant  sources.  J 

It  will  be  readily  anticipated,  that  the  direction  of  the  mountains  of 
Chin-India  must  be  a  subject  of  still  greater  uncertainty  ;  and  accord- 
ingly we  find  this  very  difficult  to  determine  amidst  the  chaos  of  contradictions  ad- 
vanced by  travellers. 

Of  the  four  chains  which  are  commonly  supposed  to  exist,  that  which  separates 
the  Birman  empire  from  Bengal  becomes  gradually  lower  in  the  kingdom  of  Arracan, 
till  it  is  lost  in  small  hills  before  reaching  Cape  Negrais. 

The  second,  which  seems  to  surpass  all  the  others  in  height  as  well  as  in  length, 
separates  Pegu  and  Ava  from  the  kingdom  of  Siam  ;  then  stretches  along  the  whole 
peninsida  of  Malacca,  and  ends  in  Cape  Romania,  in  the  straits  of  Sincapore.  That 
cape  is  the  southern  extremity  of  Asia. 

Of  the  third  chain  scarcely  any  thing  is  known.  It  seems  to  separate  the  kingdom 
of  Siam  from  those  of  Cambodia  and  Laos.  Perhaps  it  takes  an  oblique  direction 
between  Laos  and  Cambodia ;  perhaps  it  gives  off  branches  which  encircle  a  cen- 
tral plateau.  In  tho  south  it  is  considered  as  running  along  the  east  of  the  gulf  of 
Siam  to  its  extremity,  where  Cape  Cambodia  sepaj-ates  that  gulf  from  the  Chinese 
sea.  But  that  cape  is  formed  of  low  land  :  and  we  have  no  evidence  of  its  being 
the  termination  of  a  mountain  chain. 

The  fourth  chain  is  somewhat  better  known.  It  rises  in  the  Chinese  province  of 
Yunnan,  and  bounds  Tonquin  and  Cochin-China  on  the  west,  separating  them  from 
the  kinodoms  of  Laos  and  Cambodia.  For  elevation  and  for  extent  tliis  chain  seems 
to  rank  among  the  most  considerable  in  Asia. 


Uncertainties 
about  tlie 
mouutainj. 


'a 


•  This  refers  to  the  French  atlas  accompanyint^  M.  Malte-Brun's  work, 
f  See  afterwards  our  account  of  Laos  and  l-ac-Tho. 
i  See  note  at  the  end  of  book  52,  Fhilada.  EJ. 


CHlN-IJsUlA.  265 

To  these  imperfect  notions  of  the  physical  structure  of  the  Chin-Indian  |  climate, 
region,  we  are  obhgcd  to  add  information  still  more  uncertain  on  the  other  leadinj^ 
points  of  its  physical  ijeography.  The  observations  whicii  travellers  have  made  on 
the  climate  of  the  interior  have  all  been  hasty  and  imperfect.  It  undoubtedly  con- 
tains several  temperate  regions.  Such  are  those  of  the  northern  part  of  the  Birman 
empire.  The  coasts  are  liable  to  intense  heats.  Yet  these  are  moderated  by  the 
sea  breezes,  which  are  cooler  and  more  humid  than  those  of  Indostan.  But,  as  the 
seasons  vary  with  the  exposure  of  the  dill'erent  coasts,  the  particulars  will  enter  into 
the  descriptions  of  the  respective  countries. 

The  periodical  inundation  of  the  low  valleys  by  the  rising  of  the  rivers  ]  inundations, 
is  a  circumstance  common  to  all  this  region.    But  they  observe  ditferent  periods,  and 
thus  show  that  the  mountains  or  table  lands  in  wliich  they  take  their  rise  umst  be  at 
unequal  distances. 

The  joint  operation  of  the  great  heat  and  humidity  imparts  to  the  vege-  Character  of 
tation  of  Chin-India  a  character  of  singular  vigour  and  magnificence.  H'evegetaiion. 
The  contrasts  of  barrenness  and  fertility  are  hero  marked  in  the  most  striking  man- 
ner. A  burning  sun  reduces  to  the  state  of  a  light  powder,  or  to  that  oi  a  crust 
hard  as  rock,  those  soils  where  the  rain-water  does  not  fall  in  the  requisite  abund- 
ance, or  remain  sufficiently  long.  But  along  the  margins  of  the  rivers,  and  on  the 
sides  of  the  mountains,  an  eternal  verdure  and  an  aspect  of  peculiar  grandeur,  from 
towering  tops  and  extended  foliage,  characterize  the  mighty  trees  of  those  climates, 
in  comparison  of  which  the  "  kings  of  our  forests"  dwindle  to  the  rank  of  humble 
vassals.  These  giants  of  the  vegetable  creation  are  surrounded  by  shrubs  and  herbs, 
which  exhibit  in  their  flowers  and  fruits,  forms  the  most  singular  and  diversified,  and 
colours  the  most  vivid,  while  they  dispense  flavours  and  odours  the  most  delicious. 

Two  of  those  which  add  dignity  to  the  forests,  are  the  Moexijlum  \  forests. 
verum,  or  eagle-wood,  and  the  white  sandal-wood,  which  are  used  as  perfumes  in  all 
the  palaces  of  the  east.  The  teak  of  that  country  surpasses  the  English  oak  for 
durability  in  ship-building.  The  iron-tree  is  quite  common.  The  true  ebony  is 
indigenous  in  Cochin-China.  In  every  district  we  find  the  sycamore,  the  Indian  fig, 
and  the  banana,  which,  by  the  exuberance  of  its  large  leaves,  forms  a  grove  of  itself. 
There  are  other  trees  rivalling  these  in  beauty  or  in  stateliness  ;  such  are  the  Big- 
nonias,  the  fan-palms,  the  Calophyllmn,  which  shoots  up  higher  than  the  pine,  the 
JVuuclcu  orkntalis,  and  tlic  Jli>;uUocmn  of  Cochin-China,  the  leaves  of  which  dis- 
play a  rich  purple  on  tlieir  inferior  surfaces. 

Chin-India  is  singularly  rich  in  aromatic  and  medicinal  species,  and  in     Aromatic 
those  useful  in  the  arts.  Ciiigcr  and  cardamoms  grow  wild  on  the  banks     i''""'^- 
of  the  rivers,  or  are  cultivated  in  large  plantations.   The  cinnamon  tree  grows  abun- 
dantly on  both  coasts  of  the  peninsula  of  Malacca,  and  is  sometimes  accompanied 
by  the  nut-meg.     Turmeric  is  used  by  the  inhabitants  of  these  countries  to  tinge 
and  season  their  rice  and  other  dishes.    Their  favourite  aromatics  are  betel  leaf,  the 
fruit  of  the  long  pepper,  and  black  pepper,   to  which  they  add  three  or  four  species 
resembling  long  pepper,  and  the  grains  of  the  Fa2;ura  piparata,  or  long  popper  of 
Japan.   Among  the  diflerent  dye-stuffs  arc  distinguished  the  carmenfine     vtgotabie 
or  Juslicia  lincloria,  which  alTords  a  beautiful  green ;  three  species  ol'royoc,     *'y«-'-'"'"'- 
viz.  the  J\Ioriiula  nmbelldla,  carlhunms,  and  ti-umho!j;ia,  all  of  which  are  yellow  dyes  ; 
indigo;  and  the  red  wood  of  the  Lmi'sonia  spiij^sa ;  and  sapan.  The  bark  of  the  llliizo- 
jthora  gymnorhiza  gives  a  beautiful  red  dye.     The  gum  resin  called  dragon's  blood 
seems  to  be  the  produce  of  more  than  one  plant,  among  which  are  the  Drmivnaj'trrea^ 
and  the  rotang,  natives  of  Cochin-China.  Among  the  plants  subservient  to  industry,  we 
shall  mention  the  Pimelia  oleosa,  from  which  an  oil  is  obtained  that  enters  into  the 
composition  of  the  Chinese  varnish  ;  the  sumach  of  Java,  another  varnish  tree  ;  the 
Croloii  lacctfenmi,  from  which  is  obtained  the  valuable  red  lac,  the  produce  of  a  sort 
of  ant  which  nestles  on  it,  and  separates  this  gum  as  his  ordinary  food  ;  and  finally, 
the  suet  tree,  the  Sebifera  glulinosa  of  Loureiro,  the  sapiiim  or  Ghtltier  porte-stdf  oi' 
Jussieu,  the  fruit  of  which  yields  a  stiff  grease,  from  which  are  made  candles  of  a 
handsome  appearance  but  unpleasant  smell. 

From  these  countries  we  also  obtain,  for  medical   purposes,  jalap, 
scammony,  the  bark  of  the  Acriwn  anlidysmicricum,  called  codogcqmla, 

Vol.  II — L  I 


Medicinal 
plants. 


266  BOOK  FIFTY-FIRST. 

that  of  the  Laiirus  culiban,  the  fruit  of  the  Strijchnos  mix  vomica,  cassia,  tamarinds, 
aloes,  camphor,  and  castor  oil.  The  sugar  cane,  the  bamboo,  spikenard,  three  cele- 
brated plants  of  the  family  of  reeds,  are  found  in  all  these  countries :  the  first  two 
Alimentary  ^^  *^6  ^^^^  marshes,  the  last  on  the  dry  hills.  The  sweet  potato,  the 
plants.  melongena,*  and  the  love  apple  ;|  melons,  pumpkins,  water  melons,  and 

a  great  quantity  of  other  nutritious  plants,  enrich  the  plains.  The  banana,  the  cocoa, 
and  the  sago  palm  afford  a  most  liberal  supply  to  the  wants  of  the  inhabitants.  Of 
fruits  they  have  a  great  variety.  The  vine  grows  in  the  forests,  but  for  want  of  cul- 
ture, as  well  as  the  excessive  heat,  its  fruit  is  much  inferior  to  that  of  Europe.  To 
make  up  for  this  disadvantage,  they  have  the  orange,  the  lemon,  the  citron,  the  deli- 
cious mango,  the  pine-apple,  the  litchi,  (the  diraocarpus  of  Loureiro  and  the  eu-phoria 
of  Jussieu,)  the  mangosteen,  and  a  multitude  of  other  fruits  unknown  in  Europe. 
We  may  also  take  notice  of  the  PJujllodes  placentaria,  the  leaves  of  which  are  used 
in  wrapping  up  provisions,  in  order  to  heighten  their  colour  and  improve  their  flavour, 
and  are  also  like  the  Amomum  galanga  mixed  with  the  fermented  liquors  obtained 
from  rice  and  from  sugar. 

Animals.  |  The  most  remarkable  animals  of  this  region  are  the  Indian  elephant, 
the  single  horned  rhinoceros,  the  tiger,  the  leopard,  the  bear,  the  ourang-outang, 
several  species  of  the  monkey,  the  gibbon,  the  baboon,  the  pitheca,  and  two  others 
not  yet  fully  known;  Forbin's  great  ape  of  Malacca,  and  the  white  ape  with  red 
eyes  mentioned  by  Compagnon.  Among  the  wild  inhabitants  of  the  forest  are  the 
hubalus,  the  stag,  several  kinds  of  antelopes,  as  the  oryx,  the  strepsiceros,  the  albipcs 
of  Erxleben,  and  the  tragocamelus  of  Pallas.  The  civet  and  the  porcupine  are  also 
found  in  these  countries. 

Minerals.  |  That  portion  of  the  Birman  empire  which,  according  to  M.  Gosselin, 
corresponds  to  the  Golden  Chersonese  of  the  ancients,  is  very  rich  in  minei'als,  and 
produces  some  very  singular  species,  while  Malacca,  which  had  been  previously 
taken  for  the  golden  Chersonese,  scarcely  produces  a  mineral  of  any  value  with  the 
exception  of  tin.  The  rivers  of  Pegu  still  contains  grains  of  gold,  and  in  ancient 
times,  their  sands  were  probably  much  richer  in  this  precious  metal  than  now.  The 
custom  of  gilding  the  ceiling  and  the  cupolas  of  the  temples,  seems  to  have  existed 
from  very  remote  times.  We  are  told  that  the  temple  of  Shoemadoo  was  built  about 
500  years  before  the  Christian  era.  If  that  was  the  case,  the  brilliancy  of  so  splen- 
did an  edifice  may  have  given  rise  to  the  term  "  Golden  Chersonese."  Or  the  an- 
cients may  have  been  in  possession  of  some  vague  tradition  respecting  the  whole 
Chin-Indian  region.  Gold  and  silver  abound  still  more  in  Tonquin  and  Cochin- 
China  than  in  the  Birman  empire. 

sho«Tiew^of  After  this  general  sketch  of  the    physical  geography  of  Chin-India, 

dian  nations.  let  US  take  a  general  view  of  the  nations  which  inhabit  it,  the  languages 
which  they  speak,  and  the  religion  which  they  profess. 

Their  physical  With  the  exception  of  the  Malays,  who  form  a  distinct  race,  mostly 
qualities.  spread  over  Oceanica,  the  other  Chin-Indian  nations  resemble  the  Mon- 

golian and  Chinese  races  in  their  figure,  their  square  countenances,  their  yellow  com- 
plexions, strong  hair,  and  sparkling  eyes.  Hence  we  may  safely  consider  them  as 
of  the  same  original  stock.  The  Chinese  have  always  extended  along  the  eastern 
and  southern  shores  of  Chin-India,  where  they  have  introduced  their  written  charac- 
ters, and  in  some  degree  their  language.  The  Birmans  seem  even  to  have  preserved 
a  tradition  of  the  arrival  of  a  Mongolian  colony  of  700,000  warriors.  Such  tradi- 
tions would  still  lead  to  the  inference  that  the  first  inhabitants  had  belonged  to  these 
countries  from  time  immemorial. 

We  are  informed  that  besides  the  prevailing  race,  there  is  in  the  mountains,  espe- 
cially those  of  Cochin-China  and  Laos,  a  savage  nation  called  Kemoys  or  Moys, 
who  are  black  like  the  African  Caffres.  They  seem  nearly  connected  with  the 
Haraforas  of  the  Philippine  islands  and  the  other  negroes  of  Oceanica. 
Languages,  |  All  the  Original  languages  of  these  nations,  with  the  exception  of  the 
Malay,  exhibit  the  same  characteristic  simplicity,  poverty,  and  deficiency,  with  the 
monosyllabic  languages  of  Thibet  and  China.     They  are,  however,  in  their  present 

•  The  Egg  plant.  t  The  Tatnata. 


The  Ball,  or  sa- 
cred language. 


CHIN-INDIA.  267 

state,  subdivided  into  three  perfectly  distinct  classes.  The  Boman  or  Birman  lan- 
guage is  spoken  in  Ava  and  Arracan;  the  Siamese  language  prevails  in  the  kingdoms 
of  Siam  and  Laos;  and  the  Annamitic  language  is  used  in  Annam,  i.  e.  in  Tonquin 
and  Cochin-China,  perhaps  also  in  Cambodia.  These  languages  are  more  or  less 
mixed  with  Chinese  or  Hindostanee,  according  as  the  nations  which  speak  them  are 
situated  near  Indostan  or  China.* 

The  dialect  of  Pegu  differs  entirely  from  these  three ;'  but  it  is  not  well  known. 
The  Malay,  which  extends  over  the  whole  of  Oceanica,  contains  a  mixture  of 
Sanscrit,  with  some  Birman  or  Siamese  roots,  to  which  many  Arabic  words  have 
been  added,  in  consequence  of  commercial  intercourse,  and  the  prevalence  of  the 
Mussulman  religion. 

The  religion  of  Buddha,  proceeding  from  Indostan,  prevails  under  a  |  Religions, 
diversity  of  forms,  over  this  whole  country.  It  has  probably  become  incorporated 
with  various  local  and  national  superstitions,  which  it  has  not  entirely  superseded. 
The  sacred  writings  of  this  sect  are  in  the  Bali  or  Pali  language,  a  dia- 
lect derived  from  the  Sanscrit,  and  probably  the  same  which  is  spoken 
in  Magada,  or  southern  Bahar."{"  That  rich,  harmonious,  and  flexible  language,  has 
become  the  language  of  religion,  and  that  of  the  priests  and  learned  in  the  whole 
of  Chin-India,  with  the  exception  of  Malacca,  Cochin-China,  and  Tonquin.  The 
Mahometan  religion  excludes  it  from  Malacca,  while  Cochin-China  and  Tonquin 
have  been  pervaded  by  the  language  and  philosophy  of  the  Chinese,  introduced  by 
colonies  from  that  nation.  Buddhism  prevails  there  in  the  form  which  it  has  as- 
sumed in  China,  and  Buddha  is  adored  under  the  name  of  Fo. 

Some  of  these  general  views  of  the  nations  now  under  consideration,  will  be  far- 
ther unfolded  in  the  account  which  we  are  now  to  give  of  the  different  leading  divisions 
of  this  part  of  the  world. 

The  Birman  empire  is  the  first  political  state  which  we  meet  in  pro- 
ceeding eastward  from  Indostan.  It  includes  the  kingdom  of  Ava,  and 
the  conquered  provinces  of  Cassay  and  Arracan,  on  the  west ;  Lowashan  and  Yun- 
shan  on  the  east;  and  Pegu,  Martaban,  Tenasserim,  Mergui,  Tavoy,  and  Junkseylon, 
on  the  south.  J 

In  Dalrymple's  Oriental  Repertory,  the  Birmans  are  called  Boragh- 
mans.     In  the  Birman  alphabet,  published  at  Rome  in  1776,  the  name 
is  written  Bomans.     They  are  also  called  JMienmay.     Their  native  country  is  Ava 
Proper.     They  were  at  one  time  subject  to  the  king  of  Pegu;  but  in  the  sixteenth 

•  Leyden's  Memoh-  on  the  Indo-Chinese  Languages,  in  the  10th  volume  of  the  Asiatic 
Researches. 

t  Lolliere  Fetity.  Encyclopedic  Elementaire,  ii.  part  2,  p.  623.  Paullinus  ^  Saint  Barlh. 
Examen  codd.  indie,  p.  41. 

+  The  war  which  began  in  May  1824,  and  ended  the  24th  of  February  1826,  between  the 
B.  K.  Ind.  Co.  and  the  king  of  Ava,  resulted  in  a  treaty,  by  which  considerable  cessions  were 
made  to  the  company.  By  Art.  3,  the  British  retain  the  provinces  of  Arracan,  including  its 
four  divisions  of  Arracan,  Ramree,  Cheduba,  and  Sandowey.  The  Anoupectoumieu  or  Arra- 
can mountains,  known  by  the  name  of  Yeocnabourg,  or  Pokhengloung  range,  will  henceforth 
form  the  boundary  between  the  two  nations  on  that  side.  Art.  4.  Ava  cedes  to  the  British,  the 
provinces  of  Yeh,  Tavoy  and  Mergui,  and  Tennasserim,  with  the  islands  and  dependencies 
thereto,  taking  the  Saluen  river  as  the  line  of  demarcation  on  that  frontier. 

The  following  observations,  taken  from  Snodgrass's  Burmese  war,  published  in  1827,  will  be 
worth  perusing.  "The  population  of  Ava,  has  been  gi-eally  overrated  by  travellers,  their 
accounts  being  founded  on  the  thickly  peopled  banks  of  the  rivers,  or  drawn  from  th«  natives 
who  have  estimated  their  numbers  beyond  the  truth.  So  slight  is  the  regard  of  the  people 
for  their  present  worship,  that  the  king  of  Ava,  could  by  a  simple  order,  change  the  religion 
of  the  nation  without  a  murmur.  The  country  from  Pagahm-mev/  to  Ava  is  beautiful.  Exten- 
sive plains  of  the  finest  land,  watered  by  the  Irawaddy,  are  interspersed  with  evergreen 
woods;  and  the  banks  of  the  river  are  so  thickly  studded  with  villages,  pagodas,  temples, 
monasteries  and  other  handsome  buildings,  as  to  give  under  one  view  all  the  charms  of  a  richly 
varied  landscape,  with  the  beauties  of  a  populous  and  fertile  country.  To  the  north  ward  of 
Ava,  there  are  mines  of  gold,  silver,  and  precious  stones,  (rubies  and  sapphires  of  the  finest 
description.)  The  cession  of  Arracan,  amply  provides  for  the  freedom  of  the  British  Indies, 
from  Burmese  interference.  The  Burmese  are  now  confined  within  their  ancient  boundaries 
by  the  lofty  Anoupectoumieu,  and  a  force  can  be  marched  across  these  mountains,  and  appear 
on  the  Irawaddy,  from  the  British  post'at  Aing,  in  eight  or  ten  days,  and  probably  reach  the 
capital  of  the  Burmese  empire  in  a  month,"  Pfdl,  Ed. 


The  Birman 
Empire.  , 


History  of  the 
Birmani. 


268  BOOK  FIFTY-FIRST, 

century  this  numerous  and  vrarlike  people  revolutionized  the  country  by  taking  pos- 
session of  Ava,  and  then  of  Martaban.     The  Birmans  continued  masters  of  this 
country  till  1740,  when  a  civil  war  broke  out  in  consequence  of  a  revolt  in  the  con- 
quered provinces  of  Pegu,  and  was  prosecuted  on  both  sides  with  savage  ferocity. 
In  1750  and  1751,  the  Peguans,  with  the  aid  of  arms  imported  by  Europeans,  and 
the  active  services  of  some  Dutch  and  Portuguese,  beat  their  rivals,  and  in  1752, 
Ava,  the  capital,  surrendered  to  them  at  discretion.     Dweepdee,  the  last  of  a  long 
line  of  Birman  kings,  was  taken  prisoner,  with  all  his  family,  except  two  sons,  who 
escaped  into  Siam.     Binga  Delia,  king  of  Pegu,  returned  to  his  hereditary  domi- 
nions, leaving  the  government  of  Ava  to  his  son  Apporasa.     When  the  conquest 
appeared  complete  and  settled,  one  of  those  extraordinary  characters  which  Provi- 
dence sometimes  raises  up  to  change  the  destinies  of  nations,  now  appeared.     This 
was  a  Birman  called  Alompra,  a  man  of  obscure  birth,  known  by  the  name  of  "the 
huntsman,"  and  the  chief  of  Manchaboo,  then  a  poor  village.     Having  collected 
round  him  100  picked  men,  he  defeated  the  Pcguan  detachments  in  small  skirmishes. 
Improving  in  experience,  and  acquiring  confidence  in  his  own  strength,  he  attracted 
more  numerous  followers;  and  in  the  autumn  of  1753,  suddenly  advanced,  and  ob- 
tained possession  of  Ava.   Defeating  the  king  of  Pegu  in  several  subsequent  engage- 
ments, he  invaded  his  territories,  and  in  three  months  took  his  capital,  which  he  gave  up 
to  indiscriminate  plunder  and  carnage.     Having  sustained  some  indignities  from  the 
Siamese,  he  invaded  Siam ;  but,  during  the  siege  of  tb.e  metropolis  of  that  kingdom,  his 
careerof  conquest  was  suddenly  terminated  in  1760  bya  fatal  disease  in  the  fiftieth  year 
of  his  age,  and  ninth  of  his  reign.  Alompra  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Namdojee  Praw, 
a  minor.      Sliembuan,  the  uncle  of  this  prince,  brother  to  Alompra,  acted  as  regent, 
and,  on  the  dcatli  of  his  nephew,  assumed  the  crown.    Shembuan  declared  war  against 
the  Siamese,  and  took  their  capital  in  1766,  but  did  not  retain  permanent  possession 
of  that  country.     In  1767  the  empire  was  invaded  by  a  Chinese  army,  50,000  strong, 
on  the  side  of  the  Yunnan,  which  advanced  as  far  as  a  village  called  Chiboo ;  but  the 
Birmans  cut  oif  their  supplies,  and  then  destroyed  the  whole  of  them,  except  2500, 
Avho  were  sent  in  fetters  to  the  Birman  capital,  compelled  to  labour  in  their  respective 
trades,  and  encouraged  to  marry  Birman  wives,  and  become  naturalized  subjects. 
Shembuan  subdued  Cassay  in   1774,  and  died  in  1776.     His  son  and  successor, 
Chenguza,  a  debauched  and  bloody  tyrant,  was  dethroned,  and  put  to  death  in  1782, 
in  a  conspiracy  headed  by  his  own  uncle  Minderagee,  who  took  possession  of  the 
government.     This  prince  was  the  fourth  son  of  Alompra.     In  1783  he  sent  a  fleet 
of  boats  against  Arracan,  which  he  easily  conquered.     He  then  marched  against 
Siam,  where  he  met  with  some  checks;  and,  finding  himself  unable  to  retain  posses- 
sion of  the  interior,  was  obliged  to  content  himself  with  the  dominion  of  its  western 
coast,  as  far  south  as  Mergui,  including  the  two  important  sea  ports  of  Tavoy  and 
Mergui,  which  were  ceded  to  him  by  a  treaty  of  peace  in  1793. 

In  1795  his  Birman  majesty  marched  an  army  of  5000  men  into  the  English  pro- 
vince of  Chittagong,  holding  an  army  of  20,000  in  readiness  to  join  them  in  Arracan. 
His  object  was  to  claim  three  notorious  robbers,  who  had  taken  refuge  in  that  country. 
This  force  was  confronted  by  a  strong  detachment  from  Calcutta.  The  affair  was 
amicably  adjusted  by  the  delivery  of  the  refugees,  whose  enormous  guilt  was  esta- 
blished, and  the  Birmans  withdrew  without  committing  any  disorders.  The  English 
Capt.  Canning,  who  visited  the  Birman  capital  in  1809,  found  that  it  had  deteriorated 
during  the  declining  years  of  Minderagee  Praw,  who,  naturally  superstitious,  cruel, 
and  despotic,  had  become  insupportably  suspicious  and  irascible.  He  had  aban- 
doned Ummerapoor,  his  capital,  and  fixed  his  court  at  a  place  called  Mengoury, 
seven  miles  up  tlie  river,  consisting  of  a  cluster  of  sand-banks,  where  he  was  ab- 
sorbed in  melancholy,  and  occupied  in  the  composition  of  drugs  and  charms  for  the 
prolongation  of  his  life.  The  opposition  to  which  his  capricious  cruelties  gave  rise 
rendered  tlie  country  a  scene  of  anarchy,  rebellion,  and  robbery.  More  recently 
some  absurd  attempts  have  been  made  by  this  barbarous  court  to  extend  their  influ- 
ence to  the  west,  at  one  time  by  claiming  the  provinces  of  Dacca  and  Chittagong, 
and  at  anotlier  by  carrying  on  an  intriguing  correspondence  with  the  Brahmins  at  Be- 
nares, by  sending  emissaries,  in  the  disguise  of  merchants,  to  Dacca,  on  their  way 
to  the  Seik  territories,  and  others  to  Madras  and  Trincomalee,  for  the  purpose  of 


THE  IIIRMAN  EMPIRE.  269 

voising  a  general  combination  of  the  Indian  governments  against  the  British.  These 
proceedings,  and  sonic  hostile  preparations  which  appeared  to  be  made  on  the  fron- 
tier, were  never  followed  by  any  important  events.*  In  June,  1S19,  Minderagce 
IVavv  died,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  grandson.  The  junior  branches  of  the  family 
revolted,  and  scenes  of  massacre  ensued. 

The  Birman  empire  includes  a  space  between  the  9th  and  26th  de-  I  sitnationnnd 

i  I  ^1   extent  01  the 

grees  of  north  latitude,  and  between  the  92d  and  104th  of  east  longitude ;  |  empire, 
being  about  1050  geographical  miles  in  length,  and  600  in  breadth.     Its  northern 
boundaries  are  perhaps  still  more  distant;  but  its  limits  in  that  direction,  and  to  the 
east,  are  fluctuating.     It  probably  may  conatin  194,000  square  miles. 

Though  this  empire  extends  into  the  torrid  zone,  it  enjoys  a  temperate  |  climate, 
climate,  in  consequence  of  the  elevation  of  its  territory.  The  healthy  and  robust 
constitutions  of  the  natives  show  the  salubrity  of  the  chmate.  The  seasons  are  regu- 
lar. Extreme  cold  is  unknown,  and  the  intense  heat  which  precedes  the  rainy  season 
is  of  short  duration.  This  coimtry  exhibits  every  variety  of  soil  and  exposure.  A 
flat  marshy  delta  extends  along  the  mouths  of  the  Irawaddy.  Beyond  this  arc  pleas- 
ing hills,  picturesque  valleys,  and  majestic  mountains.  The  fertile  soil  |  Vegetation, 
of  the  southern  provinces  yields  crops  of  rice  equal  to  those  of  the  finest  districts  of 
Bengal.  Although  the  surface  is  more  irregular  and  mountainous  to  the  north,  the 
plains  and  valleys,  especially  those  situated  on  the  banks  of  the  great  rivers,  produce 
excellent  wheat,  and  the  different  corn  and  leguminous  crops  which  are  cultivated  in 
Indostan.  Sugar  canes,  excellent  tobacco,  indigo,  cotton,  and  the  tropical  fruits, 
are  indigenous  in  this  favoured  country.  Agriculture  is  said  to  be  in  an  improved 
state,  though  the  methods  followed  have  never  yet  been  satisfactorily  described.  In 
a  district  to  the  north-east  of  Ummerapoor,  the  tea  leaf  grows,  but  not  equal  to  that 
which  is  produced  in  China,  and  seldom  used  except  as  a  pickle.  The  teak  tree 
grows  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  though  properly  a  native  of  the  mountains.  Almost 
every  kind  of  timber  found  in  Indostan  is  produced  in  the  southern  parts.  Fir  grows 
in  the  mountains,  and  turpentine  is  extracted  from  it;  but  the  natives  do  not  use  the 
wood  in  carpentry,  being  prejudiced  against  it  on  account  of  its  softness.  The  fo- 
rests here  as  in  Indostan,  are  exceedingly  unhealthy.  Even  the  wood  cutters,  a  race 
inured  to  this  situation  and  mode  of  life,  are  said  to  be  very  short-lived. 

The  animals  are  the  same  with  those  of  Indostan.     The  only  singu-  (  Animals, 
larity  that  has  been  observed  is  the  total  absence  of  any  sort  of  jackal.     The  plains 
are  well  stocked  with  cattle ;  but  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  forests  they  are  exposed 
to  frequent  ravages  from  the  tigers,  which  are  very  numerous  in  this  country.     Pegu 
abounds  in  elephants. 

The  chief  minerals  are  found  in  Ava  Proper.  Six  days'  journey  from  [  Minerals. 
Bamoo,  near  the  Chinese  frontier,  are  the  gold  and  silver  mines  of  Badooem. 
There  are  also  mines  of  gold,  silver,  rubies,  and  sapphires,  now  open  in  a  mountain 
called  Woobolootan,  near  the  river  Ken-duem.  But  the  richest  are  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  tlie  capital.  Precious  stones  are  found  in  several  other  parts  of  the  em- 
pire. Iron,  tin,  lead,  antimony,  arsenic,  and  sulphur,  are  in  great  abundance.  Great 
quantities  of  very  pure  amber  are  dug  up  near  the  river,  and  gold  is  found  in  the  sands 
of  the  mountain  streams.  One  of  these  in  the  north,  situated  between  the  Ken-duem 
and  the  Irawaddy,  is  called  "the  stream  of  golden  sand,"  (Shoe  Lien  Kioop.)  There 
are  no  diamonds  or  emeralds  in  the  empire;  but  it  has  amethysts,  garnets,  beautiful 
chrysolites,  and  jasper.  There  are,  near  Ummerapoor,  quarries  which  yield  marble 
equal  to  the  finest  in  Italy.  It  is  monopolized  by  the  government,  and  consecrated 
to  the  making  of  images  of  Guadrna.  This  empire  contains  celebrated  and  very  pro- 
ductive petroleum  wells,  which  yield  a  large  revenue  to  government,  being  retained 
as  a  monopoly. 

We  shall  now  take  a  view  of  the  provinces  or  kingdoms  composing  (  Topography, 
this  empire,  and  their  principal  towns. 


Cassay,  in  the  north-west  corner,  adjoining  the  kingdom  of  Assam,  is 
called  in  Sanscrit  the  country  of  the  Muggaloo,  which  has  been  trans- 

*  Some  account  of  the  change  made  by  the  lat©  war  with  E.  I.  C. 


Kingdora  o{ 
Cassay. 


270  BOOK  PIFTY-FinST. 

formed  into  Meckley.     It  was  formerly  an  independent  state.     Its  capital,  Munna- 
poora,  is  large  and  flourishing.*     The  inhabitants  call  themselves  Moytai. 
Kinsdotn  of  The  kingdom  of  Cachar,  (or  Katchar,)  which  we  have  already  men- 

cachar,  tionedf  as  usually  subject  to  the  Birmans,  adjoins  Cassay.    The  capital 

is  Kaspoor,  called  Kospetir  by  the  Portuguese  historian  Juan  de  Barros.  The  inha- 
bitants are  of  Hindoo  extraction,  and  are  called  Banga  in  their  own  language,  and 
Aikobah  by  the  Birmans. 

Kingdom  of  The  kingdom  of  Arracan,  properly  called  Rokhang,  between  Ava 

Afracan.  ^^^  Bengal,  is  a  continuation  of  the  Chittagong  plain,  bounded  on  the 

east  by  a  range  of  mountains,  the  southern  part  of  v/hich  runs  parallel  to  the  sea 
coast,  at  a  distance  sometimes  of  100,  sometimes  of  only  ten  miles.  From  Chit- 
tagong it  could  not  be  entered  by  an  army,  except  along  the  sea  beach.  The  shore 
is  studded  with  numerous  islands  and  rocks,  from  which  the  country  is  seen,  agree- 
ably diversified  with  wooded  hills  and  dales,  and  enlivened  with  numerous  torrents. 
The  river  of  Arracan  is  said  to  have  a  good  entrance,  without  bar  or  shoals  ;  and 
its  situation,  in  a  rich  and  wooded  country,  intermediate  between  Pegu  and  Bengal, 
would  make  it  a  good  station  for  a  timber  depot :  but  it  has  never  been  accurately 
explored,  though  the  English  had  a  factory  here  in  the  ISth  century.  During  the 
south-west  monsoon,  however,  the  current  and  the  wind  would  render  it  difficult  for 
a  vessel  to  get  out  of  this  river.  The  interior  of  the  province  is  little  known,  but  is 
supposed  to  be  similar  to  that  of  Chittagong.  The  maritime  tract  maintains  a  con- 
siderable intercourse  with  Bengal,  especially  with  Chittagong,  to  which  it  exports 
small  horses,  ivory,  wax,  gold,  and  silver.  The  viceroy  or  rajah  is  always  the  chief 
merchant.  During  peace,  merchants  travel  over  from  tho  cities  of  Ava,  and  fit  out 
forty  or  fifty  boats  tor  Bengal,  each  of  which  carries  a  cargo  valued  at  4000  rupees, 
chiefly  in  silver  bullion.  One  half  of  them  regularly  return  with  red  betel  nut, 
chiefly  from  Luckipoor,  where  they  farm  the  plantations  of  this  article.  Rice  is 
also  exported  from  Arracan,  and  from  the  contiguous  islands,  which  are  uncommonly 
fruitful.  There  is  also,  during  the  north-east  monsoon,  a  general  coasting  trade 
along  this  shore,  between  the  southerly  and  easterly  parts  of  the  Birman  coast  and 
Calcutta,  including  all  the  intervening  sea-ports.  The  province  of  Arracan,  how- 
ever, has  of  late  years  suffered  most  calamitious  alterations,  in  consequence  of  the 
increasing  tyranny  of  the  government.  An  insurgent  of  the  name  of  Kingberring 
had  in  1812  destroyed  nearly  all  the  cattle,  the  grain,  and  the  orchards. — The  na- 
tives are  Buddhists  in  religion.  Their  language  is  monosyllabic.  The  have  great 
difficulty  in  pronouncing  any  word  ending  with  a  consonant.  They  were  long  inde- 
pendent, previously  to  their  subjugation  by  the  Birmans  ;  and,  though  invaded  by 
the  Moguls  and  the  Peguans,  had  never  been  so  far  subdued  as  to  acknowledge  vas- 
salage to  a  foreign  power.  The  province  is  governed  by  a  viceroy,  called  the  May- 
woon.  In  1783  it  was  incorporated  with  the  Birman  government.  In  1811  the 
insurgent,  Kingberring,  subjected  the  whole  province,  but  was  defeated  in  that  and 
the  following  year.  No  quarter  was  given  in  this  contest,  and  entire  villages  were 
exterminated.  The  refugee  Arracaners,  called  Mughs,  are  said  not  to  be  encou- 
raged by  the  British,  into  whose  dominions  they  have  retired  ;  but  their  determined 
character,  and  the  extreme  unhealthiness  of  their  haunts  to  all  who  enter  them  from 
the  west,  render  it  a  very  difficult  and  expensive  undertaking  to  expel  them.  The 
City  or  Arra-  city  of  Arracan  is  in  latitude  29°  40'  N.  and  longitude  93°  6'  E.  It  has 
*'*"•  a  fort  in  the  middle,  surrounded  by  houses,  except  on  the  north-east, 

where  it  has  a  large  lake.  The  Birmans  found  considerable  booty  when  they  took 
this  place  in  1^83.  The  object  which  they  valued  most  was  a  brazen  and  highly 
burnished  statue  of  Gaudma,  about  ten  feet  high,  which  had  been  for  centuries  visited 
by  venerating  pilgrims  from  remote  countries,  being  considered  as  a  direct  copy  of 
the  original  Rishi,  taken  from  the  life.  This  statue,  along  with  five  gigantic  images 
of  Racshyas,  or  demons,  and  an  enormous  gun,  thirty  feet  in  length,  were  carried 
off  in  triumph  to  Ummerapoor  by  water. 

•  Asiatic  Researches,  vol.  v.  p.  223.  f  See  p.  172  of  this  volume. 


THE  BIRMAN  EMPIRE.  271 


Cheduba  i«> 
land. 


Kingdom  of 
Ava. 

The  old  capi- 
tal. 

Tt  consisted 


On  the  Arracan  coast  is  the  island  of  Cheduba,  the  most  westerly  of  a 
considerable  cluster  of  inhabited  and  fertile  islands.  It  is  said  to  have 
a  good  harbour.  The  channel  between  it  and  the  main  land  is  navigated  by  boats, 
but  not  safe  for  large  vessels.  It  is  governed  by  a  Chekey  or  lieutenant,  deputed  by 
the  Birman  government. 

The  kingdom  of  Ava,  separated  from  Arracan  by  the  Anoopectoo- 
miu  mountains,  includes  a  vast  extent  of  territory,  the  interior  of  which, 
lying  towards  Yunnan,  is  almost  entirely  unknown  to  Europeans.  The 
ancient  capital,  Ava,  is  now  in  ruins  ;  the  materials  of  the  houses,  whic 
chiefly  of  wood,  having  been  removed  to  the  new  city  of  TJmmerapoor  ;  but  the 
ground  still  retains  traces  of  former  streets  and  houses,  and  the  walls  of  the  forts  and 
the  embankments  by  which  they  are  connected  with  the  country,  are  conspicuous. 
There  are  also  several  temples  standing,  two  of  which  are  eminently  sacred ;  the 
one  containing  a  statue  of  Gaudma,  twenty-four  feet  high,  formed  of  a  single  block 
of  marble,  and  called  Logatherow  Praw ;  the  other,  Shoe-gunga  Praw,  is  the  favour- 
ite place  for  the  administration  of  the  most  important  oaths.  These  temples  suffer 
a  gradual  decay,  no  violence  having  been  offered  to  them.  The  whole  scene  exhi- 
bits a  striking  assemblage  of  ruins,  the  ponderous  monuments  of  human  labour  being 
overrun  with  ivy,  brambles,  and  other  wild  vegetation. 

The  modern  capital  Ummerapoor,  four  miles  east  from  the  preceding,  ^g'JJf^^^'' 
stands  on  the  banks  of  a  deep  and  extensive  lake.  Its  site  being  quite  capital, 
peninsular  during  the  periodical  floods,  exhibits  a  splendid  appearance,  from  the  num- 
ber and  variety  of  the  boats,  the  great  extent  of  the  water,  and  the  height  of  the 
surrounding  mountains.  Venice  is  the  place  with  which  it  is  most  fitly  compared. 
The  fort  is  an  exact  square,  with  four  principal  gates,  and  a  small  one  on  both  sides 
of  each,  making  twelve  in  all.  At  each  corner  there  is  a  large  projecting  bastion. 
It  is  respectable  as  an  eastern  fortification,  and  considered  by  the  natives  as  impreg- 
nable, never  having  been  assaulted  by  any  enemy  skilled  in  artillery  tactics.  The 
city  has  a  few  houses  of  brick  and  mortar,  which  belong  to  the  royal  family.  All 
the  houses  are  roofed  with  tile  ;  and  it  is  the  custom  to  have  earthen  pitchers  filled 
with  water  standing  on  the  roof  to  be  ready  for  extinguishing  accidental  fires.  The 
unbounded  expenditure  of  gilding  on  the  roofs  of  the  religious  buildings  both  without 
and  within,  gives  the  city  an  extraordinary  degree  of  splendour.  There  is  in  some 
of  the  streets  a  brilliant  display  of  Birman  utensils,  and  silversmith's  goods.  In 
1810,  when  Captain  Canning  visited  the  place,  most  of  the  shops  had  disappeared, 
and  the  entire  city,  including  the  fort  and  palaces,  had  been  destroyed  by  fire.  The 
royal  library  is  in  an  angle  of  the  fort,  and  consists  of  100  ornamented  chests,  well 
filled  with  books  of  history,  romance,  medicine,  music,  and  painting,  but  chiefly 
divinity.  There  are  four  magistrates,  each  of  whom  has  a  district  of  the  city  allotted 
to  him,  and  a  regular  order  of  lawyers  is  attached  to  their  courts  of  justice  as  agents 
and  pleaders.  Ummerapoor  was  founded  in  1783  by  the  same  monarch  who  after- 
wards capriciously  abandoned  it  for  a  comparatively  wretched  situation  higher  up  the 
river.  In  1800  the  population  of  Ummerapoor  was  estimated  by  Captain  Coxe  at 
175,000,  and  the  houses  from  20,000  to  25,000  ;  but  in  1810,  Captain  Canning  was 
of  opinion  that  the  population  had  diminished  one  half. 

Bamoo,  in  the  northern  quarter  of  the  empire,  is  only  twenty  miles  ]  Bamoo. 
from  the  Chinese  frontier,  and  was  taken  from  that  nation  by  the  present  Birman 
dynasty.     It  is  in  Lat.  24"  N.  and  Long.  96°  56'  E. 

Monchaboo,  though  a  small  place,  is  greatly  venerated  as  the  birth  |  Monchaboo, 
place  of  Alompra,  and  was  the  capital  during  his  reign.  Lat.  22°  40'  N.  Long.  96° 
20'  E.  Chagaing,  in  Lat.  21°  54'  and  Long.  96°,  is  the  great  emporium  for  the  cot- 
ton which  is  embarked  for  the  Chinese  market.  It  is  a  great  religious  resort  on 
account  of  its  numerous  temples.  It  is  celebrated  for  the  manufacture  of  idols, 
and  of  fire  works,  particularly  rockets  of  an  uncommon  size,  in  which  the  Binnans 
take  great  delight.  Forty  miles  down  the  Irawaddy,  are  the  splendid  ruins  of  Pa- 
gahm,  once  the  residence  of  a  long  line  of  kings,  but  abandoned  as  the  metropolis 
in  consequence  of  a  supposed  divine  admonition.  Long  after  this  it  continued  to 
be  the  second  city  iu  the  empire  ;  but  in  1809  it  had  been  sacked  by  the  insurgent 


Pretoleam 
wells. 


372  BOOK  FIFTY-FIRST. 

Nakonek.  The  remains  of  its  innumerable  temples  prove  it  to  have  been  a  place 
of  extraordinary  splendour.  Sillalunew  was  in  1795  a  large  town,  embellished  with 
temples,  and  famous  for  a  manufactory  of  strong  and  richly  coloured  silks,  but  when 
visited  by  the  British  mission  in  1809  it  was  found  ruined  and  deserted,  having,  like 
the  preceding,  fallen  a  prey  to  the  ravages  of  Nakonek. 

siiembigewn.  |  Shcmbigcwn,  on  the  Irawaddy,  is  eight  days'  journey  from  Ummcra- 
poor.  Here  the  road  to  Arracan  branches  off.  Yanangheoom,  another  town  a  few 
miles  from  the  former  is  chiefly  inhabited  by  potters.  Five  miles  east  from  Yanan- 
gheoom, are  the  celebrated  pretoleum  wells  already  mentioned,  which 
are  dug  to  a  depth  of  thirty-seven  fathoms,  and  about  four  feet  wide. 
Iron  pots  are  let  down  to  receive  the  pretoleum.  When  the  produce  fails,  the  well 
is  deepened  through  a  hard  rock,  to  renew  the  spring.  This  commodity,  which  is 
in  great  abundance,  is  sold  very  cheap  on  the  spot.  Its  principal  expense  consists 
in  the  earthen  pots  which  contain  it,  and  the  charge  of  carriage. 
Promc.  I       Prome,  on  the  east  side  of  the  Irawaddy,  in   Lat  18°  50'  N.  and 

Long.  95°  E.  is  on  the  boundary  which  separates  Ava  Proper  from  Pegu.  In  1795 
it  was  larger  and  more  populous  than  Rangoon,  and  was  supposed  to  contain  40,000 
inhabitants,  but  in  1809  it  was  found  deserted,  its  shops  shut  up,  and  the  population 
consisting  of  old  men,  women,  and  children. 

Savage  tribes.  [  Ava  Contains  different  half  savage  tribes.  The  southern  forests  are 
inhabited  by  a  very  peaceable  race  called  the  Kara'ines.  The  Kains,  or  Yoo,  live 
in  the  hills  between  Ava  and  Arracan,  forming  four  vassal  principalities,  and  speak- 
ing a  dialect  of  Birman.*  The  northern  parts  adjoining  Thibet,  are  inhabited  by 
the  Leess. 

Lowashan.  |  The  castcm  parts  of  Ava  are  scarcely  known,  where  the  kingdom  of 
Lowashan  extends  along  the  two  sides  of  the  river  of  Pegu.  Two  towns  of  this 
province  are  mentioned  under  the  names  of  Quang-tong,  and  Chiamay.  Near  this 
last  is  a  lake,  which  in  the  maps  of  the  sixteenth  century  was  grossly  exaggerated 
in  size,  and  described  as  the  origin  of  four  rivers  of  Ava,  Pegu,  Siam,  and  Cambo- 
dia ;  an  idea  now  rejected. 

In  these  obscure  regions,  old  travellers  mention  a  city  and  country 
under  the  name  of  Barma,  or  Brama,  which  they  describe  as  a  separate 
kingdom  of  Ava,  and  whose  king  sometimes  carried  on  wars  against  the  king  of 
Ava.-f 

Kingdom  of  The  kingdom  of  Pegu  occupies  the  low  lands  watered  by  the  Ira- 

I'egu.  waddy,  and  the  Tlialuyn,  and  comprehends  the  sea  coast  from  Arracan 

to  Siam.  The  name  ai)pcars  to  be  a  corruption  of  Bagoo,  the  vulgar  name  of  the 
capital. 

About  a  day's  journey  to  the  south  of  the  capital,  the  country  is  much  infested  by 
elephants,  which  devastate  the  early  crops  of  rice  and  sugar-cane.  This  country  is 
relieved  from  many  severe  laws  by  which  it  was  oppressed  as  a  conquered  country ; 
but  still  its  native  inhabitants  are  not  admitted  to  places  of  trust  and  power.  Con- 
taining much  tinibcr,  particularly  teak,  this  province  has  long  been  famous  for  ship- 
building. The  Arabs  built  vessels  here  in  1707.  The  inhabitants  were  more  early 
civilized  than  the  Birmans,  and  were  once  a  powerful  nation.  Their  language,  which 
is  called  Mon,  is  quite  original,  being  neither  related  to  the  Birman  nor  the  Siamese. 
The  country  has  continued  in  a  state  of  great  desolation  since  the  sanguinary  wars 
of  the  Birmans.  In  1812,  3000  men  were  demanded  as  the  quota  of  the  thirty-two 
districts  of  Pegu,  for  the  Arracan  war;  but  it  was  found  impossible  to  collect  that 
number. 

City  of  Pegu.  |  The  city  of  Pegu  is  ninety  miles  up  the  river  from  Rangoon.  The 
fort  and  all  the  houses  were  destroyed  by  Alompra,  and  the  people  carried  into  cap- 
tivity; the  temples  alone  were  spared.  About  1790,  Mindcragee  issued  orders  to 
rebuild  the  city.  Several  priests  returned  to  it,  a  few  poor  families,  and  some  fol- 
lowers of  the  court,  as  the  viceroy  fixed  his  residence  here.  The  merchants  and 
artizans  continued  to  live  at  Raiiiioon.     In  1795,  its  inhabitants  were  7000.     It  is 


Country  of 
liarma. 


"a 


Asiatic  Kesearchcs,  vol.  v,  t  Mandelslo,  Itin.  p.  114, 


THE  RIRMAN  EMPIRE.  273 

now  fenced  round  with  a  stoccade  eleven  feet  -high.  The  hoiiscs  being  rxtremely 
combustible,  a  long  hook  is  placed  at  each  door  for  pulling  down  (he  thatch  in  case 
of  fire,  to  prevent  it  from  spreading.  The  most  remarkable  object  at  Temple  of 
this  place  is  Shoemadoo,  the  only  temi)le  which  has  been  kept  in  repair,  shoemadoa 
It  consists  of  a  solid  pyramid.  The  diameter  at  the  base  is  162  feet.  At  the  base 
it  is  octagonal,  and  spiral  at  the  top.  Its  height  is  361  feet.  On  the  top  is  a  tee  or 
gallery,  in  the  form  of  an  umbrella,  fifty-six  feet  in  circumference,  supported  by  iron 
pillars,  the  whole  being  superbly  gilt.  The  building  is  of  brick  and  mortar.  Its 
name  seems  to  be  compounded  of  shoe,  the  term  for  gold,  and  madoo,  a  contraction 
for  jMahadeo.  It  is  said  to  have  been  built  600  years  before  Christ.  It  seems  to 
have  been  known  to  Marco  Polo.  He  describes  the  mausoleinn  erected  by  a  king 
of  Mien,  the  towers  of  which  were  covered  with  gold,  and  adorned  with  a  multitude 
of  small  silver  bells,  which,  when  moved  by  the  wind,  omitted  agreeable  sounds. 
These  towers  were  of  a  pyramidal  form.  If  these  delineations  are  not  sufficient  to 
show  that  this  traveller  described  the  temple  of  Shoemadoo,  they  prove,  at  least,  that 
the  taste  of  the  Peguans  in  architecture  has  not  changed  for  several  ages. 

The  principal  sea-port  of  the  empire  is  Rangoon  in  Pegu.  The  en-  I  sea-pnrts. 
trance  of  the  river,  below  this  place,  resembles  that  of  the  Ganges,  but  |  ^^''K'""'' 
is  more  commodious  for  navigation.  The  town  stretches  about  a  mile  along  the 
banks  of  the  river,  and  is  not  more  than  a  third  of  a  mile  broad.  In  1795,  it  con- 
tained 5j00  taxable  houses.  In  1S12,  they  had  been  reduced  to  1500,  by  fire  and 
bad  government.  A  little  above  the  mouth  of  the  Pegu  river  is  Siriam,  formerly  one 
of  the  chief  ports  of  the  kingdom.  It  was  a  place  of  considerable  trade  while  the 
Portuguese  first,  and  afterwards  the  Dutch,  had  a  factory  at  it.  It  was  the  mart  for 
riibies,  and  there  was  a  great  exportation  of  the  earthern  ware,  the  tin  and  rice  of 
Martaban,  the  capital  of  an  ancient  kingdom,  and  a  much  frequented  harbour  before 
the  Birman  monarch  shut  it  up.     The  same  trtlde  was  also  carried  on  at  Tavoy. 

Among  the  places  taken  by  the  Birmans  from  the  king  of  Siam  to  the  |  southern  pr€>- 
south  of  Pegu,  are  Tavoy  and  Tenasserim,  each  of  which  names  is  ap-  |  ^'"'^'* 
phed  to  a  country,  a  river,  and  a  town.     Below  the  city  of  Tenasserim,  about  six 
miles  from  the  mouth  of  the  river  of  that  name,  is  the  sea-port  of  Mergui,  which  is 
governed  by  an  officer  sent  from  the  Birman  capital.     At  this  place,  a  number  of 
Mahometans  are  settled,  and  some  Romish  Christians,  who  have  a  priest  and  a 
church.    The  Mergui  islands,  an  archipelago  extending  along  this  coast  |  Mergui. 
135  miles,  arc  not  inhabited,  though  the  soil  is  said  to  be  fertile. 

To  the  south  of  these  is  the  island  of  Junkseylon,  about  fifty-four  |  Junkseylon. 
miles  long  and  fifteen  broad,  separated  from  the  main-land  by  a  shallow  channel,  a 
mile  in  breadth,  which  is  nearly  dry  at  low  water.  It  has  a  harbour  called  Popra  at 
the  north  end,  which  may  be  entered  over  a  mud  bar  during  the  spring  tides,  by  ships 
drawing  twenty  feet  of  water.  The  anchorage  round  the  island  is  generally  good. 
It  was  a  place  of  great  trade  previously  to  the  establishment  of  Prince  of  Wales' 
Island.  It  has  valuable  tin  mines,  which  are  worked  by  the  natives  ;  the  metal  is 
smelted  by  the  Chinese.  Its  chief  town  is  Terrowa.  It  was  taken  from  the  Siamese 
in  1810.  It  now  forms  the  southern  extremity  of  the  Birman  empire,  and  is  inha- 
bited by  a  mixture  of  Malays,  Chinese,  Siamese,  and  Birmans.  It  is  governed  by 
a  mayoon  sent  from  Ava,  who  watches  with  jealousy  the  approach  of  any  European 
ship  of  war,  but  merchant  ships  readily  obtain  refreshments  on  reasonable  terms. 

The  Birmans  differ  remarkably  in  physical  and  in  moral  character  from 
the  Hindoos.  Lively,  impatient,  active,  and  irascible,  they  have  none 
of  the  habitual  indolence  of  the  natives  of  Indostan,  nor  are  they  addicted  to  that 
gloomy  jealousy  which  prompts  so  many  eastern  nations  to  immure  their  females  in 
the  solitudes  of  a  haram.  The  sexes  have  equally  free  intercourse  as  in  Europe, 
but  they  treat  the  women  as  an  inferior  order  of  beings.  Their  testimony  in  a  court 
of  justice  is  less  valued.  They  are  often  sold  or  lent  to  strangers  without  blame  or 
scruple.  They  are  much  engaged  in  labour,  and,  on  the  whole,  faithful  to  the  con- 
jugal tie.  The  Birmans  participate  of  the  Chinese  physiognomy.  The  women, 
especially  in  the  northern  parts,  are  fairer  than  those  of  the  Hindoos,  but  less  deli- 
cately formed.  The  men  are  not  tall,  but  active  and  muscular.  They  pluck  their 
Vol.  II.— M  m 


Character  of 
the  Birmans. 


2T4  BOOK  FIFTY-FIRST. 


■? 


beards,  and  thus  give  themselves  a  youtmul  appearance.  Both  men  and  women 
colour  the  teeth  and  the  edges  of  the  eye-lids  with  black.  Marriages  are  not  con- 
tracted before  puberty.  Polygamy  is  prohibited,  but  concubinage  is  admitted  with- 
out limitation.  The  bodies  of  the  dead  are  burned.  They  are  less  delicate  and 
cleanly  in  their  eating  than  the  Hindoos.  They  kill  no  domestic  animals,  being  pro- 
hibited by  their  religion,  but  make  abundant  use  of  game.  The  lower  orders  eat 
lizards,  guanas,  and  snakes.  They  are  very  indulgent  to  the  manners  and  customs 
of  strangers.  The  sitting  posture  is  reckoned  among  them  the  most  respectful, 
though  this  mark  of  deference  has  been  mistaken  by  some  strangers  for  an  expres- 
sion of  insolence. 

Language.  |  The  PaU  language  is  that  of  the  sacred  text  of  Ava,  Pegu,  and  Siam. 
The  Birman  dialect  has  borrowed  the  Sanscrit  alphabet.  The  character  in  common 
use  is  a  round  Nagari,  consisting  of  curves  following  the  analogies  of  the  square 
Pali.*  It  is  written  from  left  to  right,  like  the  languages  of  Europe.  The  common 
books  are  composed  of  the  palmyra  leaf,  on  which  the  letters  are  engraved  with 
stiles,  and  are  better  executed  than  those  of  the  Hindoos.  Sometimes  they  write  on 
plates  of  gilded  sheet  iron. I  In  a  Birman  version  of  the  Lord's  prayer,  the  mission- 
aries could  scarcely  discover  three  genuine  Sanscrit  words  ;  but  many  syllables  are 
found  coinciding  with  those  of  the  colloquial  dialect  of  the  Chinese.  A  knowledge 
of  letters  is  very  generally  diffused.  Many  read  and  write  the  vulgar  tongue,  though 
few  understand  the  learned  and  sacred  volumes.  The  Birmans  are  fond  of  poetry 
and  music,  and  in  the  latter,  make  use  of  an  instrument  formed  of  a  series  of  reeds, 
on  the  principle  of  Pan's  reed.  They  possess  epic  and  religious  poems  of  great 
celebrity,  and  recite  in  verse  the  exploits  of  their  heroes.  Colonel  Symes  was  asto- 
nished at  the  number  of  books  contained  in  the  royal  library,  where  the  contents  of 
each  chest  are  written  on  the  outside  in  letters  of  gold. 

Calendar.  |  The  Birman  year  is  -divided  into  twelve  months  of  twenty-nine  and 
thirty  days  alternately,  and  every  third  year  is  made  up  by  an  intercalary  month. 
They  reckon  the  days  of  the  month  from  the  first  of  the  moon  to  the  full,  and  then 
in  a  retrograde  order  from  the  full  to  the  next  new  moon. 

The  Birmans  excel  in  the  art  of  gilding.  The  capital  maintains  a 
considerable  commercial  intercourse  with  Yunnan,  the  nearest  province 
of  China.  It  exports  cotton,  amber,  ivory,  rubies,  sapphires,  and  betel  nuts  ;  birds 
and  edible  nests  from  the  Eastern  Islands  ;  and  receives  in  return  raw  or  manufac- 
tured silk,  velvets,  gold  leaf,  paper,  sweat-meats,  and  a  variety  of  hardware.  By 
the  river  Irawaddy  there  is  a  great  inland  trade  in  the  transport  of  rice,  salt,  and 
pickled  sprats  from  the  lower  provinces,  to  support  the  capital  and  northern  districts. 
Some  foreign  articles  are  brought  by  Arracan,  and  carried  over  the  mountains  by 
men,  but  the  greater  part  by  the  Irawaddy.  Broad  cloth,  some  hardware,  coarse 
muslins,  Cossimbazar  silk  handkerchiefs,  china-ware,  and  glass,  are  the  leading  com- 
modities. Some  lac,  silver,  and  precious  stones  are  exported.  In  1795  the  quan- 
tity of  timber  exported  to  Madras  and  Calcutta  amounted  to  a  value  of  £200,000 
sterling.  About  3000  tons  of  shipping  are,  in  peaceable  times,  built  in  this  country, 
and  sold  in  different  parts  of  India.  The  maritime  ports  of  this  empire  are  more 
commodiously  situated  than  those  of  any  other  power,  particularly  the  harbour  of 
Negrais.  The  currency  consists  of  silver,  bullion,  and  lead,  in  small  pieces ;  as 
the  Birmans,  like  the  Chinese,  have  no  coin. 

Religion.  |  Tlie  religion  of  the  Birmans  is  that  of  Buddha,  whom  they  worship 
under  the  name  of  Gaudma,  identical  with  the  Gautama  or  Godama  of  the  Hindoos. 
The  Rhahaans,  or  priests,  dress  in  yellow  like  the  Chinese  bonzes,  and  resemble 
them  in  many  of  their  customs.  Their  kiooms,  or  convents,  resemble  Chinese  build- 
ings, being  made  of  wood,  with  one  large  hall  in  the  interior.  They  have  no  private 
apartments,  publicity  being  the  prevailing  system,  and  no  secrets  admitted  either  in 
church  or  state.  They  profess  celibacy  and  abstemiousness.  They  take  only  one  meal 
daily,  which  is  about  noon.     They  do  not  dress  their  own  food,  an  occupation  which 

*  Mdm.  de  1' Acad,  des  Sciences,  1729.  tome  vil.  Sme  partie,  p.  818. 

f  AniKil.  Chihoises,  quoted  by  Klaproth,  Archives  de  la  Literature  Orientale,  i.  p.  137. 


Manufactures 
and  commerce. 


THE  BIRMAN  EMPIllE.  2f5 

they  reckon  incompatible  with  the  mental  contemplations  incumbent  on  them.  They 
receive  daily  tlie  contributions  of  the  people  ready  dressed,  generally  consisting  of 
boiled  rice  mixed  with  oil,  dried  and  pickled  lish,  sweetmeats,  and  fruit.  They  pre- 
fer cold  food  to  warm.  While  perambulating  the  town  in  the  morning,  to  receive 
the  supplies  for  the  day,  they  look  straight  forward  to  the  ground,  never  turn  their 
eyes  aside,  do  not  solicit  any  thing,  and  scarcely  look  at  the  donors.  Their  super- 
fluity is  bestowed  on  needy  strangers  and  poor  scholars.  These  rhahaans,  or  tala- 
poins,  as  they  are  also  called,  have  composed  many  books  of  morality.  They  never 
interfere  in  political  disputes  ;  and,  during  the  sanguinary  contests  of  the  Birmans 
and  Peguans,  were  always  respected  by  both  parties,  to  whatever  country  they 
themselves  belonged.  They  pay  a  certain  respect  to  the  Hindoo  Brahmins,  though 
they  do  not  follow  their  doctrines.  They  have  none  of  their  pride  of  caste,  their 
unnatural  self-tortures,  and  other  repulsive  usages ;  and  on  the  whole,  Buddhism 
wears  a  more  favourable  aspect  in  this  than  in  other  countries  where  it  is  maintained. 
The  Birmans  are  extremely  fond  of  religious  processions  ;  and  they  place  a  great 
merit  in  the  building  of  temples,  neglecting,  however,  the  keeping  up  of  those  which 
exist.  Hence  the  country  exhibits  numerous  edifices  of  this  sort  in  a  state  of  pro- 
gressive decay,  while  new  ones  are  erected  in  their  immediate  neighbourhood. 

Their  legal  code  is  one  of  the  commentaries  on  Menu.  Their  sys-  |  Laws. 
tern  provides  specifically  for  almost  every  conceivable  crime  :  it  admits  trial  by 
ordeal,  and  imprecation.  On  the  subject  of  females  it  is  offensively  minute.  It  is 
a  singular  fact,  that  the  first  version  of  Sir  William  Jones's  translation  of  the  insti- 
tutes of  Hindoo  law  was  made  into  the  Birman  language  by  an  Armenian,  for  the 
use  of  the  Birman  sovereign,  in  1795. 

In  the  Birman  empire,  the  sovereign  is  completely  despotic.  When  |  Government, 
any  thing  belonging  to  him  is  mentioned,  the  epithet  "  golden"  is  attached  to  it. 
When  he  is  said  to  have  heard  any  thing,  "  it  has  reached  the  golden  cars:"  a  per- 
son admitted  to  his  presence  "  has  been  at  the  golden  feet:"  the  perfume  of  roses 
is  described  as  grateful  to  "  the  golden  nose."  The  sovereign  is  sole  proprietor  of 
all  the  elephants  in  his  dominions ;  and  the  privilege  to  keep  or  ride  on  one  is  only 
granted  to  men  of  the  first  rank.  No  honours  are  hereditary.  All  offices  and  dig- 
nities depend  immediately  on  the  crown.  The  tsaloe,  or  chain,  is  the  badge  of  no- 
bility; and  superiority  of  rank  is  signified  by  the  numl)er  of  cords  or  of  divisions. 
The  council  of  state  consists  of  the  princes  of  the  royal  family.  Men  of  rank  have 
tlieir  barges  dragged  by  war  boats,  common  water-men  not  being  admitted  into  the 
same  boat  with  them.  Temporary  houses  ai-e  built  for  them  at  the  places  where  they 
mean  to  stop  in  travelling. 

A  singularly  absurd  custom  takes  place  in  this  country  in  certain  forms 
of  political  homage  shown  to  a  white  elephant,  a  preternatural  animal 
kept  for  the  purpose,  superbly  lodged  near  the  royal  palace,  sumptuously  dressed  and 
fed,  provided  with  functionaries  like  a  second  sovereign,  held  next  in  rank  to  the 
king,  and  superior  to  the  queen,  and  made  to  receive  presents  and  other  tokens  of 
respect  from  foreign  ambassadors. 

The  court  of  Ava  is  fully  as  proud  as  that  of  Pekin.  The  sovereign  ]  The  court, 
acknowledges  no  equal.  The  punctilios  of  ceremony  are  numerous,  and  rigidly 
followed;  and  the  utmost  guardedness  is  observed  in  any  diplomatic  intercourse  with 
foreign  stales.  The  manners  of  the  great  are  often  pleasing,  but  they  |  The  great, 
arc  crafty;  and  the  tenures  by  which  they  hold  their  oflices  render  them  rapacious. 
Obliged  to  give  large  presents  to  the  king,  they  have  recourse  to  extortion,  specula- 
tions in  trade,  and  almost  universal  monopoly.  Great  vicissitudes  of  fortune  are 
occasioned  by  royal  caprice. 

Colonel   Symes  rated  the  popidation  of  the   Birman  dominions  at  [  Population, 
seventeen  millions;   Captain  Cox,  the  next  ambassador,  at  no  more  than  eight,  and 
Captain  Canning  believed  that  even  this  estimate  exceeded  the  truth.     A  country 
rich  by  nature,  and  capable  of  a  high  state  of  prosperity  under  tolerable  manage- 
ment, has  been  wretchedly  desolated  by  a  barbarous  government. 

Here  every  man  is  a  soldier,  and  liable  to  be  called   out  on  military  |  Army, 
duty.     The  only  standing  army  consists  of  a  few  undiscii)lined  native  Christians  and 


Honours  of  llie 
while  cle- 
pliant. 


Political  im 
portance. 


276  Booiv  FirTY-riiisT. 

renegadoes  from  other  countries,  who  act  as  artillery;  a  very  small  body  of  cavalry, 
and  about  2000  miserable  infantry.  The  armies  are  composed  of  levies  raised  on 
the  spur  of  the  occasion  by  the  princes  and  lords,  who  hold  their  lands  on  this  con- 
dition. They  have  never  exceeded  60,000  men.  The  family  of  each  soldier  is 
responsible  for  his  good  behaviour,  and  the  whole  are  put  to  death  when  he  proves 
guilty  of  cowardice  or  desertion.  The  infantry  are  armed  with  muskets  and  sabres ; 
the  cavalry,  who  are  all  natives  of  Cassay,  carry  spears  seven  or  eight  feet  long. 
The  most  respectable  part  of  the  Birman  military  force  consists  of  war-boats,  which 
are  furnished  and  manned  by  the  different  towns  in  the  vicinity  of  the  river,  in  num- 
bers proportioned  to  their  respective  sizes.  Formerly  tlie  king  could  on  a  short 
notice  command  500  of  these  boats.  They  carry  forty  or  fifty  rowers,  each  armed 
with  a  sword  and  lance,  about  thirty  soldiers  with  muskets,  and  a  piece  of  ordnance 
on  the  prow.  They  make  an  impetuous  attack,  and  use  grapples  for  boarding;  but 
lying  deep  in  the  water,  they  are  easily  run  down  and  sunk  by  the  impulse  of  anotlier 
of  larger  size. 

Revenue.  |  Thc  king  claims  one-tenth  of  all  the  produce,  and  the  same  amount 
on  all  imports.  The  revenue  arising  from  customs  is  mostly  taken  in  kind ;  a  small 
part  of  it  is  converted  into  cash;  the  rest  is  distributed  in  lieu  of  salaries  to  the  va- 
rious departments  of  the  court.  Money  is  never,  except  on  the  most  pressing  occa- 
sions, disbursed  from  the  royal  coffers.  Insatiable  hoarding  is  here,  as  in  other 
oriental  countries,  a  standing  maxim  of  state  policy;  and  the  riches  actually  in  the 
possession  of  this  monarch  must  be  immense ;  but  how  heavily  must  the  wheels  of 
commerce  move,  and  how  low,  comparatively,  must  thc  scale  of  national  wealth 
and  power  stand,  when  maxims  so  narrow  and  absurd  fetter  every  part  of  the  ma- 
chine ! 

By  some  this  empire  has  been  regarded  as  a  formidable  barrier  to  the 
progress  of  British  ambition  and  cupidity  in  an  easterly  direction.  Thc 
unsatisfactory  nature  of  these  extended  continental  possessions  will  probably  of  itself 
limit  that  ambition,  especially  where  the  field  becomes  comparatively  new,  and  where 
farther  extension  does  not  promise  to  contribute  to  the  permanent  retention  of  their 
present  possessions,  but  must  rather,  on  the  contrary,  expose  them  to  new  dangers. 
In  its  present  state  this  empire  is  a  very  desirable  barrier  between  the  British  and 
the  Chinese  governments,  being  too  weak  to  offer  serious  molestation  to  a  powerful 
neighbour,  and  too  inhospitable  to  afford  temptation  to  an  invading  army.  It  is  now 
like  the  deserts  that  separate  the  Chinese  from  the  Russian  dominions.  If  this  is  an 
advantage  to  the  repose  of  a  great  portion  of  the  world,  humanity  must  regret  that  it 
assumes  this  character,  by  giving  rise  to  so  large  a  portion  of  misery  and  desolation 
within  itself.  Yet  perhaps  the  most  sanguine  political  Quixote  would  find  it  a  diffi- 
cult task  to  sketch  even  in  theory,  a  plan  on  which  the  Birman  dominions  could  be 
put  in  possession  of  the  blessings  of  political  and  civil  prosperity,  consistently  with 
the  maintenance  of  a  liberal  and  safe  line  of  conduct  on  the  part  of  the  regenerators. 
Protestant  In  ISIO  there  were  four  Protestant  missionaries  in  Ava,  a  country 

missionaries.  -which,  from  the  maxims  of  toleration  established  in  it,  seemed  to  afford  a 
fair  field  for  the  operation  of  rational  instruction  :  but  thc  progress  made  seems  to  have 
been  inconsiderable;  and,  in  a  government  so  capricious  and  despotic,  the  policy  on 
the  head  of  toleration  may  be  suddenly  reversed,  as  soon  as  prejudice  or  malice, 
conceived  by  interested  individuals,  may  choose  to  represent  the  spread  of  new  opi- 
nions as  a  ground  of  political  alarm.  The  chief  safety  of  these  benevolent  indivi- 
duals is  probably  derived  from  the  respect  paid  to  the  British  power,  as  established 
in  the  immediate  vicinity. 

Adjoining  Thcrc  is  a  chain  of  islands  extending  from  Point  Ncgrais,  in  Pegu, 

islands.  to  the  noith  end  of  the  island  of  Sumatra,  in  a  line  parallel  to  the  shore 

of  the  Birman  peninsula,  which  has  been  considered  by  some  as  a  desirable  station 
for  any  enterprising  European  country,  entertaining  an  ambition  to  open  a  commer- 
cial intercourse  with  the  Birman  empire.  This  chain  is  divided  into  two  groups,  thc 
Andaman  and  Nicobar  islands. 

The  Anda-  I  The  Andauiaus,  on  the  north,  are  the  largest  group  of  the  two.  Under 
""*"'■  1  this  name  they  were  known  to  thc  Arabians  in  the  ninth  century.     The 


THE  BIRMAN  EMPIRE.  277 

largest  island  is  about  140  miles  long,  and  not  more  than  twenty-two  in  its  greatest 
breadth.  It  is  indented  with  deep  bays,  forming  excellent  harbours,  and  divided  by 
largo  gulfs,  one  of  which  is  navigable  for  small  vessels,  and  almost  crosses  the  island, 
according  to  the  charts  prior  to  that  which  Dalrymple  has  attached  to  the  narrative  of 
Col.  Symes.  In  this  last  we  find  the  island  divided  into  three  by  very  narrow  chan- 
nels. The  maps  of  the  16th  century  also  represent  it  as  a  long  chain  of  small 
islands.  The  soil  consists  of  a  strong  stratum  of  blackish  earth ;  the  j  Productions, 
ropks  are  a  white  quartz.  We  are  informed  that  it  contains  some  mineral  products, 
and,  among  the  rest,  quicksilver.*  There  are  extensive  forests,  containing  some 
valuable  trees  ;  such  as  the  ebony,  and  the  mellori,  or  bread-fruit  tree  of  Nicobar. 
The  only  quadrupeds  found  hero  are  wild  hogs,  monkeys,  and  rats.  The  sea  abounds 
in  fish,  among  which  are  mullet,  soles,  and  excellent  oysters. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  Andamans  are  low  in  civilization,  and  probably  |  inhabitants, 
cannibals.  Their  antipathy  to  strangers  is  singularly  strong,  and  it  must  be  allowed 
that  it  has  been  in  some  measure  justified  by  atrocities  committed  by  piratical  crews. 
They  have  woolly  hair,  the  negro  countenance,  and  the  ferocious  and  crafty  charac- 
ter of  the  negro  race.  Their  barbarous  language  resembles  no  dialect  either  of  Indos- 
tan  or  Chin-India.f  They  seem  to  belong  to  the  great  negro  race  of  Oceanica 
spread  over  New  Guinea  and  Van  Diemen's  land.  These  savages  scarcely  knew 
how  to  build  a  boat,  or  to  manage  a  rope  :  but  they  have  acquired  a  little  more  civi- 
lization in  consequence  of  an  English  establishment  having  been  formed  on  the 
great  Andaman,  to  which  some  criminals  have  been  sent  from  Bengal. 

The  Nicobar  islands  form  three  small  groups.  The  most  northerly  is 
called  Car-Nicobar.  Next  to  these  are  the  Nicobars  Proper,  three  in 
number,  forming  jointly  a  large  and  excellent  harbour.  The  Sambelong  islands  are 
the  most  southerly.  All  these  islands  produce  plenty  of  cocoas,  areca,  |  Productions, 
sugar  canes,  Laurus  cassia,  excellent  teak  wood,  and  sassafras  of  the  best  aromatic 
quaUty.J  The  tree  called  by  the  natives  larum,  and  mdlori  by  the  Portuguese, 
bears  a  fruit  superior  to  the  bread  tree  of  Otaheite,  from  which  it  differs  in  botanical 
character.  The  cattle  brought  to  them  from  Europe  have  multiplied  amazingly,  and 
the  edible  birds'  nests,  so  much  esteemed  in  China,  abound  both  here  and  in  the  An- 
damans. The  inhabitants  are  copper-coloured,  with  small  oblique  eyes.  |  inimbitanis. 
Attached  to  their  dress  is  a  small  stripe  of  cloth  hanging  behind,  which  gave  origin 
to  the  absurd  stories  of  an  ignorant  Swedish  ;!ailor  Keeping,  who  induced  Linnajus  to 
infer  the  existence  of  a  race  of  men  with  tails.  Their  language  and  origin  have  not 
yet  been  investigated;  but  they  are  conjectured  to  be  of  Peguan  descent. 

The  Danes  are  the  acknowledged  masters  of  these  islands ;  and  formed  on  the 
isle  of  Kamorta  a  small  establishment  which  they  called  New  Zealand,  but  afterwards 
gave  up  to  a  Moravian  fraternity.  The  Austiians  proposed  to  found  a  colony  here  in 
1778;  but  they  yielded  to  the  claims  of  Denmark. 

To  the  east  of  these  islands,  and  belonging  to  neither,  though  nearest  |  Barren  island, 
to  the  Andamans,  being  at  a  distance  of  seventy  miles,  is  the  picturesque  volcano  of 
Barren  Island,  which  emits  a  reddish-coloured  lava. 

•  Hamilton,  ii.  68.  8vo.  edit,  quoted  by  Walckenaer. 

t  Colebrook  and  Fontana.  Asiat.  Researches,  vol.  ill.  and  iv.  Syme's  Embassy  to  Ava» 
p.  127—138. 

\  Prahl.    Present  Stale  of  the  Nicobar  Islands,  ch.  17.  (Copenhagen,  1804,  in  Danish.) 


Nicobar 
islands. 


278  BOOK  FIFTY-SECOND. 


BOOK  LII. 

CHIN-INDIA. 


Country  of 
Lac-Tho. 


PART  11. 

Tlie  kingdoms  of  Laos,  Tonquin,  Cochin-China,  Cambodia,  Slam,  JVlalacca,  and  the 

Interior. 

When  we  direct  our  views  to  the  central  parts  of  the  Chin-Indian  region,  the 
lights  of  geography  become  feebler  and  feebler,  and  at  last  entirely  desert  us. 
Kingdom  of  We  are  totally  unable  to  fix  the  locality  of  the  kingdom  of  Yangoma, 

Yangoma.  which  is  governed  by  a  Buddhist  priesthood,  abounds  in  rice,  in  the  no- 

ble metals,  in  benzoin,  in  musk,  which  is  exported  from  it  to  Ava,  and  above  all,  ce- 
lebrated for  the  beauty  and  gallantry  of  its  women,  who  are  much  in  request  with  the 
voluptuous  monarchs  of  the  neighbouring  countries.  D'Anville's  map  places  Yan- 
goma near  the  sources  of  the  western  branch  of  the  Meinam,  or  river  of  Siam.  In 
other  modern  maps  it  is  left  out,  as  too  uncertain  to  be  admitted. 

It  is  only  by  conjecture  that  we  assign  the  situation  of  the  country  of 
Lac-Tho,  which,  according  to  a  recent  traveller,  lies  to  the  north  of  Laos, 
between  Tonquin  and  China.  According  to  this  traveller,  or  rather  the  reports 
which  he  has  collected,  it  is  a  table-land  without  rivers,*  but  a  moist  soil,  abounding 
in  bamboos,  and  laid  out  in  rice  fields.t  This  country,  which  contains  no  towns, 
exports  buffaloes  and  raw  cotton,  J  in  exchange  for  salt  and  silk  manufactures.  The 
people  wear  cotton  stuffs  and  the  bark  of  a  particular  tree ;  they  labour  under  the  un- 
fortunate effects  of  a  perpetual  civil  war,  carried  on  among  the  hereditary  chiefs  to 
whom  they  are  subject.  Over  these  the  king  of  Tonquin  exercises  a  nominal  sove- 
Mannersof  Uie  reignty.  Somc  of  the  Lac-Tho  tribes  are  said  to  live  in  all  the  simplicity 
inhabitants.  ^f  g^  golden  age;  families  possess  their  goods  in  common;  the  crops  are 
left  in  the  fields  without  protection ;  the  doors  of  the  houses  are  kept  open  day  and 
night ;  strangers  are  welcomed,  and  treated  with  cordial  hospitality ;  and  passengers 
are  allowed  to  make  free  use  of  the  fruits  as  they  go  along.§  This  vague  descrip- 
tion obliges  us  to  consider  Lac-Tho  as  nothing  else  than  Laos,  under  the  Chinese 
appellation  of  Lac-Tchoo.  Still  it  may  be  said,  that  we  know  not  for  certain  that 
this  Chinese  term  really  appUes  to  Laos.  The  map  of  d'Anville  shows  that  he  hesi- 
tated on  that  point. 

A  traveller  possessing  sufficient  courage  and  address  to  find  his  way  by  the  inte- 
rior of  the  Birman  dominions,  would  make  interesting  discoveries  by  directing  his 
course,  to  the  east  through  the  province  of  Yangoma,  and  penetrating  the  almost  un- 
known territory  called  the  kingdom  of  Laos.  It  lies  north-east  from 
Siam,  and  due  north  from  Cambodia.  According  to  received  opinion, 
it  is  watered  by  a  large  river,  and  this  is  concluded  to  be  the  upper  part  of  the  river 
of  Cambodia.  The  Dutch  envoy,  Wusthof,  went  up  the  river  in  a  boat,  and  met 
with  great  cataracts.  ||  Marini  agrees  with  that  traveller,  and  places  the  sources  of 
this  river  in  the  Chinese  province  of  Yunnan. IT  A  Portuguese  traveller  went  from 
China  to  Laos  by  descending  a  river  and  crossing  a  lake.**  M.  de  la  Bissachere,  in 
contradiction  to  these  assertions,  tells  us,  that  in  Laos  there  is  no  sort  of  river.  Pcr- 

•  La  Bissachere,  Etat  du  Tonquin,  i.  p.  19. 

t  Ibid.  i.  p.  246,  p.  144.  +  Ibid.  p.  200,  p.  75.  §  Ibid.  ii.  60,  61. 

i  Valentyn,  Oud-und-Niew-Ostindien,  iv.  Description  de  Cambodje,  p.  51. 

Tl  Marini,  Relation  du  Royaume  de  Laos,  cli.  i. 

•*  Jarric,  Thesaurus  Reruru  ludicarum,  i.  lib.  2,  ch.  25. 


Kingdom  of 

1.809. 


Towns  and 
provinces. 


LAOS.  279 

hapg  these  differences  will  bo  reconciled  by  farther  discoveries.  Laos  is  separated 
from  all  the  adjoining  states  by  high  mountains  and  thick  forests.  Respecting  its 
fertihty,  accounts  differ.  La  Bissachere  says  that  a  tenth  part  of  the  [  Productions, 
land  is  under  cultivation,  and  that  rice  is  the  only  produce.*  Wusthof  and  Marini 
describe  it  as  abounding  in  provisions  both  of  the  animal  and  vegetable  kingdom. 
The  rice  which  it  produces  is  esteemed  the  best  in  all  these  countries.  Leguminotis 
crops  are  cultivated  in  great  quantities.  Many  buffaloes  are  reared.  For  the  gra- 
tification of  luxury,  it  affords  benzoin,  musk,  gold,  and  precious  stones,  especially 
rubies,  topazes,  and  pearls.  The  gum  lac  of  Laloo  is  above  all  so  highly  valued, 
that  the  merchants  of  Cambodia  go  thither  in  quest  of  it,  although  a  very  good  arti- 
cle is  produced  in  their  own  country.  AVe  are  told  that  elephants  are  so  plenty  in 
the  forests  of  Laos,  that  the  country  derives  its  name  from  that  circumstance.  The 
greater  part  of  the  trade  of  these  countries  is  in  the  hands  of  the  Tonquinese  and 
Chinese.  But  the  Siamese  were  once  in  the  practice  of  repairing  to  them  in  cara- 
vans of  wagons  drawn  by  buffaloes,  making  a  journey  of  two  months.  Silks  and 
salt  are  sold  here.  The  latter  article  is  said  to  have  once  brought  its  weight  in  gold.t 

Marini  says  there  are  seven  provinces,  but  does  not  give  their  names.  Wusthof 
mentions  three  as  governed  by  three  vassal  princes. 

In  the  time  of  Kiempfer,  the  principal  towns  of  the  country  were 
called  Lant-Shang  (which  Marini  has  converted  into  Langione)  and 
Tsiamaya  :  to  these  our  modern  maps  add  Sandepora.  The  Chinese  told  Duhalde 
that  the  word  JVEohang  signified  a  town  in  the  language  of  Laos,  and  that  the  name 
of  the  capital  was  Mohang-Leng.  This  is  probably  the  Lant-Shang  of  Koempfer, 
and  the  capital  of  the  province  of  Lantkian  mentioned  in  the  report  of  the  Dutch 
envoy.  But  this  traveller  calls  the  capital  Winkian.  It  was  surrounded  with  a  wall 
of  reddish  stone ;  had  a  garrison  of  50,000  men,  and  a  splendid  court. 

M.  de  la  Bissachere,  on  the  contrary,  says,  that  Laos  contains  only  one  small  town 
called  Tranmah,  containing  4000  or  5000  Tonquinese  and  Chinese.  From  this  we 
may  conclude  the  whole  of  that  missionary's  account  of  Laos  to  be  apocryphal,  or 
only  to  apply  to  some  small  corner  invaded  by  the  king  of  Tonquin. 

The  inhabitants  seem  to  resemble  the  southern  Chinese.  Their  com-  |  inhabitants, 
plexions  are   olive.     They  have  vigorous  constitutions,  a  good  physiognomy,  and 
gentle  and  sincere  dispositions  ;  but  are  prone  to  superstition  and  debauchery.  Hunt- 
ing and  fishing  ai'e  almost  their  only  occupations. 

The  country  is  divided  into  several  small  kingdoms,  subject  to  an  ab-  |  Government, 
solute  sovereign,  who,  according  to  old  accounts,  shows  himself  in  public  only  twice 
in  the  year,  and  is  generally  the  mere  tool  of  his  priests  and  ministei's.  The  heads 
of  families  are  also  invested  with  great  power.  The  talapoins  or  priests,  |  Priesthood, 
the  chief  of  whom  takes  the  title  of  raja,  or  king,  stand  in  no  awe  of  the  civil  autho- 
rity, lead  licentious  lives,  and  oppress  both  the  people  and  the  nobles.  But  we  must 
not  give  implicit  credit  to  these  assertions  of  Marini.  According  to  the  Dutch  ac- 
counts, these  talapoins  indulged  in  bantering  verses  at  the  expense  of  the  mission- 
aries. "  You  see,"  said  they,  "  that  we  are  in  possession  of  a  very  complete  system 
of  religion  ;  pagodas  with  gilded  spires,  pyramids,  images  of  deities  covered  with 
gold,  and  regular  ceremonies  of  devotion.  Wc,  talapoins,  are  a  powerful,  rich,  and 
happy  priesthood  :  before  you  preach  to  us  a  change  of  religion,  condescend  to  learn 
our  language,  wear  our  dress,  live  among  us,  follow  our  manners,  join  in  our  studies, 
enter  our  sacred  orders  ;  and  when  you  have  made  this  fair  trial,  you  shall  be  allowed 
to  preach  against  us,  and  try  to  convert  us  to  your  faith." 

M.  de  la  Bissachere  says  that  at  present  Laos  acknowledges  the  sovereignty  of 
the  king  of  Tonquin. 

To  the  east  of  Laos,  and  to  the  south  of  the  Chinese  provinces  of  Yun-  |  Tonquin. 
nan  and  Koansi,  is  the  country  which  we  call  the  kingdom  of  Tonq,uin,  bordering 
the  gulf  of  the  same  name.     Its  true  name  is  Anam,  or  Aynam.'l     Tonquin  is  the 
name  of  the  capital. 

•  La  Bissachere,  Etat  du  Tonquin,  i.  p.  147.  t  Valentyn,  p.  53. 

t  Valentyn,  Lettre  d'un  roi  de  Tonquin  a  un  gouverneur  de  Batavia. 


280  BOOK  FIFTY-SECOND. 


The  typhoiM 
of  the  Gulf  of 
Tonquin. 


bj  a  small 


The  Gulf  of  Tonquin,  and  the  adjacent  seas,  are  remarkable  for  dread- 
ful whirlwinds,  called  typhous.  After  calm  weather,  they  are  announced 
)lack  cloud  in  the  north-east  part  of  the  horizon,  with  a  copper-coloured 
margin,  which  gradually  brightens  till  it  becomes  white  and  brilliant.  This  alarming 
symptom  often  precedes  the  hurricane  twelve  hours.  These  dreadful  winds  seem 
to  arise  from  the  mutual  opposition  of  the  north  wind  coming  down  from  the  moun- 
tains of  the  continent,  and  the  south  wind  proceeding  from  the  ocean.  Nothing  can 
exceed  their  fury.  They  are  accompanied  with  dreadful  thunder,  lightning  and  heavy 
rain.  After  five  or  six  hours  a  calm  succeeds ;  but  the  hurricane  soon  returns  in  the 
opposite  direction,  with  additional  fury,  and  continues  for  an  equal  interval.* 
Climate.  |  According  to  the  accounts  of  the  missionaries,  the  climate  of  Tonquin 
is  constantly  refreshed  by  the  south  and  north  winds.  Rain  falls  from  April  to  Au- 
gust, and  is  followed  by  a  beautiful  and  abundant  vegetation.  On  the  north  and  west 
the  country  is  skirted  by  mountains.  The  centre  and  sea  coast  present  one  exten- 
sive plain,  which  seems  to  owe  its  origin  to  the  alluvial  depositions  of  the  ocean  and 
the  rivers. I  These  low  lands  are  protected  from  the  encroachments  of  the  sea  by 
numerous  and  extensive  embankments,  and  are  very  productive  in  rice.  In  several 
places  the  sand  and  mud  form  a  thin  half  fluid  mixture  with  the  sea  water,  where  the 
Tonquinese  creep  along  in  a  half  sitting  attitude  on  planks,  engaged  in  fishing.  From 
May  to  September  the  rivers  overflow  their  banks.  The  principal  river  is  the  Sang- 
Koi,  called  in  China,  where  it  rises,  the  Kotikiang.  It  receives  the  Li-Sien. 
Proiiuetions.  |  The  Tonquincsc  cultivate  potatoes,  yams,  plantains,  rice,  mangos, 
lemons,  cocoa  nuts,  and  pine-apples.  They  have  excellent  silk.  The  Tonquin 
oranges  are  the  best  in  the  world.  The  tea  tree  grows  in  great  plenty,  but  it  is  not 
applied  to  use.  Iron-wood,  and  several  other  valuable  timber  trees,  grow  on  the 
mountains,  while  the  areca  palm,  or  betel  nut  tree,  the  Piper  betle  or  betel  leaf  vine, 
indigo,  and  sugar  canes,  enrich  the  plains.  Sheep  and  asses  are  here  unknown. 
The  forests  are  peopled  with  tigers,  deer,  antelopes,  and  monkeys,  and  the  fields  are 
covered  with  cattle,  buffaloes,  hogs,  and  winged  game. 

Natural  ^^^  natural  history  of  this  country  consists  of  vague  notices,  furnished 

curiosities.  by  ill  informed  missionaries.     When  they  boast  of  the  wild  bees,  which, 

like  those  of  Brazil,  furnish  a  limpid  and  fragrant  honey;  when  they  complain  of  the 
devastations  of  the  white  ant;  or  the  swarms  of  serpents  which  infest  this  marshy 
country,  we  recognise  the  stamp  of  truth  in  their  artless  descriptions.  But,  when 
they  tell  us  that  they  saw  monkeys  which  sung  with  all  the  melody  of  the  nightin- 
gale, J  we  must  suspect  at  least  an  illusion  of  imagination  or  of  memory. 

The  mineral  kingdom  presents  iron  in  a  very  pure  state,  abundance  of  good  copper, 
some  tin,  and  gold,  and  a  metal  which,  from  the  quaHties  ascribed  to  it,  appears  to 
be  zinc  in  the  state  of  muriate  or  arseniate.§     The  numerous  caverns  filled  with  sta- 
lactites indicate  the  calcareous  nature  of  many  of  the  mountains. 
Towns.  j       The  capital  of  Anam  is  called  Don-Kin,  or  "the  Court  of  the  East," 

which  we  have  converted  into  Tonquin.  It  has  now  taken  the  official  name  of  Bac- 
Kin,  or  "the  Court  of  the  North,"  but  it  is  commonly  known  by  the  people  under  the 
name  of  Kescho.  It  stands  on  the  river  Sang-KoY,  110  miles  from  the  sea,  and  is 
said  to  equal  Paris  in  size,  ||  though  it  only  contains  40,000  inhabitants, IT  a  great 
proportion  of  the  ground  being  taken  up  with  wide  streets  and  gardens.  The  palaces 
of  the  king  and  mandarins  are  the  only  buildings  formed  of  so  durable  a  material  as 
sun-dried  brick,  and  those  of  the  sovereign  are  distinguished  by  the  form  of  squares. 
Besides  the  capital,  there  are  the  cities  of  Han-Vints  of  20,000  inhabitants ;  Tranash 
of  15,000;  Kausang  of  8000;  Hun-Nam  of  5000;  the  last  being  the  same  with 
Hean,  where  the  Dutch  had  their  factory.  In  the  cultivated  part  of  the  country  the 
villages  are  closet  ogether,  and  the  highway  presents  an  uninterrupted  succession  of 
houses  and  gardens  planted  with  the  various  palms.  Of  the  provinces,  we  shall  only 
particularize  Boschin,  on  the  Chinese  boundary. 

•  Pennant's  Outlines  of  the  Globe,  iii.  p.  76. 

f  La  Rissachere,  Etat  du  Tonquin,  i.  p.  46,  &c.        t  Ibid.  5.  p.  94.         §  Ibid.  i.  p.  S3. 

II  Richard,  Hist,  du  Tonquin,  i.  p.  36.  H  La  Bissachcre,  i.  73. 


TONQUIX.  281 


Govcrnmeht. 
History. 


Tonquin,  separated  from  China  in  13G8,  preserved  tlioso  forms  of  pa- 
triarchal despotism  which  dis^tingnisli  the  great  nations  of  Asia.  Rank, 
honours,  and  wealth,  are  concentrated  in  the  mandarin,  literary  and  military.  The 
"king's  men"  form  a  race  superior  to  the  rest  of  tlio  nation.  The  dynasty  of  Le 
governed  for  many  ages  with  all  the  wisdom  and  all  the  benignity  that  despotism  can 
admit  of.  But  one  of  the  great  officers  of  the  crown,  the  Shooa  or  Shuarua,  a  sort 
of  mayor  of  the  palace,  having  become  hereditary,  and  placed  himself  at  the  head 
of  the  army  and  of  the  principal  revenues,  soon  reduced  the  bova  or  king  to  the  mere 
shadow  of  a  monarch.  Cochin-China  was  separated,  and  it  formed,  under  the  dy- 
nasty of  N'guyen,  a  kingdom  lirst  tributary  to  Tonquin  and  afterwards  its  rival. 
The  civil  wars  which  broke  out  about  the  middle  of  last  century,  on  the  ascension 
of  a  Shooa,  gave  the  king  an  opportunity  of  resuming  the  supreme  power.  With  a 
view  to  revive  his  claims  to  Cochin-China,  he  interfered  in  the  internal  revolutions  of 
tliat  country,  and,  with  warm  though  interested  zeal,  attacked  the  usurpers  of  the 
throne  of  N'guyen.  One  of  these  usurpers  in  revenge  invaded  Tonquin,  where  he 
destroyed  the  house  of  Le,  and  established  himself  in  the  sovereignty,  retaining  also 
that  of  the  greater  part  of  Cochin-China.  The  rightful  heir  of  the  latter,  however, 
succeeded,  by  dint  of  perseverance,  in  re-conquering  his  kingdom  ;  and  pursuing  his 
usurpers  into  the  heart  of  Tonquni,  made  himself  master  of  that  country,  w4hch  he 
kept,  under  the  pretext  that  the  house  of  Le  was  extinct.  Thus,  this  prince,  Ong- 
N'guyen-Shoong,  the  Shang-Shong  of  some  authors,  now  reigns  over  all  the  ancient 
kingdom  of  Annam,  to  which  ho  has  added  Lac-Tho,  Laos,  and  Cam-  Empire  of 
bodia.  But  the  national  hatred  of  the  Cochin-Chinese  against  the  ^"■"""' 
Tonquinese  ;  the  insubordination  of  Laos  and  other  parts  of  the  interior ;  the  sup- 
posed existence  of  an  heir  to  the  house  of  Le  ;  and  the  death  of  the  princes  who 
were  the  immediate  heirs  of  the  throne  of  N'guyon-Shoong,  are  circumstances 
which  compel  us  to  regard  the  Annamitic  empire  as  a  mere  passing  meteor. 

The  Tonquinese  have  flat  and  oval  countenances,  lighter  complexions     The  Tonqui. 
than  the  other  Indian  nations,  and  black,  long,  and  thick  hair.     Their     ""^' 
whole  dress  consists  of  a  robe  which  reaches  their  heels.     Their  monosyllabic  lan- 
guage is  derived  from  the  Chinese,  from  whicli  however  it  is  distinguished  by  the 
possession  of  a  number  of  compound  words,  and   by  aspirate  and  hissing  sounds, 
which  are  wanting  in  the  Chinese.*  The  Tonquinese  have  also  changed  the  written 
character,  or  perhaps  they  have  preserved  one  which  has  gone  into  disuse  in  China. 
Their  literature  is  supposed  to  be  rich  in  works  of  eloquence.     For  six  centuries 
they  have  committed  the  history  of  their  country  to  \vriting.     Though  less  refined 
than  the  Chinese,  this  nation  seems  to  possess  a  greater  degree  of  moral  vigour. 
They  have  exhibted  an  impetuous  bravery,  and  their  history  records  some  splendid 
instances  of  heroism  and  generosity.     They  are  described  as  hospitable,  faithful  in 
friendship,  and  entertaining  great  respect  for  civil  justice  ;"f  yet  they  are  accused  of 
vanity,  fickleness,  dissimulation,  and  revenge. J     Living  under  an  absolute  despo- 
tism, the  Tonquinese  have  probably  few  virtues  and  few  vices  but  what  are  common 
to  them  with  their  neighbours.     Their  army,  which  amounts  to  100,000     seaand  land 
men,  often  beats  the  Chinese.     Their  navy,  consisting  of  200  galleys,     *"'^'"* 
is  remarkable  for  nothing  except  the  employment  of  a  sort  of  Grecian  fire  which 
burns  under  water.  § 

Here,  as  in  China,  the  monarch  annually  celebrates  a  festival  in  ho- 
nour of  agriculture.  Polygamy  exists  in  all  its  latitude.  JNo  woman 
claims  the  rights  generally  attached  to  matrimony,  and  they  are  discarded  by  the 
men  at  pleasure.  The  marriages  are  made  without  priests,  but  the  consent  of  pa- 
rents is  essential.  Barrenness  is  here  a  great  reflection  on  any  family,  but  the  mix- 
ture of  many  children  of  difierent  mothers  occasions  no  inconvenience.  ||  The  pomp 
of  the  burials,  the  elegance  of  the  coffins,  the  superstitious  selection  of  particular 

•  Alex.  Rhodes,  Dictionarium  Anamiticum.  Roma,  1653.    Hervas,  Saggio  Practice,  p.  134. 
Valentyn,  Descript.  du  Tonquin,  p.  6. 
f  LaBissachcre,  ii.  p.  36,  &c. 

+  Marini,  Relation  du  Tonquin,  p.  64,  66,  &c.  (trad.Frans.) 
§  La  Bissach^re,  i.  325.  II  Marini,  p.  155. 

Vol.  II.— N  n 


Laws  and  cus- 

tOIIIS. 


1^82  BOOK  FIFTY-SECOND. 

situations  for  graves,  and  the  festivals  in  honour  of  ancestors ;  every  thing,  in  short, 
reminds  us  of  the  funeral  solemnities  of  the  Chinese.  They  are  fond  of  scenic  re* 
presentations  of  the  comic  sort,  dances,  and  cocking  matches.  Tiiey  have  also 
among  them  some  of  a  tragic  nature. 

Manufactures.  "^he  Touquinese  succeed  in  the  manufacture  of  silk  and  cotton  goods, 
Commerce.  muskcts,  porcelain,  Chinese  paper,  varnished  furniture,  and  hardware. 
Their  foreign  trade  consists  of  silks  of  all  sorts,  painted  calico,  earthen  vessels, 
medical  drugs,  musk,  ginger,  salt,  dye-woods,  ^loe-wood,  marble,  alabaster,  and  var- 
tiished  goods.*  They  keep  up  a  great  commercial  correspondence  with  China. 
The  Portuguese  and  Dutch,  who  attempted  to  form  some  commercial  relations 
with  Tonquin,  were  obhged  to  give  them  up ;  nor  have  the  French  been  more  for- 
tunate. Since  these  attempts,  their  only  connection  with  Europeans  has  consisted 
of  some  visits  made  by  the  English  merchants  of  Madras,  who  have  not  followed  up 
that  intercourse  with  any  steadiness.  The  Jesuit  missionaries  were  completely  ex- 
pelled in  1772. 

CochinCMna.  j  To  the  south  of  Tonquin  we  find  Cochin-Ciiina,  j  the  geography  of 
which  has  been  rendered  obscure  by  the  number  of  contradictory  authors  who  have 
treated  of  it.  This  country,  which  was  included  along  with  Tonquin  under  the  ge- 
Vncertainties  I  ^cral  name  of  Annam,  was  separated  from  it  600  years  ago.  It  is  un- 
ftboutittname.  [  certain  under  what  name  it  was  particularly  designated,  or  is  now  by  its 
own  inhabitants.  That  of  Annam  is  too  extensive.  That  of  Quinam,  mentioned 
as  the  name  of  the  kingdom  by  a  good  observer,J  seems  to  belong  only  to  the  prin- 
cipal province.§  The  Japanese  call  the  country  to  the  west  of  China  Cotchin- 
Djina,  and  the  Europeans  have  followed  them.  But  a  new  question  rises  here. 
What  are  the  limits  of  the  country?  The  nature  of  the  lands,  and  the  limits  occu- 
pied by  a  particular  nation,  have  made  the  Europeans  confine  their  application  of  the 
name  of  Cochin*China,  or  Southern  Jlnnam,  to  the  coast  lying  between  Tonquin  and 
Tsiompa,  300  miles  in  length,  and  varying  from  thirty  to  seventy  in  breadth.  We 
shall  not  deviate  from  this  convenient  application  of  the  term.  If  recent,  and  per- 
haps temporary  conquests,  have  subjected  the  coasts  of  Cambodia  to  the  king  of 
Cochin-China,  the  name  may  still  be  employed  with  propriety  to  distinguish  a  nation 
which,  as  well  as  their  country,  is  essentially  different  from  the  other.  The 
geography  of  the  provinces  is  still  less  satisfactory.  Those  who  follow 
some  modern  travellers,  in  extending  Cochin-China  to  the  Cape  of  Cam- 
bodia, divide  it  into  three  parts — the  high,  the  middle,  and  the  low;\\  or  (to  use  the 
native  names)  the  province  of  Hue ;  that  of  Shang,  which  is  said  to  reach  from 
the  12th  to  the  16th  degree  of  latitude;  and  that  of  Donnai,  which  is  identical  with 
low  Cambodia.  Ancient  travellers  give  Cochin-China  a  much  more  complicated, 
yet  probably  a  more  correct,  though  obscure  division ;  in  which  we  have  attempted 
to  fix  the  following  provinces,  proceeding  from  north  to  south. 

Hue,  Hoe,Tr  or  Toan  Hoa,**  separated  from  Tonquin  by  a  narrow 
defile,  which  is  closed  up  by  a  wall,  contains  a  large  city,  with  a  royal 
fortified  castle,  the  ordinary  residence  of  the  reigning  monarch.  This  city,  with  a 
population  of  30,000  souls,  bears  the  name  of  Ke-Hoa  in  the  popular  dialect,  and  of 
Foo-Shooang  in  the  language  of  the  mandarins.  The  province  of  Quambin  is  in 
the  mountains. 

That  of  Shang,  (or,  in  the  Portuguese  orthography,  Ciam,)!!  less  extensive  by  two- 
thirds  than  modern  accounts  represent  it,  contains  the  magnificent  bay  of  Turon, 
frequented  by  the  junks  of  the  Chinese  and  other  nations,  surrounded  by  a  pictu- 
resque and  fruitful  country,  and  receiving  the  waters  of  a  river  on  which  is  situated 
the  city  of  Tai-Foo,  the  centre  of  the  commerce  of  Cochin-China. JJ  It  was  in  the 

•  Valetyn,  p.  5.  p.  31,  &c. 

'J-  For  additional  notices  of  Cochin-China,  see  note  at  the  enc'  of  Book  LII.     PhiL  Etl. 

i  Wusthof,  in  Valentyn,  iv.     Description  de  Cambodia,  p.  52,  53. 

§  Alex,  de  Rhodes,  Relation  du  Tonquin,  au  comm. 

I  La  Bissachere,  i.  p.  25.     Harrow's  Voyage  to  Cochin-China. 

^  Valentyn,  Descript.  du  Tonquin,  iv.  p.  2.  ••  Alex,  de  Rhodes,  1.  c. 

ft  D'Anville's  Map  of  Asia.    Valefltyn,  1.  c.  +t  farrow's  Voyage. 


Uncertainty  of 
the  interna- 
tional divi' 
•ions. 


Provinces  aad 
towns. 


Coaats  of  Cc» 
chin-China. 

Allavial  depa> 
sitiont. 


COCHIN-CHINA.  283 

mountains  of  the  south-west  of  Tai-Foo  that  the  Dutch  travellers  met  with  the  pro- 
vince or  tributary  principality  of  Tiam  or  Thiem,  removed  by  d'Anville  160  miles  to 
the  north-west,  because  this  geographer  was  not  aware  that  Laos,  from  which  Thiem 
has  been  disjoined,  extends  a  great  way  south,  between  Cambodia  and  Cochin- 
China,  coming  almost  in  contact  with  Tsiompa.*  On  the  sea  shore  we  find  the 
province  of  Quan-hia  (or  Quan-sia)  with  the  city  of  Banbong.  Next  comes  the 
rich  and  fine  province  of  Quinam,  or  Quin-Nong,f  with  the  city  of  the  same  name, 
containing  10,000  souls,  and  situated  on  the  bay  of  Shin-shen.  This  is  the  ancient 
capital  of  the  whole  kingdom.  The  province  Foy  of  the  Dutch  is  called  Phayn  hy 
the  missionaries.  In  that  of  Niaron  we  find  the  city  of  Din-Foan,  probably  the 
same  with  Qui-Foo,  mentioned  as  a  large  town  by  a  modern  traveller.^  The  pro- 
vince of  Niatlang  forms  the  southern  extremity  of  Cochin-China.  Raman,  which 
d'Anville  substitutes  for  this  province,  is  merely  a  country  town  ;  and  the  two  dis- 
tricts of  Dingoe  and  Dihheut  belong  to  the  province  of  Hue. 

There  is  no  shore  that  suffers  more  perceptible  encroachments  from 
the  sea  than  that  of  Cochin-China.  M.  Poivre  found  that,  from  1744 
to  1749,  the  sea  had  gained  190  feet  from  east  to  west.  The  rocks  in 
the  southern  provinces  are  in  unstratified  masses,  generally  granite,  and 
sometimes  with  perpendicular  fissures.  In  the  middle  of  the  river  of  Hue-Hane, 
three  miles  up,  there  is  an  island  of  sand,  from  the  centre  of  which  rises  a  large  and 
magnificent  alabaster  rock,  which  in  several  places  is  perforated  quite  across.  It  has 
got  the  name  of  the  '*  Hill  of  Apes."  The  coast  generally  presents  sandy  shores. 
In  such  places  the  anchoring  ground  extends  a  great  way  out,  and  consists  of  a  miry 
sand  mixed  with  shells.  In  some  parts  the  beach  is  strewed  with  rounded  pebbles. 
Opposite  to  such  places  the  anchorage  is  rocky  and  bad.  In  those  situations  in 
which  the  shores  are  mountainous  and  steep  there  are  no  soundings.  It  is  opposite 
to  the  sandy  parts  that  madrepores  and  coral  are  found  in  spots  separated  from  one 
another  by  short  distances. 

Nature  has  divided  this  country  into  two  distinct  portions,  the  plain 
and  the  mountains.  These  last  enjoy  a  steady  temperate  climate  ;  but 
to  strangers  they  prove  unhealthy,  which  has  been  supposed  to  be  owing  to  an  im- 
pregnation which  the  waters  derive  from  decayed  leaves  and  minerals.  In  these  Uvo 
the  savage  tribes  called  Motjs  or  Kemoys,  who  worship  the  sun,  and  employ  magical 
charms  to  preserve  their  rice  fields  from  the  depredations  of  elephants.  They  abound 
in  tigers  and  monkeys.  They  contain  some  iron  mines,  which  are  worked.  Pure 
gold  is  also  found  among  them,  and  silver  has  lately  been  discovered.  The  princi- 
pal riches  of  the  mountains  are  their  forests,  which  produce  rose-wood,  iron-wood, 
ebony,  sappan,  sandal  wood,  eagle  wood,  and  calambac — the  last  of  which  sells  in 
China  for  its  weight  in  gold.§  Biuh-Kiang  is  the  place  most  favourable  to  the  growth 
of  the  beautiful  tree  called  Moexijlum  verum,  from  which  is  obtained  the  resinous 
aromatic  concretion  called  calambac,  or  in  Cochin-Chinese  kinam.  Paper  is  made 
of  the  bark  of  the  same  tree.  |j  The  common  eagle-wood  {hois  tVaigle)  is  the  pro- 
duce of  trees  of  the  genus  AgaUockum.  Other  valuable  substances  are  found  here, 
such  as  gum  lac,  elaborated  by  insects  on  the  Crohn  lacciferum,  and  the  sangvis 
draconis,  obtained  from  various  trees,  the  chief  of  which  is  the  Draccuna  ferrea  ; 
and  the  tallow  tree,  or  Sebifera  glnlinosa  of  Loureiro,  already  mentioned. IT 

The  plain  is  exposed  to  an  unsupportable  degree  of  heat  in  the  months     The  low 
of  June,  July,  and  August,  except  in  the  places  which  are  refreshed  by     '='•"'»"■>'• 
the  sea  breezes.     In  September,  October,  and  November,  the  plentiful  rains,  which 
fall  exclusively  in  the  mountains,  swell  the  numberless  rivers  with  which  the  country 
is  intersected;  in  an  instant  all  the  plain  is  inundated,  the  villages,  and  even  the 

•  Wusthof,  in  Valentyn.     Descript.  de  Cambodia,  p.  53. 

t  The  Quenia  of  Father  Rhodes.  t  La  Bissachere,  i. 

§  Charpentier-Cossigny,  m^moire  Inedit.  cite  par  M.  Blancard,  Commerce  des  Indes  et  de 
la  Chine,  p.  344,  &c. 

II  Loureiro,  Memorias  da  lu  Academ.  das  Sciencias  da  Lisboa,  ii.  205 — 213.  Valentjn,  and 
the  notes  on  Barrow,  in  the  French  translation,  written  by  the  author  of  this  work, 

1  See  page  265  of  this  vol. 


The  high 
country. 


Tlieir  man- 
ners, 

Religion 


284  BOOK  riFTY-SECOND. 

houses,  are  go  many  islets.  Boats  are  navigated  over  the  fields  and  hedges,  and  the 
children  in  small  barks  go  out  to  fish  for  the  mice,  wliich  cling  to  the  branches  of  the 
trees.  This  is  the  season  of  inland  commerce,  large  fairs,  and  popular  fetes;  but 
the  cattle  are  sometimes  drowned,  and  are  picked  up  by  the  first  who  finds  them. 
In  the  months  of  December,  January,  and  February,  the  north  wind  brings  with  it 
cold  rains,  which  are  the  only  symptoms  of  winter.  This  plain  produces  an  immense 
quantity  of  rice,  of  which  there  is  a  double  harvest,  and  which  sells  at  less  than  a 
penny  per  pound ;  also  maize,  millet,  several  kinds  of  beans,  and  pumpkins ;  all  the 
fruits  of  India  and  China,  a  great  quantity  of  sugar  canes,  the  juice  of  which  purified 
and  formed  into  cakes,  is  exported  to  China,*  particularly  from  the  province  of 
Shang;|  areca  nuts,  betel  leaf,  cotton,  silk  of  good  quality,  tobacco,  and  indigo. 
The  Laurus  myrrha'l  gives  a  kind  of  cinnamon  which,  for  its  camphorated  odour 
and  saccharine  flavour,  is  preferred  among  the  Chinese  to  the  cinnamon  of  Ceyion.§ 
The  tea  of  Cochin-China  would  be  excellent,  if  the^culture  of  it  were  more  attended 
to.  The  plant  called  dinaxang,  or  green  indigo,  would  of  itself  enrich  any  colony. 
The  Cochin-Chinese  have  a  small  breed  of  horses;  mules,  asses,  goats,  and  plenty 
of  poultry.  They  derive  a  good  aliment  from  Salicornue,  Jlrenurm,  and  other  saline 
plants,  and  the  dillerent  species  of  JJlvce,  and  Fuci,  thrown  out  u])on  their  shores. 
The  sea  affords  them  fish,  diflcrent  species  of  the  mollusca,  particularly  Holothurioc 
or  Bichos-domar,  which  are  greedily  eaten  by  all  the  nations  of  the  south-east  of 
Asia.  The  islands  of  Cochin-China  abound  as  much  as  any  part  of  the  eastern 
regions  in  the  nests  of  the  salangan  swallow,  or  liirundo  escidenta,  which  are  so  much 
in  request  among  the  epicures  of  China. 

Inhabitants.  |  This  Country,  wiiere  so  many  interesting  articles  of  produce  attract 
the  commerce  of  Europe,  is  peopled  by  one  of  the  most  active  and  lively  nations  of 
Asia.  Their  small  figures  and  olive  complexions  give  them  no  high 
place  in  the  scale  of  beauty.  The  common  people  follow  the  rehgion 
of  Buddha;  the  mandarins  study  the  writings  of  Confucius.  The  Catholic  faith 
had  made  some  progress,  and  the  rising  church,  even  in  a  political  point  of  view, 
claimed  the  protecting  care  of  the  European  powers:  but  now,  the  death  of  the 
prince,  who  was  a  pupil  of  the  bishop  of  Adran,  has  left  it  without  support  in  the 
midst  of  perils  and  of  obstacles.  Had  the  principles  of  that  communion,  and  the 
governments  which  are  under  .their  influence,  been  more  conspicuous  for  affording 
that  generous  tolerance  of  which  they  so  greedily  avail  themselves  Avhen  they  take 
up  their  residence  in  other  countries,  they  would  be  entitled  to  more  sympathy  under 
their  difficulties  than  many  readers  will  be  inclined  to  give  them.  The  vulgar  tongue, 
though  a  dialect  of  the  Chinese,  is  not  understood  in  China.  The  written  charac- 
ters are  nearly  the  same;  but  only  a  small  number  are  known  to  us. || — Persons  of 
condition  dress  in  silk.  In  manners  they  display  all  the  politeness  of  the  Chinese. 
The  costume  of  both  sexes  consists  of  flowing  robes  with  wide  sleeves,  under  which 
are  vests  and  trousers  of  cotton.  Thej  men  wear  a  sort  of  turban  on  the  head,  and 
use  no  shoes  or  slippers.  Their  houses  are  built  of  bamboo,  and  roofed  with  reeds 
and  rice  straw.  They  are  generally  surrounded  with  groves  of  orange  and  lemon 
trees,  bananas,  and  cocoas.  The  Cochin-Chinese  manufacture  a  spiri- 
tuous liquor  from  rice,  for  their  own  use.  They  are  tolerable  skilful  in 
the  manufacture  of  hardware,  and  their  pottery  and  stone  wares  are  handsome.  In 
music  they  have  made  some  progress.  Lord  Macartney,  during  his  stay  at  Turon, 
witnessed  a  sort  of  historic  opera,  containing  recitations,  airs,  and  choruses.  Their 
ships  are  elegantly  formed,  the  largest  being  about  sixty  tons  burden.  The  form  of 
their  sails  is  admirably  adapted  for  going  near  the  wind,  being  constructed  on  the 
principles  of  a  fan,  which  is  opened  and  shut  in  a  moment.  The  rowers  move  in 
time  to  the  notes  of  a  lively  song.  The  ceremonies  and  festivals  proclaim  the  Chi- 
nese origin  of  the  nation.  When  the  sovereign  dies,  they  make  a  point  of  burying 
him  in  profound  silence,  for  fear  of  conveying  the  important  intelligence  to  genii 

•  Barrow.  |  Charpentier-Cissigny,  loc.  cit.  p.  370. 

i  Louieiro,  Memorias,  i.  385.  §  Bhuicard,  loc.  cit,  p.  374. 

1  Adcluns-,  Mitliridatcs,  i.  p.  90. 


Manufacture! 
and  arts. 


TSIOMPA.  285 

hostile  to  tVie  empire,  who  ra'^ht  seize  on  such  a  moment  to  visit  it  with  new 

disasters.* 

We  have  already  mentioned  that  Cochin-China  formed  in  ancient  times  Historieai 
one  state  with  Tonquin.  But  a  rebeUious  governor  afterwards  erected  ^^^""• 
here  an  independent  kingdom.  His  successors  subdued  Tsiompa  and  Cambodia.  But, 
enervated  by  the  enjoyments  attached  to  despotism,  the  princes  of  the  dynasty  of 
N'guyen  allowed  their  favourites  and  ministers  to  oppress  the  people ;  and  becoming 
in  a  little  the  puppets  of  their  slavish  courtiers,  they  held  the  sceptre  on  a  most  pre- 
carious tenure.  The  Tonquinese  interfered  in  the  troubles  with  which  Cochin-China 
was  agitated.  Disdaining  a  foreign  yoke,  the  three  brothers,  Tmj-Son,  employed 
their  influence  to  raise  an  army :  from  deliverers  they  became  usurpers,  and  took 
possession  of  the  kingdom.  One  of  these  rebels  also  achieved  the  conquest  of 
Tonquin.  He  died  in  1792,  and  his  extensive  dominions  were  divided  among  his 
sons.  The  lawful  prince,  taking  refuge  with  the  king  of  Siam,  endeavoured  to  form 
a  party  in  the  southern  portion  of  the  kingdom.  The  bishop  of  Adran,  The  bUhop  of 
who,  from  being  a  missionary,  had  become  vicar  apostolic  and  prime  *'''^"' 
minister  to  the  rightful  sovereign  of  Cochin-China,  craved  assistance  from  France. 
He  brought  over  to  that  country  the  heir  of  the  crown,  whom  he  had  secretly  con- 
verted, without  venturing  to  baptize  him.  France  seized  this  opportunity  to  establish 
her  influence  and  her  commerce  in  one  of  the  richest  countries  of  India,  but  was 
prevented  from  following  up  that  object  by  the  events  of  her  own  revolution.  The 
bishop  and  young  prince  returned,  attended  by  a  small  number  of  French,  but  the  bold- 
ness and  perseverance  of  N'guyen-Shoong  at  last  conciliated  the  smiles  King  N'goyen 
of  fortune.  The  dissensions  which  reigned  in  the  family  of  Tay-Son  ^^°'""s- 
aided  him  in  recovering  the  inheritance  of  his  fathers.  To  these  he  added  Tonquin, 
and  he  now  reigns  over  all  the  Chin-Indian  countries  to  the  east  of  the  kingdom  of 
Siam.  An  intrepid  warrior  by  land  and  sea,  he  gained  admiration  for  his  talents,  his 
correct  manners,  his  humanity,  and  a  generosity  unknown  to  Asiatics.  These  vir- 
tues were  partly  the  fruits  of  the  education  given  to  him  by  the  bishop  of  Adran, 
and  partly  the  etlect  of  the  events  of  his  life.  When  arrived  at  the  summit  of  pros- 
perity, he  showed  himself  to  be  less  worthy ;  and,  as  we  have  already  remarked,  the 
death  of  his  heirs,  and  the  discontent  of  the  Tonquinese,  portend  no  long  duration 
to  the  Annamitic  empire. "f" 

The  form  of  government  has  always  been  despotic.  The  sovereign 
is  styled  "  the  king  of  heaven."  His  army  is  from  100,000  to  150,000 
strong,  among  whom  are  30,000  armed  with  muskets,  and  trained  to  the  European 
exercise.  The  soldiers  wear  sabres  and  pikes  of  enormous  length.  No  elephants 
are  now  employed  in  war.  A  Portuguese,  who  was  shipwrecked  on  the  coast  of 
Cochin-China,  cast  some  pieces  of  brass  ordnance,  which  are  still  in  existence.  Some 
Frenchmen,  among  whom  was  M.  Olivier,  have  assisted  the  present  king  in  the  for- 
mation of  a  respectable  navy.  He  has  himself,  like  Peter  the  Great,  studied  the 
art  of  ship-building,  by  causing  a  European  vessel  to  be  taken  to  pieces  under  his 
eyes.  This  prince  has  been  seen  directing  the  manoeuvres  of  1200  galleys,  a  hun- 
dred of  which  carried  from  sixteen  to  twenty-four  large  guns.  But  when  he  got  the 
better  of  all  his  enemies,  he  allowed  this  branch  of  his  force,  which  is  so  essential 
and  so  well  adapted  to  the  local  situation  of  his  dominions,  to  fall  into  neglect. 

The  kingdom  of  Tsiompa  is  more  the  country  of  tigers  and  of  ele-     Kingdom  of 
phants  than  of  men.     Its  real  name  is  said  to  be  Biu-Tuani.'\,    For  five     Tsiompa. 
or  six  months  of  the  year  the  climate  is  unhealthy ;  the  heats  are  excessive,  the  wa- 
ter is  bad,  and  all  provisions  except  fish  arc  scarce.     The  soil  is  sandy  and  poor, 
but  it  produces  cotton,  indigo,  and  an  inferior  sort  of  silk.§     The  inhabitants  are 
called  Loyes,  and  seem  to  be  of  the  same  stock  with  the  Laos,  or  Lows,  and  the 

•  Kaeffler,  Historica  Cochin-Chinac  Descriptio,  p.  72—76. 
t  La  Bissachere,  Barrow,  &c. 

i  Uosily,  Carte  du  D^p6t  de  la  Marine,  and  the  article  Jlynan  in  the  Diclionnaire  dc  Geo- 
graphic Maritime,  par  M.  de  Grand-Pr^. 
§  La  Bissachere,  i.  p.  16,    Barrow's  Voyage,  where  it  is  written  Fen-Tan, 


Government 
and  military 
force. 


Kingdom  of 

Cambodia.  U 


286  BOOK  FIFTY-SECOND. 

Lolos  of  Yunnan.  They  are  large,  well  made,  and  muscular;  their  complexions 
ruddy;  their  noses  rather  flat;  and  their  hair  long  and  black. 

DonnaY.  |       Dounai,  properly  so  called,  seems  to  be  a  district  between  Tsiompa 

and  the  mouths  of  the  river  of  Cambodia.  On  an  arm  of  that  large,  fine,  and  deep 
river,  is  the  city  of  Saigong,*  which  was  for  some  time  the  naval  arsenal  of  the  king 
of  Cochin-China-t  Iii  approaching  that  city,  we  sail  forty  miles  up  a  river  one  or 
two  miles  broad,  and  so  deep,  that  large  vessels  graze  the  verdant  banks,  while 
their  rigging  is  liable  to  get  entangled  in  the  branches  of  the  lofty  trees  by  which 
it  is  shaded.;];  Cape  Saint-Jacques,  at  the  mouth  of  the  river,  forms  a  very  good 
road-stead. 

TheParaceb.  |  The  Pracel  or  Paracels,  is  a  labyrinth  of  islets,  rocks,  and  shallows, 
which,  according  to  the  most  approved  charts,  extend  in  a  line  parallel  to  the  coast 
of  Cochin-China,  between  north  latitude  10°  45'  and  16°  30',  the  mean  longitude 
being  about  109°  east.  But  some  French  navigators  have  crossed  a  part  of  this 
space  without  encountering  any  rocks  or  shallows,  whence  we  must  conclude  that 
this  archipelago  is  in  reality  less  extensive  than  it  appears  in  our  maps.§ 
Condor  island.  |  The  island  called  Poolo-Condor,  or  "  the  Island  of  Calabashes,"  is 
situated  south  from  Cochin-China,  forty-four  miles  from  the  mouth  of  the  river  of 
Cambodia.  It  is,  properly  speaking,  a  group  of  islands,  among  which  is  a  harbour 
capable  of  holding  eight  ships,  and  a  good  and  extensive  anchorage.  Here  vessels 
bound  to  China  purchase  provisions,  especially  buffaloes,  which  sometimes  weigh 
seven  quintals,  and  Chinese  pigs.  It  produces  rice  and  several  fruits,  especially 
bananas,  shaddocks,  and  calabashes.  It  is  a  place  well  adapted  for  a  military  and 
commercial  station. 

Of  the  kingdom  of  Cambodia  we  have  few  authentic  accounts,  and 
none  of  modern  date.  The  Portuguese  call  it  Camboja,  (pronounced 
Cambokha.)  A  letter  of  one  of  its  kings,  in  a  Dutch  translation,  has  it  Camboetsja, 
(pronounced   Cambootja.)^   This  also  is  the  orthography  of  the  Malay  authors.** 

This  country  seems  to  consist  of  three  physical  regions:  the  valley  watered  and 
inundated  by  the  Pdey-Kon,  including  some  large  islands  at  its  mouth  ;'f'f  the  deserts, 
which  probably  begin  on  the  borders  of  the  inundated  territory,  and  extend  a  great 
way  to  the  east;  and  lastly,  the  sea  coast,  generally  low,  sandy,  covered  with  coppice- 
wood,  and  washed  by  a  very  shallow  sea.JJ 

River  of  Cam-  The  river  of  Cambodia  falls  into  the  sea  by  three  mouths;  that  of 
bodia.  Saigong,  already  mentioned,  and  which,  according  to  the  missionaries, 

is  more  particularly  called  the  river  of  Caml)odia;§§  one  called  the  Japanese  river, 
from  being  frequented  by  the  junks  of  Japan;  and  a  third,  Avhich  the  Dutch  have 
called  Onhequmne,  or  "the  Inconvenient."  The  second  of  these  branches  also  re- 
ceives the  name  of  the  Bassak,  and  the  third,  that  of  the  Matsiam.||||  The  tides 
extend  a  great  way  up  this  river.  It  is  said  that  a  great  lake  or  inland  sea  is  con- 
nected with  these  mouths.  The  inundations  take  place  in  June.  The  beds  of  the 
two  western  brandies  are  full  of  low  islands  and  sand  banks,  which  render  them 
unfit  for  being  navigated  by  large  vessels. 

Towns.  I       The  country  is  indifferently  peopled.     The   capital,  which  we  call 

Cambodia,  but  the  true  name  of  which  is  Eeuvok,  consists  of  a  single  street,  with 
Productions.  |  ouc  large  tcmplc.  The  chief  production  of  the  country  is  the  well  known 
yellow  pigment  called  gamboge,  which  is  also  used  in  medicine  as  a  drastic  pin-ga- 
tive.  It  produces  considerable  quantities  of  ivory,  rose-wood,  sandal-wood,  eagle- 
wood,  and  calambac.  The  teak,  iron-wood,  and  callophyllim,  which  grows  as  straight 
as  the  Norwegian  pine,  might  supply  ample  materials  for  ship  building.     A  little  tin 

*  See  note  at  the  end  of  Book  LII.    Phil.  Ed. 

t  Rosily,  cite  par  Blancanl,  Commerce  des  Indes,  p.  361.  ^  Barrow's  Voyage. 

§  Rosily,  Carte  du  DcpStde  la  Marine,  and  the  article  ./lynan  in  Grand-Pre's  Dictionnaire  de 
Geograpbie  Maritime. 

B  Cambodia  is  called  by  the  Onamese  (people  of  the  country,)  Cou-Maigne. 

f  Valentvn,  Description  de  Cambodia,  p.  48.  **  Ibid.  p.  36. 

It  Aagenaar,  in  the  Voyages  of  the  Dutch  Company,  v.  p.  360. 

^4:  Chapman,  Annales  des  Voyages,  vii.  p.  15.  §§  Valentyn,  Ibid,  37,  38. 

ill  Relation  des  Vicaires  Apostol.  i.  ch.  1.  p.  8. 


State  of  Pon- 
lliianias. 


Kinplom  of 
Siani. 


siAM.  287 

and  gold  are  exported.  The  lands  produce  rice  and  other  vegetable  food.  IMany 
Japanese,  Chinese,  and  Malays  are  settled  in  the  country.  These  last  are  scarcely 
distinguishable  from  the  natives,  who  have  dark  yellow  complexions,  and  long  black 

hair. 

A  Dutch  traveller,  ascending  the  river  to  the  nortli  of  Cambodia,  passed  the  towns 
of  Batjong,  an  ancient  seat  of  royalty,  and  Sumbapoor,  the  residence  of  a  high  priest, 
who  assumes  the  title  of  raja,  and  exacts  a  toll  from  passengers.*  M.  Poivre  ob- 
serves, that  a  short  way  from  the  capital  are  to  be  seen  the  ruins  of  an  |  Aneiem  city, 
ancient  city,  the  architecture  of  which  shows  something  of  the  European  style, 
while  the  ridges  in  the  adjoining  fields  indicate  that  they  have  been  under  tillage. 
The  present  inhabitants  have  no  sort  of  tradition  respectaig  this  ancient  establish- 
ment. 

Ponthiamas,  a  small  independent  state,  was  founded  in   1705  by  a 
Chinese  merchant  of  the  name  of  Kiang-Si.     This  state  prospered 
under  a  flourishing  trade.     Its  capital,  which  receives  the  same  name,  is  situated  on 
the  west  coast  of  Cambodia,  which  had  previously  been  almost  a  desert 

A  wide  and  deep  gulf  divides  the  southern  part  of  Chin-India  into  two 
peninsulas.  At  the  bottom  of  that  gulf  we  find  the  famous  kingdom  of 
Siam,  from  which  the  gulf  derives  its  name.  The  name  which  the  Siamese  give 
themselves  is  Tai,  or  "Free  Men."  Siam  is  a  name  of  Malay  origin.  Previously 
to  the  recent  enlargement  of  the  Birman  empire,  the  rich  and  flourishing  monarchy 
of  Siam  was  considered  as  the  leading  Indian  state  east  of  the  Ganges.  Its  extent, 
however,  has  been  curtailed  by  the  Birman  invasions,  and  cannot  be,  at  present, 
fixed  with  accuracy.  It  is  probable  that  a  part  of  the  coast  south  from  Tenasserira, 
on  the  west  side  of  the  peninsula  of  Malacca,  still  belongs  to  Siam.  It  is  separated 
from  Pegu  on  the  west  by  a  chain  of  mountains;  on  the  east  another  chain,  Httle 
known,  separates  it  from  Laos  and  Cambodia.  Thus  the  kingdom  of  Siam  may  bo 
considered  as  a  wide  valley  between  two  chains  of  mountains. 

The  Siamese  Nile,  or  Meinam,  holds  a  high  rank  among  the  rivers 
of  eastern  Asia.  Ksmpfer  describes  it  as  very  deep,  always  filled  to  its 
banks,  and  larger  than  the  Elbe.  He  adds,  that  the  inhabitants  suppose  it  to  rise 
in  the  same  mountains  with  the  Ganges,  and  describe  it  as  dividing  and  sending 
branches  through  the  kingdoms  of  Cambodia  and  Pegu ;  accounts  which,  though 
fabulous,  include  perhaps  some  disfigured  truths.  The  inundation  takes  place  in 
September.  In  December  the  waters  decline.  It  difters  from  the  Ganges  in  swell- 
ing first  in  its  upper  part,  owing  its  inundation  principally  to  the  rains  which  fall 
among  the  mountains.  The  water  of  the  Meinam,  though  muddy,  is  agreeable  and 
wholesome :  the  inundation  is  most  remarkable  in  the  centre  of  the  kingdom,  and 
much  less  so  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  sea.  The  operations  of  the  rice  harvest 
are  conducted  in  a  great  measure  in  boats.  The  soil  of  the  mountains  is  dry  and 
barren  ;  but  the  river  banks  consist  of  a  rich  and  deep  alluvial  soil,  where  scarcely 
a  single  stone  or  pebble  is  to  be  found.  The  banks  of  the  Meinam  are  low  and 
marshy,  but  exceedingly  populous  from  Bankok  to  Yuthia.  Lower  down  they  arc 
mere  deserts,  swarming  with  monkeys,  phosphoric  flies,  and  mosquitoes.  The 
Siamese  year  is,  with  respect  to  weather,  divided  into  three  parts.  The  |  seasons, 
first  two  months,  December  and  January,  form  the  winter,  during  which  the  north 
wind  prevails  :  it  is  a  dry  season,  but  almost  as  warm  as  the  summer  is  in  Franco. 
The  third,  fourth,  and  fifth  months,  are  called  by  the  Siamese  their  little  summer;  the 
great  summer  consists  of  the  other  seven.     The  weather  in  summer  is  moist.f 

The  immense  forests  which  surround  the  valley  of  the  Meinam  con- 
tain some  valuable  kinds  of  wood,  which  are  vaguely  mentioned  by  the 
missionaries.  The  bark  of  the  tree  tonJci,  is  used  for  making  paper.  The  wood  of 
the  fuang  tree  forms  a  good  red  dye.  They  have  three  varieties  of  rice  ;  wild  rice, 
mountain  rice,  and  that  of  the  plain.  Among  the  different  kinds  of  cotton,  there  is 
one  too  fine  to  admit  of  being  spun.     The  lands  which  are  so  situated  as  not  to  ad- 

*  Wusthof,  in  Valcntyn,  p.  54  and  55.  t  Loubcre,  tome  i  p.  53. 


Rivers. 
Inundations. 


V«'petalile  and 
animal  produc- 
tions. 


288  BOOK  FIFTY-SECOND. 

mit  of  inundation  are  under  corn  crops.     Pease,  and  other  leguminous  species,  are 
abandant ;  maize  is  cultivated  only  in  the  gardens. 

The  animal  species  of  Siam  are  common  to  it  with  the  whole  of  the  neighbour- 
ing countries.  Its  elephants  are  celebrated  for  their  beauty  and  docility.  The  white 
ones  are  held  in  veneration,  because  the  Siamese  believe  that  the  souls  of  their  de- 
ceased sovereigns  pass  into  their  bodies.  The  horses  are  bad,  and  the  cattle  scarce. 
There  is  here  a  small  sort  of  panther  of  the  size  of  a  dog,  which  only  attacks  wild 
birds.  Wild  boars  and  monkeys  are  in  great  abundance.  The  birds  and  insects  of 
this  country  are  remarkable  for  their  huge  size.  The  nocto  is  larger  than  an  ostrich. 
All  travellers  speak  in  terms  of  admiration  of  certain  birds,  the  species  of  which  are 
not  determined,  whose  tufts  of  white  or  red  feathers  enliven,  like  so  many  brilliant 
flowers,  the  verdure  of  the  woods.*  The  Meinam  is  sometimes  infested  with  veno- 
mous serpents.  The  trees  on  its  banks  are  covered  with  phosphoric  flies,  which  emit 
and  retain  light  with  all  the  regularity  of  a  revolving  machine.  But  the  fine  objects 
which  this  scene  presents  never  banish  from  the  traveller's  mind  the  recollection  of 
the  numerous  crocodiles  with  which  the  river  abounds,  which  are  sometimes  fifty 
feet  in  length. 

Minerals.        |       The  principal  mines  of  Siam  are  those  of  tin  and  copper,  the  last  of 
which  is  sometimes  mixed  with  a  little  gold.     Antimony  and  lead  are  also  found  and 
exported.     The  country  produces  beautiful  marbles,  agates,  and  sapphires. 
Towns  and  The  topography  of  a  country,  the  interior  of  which  has  not  been  tra- 

provinces.  vcrscd  by  any  European,  is,  of  course,  very  defective.     The  capital  is 

called  by  the  natives  Sujuihia,  or  simply  Crung,  i.  e.  "  the  court."  The  Portuguese 
have  changed  the  name  Siyuthia  into  Jutliya  and  Odia.  That  town  embraces  a  large 
territory  occupied  with  cottages  and  gardens.  But  the  view  given  of  it  by  Loubere 
must  be  somewhat  modified.  Father  Garvaise  tells  us  that  the  foreigners'  quarter 
is  full  of  brick  houses ;  and  that  the  part  occupied  by  the  natives  contains  handsome 
paved  streets. I  The  judicious  traveller  Kaempfer  expressly  says  that  "  the  temples 
are  more  elegant  than  the  churches  are  in  Germany.  The  Puka-Thon  is  a  pyramid 
in  a  plain  to  the  north-west  of  the  city,  in  memory  of  a  famous  victory  gained  over 
the  king  of  Pegu.  Its  height  is  120  feet,  and  the  building  massive,  but  elegant.  In 
the  eastern  part  of  the  city  are  two  squares,  surrounded  with  walls,  and  separated 
by  a  canal.  It  contains  monasteries,  colonnades,  and  temples,  the  most  conspicuous 
being  the  temple  of  Berklam,  with  a  large  and  splendid  porch,  ornamented  with  sta- 
tues, sculptures,  and  other  decorations." 

TheLoeachof  I  Louvok,  a  populous  tovvn  On  the  great  river,  frequently  shares  with 
Marco  Polo.  |  giyuthia  the  honour  of  being  the  residence  of  the  court.  This  is  pro- 
bably the  Loeach  of  Marco  Polo:  he  arrived  there  from  Poolo-Condor  by  sailing 
along  the  eastern  shore  of  the  gulf  of  Siam,  and,  leaving  Louvok,  he  directed  his 
course  along  the  western  shore  of  the  gulf  to  Petani  or  Patau.  An  explanation  so 
natural  would  have  occurred  to  all  his  commentators,  if  they  had  not  found  the  name 
written  in  several  editions  BoeacJi.  Near  the  mouth  of  the  river  we  find  Bankok, 
called  in  the  country  Fou.  This  is  the  key  of  Siam,  in  the  direction  of  the  sea.  Its 
environs  are  embellished  with  delightful  gardens.  Above  the  capital  we  find  Porse- 
looc,  the  chief  town  of  an  ancient  principality  of  the  same  name,  famous  for  its  dye- 
woods  and  valuable  gums.  J  Cambouri,  on  the  frontier  of  Pegu,  is  the  seat  of  a  great 
commerce  in  eagle-wood,  ivory,  and  rhinoceros  horns.  From  this  place  comes  the 
finest  varnish. 

That  part  of  the  kingdom  of  Siam  which  lies  on  the  Bay  of  Bengal,  is  an  ancient 
conquest  of  the  Siamese  from  the  kings  of  Pegu.  Here  the  Birman  language  is 
spoken. §  The  Birmans  have  reconquered  Tenasserim,  with  its  port  Mergui,  and 
the  island  of  Junkseylon ;  places  which  have,  on  that  account,  been  already  describ- 
ed, jj  But  the  Siamese  still  retain  the  kingdom  of  Ligor  on  that  coast,  a  country 
which  yields  a  very  pure  tin  called  caZm.lT 

•  Choisy,  'Vo5'age  h  Siam,  1741,  In  12mo.  p.  229.  f  Gervaise,  Hist,  de  Siam. 

i  Tiirpin,  Hist,  de  Siam,  i.  p.  23.  §  Le  P.  Gervaise,  p.  11,  8cc. 

fl  See  page  27o.  1  Ksmpfer,  Hist,  du  Japon,  i.  p.  11. 


Public  amuse- 
ments. 


siAM.  289 

In  physical  qualities,  the  Siamese  make  an  approach  to  the  Mongo-  ]  The  Siamet*. 
lian  race.  Their  faces  are  of  a  square  form,  with  wide  and  prominent  cheek  bones; 
so  that  the  cheeks  themselves  appear  somewhat  hollow.  The  forehead  is  narrow, 
terminating  in  a  point  almost  like  a  chin.  Their  eyes  are  small,  rather  dull,  and 
rise  towards  the  temples.  The  white  of  the  eye  is  exceedingly  yellow.  The  width 
of  their  mouths,  and  the  thickness  and  paleness  of  their  lips,  give  them  a  singularly 
ugly  aspect.  They  are  in  the  practice  of  blackening  their  teeth,  and  partially  cover- 
ing them  with  gold  plates.  Their  complexions  are  olive,  with  a  mixture  of  red. 
Kaimpfer  compares  them  to  negroes,  and  even  to  monkeys.*  Their  monosyllabic 
language  has  not  been  carefully  examined.  Tlie  Siamese  alphabet  con-  |  Language, 
tains  thirty-seven  consonants ;  and  the  vowels  form  a  distinct  list.  It  contains  the 
letters  R  and  W,  which  are  unknown  to  the  Chinese.  The  pronunciation,  as  in 
other  ancient  languages,  is  a  sort  of  chant.  Neither  nouns  nor  verbs  have  inflex- 
ions.f     The  sacred  books,  like  those  of  the  Birmans,  are  in  the  Pah  language. 

The  manners  of  the  Siamese  resemble  partly  those  of  Indostan,  and  |  Manners, 
partly  those  of  China.  Polygamy  is  allowed.  The  princes  sometimes  marry  their 
own  sisters.  The  wife,  humble  and  submissive,  neither  presumes  to  sit  nor  to  eat 
with  her  husband  :  vigilant  and  attentive  in  the  preparation  of  his  food,  she  does 
not  eat  till  he  has  finished.  She  never  goes  out  in  the  same  boat  with  him,  and  even 
when  lying  on  one  common  bed,  she  has  a  lower  pillow  to  mark  her  inferiority. 

Their  funerals  bear  a  great  resemblance  to  those  of  the  Chinese.  The  talapoins, 
or  monks,  chant  hymns  in  the  Pali  language.  When  the  solemn  procession  is  ended, 
the  body  is  burned  on  a  pile  of  valuable  fragrant  wood.  The  tombs  are  in  the  form 
of  pyramids,  and  those  of  the  kings  are  of  large  dimensions  both  in  height  and 
breadth. 

The  Siamese  are  fond  of  dramatic  exhibitions,  founded  on  their  sa- 
cred mythology,  and  the  fabulous  history  of  their  heroes.  They  have 
bull  races,  aquatic  boat  fights,  combats  of  elephants,  cock-fightings,  contests  of  hu 
man  strength,  wrestling  matches,  rope  dances,  religious  processions,  illuminations, 
and  beautiful  fire-works.  Their  mechanical  talents  lie  dormant  from  |  industry, 
their  habitual  indolence,  [n  iron  aud  steel  manufactures  they  are  far  behind,  but 
excel  in  jewellery,  and  in  miniature  painting.  The  common  people  are  employed  in 
fishing,  and  other  labours,  for  subsistence.  The  higher  classes  divide  their  time 
between  inactivity  and  the  tricks  of  a  petty  commerce. 

Their  chief  commercial  connections  are  with  Japan,  China,  Indostan,  |  Commerce, 
and  the  Dutch.  Their  exports  consist  of  grain,  cotton  benzoin,  sandal  wood,  and 
difierent  other  woods;  antimony,  tin,  lead,  iron,  loadstone,  impure  gold,  silver,  sap- 
phires, emeralds,  agates,  rock  crystal,  and  marble.  J  To  these  is  to  be  added  tombac^ 
which,  according  to  some,  is  a  native  copper  containing  gold  ;  according  to  others, 
an  artificial  compound. §  They  have  also  shagreen  skins,  nicely  dressed  and  orna- 
mented with  figures,  which  form  a  valuable  article  of  export,  sometimes  sold  at  enor- 
mous prices. 

Sommona-Codom,  the  god  of  the  Siamese,  is  the  sarhe  as  Buddha.  Religion  and 
Ilis  priests  and  monks,  wliom  we  call  talapoins,  are  called /a?j/.oo  in  the  *"'*' 
language  of  the  country.  His  precepts,  contained  in  a  book  called  Vinac,  are  nei- 
ther many  nor  rigorous  :  but  the  civil  laws  arc  severe  and  bloody.  Slavery  here  is 
perpetuated  by  birth,  except  in  the  case  of  prisoners  of  war,  and  persons  enslaved  in 
consequence  of  debt,  whose  children  are  considered  free.  Enslaved  debtors  are 
also  themselves  free  as  soon  as  they  have  fulfilled  their  engagements. 

The  government  of  Siam  is  despotic  and  hereditary.  The  sovereign,  |  Government, 
as  among  the  Birmans,  receives  almost  divine  honours.  Three  times  in  the  day  he 
presents  himself  for  an  instant  before  his  great  officers,  who  prostrate  themselves  on 
the  ground,  li  There  is  no  hereditary  nobility  to  share  the  awful  dignity  of  the 
crown.  The  monarch,  when  he  pleases,  may  marry  his  own  sisters,  and  even  his 
daughters.     But  the  power  of  this  monarch  seems  to  have  sufiered  diminution  in 

•  Kaempfer,  Hist,  du  Japon,  i.  p.  29.     Loubere,  i.  p.  81.  j  Loubere,  ii.  p.  94, 

+  Van  Vliet.    Account  of  the  Kingdom  of  Siam,  p.  62,  (in  Dutch.) 
§  Dalrymple,  Oriental  Repertory,  i.  p.  118.  ||  Van  Vliet,  p.  19. 

Vol.  II.— 0  o 


290  BOOK  FIFTY-SECONn. 

proportion  to  the  increase  of  his  courtly  pomp.  His  revenues  were  said  to  have 
iallen  a  century  ago,  from  a  proportion  of  forty  to  four  or  five.  According  to  a  cen- 
sus taken  at  that  period,  the  adults  of  both  sexes  amounted  to  1,900,000,  which 
Army.  |  would  give  a  population  of  between  three  and  four  millions.     Loubere 

says  that  in  his  time  there  was  no  army  except  some  royal  guards  :  and  Mandelslo 
reckons  the  mmiber  which  could  be  raised  on  emergency  to  be  about  60,000,  with 
3000  or  4000  elephants.  These  estimates  indicate  a  scanty  population.  The  navy 
was  composed  of  a  certain  number  of  galleys  of  different  sizes,  the  chief  merit  of 
which  consisted  in  their  rich  decorations.  The  rivers  of  Chin-India  have,  in  civil 
wars,  been  frequently  the  theatre  of  naval  battles. 

History.  |       The  history  of  tlie  Siamese  has  its  chasms,  but  is  not  loaded  with  any 

fabulous  chronology.  Their  era  goes  back  to  the  pretended  disappearance  of  their 
god  Sommona-Codom,  544  years  before  Christ.  Their  first  king  began  his  reign 
in  the  1300th  year  of  their  era,  or  about  A.  D.  750.  Wars  with  Pegu,  and  usurpa- 
tions of  the  throne,  constitute  the  sad  and  uniform  epochs  of  the  Siamese  history 
subsequently  to  the  discovery  of  the  country  by  the  Portuguese.  In  1568  the  king 
of  Pegu  made  war  on  them,  which  was  said  by  historians  to  be  on  account  of  two 
white  elephants  which  the  Siamese  refused  to  deliver  to  him ;  but  probably  the  chief 
motive  was  to  reconquer  the  coast  of  Bengal  Bay,  which  had  been  dismembered  from 
his  dominions  by  the  Siamese.  For  Vvant  of  attenfion,  the  politics  of  the  Asiatics 
are  sometimes  supposed  to  be  more  absurd  than  they  really  are.  After  scenes  of 
carnage  on  both  sides,  Siam  became  tributary  to  Pegu.  But  in  1620  Raja  Hapi 
constantiue  delivered  his  country  from  that  state  of  servitude.  In  1680  Constantino 
phaicon.  Phalcon,  a  native  of  Cephalonia  in  Greece,  having  become  a  favourite 

with  the  king  of  Siam,  opened  a  trade  with  France  with  the  view  of  supporting 
his  ambitious  designs  ;  but,  during  the  king's  last  illness,  the  grandees  of  the  court 
ordered  hira  to  be  beheaded,  and  the  connection  with  France  was  consequently 
broken  otf.  The  Birmans  have  not  been  able  to  reduce  the  Siamese  to  a  state  of 
permanent  subjection. 

Peninsula  of '  To  the  south-east  of  the  kingdom  of  Siam  lies  the  Peninsula  of 
Malacca.  Malacca  or  Malaya,  550  miles  long,  and  from  eighty  to  110  broad. 

The  interior  of  this  peninsula  seems  to  be  entirely  occupied  with  vast  natural 
forests.  No  maps,  ancient  or  modern,  describe  it  as  containing  towns  or  villages. 
Attempts  to  In  the  year  1644,  fjJovernor  Van  Yliet,  to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  a 
^ueiw.  '^  good  account  of  Siam,  attempted  to  send  detachments  into  the  interior. 
The  level  parts  were  covered  with  underwood,  where  it  was  necessary  to  open  a  road 
with  the  hatchet;  and  with  marshes,  in  which  the  natives  alone  were  able  to  get 
along  over  the  trunks  of  felled  trees.*  AVhen  an  eminence  is  gained,  the  eye  is  de- 
lighted with  beautiful  trees  ;  but  among  these  trees,  brambles,  thorns,  and  creeping 
plants,  are  so  closely  interwoven  as  often  to  present  an  insurmountable  obstacle  to 
the  progress  of  the  traveller.  In  'these  forests  mnsquitoes  fly  in  swarms  like  thick 
clouds.  At  every  step  there  is  a  risk  of  treading  on  a  poisonous  serpent.  Leopards, 
tigers,  and  rhinoceroses,  when  disturbed  in  their  native  haunts,  are  ready  to  devour 
any  traveller  who  is  not  provided  with  a  strong  escort,  and  who  does  not  keep  up  a 
fire  during  the  whole  night.  Nor  is  an  escort  easily  commanded.  The  Malays,  a 
hundred  times  more  dangerous  tlian  the  tigers  and  the  serpents,  never  attend  a  Eu- 
ropean but  with  great  reluctance.  Even  those  who  were  subject  to  Dutch  authority 
often  seized  the  first  opportunity  to  betray  the  persons  whom  they  had  been  employed 
Journey  of  I  to  conduct.  In  1745  Van  dcr  Puttcu,  a  zealous  traveller,  undertook, 
ten"  "  "''  I  with  a  detachment  furnished  to  him  by  the  (Governor  Alhinus,  to  pene- 
trate to  Mount  Ophir,  called  in  Malay,  Goonong-Lelang,  situated  near  the  sources 
of  the  river  Moar,  in  the  soutli-east  of  Malacca  but  as  soon  as  he  quitted  his  boat, 
his  escort  gradually  took  to  flight,  and  he  could  not  accomplish  his  undertaking. 
Proiiuetions.  |  The  parts  best  known  produce  pepper  and  other  aromatics,  and  some 
species  of  gums.  The  forests,  arrayed  in  eternal  verdure,  contain  aloe-wood  eagle- 
wood,  sandal-wood,  and  cassia  odorala,  a  species  of  cinnamon.     The  air  is  impreg- 

•  Ualthasar  Bort,  MS.  p.  103,  quoted  in  the  Memoirs  of  Batavia. 


Provinces  or 
kingdoma. 


MALACCA.  291 

nated  with  the  odour  of  innumerable  flowers,  which  perpetually  succeed  one  another 
without  an  interval.  But  the  uncultivated  state  of  the  country  generates  in  many 
parts  a  highly  noxious  atmosphere,  and  occasions  a  general  dclicicncy  of  human 
food.  Fish,  however,  beans,  and  fruits,  are  found  in  this  country.*  The  animal 
kingdom  is  little  known.  Among  the  birds  Avhich  seem  to  be  numerous  and  extremely 
beautiful,  the  bird  of  Juno  is  mentioned,  which,  without  the  tail  of  the  peacock,  dis- 
plays a  plumage  equal  to  his  in  elegance  and  in  beauty.|  The  tiger,  pursuing  the 
antelopes  over  the  rivers,  sometimes  falls  a  prey  to  the  caiman. |  From  the  hedge- 
hog of  Malacca  is  obtained  the  Malacca  bezoar — from  the  wild  elephants  plenty  of 
ivory.  Tin  is  the  only  mineral  substance  exported,  though  gold  is  found  in  some  of 
the  rivers.  The  tin  mines  of  Pera  are  found  in  valleys.  After  large  roots  |  Tin  mmes. 
of  trees,  sometimes  seven  feet  in  depth,  are  removed,  the  ore  is  found  in  a  fine  black 
sand,  which  closely  resembles  it  in  appearance.  Wlien  a  rocky  stratum  appears,  the 
digging  is  discontinued,  althougli  it  also  seems  to  contain  the  same  ore,  because  the 
mining  resources  of  the  Malays  are  too  confined  to  enable  them  to  make  way  through 
the  rocks.  §  Sometimes  the  Chinese  undertake  the  mining  operations,  and  they  are 
decidedly  more  expert  than  the  natives  in  refining  and  smelting  the  metal. 

The  maritime  parts  are  divided  into  six  Malay  kingdoms;  Patani,  Tron- 
ganon,  and  Pahang,  on  the  east  coast;  Johor  at  the  southern  extremity; 
Pera  and  Queda  on  the  west  side.  To  these  we  may  add  Malacca  and  its  territory, 
called  Malaya.  In  the  interior,  the  state  of  Manang-Cabo  is  separated  from  the 
Dutch  territory  by  the  Romboon  mountains. 

In  the  time  of  Mandelslo,  the  city  of  Palani,  inhabited  by  Malays  and  |  Patau!. 
Siamese,  was  built  of  wood  and  cane,  but  the  mosque  was  of  brick,  and  the  trade 
was  in  the  hands  of  the  Chinese  and  Portuguese,  the  natives  being  chiefly  occupied 
in  fishing  and  husbandry.  According  to  this  traveller,  continual  rains  fall,  accompa- 
nied with  a  north-east  wind,  during  the  months  of  November,  December,  and  Janu- 
ary. Oxen  and  buliuloes  were  used  for  agricultural  purposes,  and  crops  of  rice  were 
cultivated.  Fruit  and  game  were  abundant;  the  forests  swarmed  with  monkeys,  ti- 
gers, boars,  and  elephants. 

A  modern  traveller  praises  Tronganon  as  a  favourable  mart  for  the  TiongBnon. 
purchase  of  pepper  and  of  tin.||  Pahang,  (in  Chinese  Pang-IIang,)  ex-  Paiiang. 
ports  gold,  areca  nuts,  and  rattans. IT  The  kingdom  of  Johor  occupied  the  eastern 
extremity  of  this  Chersonese.  Batusaber,  the  capital  of  the  kingdom,  was  situated 
sixteen  miles  from  the  sea,  on  the  river  Yohor,  in  a  marshy  soil.  But  at  present  this 
kingdom  is  in  a  state  of  vassalage  to  a  piratical  chief,  who  is  called  king  of  Riom, 
and  resides  in  Pooloo-Binlang  Island,  one  of  those  which  divide  the  strait  of  Sinca- 
poor  from  that  of  Malacca.  This  strait  derives  its  name  from  a  Malay  town,  found- 
ed by  the  first  colonies  of  that  people  after  their  emigration  from  Sumatra.  Cape 
Romania,  the  southern  point  of  Asia,  is  called  in  the  country  itself  Oodjon  Tana. 

The  city  of  Malacca,  founded  by  a  Malay  prince  about  the  middle  of 
the  thirteenth  century,  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Portuguese  from  1511  till 
1(341,  when  the  Dutch  took  it.  According  to  le  (rcntil,  this  place,  which  once  rival- 
led Goa  and  Orniuz,  has  now  very  little  commercial  itnportaticc,  and  is  weakly  forti- 
fied. But  the  marshes  which  render  the  approach  diflicult,  the  river  Crysorant, 
which  partly  encircles  it,  and  the  solidity  of  the  works  of  St.  Paul,  which  are  built  of 
regular  iron-stone,  render  it  ca])able  of  a  long  defence.**  From  20,000  inhabitants, 
which  it  contained  under  the  Portuguese,  its  population  is  reduced  to  3000  or  4000. 
The  suburb  Tranquera  is  peopled  with  Chinese  and  persons  of  Portuguese  extrac- 
tion. Within  the  last  half  century  some  successful  attempts  have  been  made  to  cul- 
tivate the  camphor  tree  in  this  neighbourhood,  the  produce  of  which  has  soujcwhat 
reanimated  a  languishing  commerce. 

Pera,  a  kingdom  rich  in  tin,  is  governed  by  Mahometan  [)rinces,  who  |  Pem. 
are  withheld  from  working  their  mines  by  a  superstitious  fear  of  giving  otTence  to  the 

•  Blancard,  Commerce  des  Indes,  p.  328.  f  Van  Wurmb,  Mem.  de  Batavia,  p.  461. 

+  Valentyn,  Malacca,  p.  310.  §  Memoirs  of  Batavia,  iv.  p.  558. 

II   Blancard,  p.  328.  1   Mem.  of  Batavia,  iv.  p.  344. 

••   See  the  plate  No.  37  in  Valentyn,  and  the  Memoirs  of  Uatavia,  iv.  p.  325. 


city  of  Ma- 
lacca. 


292 


UOOK  FIFTV-SIXOND. 


PooIooPe 
itang,  er 
Printe  of 
Walet'  IsIanJ 

English  ca 


genii  of  the  mountain.^.     Tlic  adjoining  state  takes  its  name  from  the  capital  Qucda, 
Qucda.  I  a  town  containing  8000  souls.     It  has  a  harbour,  which  is  well  frequent- 

ed,  and  carries  on  a  great  trade  in  tin  and  elephant's  teeth. 

An  English  captain,  having  married  the  daughter  of  the  king  while  he 
was  on  the  coast  of  Queda,  obtained  the  sovereignty  of  the  island  Poo- 
loo-Ponang,  winch  he,  without  delay,  transferred  to  his  country.  The 
1  It  J  mice  of  Wales'  Island,  and  have  formed  on  it  an  important  establish- 
ment, as  the  harbour  is  so  situated  as  to  command  the  strait  of  Malacca,  while  the 
soil  IS  rich,  covered  with  teak  forests,  sugar  canes,  and  rice  fields,  and  found  well 
adapted  to  tlie  cultivation  of  pepper  and  indigo.* 

In  our  general  view  of  tlie  races  of  mankind,  we  have  distinguished  the  Malays  as 
the  model  of  the  fifth  variety  of  our  species.  That  people  is  not  indigenous  in  the 
pemnsula  of  Malacca,  but  one  of  their  tribes  invaded  and  colonized  ft  in  the  12th 
century  having  fled  from  tl.e  territory  on  the  river  Malaya,  in  the  island  of  Sumatra, 
before  the  victorious  armies  of  a  king  of  Java.  This  tradition  has  now  been  com- 
pletely confirmed  by  the  investigations  of  Messrs.  Leyden  and  Marsden,  according 
to  whom,  the  Ma  ays  form  the  indigenous  population  of  Sumatra,  and  probably  also 

u    u^\    I   7    '''''"^'  t'''^''^^'^''^'  to  the  fifth  great  division  of  the  world,  Oceanica, 
which  is  to  be  described  in  the  six  following  books. 

Table  of  the  Chief  Geographical  Posilions  of  Chin-India. 


Places. 


Cape  Ncgrais      .     ,     . 

IVIergui 

Prince  of  Wales'  Island 

Malacca 

Cape  Romania  .  .  . 
Tronganon  .... 
Capital  of  Siam  .  .  . 
Condor  Island      .     .     . 

Saigong 

Faifo,  or  Bay  of  Touron 

Huefo  Kchoe 

Cape  St.  James 

City  of  Saigonf  .  .  . 


N.  Lat. 


E.  Long'. 


lUg.  min.  sec.  dcg.  min, 


12 

5 
2 
1 
5 
14 


12 
30 
12 
30 
25 
20 


40 


8  40 
10  33 

15  57 

16  29 
10  15 
10  49 


48 
24 


98  18 

99  55 
102  5 

104  5 

•     • 

100  .50 
106  31 

106  44 

105  15 

107  20 
107  5 

106  38 


15 
15 
15 
15 

• 

15 
52 
15 
15 
15 
51 
26 


Authorities. 


Dalrymple. 

Forest. 

Popham. 

Batavian  Memoirs. 

Connaiss.  des  Terns. 

Blancard. 

Idem. 

Connaiss. 

lilancard. 

Idem. 

Idem. 

Phil.  Ed. 

Idem. 


des  Terns. 


rJJ\LV^''\^''^l  ^""^"^"^  «f  Salfron,  the  country,  and  its  trade,  and  of  the  naviff.ition  of  the 

Sea  bwS  Wl.i't;T flh     a""'-'''  '^t""'^'  •''^  "''""«•'  «^^  ^•'«^-  °f  ^  Voyaged  the  China 
Sea.by  L>eut  Wh.te,  of  the  American  Navy,  performed  in  1819-20.  He  complains  preatlv  of  the 

alUhe  bSns  a  Kl  e  J;.S  I  '  "'  *''"  """'r^'"^  "''^^'  foreigners.  Yet  he  states  that  with 
ail  tnc  bu  den.s  and  enactions  his  sugar  was  on  board  at  Saigon  for  §7  22  per  Chinese  nicul  of 

He  wTtlTtSTb^'l'^'  '"  r^Vr"''^"  ^"'"^  '"  ■''  '^^-'  »"  --Pl^^^  hii^Iadh'g  cos?S8  50 
than  he-wa  subi  ct.d  t'^'T,^'''"^  '^f  '''^\'''  ''''^'""'  '^'^  ^^«^''' ''"«  ^"^"^  have  been  no  more 
derecUhradvent ui  ir/l  ^''".I^'"-^''-!' f  S"  ^'c  took  in.  This,  if  true,  he  says  would  have  ren- 
of  I2V00      He  ronr.,?  ^  h  ciat. ve.     The  charges  on  a  vessel  of  252  tons  amounted  to  upwards 

S  xSs'of  rice  ^S  r  '  rT'"*'^  ''  """'"'^l''^,  '^'''-  ''"'^'''  '"'"^'•«'  «"^  ^'S^'^^^^  products. 
St    Tam.Ps   i^^h;  /  ^  "'^  '  ""'.""  '''  """^  ""^  ^''^  ^'""t  in  the  world.     Cape  St.  James,  or 

Nor{f7as  faia    th.  r  T'r  a""'"'  "^  "  ''^"'"  "*'  •^"-"""i""'  extending  along  the  coast  to  'the 
riv er  beh,;  on  i^  n.  H     °^,  ^  '"'IT"'     ^'  ''  ""  ^-^c.Ucnt  mark  for  thl  entrance  of  the  Donnai 
and   he  ;Eel  iL.  thJ  "'  '■-,  ""    ''^  °!  ^""^"'^"  '"  ^i  "'''es  from  the  point  of  the  Cape 
posi  s  of  tt   :tlra  b  an'ch  "^'fT'^r'  '\^T'^''\  «"  "-  south  by  a  flat,  the  joint  alluvial  del 
tniles  from  Cano^/  ,    "^'^f  '^^  *he  Cambodia  and  Donnai  rivers.     The  city  of  Saigon  is  59* 

nnaoitants,  oi  which  10,000  are  Chinese.    Tlie  navy-yard  and  naval  arsenal  may  vie 


OCEANICA.  293 

BOOK  LIII. 

OCEANICA. 


General  view 
of  Oceanica. 


PART  I. 

A  General  Descnption  of  this  new  Great  Division  of  the  World,  eomprehending  the 
regions  situated  in  the  Ocean  between  Africa,  Asia,  and  America. 

We  now  leave  the  old  Asiatic  continent,  the  nations,  cities,  and  empires  of  which 
have  fallen  under  our  view.  Our  attention  is  claimed  by  another  world,  or  rather, 
perhaps,  the  magnificent  fragments  of  a  former  world,  scattered  over  the  mighty 
ocean.  There  extends  over  a  space  of  more  than  8000  miles  a  labyrinth  of  islands, 
an  immense  archipelago,  in  the  midst  of  which  are  twenty  countries  spacious  like 
minor  continents,  and  one  of  them  equalling  Europe  in  extent. 

These  regions  present  in  every  quarter  scenes  fitted  to  move  the  most 
frigid  imagination.  Many  nations  are  here  found  in  their  earliest  in- 
fancy. The  amplest  openings  have  been  afforded  for  commercial  activity.  Num- 
berless valuable  productions  have  been  already  laid  under  contribution  to  our  insa- 
tiable luxury.  Here  many  natural  treasures  still  remain  concealed  from  scientific 
observation.  How  numerous  are  the  gulfs,  the  ports,  the  straits,  the  lofty  mountains, 
and  the  smiling  plains!  What  magnificence,  what  solitude,  what  originality,  and  what 
variety!  Here  the  zoophyte,  the  motionless  inhabitant  of  the  Pacific  Ocean,  creates, 
by  its  accumulated  exuvia?,  a  rampart  of  calcareous  rock  round  the  bank  of  sand  on 
which  it  has  grown.  Grains  of  seed  are  brought  to  this  spot  by  the  birds,  or  wafted 
by  the  winds.  The  nascent  verdure  makes  daily  acquisitions  of  strength,  till  the 
young  palm  waves  its  verdant  foliage  over  the  surface  of  the  waters.  Each  shallow 
is  converted  into  an  island ;  and  each  island  improved  into  a  garden.  We  behold  at 
a  distance  a  dark  volcano  ruling  over  a  fertile  country,  generated  by  its  own  lava. 
A  rapid  and  charming  vegetation  is  displayed  by  the  side  of  heaps  of  ashes  and  of 
scorite.  Where  the  land  is  more  extended,  scenes  more  vast  present  themselves: 
sometimes  the  ambiguous  basalt  rises  majestically  in  prismatic  columns,  or  lines,  to 
a  distance  too  great  for  the  eye  to  reach,  the  solitary  shore  with  its  picturesque  ruins. 
Sometimes  enormous  primitive  peaks  boldly  shoot  up  among  the  clouds;  while,  hung 
on  their  sides,  the  dark  pine  forest  varies  the  immense  void  of  the  desert  with  its 
gloomy  shade.  In  another  place  a  low  coast,  covered  with  mangroves,  sloping  in- 
sensibly beneath  the  surface  of  the  sea,  stretches  afar  into  dangerous  shallows,  where 

with  many  of  the  naval  establishments  in  Europe.  It  contains  ample  materials  of  the  most  ex- 
cellent kind  for  several  frigates,  and  in  fact  two  frigates  of  European  construction  were  built 
there  under  the  superintendance  of  French  officers.  The  city  of  Donnai  is  on  another  branch 
of  the  same  river,  and  is  about  50  miles  northward  of  Saigon.  From  the  western  part  of  Sai- 
gon  a  canal  has  been  recently  cut  23  miles  long,  12  feet  deep,  and  80  feet  wide,  through  im- 
mense forests,  connecting  with  a  branch  of  the  Cambodia  river.  It  was  cut  through  in  6  weeks 
at  that  place  by  26,000  men,  at  the  sacrifice  of  6000  lives,  and  was  barely  finished  in  1819. 

The  royal  city  of  Hu^  is  stupendous.  It  is  surrounded  by  a  ditch  9  miles  in  circumference, 
and  100  feet  broad.  Its  walls  are  of  brick  laid  in  a  cement,  of  which  sugar  is  a  principal  ingre- 
dient, and  are  60  feet  high,  The  pillars  of  the  gates  are  stone,  and  are  70  feet  high,  and  over 
the  arches  are  towers  90  to  100  feet  high.  The  fortress  is  built  on  the  plan  of  Strasburg,  in 
Germany,  The  smallest  guns  are  18  pounders,  the  largest  68  pounders,  cast  in  the  king's  own 
foundry.  The  whole  number  of  guns  to  be  mounted  is  1200;  100,000  men  are  constantly 
employed  on  the  works,  and  it  is  now  (1820)  nearly  completed.  The  Bay  of  Touron  is  one  of 
the  finest  in  the  world.— PAjY.  Ed. 


294  BOOK  FIFTY-THIRD. 

the  noisy  waves  break  into  spray.  To  these  subUme  horrors  a  scene  of  enchant- 
ment suddenly  succeeds.  A  new  Cythera  emerges  from  the  bosom  of  the  enchanted 
wave.  An  amphitheatre  of  verdure  rises  to  our  view.  Tufted  groves  mingle  their 
foliage  with  the  brilliant  enamel  of  the  meadows.  An  eternal  spring,  combining  with 
an  eternal  autumn,  displays  the  opening  blossom  along  with  the  ripened  fruits.  A 
perfume  of  exquisite  sweetness  embalms  the  atmosphere,  which  is  continually  re- 
freshed by  the  wholesome  breezes  from  the  sea.  A  thousand  rivulets  trickle  down 
the  hills,  and  mingle  their  plaintive  murmurs  with  the  joyful  melody  of  the  birds  ani- 
mating the  thickets.  Under  the  shade  of  the  cocoa,  the  smiling,  but  modest  ham- 
lets present  themselves,  roofed  with  banana  leaves,  and  decorated  with  garlands  of 
jessamine.  Here  might  mankind,  if  they  could  only  throw  off  their  vices,  lead  lives 
exempt  from  trouble  and  from  want.  Their  bread  grows  on  the  trees  which  shade 
their  lawns,  the  scenes  of  their  festive  amusement.  Their  light  barks  glide  in  peace 
on  the  lagoons  protected  from  the  swelling  surge  by  the  coral  reefs  surrounding  their 
whole  island,  at  a  short  distance  from  the  shore,  and  confining  their  domestic  water 
in  the  stillness  of  a  prison. 

It  forms  a  fifth  Tliis  region  was  long  explored  in  quest  of  a  Terra  Atistralis,  a  con- 
worid.  tinent  which  was  supposed  to  rival  the  old  world  in  extent.     After  a 

series  of  multiplied  voyages  had  dissipated  that  illusory  expectation,  geographers 
still  recognised  in  this  wide  region  a  fifth  great  division  of  the  world.  Unless  we  fix 
New  Holland  and  New  Zealand  as  appendages  of  Asia,  we  must  create  a  new  di- 
vision to  comprehend  these  vast  countries.  If  this  necessity  is  once  admitted,  the 
principle  employed  ought  to  be  purely  scientific.  What  reason  can  there  be  for 
dividing  into  two  this  great  archipelago,  which  presents  on  the  terrestrial  globe  such 
a  manifest  and  striking  whole  ?  Why  seek  for  a  line  of  demarcation  between  the 
Moluccas  and  Papuas,  where  none  is  traced  by  nature  ?  The  ancients  restricted  the 
name  of  Asia  to  the  continent  so  denominated.  When  the  modern  discoverers  of 
Sumatra,  Java,  and  Borneo,  connected  these  islands  with  Asia,  they  were  igno- 
rant of  the  extent  of  that  archipelago  of  which  they  formed  a  part.  But  we  have 
no  reason  for  declining  to  restrict  the  name  of  Asia  to  the  limits  assigned  to  it  by 
nature. 

The  Chinese  Sea  separates  Asia  from  the  great  ocean,  as  the  Medi- 
terranean separates  Africa  from  Europe.  To  the  west  we  continue  the 
boundary  line  through  the  strait  of  Malacca,  and  then  turning  round  the  north  point 
of  Sumatra,  we  proceed  to  the  point  where  the  92d  meridian  east  from  London 
crosses  the  equator.  Through  the  whole  southern  hemisphere  that  meridian  will 
form  a  convenient  division  between  the  seas  of  New  Holland  and  those  of  Mada- 
gascar and  Africa.  The  islands  of  Amsterdam  and  St.  Paul  will,  on  this  principle, 
remain  connected  with  the  archipelago  of  the  Indian  Ocean.  When  we  leave  the 
Chinese  Sea  to  the  north,  the  channel  between  Pormosa  and  the  Phillippines  being 
the  broadest,  marks  the  natural  boundary.  From  this  we  draw  a  line  which,  follow- 
ing that  part  of  the  waters  which  is  most  of  islands,  separates  the  Japanese  seas  to 
a  distance  of  300  or  450  miles,  and  reaches  the  point  of  intersection  of  the  40th  pa- 
rallel of  north  latitude  with  tlie  152d  meridian.  The  40th  parallel  will  continue  to 
bound  the  new  division  of  the  world,  till  we  come  to  the  point  where  it  is  crossed  by 
the  158th  western  meridian  from  London.  Taking  our  departure  from  this  point, 
we  separate  the  North  American  seas  from  those  of  the  Oceanic  archipelago  by  the 
shortest  line  that  can  be  drawn  from  this  to  the  point  of  intersection  of  the  lOSth 
western  meridian  and  the  equator.  This  meridian  will  be  our  boundary  through  the 
southern  hemisphere. 

Designation  of  The  fifth  part  of  the  world  thus  determined  is  found  to  be  situated  in 
Vorili?'^'"  ^'^  the  Great  Ocean,  that  which,  of  all  others,  is  the  Ocean,  by  way  of 
eminence.  This  essential  character  is  not  common  to  it  with  any  other  division  of 
the  globe:  it  is  a  character  which  impresses  a  special  physiognomy  on  its  geography, 
as  well  as  on  its  natural  and  its  civil  history.  It  is  therefore  worthy  of  being  made 
the  foundation  of  its  name.  It  will  be  called  Oceanic  a,  and  its  inhabitants  Oceanians  ; 
names  which  will  supersede  the  unmeaning  or  inaccurate  designations  of  Austral- 
asia, Notasia,  Austral  India,  and  Australia.     New  Holland  has  not  one  Asiatic  fea- 


Boundaries  of 
Oceaoica. 


Nortli-west 
Oceanica. 


OCEANIC A.  293 

ture.  Extending  the  principle  of  the  nomenclature  which  is  in  present  use,  we 
ought  to  call  Africa  "  Occidental  Asia."  This  designation  would  be  equally  correct 
with  those  others.  There  is  no  occasion  for  perpetuating  the  memory  of  the  pre- 
tended Terra  Australis,  in  the  name  of  a  part  of  the  world  which  is  not  exclusively 
situated  on  the  Austral  (or  southern)  hemisphere.  The  happier  term  of  Polynesia 
will  be  preserved  for  that  subdivision  of  Oceanica  to  which  it  has  been  specially  ap- 
plied. 

In  order  to  study  the  details  of  this  vast  territory,  we  proceed  to  divide  |  Subdivisions. 
it  into  a  plurality  of  subordinate  groups  ;  and  in  our  classification  we  shall  endea- 
vour to  reconcile  the  rigorous  principles  of  natural  geography  with  the  routine  of 
other  geographers.    We  shall  therefore  first  go  over  the  islands  situated  between  the 
Indian  Sea,  the  Chinese  Sea,  and  the  Ocean,  as  far  as  the  132d  east  meridian. 

These  islands,  which  will  form  our  north-west  Oceanica,  generally 
pass  for  an  appendage  of  Asia,  although  the  Chinese  Sea  determines 
so  evidently  the  actual  frontier  of  Asia.  Not  to  browbeat  with  much  disdain  a  pre 
judice  consecrated  by  the  usage  of  two  centuries,  we  shall,  in  the  arrangement  of 
our  materials  at  least,  make  these  regions  intermediate,  while  we  lead  the  unpreju- 
diced reader  to  recognise  the  natural  classification.  From  the  Moluccas,  we  shall 
pass  by  a  short  interval  to  Great  Oceanica,  to  which  accident  has  assigned  the  name 
of  New  Holland.  Arranged  round  this  immense  isle  we  find  New  Gui-  central  Ocea- 
nea,  New  Britain,  New  Ireland,  Solomon's  Islands,  Louisiada,  Terra  ""^*' 
del  Spirito  Santo,  New  Caledonia,  New  Zealand,  and  Van  Diemen's  Land.  This  cen- 
tral portion  of  Oceanica,  (which  it  will  perhaps  be  necessary  to  subdivide  again  into  two 
regions,)  includes  the  countries  least  known,  and  the  most  numerous  remains  of  the 
Oceanian  negro  race,  who  appear  to  be  the  true  aborigines  of  this  part  of  the  world. 

Our  third  section  will  include  the  eastern  part  of  Oceanica,  or  the  Eastern  Ooea- 
numberless  small  islands  which  cover  the  Pacific  Ocean  from  the  Mari-  n«fa.  °'  "  ^' 
ans  to  Easter  Island  and  Owyhee.  To  these  the  learned  President  de  Brosses  has 
applied  the  name  of  Polynesia,*  which  the  Portuguese  authors,  Juan  de  Barros|  and 
Diego  CoutOjJ  had,  two  centuries  before,  given  to  the  Moluccas,  the  Philippines, 
and  others  to  the  east  of  Java. 

Nature  has  given  this  part  of  the  world  a  very  prominent  and  charac- 
teristic physiognomy.    No  portion  of  the  surface  of  the  globe  has  more 
numerous  inequalities,  and  in  none,  except  America,  have  the  chains  of  mountains 
so  striking  a  polarity — so  marked  a  direction  from  north  to  south.   At  the  same  time, 
these  chains  generally  present  about  the  middle  a  great  bend  from  west  to  east.  The 
best  marked  among  them  is  that  formed  by  the  Marian  islands,  the  Carolines,  and 
the  Mulgraves,  which  are  probably  connected  by  means  of  St.  Augustine's  Islands 
and  some  other  links,  with  the  archipelago  of  the  Navigators,  or  that  of  the  Friendly 
Islands.     Their  general  direction  is  from  north-west  to  south-east.     Even  among 
the  Carolines,  where  that  Polynesian  chain  turns  due  east,  the  particular     The  Poiyne- 
links  lie  north  and  south.     Another  great  chain  makes  its  appearance     s'an'iiaiiu 
in  the  Isle  of  Luzon,  the  largest  of  the  Philippines,  which  passes  by  the  island  Pa- 
lawan into  that  of  Borneo.    The  direction  of  that  well  known  branch  is     chain  of  the 
from  north-east  to  south-west.     It  bounds  on  one  side  the  basin  of  the     ciiinese  sea. 
Chinese  Sea.  More  to  the  east  that  chain  is  converted  into  a  number  of  minor  ones, 
united  in  groups  varying  in  their  structure.     The  chains  of  Celebes  and  Gilolo  are 
well  marked  ;  but  a  larger  and  higher  one  crosses  New  Guinea ;  where 
some  of  its  elevations  are  covered  with  perpetual  snow.    In  New  South 
Wales,  the  long  line  of  the  Blue  Mountains  extend  to  Van  Diemen's 
Land,  terminates  in  South  Cape  and  Cape  Pillar,  immense  masses  of 
basalt,  which  give  a  magnificent  idea  of  tliis  Cordillera  of  central  Oceanica.     The 
fourth  great  chain  takes  its  commencement  at  the  Andaman  and  Nice-     Javanese 
bar  islands  ;  then  gives  rise  to  the  Islands  of  Sumatra,  Java,  Timor,  and     ''""°' 
others.     It  runs  in  the  form  of  a  bow  from  north-west  to  south-cast,  then  due  east, 


Chains  of 
mountains. 
Their  polaritjr. 


Chain  of  New 
Guinea. 

Chain  of  New 
South  Wales. 


•  De  Brosses,  Hist,  de  Navig.  aux  Terres-Australes,  i.  p.  80. 

t  Karros,  Asia,  Dec.  i.  tome  i.  p.  147.  +  D.  Couto,  Asia  Contin.  t.  iii.  139. 


296  BOOK    FIFTY-THIRD. 

but  it  probably  passes  by  Cape  Diemen,  (the  Cape  Leoben  of  the  French  maps,) 
where  it  can  have  no  other  direction  than  north  and  south. 

Small  chains.  |  All  the  archipclagos  of  eastern  Oceanica  lie  north  and  south.  New 
Zealand,  New  Caledonia,  and  the  New  Hebrides,  form  well  marked  chains.  That 
of  Solomon's  Islands,  bending  from  the  south-east  to  the  north-west,  is  continued  in 
New  Ireland  and  New  Hanover.  It  often  happens  that  the  small  chains  are  indivi- 
dually terminated  by  a  larger  island  than  the  others  of  which  they  are  composed. 
Thus  the  islands  of  Otaheite,  Owyhee,  and  Terra  del  Spirito  Santo,  are  found  at 
the  extremity  of  a  line  of  smaller  islands.  These  analogies  might  have  faciUtated 
the  progress  of  discovery,  and  especially  contributed  to  make  each  archipelago  more 
easily  recognised.  By  carefully  marking  the  direction  of  a  chain,  navigators  might 
have  become  almost  certain  of  discovering  new  islands  ;  and  even  still,  they  ought 
to  attend  to  a  principle  which  may  put  them  on  their  guard  against  immense  reefs 
which,  in  all  probability,  follow  the  direction  of  chains  at  the  bottom  of  the  ocean. 
High  Islands.  |  Among  these  thousands  of  islands,  some  shoot  up  to  a  considerable 
elevation,  generally  presenting  a  conical  form.  Many  of  them,  according  to  Foster, 
are  basaltic  :  the  centres  of  the  mountains  often  contain  wide  tunnels,  and  at  other 
Volcanoes.  |  times  rouud  lakes  which  may  be  taken  for  ancient  craters.  Although 
the  presence  of  volcanic  substances  has  not  every  where  been  ascertained  by  satis- 
factory evidence,  we  know  already  in  Oceanica  a  greater  number  of  volcanoes  than 
in  any  other  part  of  the  world.  Sailors  sometimes  speak  of  them  with  admiration, 
at  other  times  with  terror.  In  one  place,  as  in  Shootens  Islands,  near  New  Guinea, 
the  flames  and  the  smoke  rise  calmly  over  a  fruitful  and  smiling  country  ;  in  another, 
as  in  the  northern  part  of  the  Marian  islands,  dreadful  torrents  of  black  lava  darken 
the  shore.  The  volcano  of  Gilolo  broke  out  in  1673  with  a  violence  which  made 
the  whole  of  the  Moluccas  shake.  The  ashes  were  carried  as  far  as  Magindanao, 
and  the  scoria  and  the  pumice  stones  floating  on  the  sea,  seemed  to  retard  the  pro- 
gress of  the  vessels. 

Low  islands.  |  All  the  low  islands  seem  to  have  for  their  base  a  reef  of  coral  rocks, 
generally  disposed  in  a  circular  form.  The  middle  space  is  often  occupied  by  a  la- 
goon ;  the  sand  is  mixed  with  pieces  of  broken  coral  and  other  marine  substances ; 
proving  that  such  islands  have  been  originally  formed  by  these  coral  rocks,  which 
are  inhabited,  and  according  to  some,  created  by  polypi,  and  afterwards  augmented 
and  elevated  by  the  slow  accumulation  of  light  bodies  drifted  to  them  by  the  sea.  It 
is,  however,  very  remarkable,  that  among  the  islands  so  constituted, 
some  are  almost  level  with  the  sea,  while  others  have  hundreds  of  feet 
of  elevation,  of  which  last  Tongataboo  is  an  example.  On  their  summits  are  found 
coral  rocks  perforated  in  the  same  manner  with  those  found  at  the  water's  edge. 
Theii-  origin.  |  Now  the  madreporcs,  millepores,  and  tubipores  which  raise  these  sub- 
marine habitations,  (for  the  true  coral  polypus  is  never  found  there,)  grow  over  the 
hardened  spoils  of  their  dead  predecessors.  They  cannot  Hve  above  the  level  of  the 
sea,  a  circumstance  which  shows  that  the  sea,  at  a  former  period,  washed  these 
rocks,  and  gradually  retired  and  left  them  exposed. 

Whether  have  the  zoophytes  or  polypi  themselves  formed  the  stony  bodies  which 
they  inhabit  ?  or  do  they  find  them  ready  prepared  by  the  hand  of  nature  1  This  is 
one  of  the  most  interesting  problems  in  physical  geography  ;  but  hitherto,  the  obser- 
vations made  are  too  vague  and  too  recent  to  alford  a  complete  solution  of  it. 
Messrs.  Anderson  and  R.  Forster*  incline  to  think  that  the  animals  form  the  matter 
which  composes  the  coral  rock,  and  consequently,  that  new  islands  may  be  formed 
by  their  labours.  On  this  point  Captain  Cook  is  decided.  Dalrymple  thinks  that 
the  coral  rocks  are  often  formed  at  the  bottom  of  tlie  ocean,  from  which  they  are  de- 
tached by  currents  and  tempests,  and  thrown  on  the  sand  banks. f  This  may,  in 
some  localities,  take  place,  but  it  cannot  apply  to  the  reefs  which  rise  Hke  walls  in 
the  middle  of  the  deepest  sea,  such  as  the  formidable  rocks  on  which  Captain  Flin- 
ders nearly  perished,  and  which  probably  proved  fatal  to  La  Perouse.J     The  great 

•  R.  Forsler,  Observaticjns,  p.  149.     G.  Forster's  Voyage,  ii.  p.  145. 

t  Ualrymple,  Historical  Collection,  i.  p.  22.  i  Fliiiders's  Account. 


Difference  of 
level  of  the 
islands. 


Dangers  of  tlic 
navigation. 


Extent  of 
the  reefs. 


Straits  of 
Oceanica. 


OCEANIC A.  297 

reef  of  New  Caledonia  is  so  steep  tl^al  Captain  Kent,  commander  of  the  Buffalo,* 
sounding  at  no  greater  distance  than  twice  the  length  of  his  ship  with  a  line  of  150 
fathoms,  could  find  no  bottom.  The  reefs  round  New  South  Wales  also  rise  like 
perpendicular  walls  from  a  very  deep  bottom.  Such  structures  must  owe  their  origin 
to  the  animals  themselves,  unless  we  should  advance  a  new  doctrine,  that  they  grow 
by  a  vegetation  resembling  that  of  the  fuci,  and  that  the  polypi  found  on  them  are 
analogous  to  the  insects  which  take  up  their  abode  on  herbs  and  trees,  a  theory  to 
which  the  arborescent  appearance  of  some  corals,  and  the  fungous  forms  of  others, 
give  some  countenance. | 

The  reefs  render  the  navigation  of  this  ocean  exceedingly  dangerous. 
In  some  of  its  seas  these  rocks  reach  the  surface,  while  in  others,  they 
lie  dangerously  concealed,  having  over  them  only  a  few  feet  of  water.  Woe  to  the 
mariner  who,  in  consequence  of  inacquaintance  with  the  seas,  or  the  power  of  the 
currents,  gets  entangled  amidst  the  pointed  spires  of  this  submarine  city.  The  in- 
telligent Captain  Cook  was  neither  able  to  foresee  nor  aviod  such  dangers.;];  It 
happened  at  one  time,  by  a  singularly  fortunate  accident,  that  the  point  of  a  rock 
which  had  pierced  his  vessel  was  broke  off,  and  by  sticking  in  the  place,  and  acting 
as  a  plug,  saved  the  vessel  from  destruction. 

The  reefs  often  extend  from  one  island  to  another.     The  inhabitants 
of  Disappointment  Islands  and  those  of  Duff's  Group  can  make  their 
visits  by  passing  over  long  lines  of  reefs  from  island  to  island,  presenting  the  ap 
pearance  of  a  regiment  marching  along  the  surface  of  the  ocean.     On  those  reefs 
which  are  covered  with  water  are  found  immense  collections  o(*mollasc(ii  and  small 
shells.     Muscles  of  every  variety,  pearl  oysters,  jmiJiCB  marince,  star-fish,  and  nic- 
dusoc,  collect  in  millions. § 

A  part  of  the  world  so  constructed  must  contain  an  infinite  number  of 
straits.  A  few  of  the  most  conspicuous  are  all  that  we  can  notice;. 
The  strait  of  Sunda  is  the  principal  entrance  of  the  Chinese  sea,  Asia  is  separated 
from  Oceanica  in  general,  and  from  Sumatra  in  particular,  by  the  long  strait  of 
Malacca.  To  the  north,  the  wide  channel  between  the  island  of  Formosa  and  the 
Philippines  has  hitherto  received  no  name.  To  the  east  of  Java,  we  distinguish, 
among  a  multitude  of  others,  the  strait  of  Bali,  affording  to  the  ships  bound  for 
China  a  passage  which  has  some  advantages  over  that  of  Sunda.  The  strait  of 
Macassar  separates  Borneo  from  Celebes.  To  the  east  of  this  last  island  the  great 
Molucca  passage  opens.  The  history  of  navigation  has  given  a  celebrity  to  the 
adjoining  straits  of  New  Guinea.     That  of  Waigioo  separates,  with  some  geogra- 

•  Mentioned  by  Barrow  in  his  Voyag'e  to  Cochin-Cliina. 

f  In  a  Review  of  the  Transactions  of  the  Geolog'ical  Society,  (Quarterly  Review,  No.  6R, 
515.)  certain  facts  are  stated  in  relation  to  this  subject,  showint^  the  prog-ress  of  these  forma- 
tions and  their  causes.  After  the  Earthquake  in  Chili,  A.D.  1822,  it  appeared  on  the  morning 
of  20th  Nov.,  that  the  whole  line  of  coast  from  N.  to  S.,  to  the  distance  of  above  100  miles,  had 
been  raised  above  its  former  level.  At  Valparaiso,  tiie  alteration  of  the  level  was  3  feet ;  at 
(iuintero  4  feet.  Mrs.  Graham  says,  there  was  good  reason  to  believe,  that  at  former  periods, 
several  ajicienl  lines  of  coast,  consisting  nf  sking-Ie  mixed  with  shells,  had  been  raised  to  the  hciffhl 
of  50  feet  above  the  sea.  Part  of  the  coast  thus  elevated,  is  said  to  consist  of  i^ranite.  In  the 
Journal  of  the  Royal  Instit.,  it  is  stated  that  the  whole  country  from  tlie  foot  of  the  Andes,  to 
far  out  at  sea  was  raised,  the  ijreatest  rise  being  at  the  distance  of  about  2  miles  from  shore; 
the  supposed  area  over  which  the  eartlicjuake  extended  on  the  land,  was  estimated  at  100,000 
square  miles. — The  rise  upon  the  coast  was  from  2  to  4  feet.  At  the  distance  of  a  mile  inland 
it  must  have  been  from  5  to  7  feet.  Dr.  Jack  in  his  paper  on  the  Geology  of  Pulo  Nias,  near 
Sumatra,  says,  "Near  the  surface  on  all  the  hills,  masses  of  coral  origin  are  found  lying  imme- 
diately above  the  rocky  strata,  and  to  all  appearance,  ])recisely  in  their  original  position,  in 
general  so  little  altered,  that  their  differciit  species  can  be  determined  with  certainty. 
Every  thing  seems  to  indicate  that  the  surface  of  the  island  must,  at  otie  time,  have  been  the 
bed  of  the  ocean.  Although  it  must  be  regarded  as  a  phenomenon  of  a  most  singular  kind, 
that  so  large  an  island,  diversified  with  numerous  hills  from  800  to  3000  feet  in  height,  should 
have  been  heaved  up  from  the  sea  with  so  lilile  disturbance  to  the  fragile  marine  jjroductions 
on  the  surface.  The  appearance  and  nature  of  these  productions,  would  indicate  a  compara- 
tively recent  date  to  the  event." — Phil.  Kd. 

4:  Forster's  Opuscula,  i.  p.  52,  and  253.  (Cierman.) 

§  Martyn'.s  Figures  of  Shells  collected  in  the  bouth  Sua,  1784, 
Vol.  11.— P  p 


Particular 
seas. 


298  HOOK  FIFTY-THIRD. 

phers,  Asia  from  Australia.  Those  of  Dampier  and  Bougainville  open  useful  tracks 
for  navigators.  A  more  important  strait  separates  New  Guinea  from  New  Holland; 
it  boars  the  name  of  Torres,  who  discovered  it  after  erroneous  views  of  the  connec- 
tions of  these  seas  and  lands  had  been  long  entertained ;  and  farther  south  is  En- 
deavour strait,  discovered  by  Captain  Cook.  At  the  southern  extremity  of  New 
Holland,  and  on  the  north  of  Van  Diemen's  land.  Bass's  strait  opens  one  of  the  most 
important  communications  between  the  great  Pacific  and  the  Indian  ocean.  Cook's 
strait  separates  from  one  another  the  two  islands  of  New  Zealand. 

Many  parts  of  the  ocean  receive  particular  designation  from  the 
countries  which  they  respectively  bound.  Thus  we  distinguish  the  Chi- 
nese Sea,  a  real  Mediterranean,  the  Sea  of  Celebes,  and  the  Gulf  of  Carpentaria. 
Old  charts  give  the  waters  which  separate  the  islands  of  Java  and  of  Timor  from 
New  Holland  the  name  of  the  Landichol  sea,  probably  composed  of  two  Malay 
terms,  laool,  a  sea,  and  kidor,  south.  Captain  Flinders  has  proposed  to  give  the 
waters  lying  between  New  Caledonia,  Solomon's  Island,  New  Guinea,  and  New 
Holland,  the  name  of  "the  Coral  Sea." 

■\T,nd«and  I  The  winds  and  currents  which  prevail  in  this  vast  ocean  may  all  be 
ctinents.  j  j-educed  to  a  single  principle,  the  general  motion  of  the  atmosphere  and 
the  sea  in  a  direction  from  east  to  west,  opposite  to  that  of  the  rotation  of  the  earth.* 
This  occasioned  the  mistakes  of  Quiros,  Mendana,  and  other  navigators,  respecting 
the  length  of  courses  which  they  had  sailed.  This  general  motion  usually  acquires 
an  increased  force  in  the  ditTerent  straits,  which  are  almost  all  directed  from  east  to 
west.  In  the  neigh'bourhood  of  the  Philippines  and  of  New  Caledonia,  the  rapidity 
of  the  westerly  current  is  extreme.  But  the  extensive  lands  heated  by  the  sun 
often  attract  to  their  central  parts  the  atmosphere  of  the  surrounding  sea,  and  thus 
occasion  winds  opposite  to  the  trade  winds.  Such  are  the  west  winds  which  prevail 
on  the  west  coast  of  New  Holland.  These  monsoons  are  not  all  known.  Each 
island  has  its  sea  and  land  breezes,  the  former  prevailing  by  night  and  the  latter  by 
day.  At  a  distance  of  forty  degrees  north  and  south  of  the  equator,  the  storms  and 
winds  are  variable;  the  west  winds,  however,  seem  to  prevail  in  the  northern  hemi- 
sphere, while  Cook  always  found  the  winds  easterly  in  the  seas  surrounding  the 
south  pole. 

cumstcw  I  The  great  countries  of  Oceanica  are  exposed  to  the  influence  of  a  ver- 
tical sun.  It  is  probable  that  New  Holland,  unless  it  contains  inland  seas,  has  a 
climate  as  hot  and  arid  as  Africa.  The  marshy  shores  of  some  islands  in  the  north- 
west of  Oceanica,  exposed  to  an  intense  heat,  generate  a  pestiferous  air,  which  may 
be  corrected  by  human  cultivation.  Notwithstanding  these  local  inconveniences, 
Oceanica  presents  to  the  industrious,  the  healthy,  and  the  temperate,  a  greater  diver- 
sity of  delightful  climates  than  any  other  part  of  the  world.  Such  islands  as  are 
small  and  elevated  resemble  so  many  paradises.  By  selecting  localities  with  the 
proper  elevations,  the  Englishman  may  find  his  fresh  lawns  and  his  moss-covered 
trees,  the  Italian  his  orange-groves,  and  the  West  Indian  planter  his  fields  of  sugar 
cane.  The  small  extent  of  these  islands  procures  for  them  the  temperature  of  the 
ocean.  The  heat  never  becomes  insupportable,  even  for  northern  Europeans.  The 
air  is  continually  renewed  by  the  light  sea  and  land  breezes,  dividing  the  empire  of 
day  and  night.  Their  perpetual  spring  is  rarely  disturbed  by  hurricanes  or  earth- 
quakes.! 

Animals.  |  We  havc  already,  in  another  part  of  this  work,  taken  notice  of  the  im- 
perfect features  of  resemblance  presented  by  the  animal  kingdom  in  the  different 
Quadrupeds.  |  countries  of  Oceanica.|;  The  didelph-opossums,  the  phalangers,  the 
kangaroo-philanders,  the  cassowaries,  and  a  few  other  species,  seem  common  to 
several  countries  of  this  part  of  the  world.  The  case  will  probably  be  found  to  be 
the  same  with  some  other  species,  when  the  natural  history  of  these  countries  has 
been  attentively  observed.  If  several  of  them  possess  animals  peculiar  to  themselves, 
that  circumstance  will  appear  no  way  surprising  in  a  world  of  islands.     None  of  the 

•  For  the  Theory,  see  vol.  i.  p.  158  and  IT'S. 

t  See  vol.  i.  p.  256.  ^  See  vol.  i.  p.  249. 


OCEANICA.  299 

great  races  of  quadrupeds,  either  of  Asia  w  New  Holland,  has  extended  to  the  small 
i;3lands  of  Polynesia.  The  pig  is  the  only  one  found  every  where  domesticated,  and 
is  the  same  species  as  in  India  and  China.  Dogs,  cats,  and  rats,  formed  the  whole 
quadruped  class  in  these  islands  before  Captain  Cook  suppHed  them  with  goats  and 
cattle. 

Ornithology  offers,  through  the  whole  of  Oceanica,  a  little  more  va-  |  Birdi. 
riety,  along  with  many  features  of  mutual  resemblance.  Common  poultry  abounds, 
and  is  of  a  larger  size  than  ours.  Labillardiere  saw  on  the  Friendly  Islands  several 
kinds  of  loris  and  other  birds,  common  to  the  Philippines  and  the  Moluccas.  In 
Otaheite,  as  in  Amboyna,  small  birds  swarm  in  the  groves  of  bread-fruit  trees.  Their 
song  is  agreeable,  though  it  is  generally  said  in  Europe  that  the  birds  of  warm  cli- 
mates are  destitute  of  the  powers  of  melody.  Remarkably  small  parroquets,  of  a 
beautiful  sapphire  blue,  live  on  the  foliage  of  the  highest  cocoa,  while  others  of  a 
greenish  colour,  diversified  with  largo  red  spots,  appear  usually  among  the  bananas, 
and  oflen  in  the  houses  of  the  people,  who  tame  them  and  set  a  high  value  on  their 
red  feathers.  These  species  are  generally  diffused  between  the  10th  northern  and 
the  20th  southern  parallel  of  lititude.  The  birds  of  paradise  no  where  sport  their 
light  bodies  and  airy  plumage  but  in  the  balmy  winds  of  the  shores  of  New  Guinea. 
The  aquatic  birds  are  every  where  the  same.  In  Amboyna  and  Otaheite  we  find  the 
dark-green  martin-fisher,  with  white  neck  surrounded  with  a  ring  of  green.  A  large 
species  of  cuckoos,  and  several  sorts  of  pigeons  or  turtle-doves,  hop  from  branch  to 
branch,  while  the  blue  herons  gravely  stalk  along  the  sea  shores  in  quest  of  shell-fish 
and  worms.  The  tropic  bird  inhabits  the  caverns  on  the  steep  sides  of  the  rocks, 
where  the  Otaheitans  go  in  quest  of  it  for  the  sake  of  the  feathers  of  its  tail.  For 
the  same  purpose,  they  ensnare  the  frigate  bird,  a  bird  of  passage.  The  spheniscus 
(manchot)  of  the  Great  Ocean  differs  essentially  from  the  penguin  of  the  Atlantic. 
These  birds,  almost  without  wings,  found  at  a  distance  of  1300  miles  from  any  known 
land,  live  chiefly  in  the  frigid  zone,  and  even  in  the  icy  seas.  But  one  species,  the 
Jlptenodytcs  papua,  is  seen  at  New  Guinea  and  among  the  Papua  Islands.* 

No  sea  abounds  so  much  in  fish.  Between  Easter  island  and  the  |  Fish. 
Sandwich  islands.  La  Perouse  was  followed  by  immense  troops  of  fish  ;  some  indi- 
viduals were  easily  indentified  by  the  harpoons  sticking  in  their  bodies.  Between 
the  shores  of  Borneo  and  those  of  New  Guinea,  we  find  an  entire  nation  of  fishermen 
called  Badshoos,  who  are  constantly  in  their  boats,  and  live  on  fish.  In  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  New  Zealand,  Labillardiere  saw  shoals  of  fishes,  which  produced  by 
their  motions  a  waving  movement  on  the  surface  of  the  water,  like  the  advance  and 
recess  of  a  tide.|  The  species  are  in  general  the  same  that  are  found  in  the  Indian 
Sea.  The  bonitas,  the  dorados,  the  tunnies,  the  surmullets,  the  rays,  the  mullets, 
seem  to  abound  alike  on  every  shore.  There  are  a  hundred  new  species,  most  of 
which  are  vaguely  determined,  as  well  as  two  new  genera,  the  Harpurus  and  Balisto- 
podes. 

The  seals  of  the  Great  Ocean,  those  at  least  which  Peron  observed 
on  the  shores  of  New  Holland,  differ  from  those  of  the  Atlantic.     Per- 
haps the  case  is  the  same  with  the  whales  which  sometimes  get  entanglec 
reefs,  where  their  immense  bodies  have  not  room  to  turn.     All  the  lagoons  between 
the  reefs  and  shores  abound  with  lobsters,  common  oysters,  pearl  oysters,  and  shells 
of  extraordinary  size  and  beauty.    The  crabs  in  some  places  acquire  an  |  crabs. 
enormous  size  ;  they  eat  cocoa-nuts.     The  crab  of  the  Moluccas  seems  to  be  com- 
mon to  the  whole  ocean. 

The  number  of  poisonous  fish  seems  to  be  considerable.  Quiros  |  Poisonous  fish, 
narrowly  escaped  death  by  eating  a  spams  caught  on  the  coasts  of  Terra  del  Spirito 
Santo.;];  The  companions  of  Cook  believed  they  were  poisoned  at  the  same  place 
by  the  same  food.  It  is  thought  that  this  fish  only  becomes  dangerous  when  it  has 
fed  on  a  particular  species  of  /netZMsce.     But  the  Iclrodon,  which  poisoned  Forster  on 

•  Forster,  Historia  Aptenodyt.  Nov,  Comm.  Gott.  1780,  vol.  ili.     Sonnerat,  Voyage  a  la  Nou- 
Velle-Guine,  p.  181. 
t  Labillardiere,  Voyog-e,  ii.  p.  86.  %  Dalrymple,  liistoricul  Collec.  1.  p.  140. 


Seals  and 
whales. 

among  the 


The  vegetable 
kingdom. 

Alimentary 
plants. 


300  BOOK  FirTY-TlIIRl). 

the  coast  of  Now  South  Wales,  always  contains  a  narcotic  poison.  At  Otahcitc 
there  is  a  sea  eel  of  a  very  deleterious  quality,  and  a  small  red  lobster  which  is  still 
more  fatal  to  those  who  eat  it.*  Anson's  crew  found  near  the  Marians  so  many  fish 
that  they  resolved  to  give  up  eating  them  entirely.  This  superlluous  abundance 
seems  common  to  all  the  seas  belonging  to  the  great  Ocean. 

The  vegetable  kingdom  of  Oceanica  presents  to  us  all  the  riches  of 
India  in  new  splendour,  and  accompanied  by  new  pleasures  unknown  to 
Asia.  In  the  Sunda  islands,  the  Phihppines,  and  the  Moluccas,  rice 
occupies  the  place  of  wheat ;  and  the  culture  of  it  is  probably  extended 
over  New  Guinea.  Farther  to  the  east,  in  the  islands  of  Polynesia,  there  are  four 
exceedingly  useful  esculent  plants,  which  grow  either  spontaneously,  or  under  the 
influence  of  culture  ;  the  potato,  the  yam,  and  two  species  of  arum,  from  which,  by 
culture  and  boiling,  a  sweet  farinaceous  substance  is  obtained 

Palms.  I       Two  orders  of  trees  are  spread  over  all  the  middling  and  small  islands 

of  Oceanica,  which  delight  both  the  eye  and  the  taste.  The  numerous  family  of 
the  palms  is  extended  over  the  most  remote  and  smallest  islands.  Between  the  tro- 
pics there  is  scarcely  a  rock  or  a  sand-bank  on  which  these  trees  do  not  display  their 
astonishing  vegetation.  The  palmsf  have,  in  the  interior  structure  of  their  trunks, 
no  analogy  with  other  trees.  In  habit  and  in  structure  they  resemble  the  ferns,  in 
their  blossom  the  grasses,  and  the  asparigi  in  their  mode  of  fructification.  But  no 
trees  are  so  portly  and  magnificent  as  the  palms.  They  present  a  straight  column, 
perfectly  cylindrical,  crowned  at  the  summit  with  a  vast  load  of  sprightly  leaves,  ar- 
ranged in  circles  over  one  another,  and  put  forth  from  their  common  receptacle  largo 
panicles,  partially  inclosed  in  ample  sheaths,  and  loaded  with  flowers  and  with  fruit. 
But  their  majestic  appearance  is  their  least  merit.  Their  beauty  is  surpassed  by  their 
Usefulness  of  Usefulness.  The  external  layers  of  the  trunk  furnish  a  hard  and  heavy 
v»''"s-  wood,  which  may  be  formed  into  planks  and  stakes.     The  sheaths  which 

contain  the  clusters  of  fruit  acquire  such  thickness  and  consistence  that  they  are 
often  used  as  vessels.  The  large  leaves  are  employed  for  roofing  wigwams  and 
cottages.  Materials  for  wadding,  flock,  and  cordage,  are  furnished  by  the  fibrous 
pericarp  of  the  cocoa-tree,  by  the  leaf  stalks  of  several  other  species,  and  by  the  fila- 
mentous tissue  which,  in  all  of  them,  covers  the  trunk.  Of  these  are  made  ropes, 
cables,  and  oven  sail-cloth,  and  they  are  used  as  oakum  in  caulking  vessels.  The 
leaves  of  the  Macaw  tree  (latinier)  serve  for  fans  to  the  Indian  fair  ones;  those  of 
tho  Borassii3  flahelliformis  furnish  parasols  which  can  cover  ten  people  at  a  time. 
The  leaves  of  some  palms  are  used  for  writing  on:  the  shell  of  the  cocoa-nut  sup- 
plies us  with  a  natural  cup.  This  order  of  trees  furnishes  a  number  of  excellent 
dishes.  Tho  sweet  and  pulpy  substance  surrounding  the  shells  of  some  is  eaten 
and  dressed  in  a  variety  of  forms :  such  are  the  Areca  catechu  and  the  Phanix  dac- 
tylifera.  In  some,  as  the  cocoa-nut,  the  perisperm  or  cotyledonous  matter,  while  in 
others,  as  the  cabbage  palm,  or  Areca  oleracea,  the  terminal  leaf-bud  is  used  as  a 
pot-herb.  The  milky  liquid  contained  in  the  large  cavity  of  the  cocoa-nut  is  capa- 
ble of  being  converted  into  wine,  vinegar,  and  alcohol.  From  the  same  fruit  a  good 
oil  is  procured. 

Bieadfruit.  |  Another  family  of  nutricious  trees  enjoyed  by  the  Oceanian  nations  is 
that  of  the  Artocarpi,  or  bread-fruit  trees.  This  valuable  genus  rises  to  a  height  of 
forty  feet.  Its  trunk  acquires  the  thickness  of  the  human  body.  The  fruit  is  as 
large  as  a  child's  head.  Gathered  before  it  is  fully  ripe,  and  baked  among  ashes, 
it  becomes  a  wholesome  bread,  resembling  fresU  wheaten  bread  in  taste.  For  a 
period  of  eight  months,  this  tree  yields  its  fruit  in  such  profusion,  that  three  of  them 
will  support  a  man  for  a  year.  The  inner  bark  of  the  same  tree  is  manufactured 
into  a  kind  of  cloth.  Its  wood  is  well  adapted  for  building  cottages  and  canoes. 
Its  leaves  are  used  as  napkins;  its  glutinous  and  milky  juice  furnishes  good  cement 
and  glue. 

•  Missionary  Voyage,  Appendix. 

t  Desfontaines,  Memoires  de  I'lnstitut,  1796;  Memoire  sur  rorganization  des  Monocoty- 
ledons ou  plantes  a  une  feuille  scminale. 


OCBANICA.  •  301 


Observation  on 
Mi'W  HolliiinL 

ic  civiliza- 


It  is  rallxer  a  surpriaing  circumsfancc,  that  the  great  Oceanic  country 
of  New  Ilollantl  alone  is  destitute  of  these  two  vegetable  tribes.  The 
bread-fruit,  which  is  spread  over  New  Zealand,  has  evidently  followed  t 
tion  and  the  emigrations  of  the  Malay  race.  Probably  the  palms  will  be  found  on 
the  coasts  of  Carpentaria  and  Dc  Witt's  land,  which  have  not  been  well  explored ; 
and  perhaps  their  propogalion  in  a  southern  direction  has  been  arrested  by  a  groat 
inland  sea,  or  a  great  mountain  chain.  The  Eucalypiij  the  Casuarincc,  and  some 
other  large  trees  indigenous  in  the  southern  part  of  New  Holland,  have  spread  from 
thence  chiefly  over  that  portion  of  the  remainder  of  Oceanica  which  lies  in  the 
southern  hemisphere.  The  gum  trees  and  dracocnce  of  the  north-west  coast,  con- 
nect again  the  Flora  of  this  great  island  with  that  of  Malacca  and  the  adjoining 
parts  of  the  continei.t.  As  yet  our  information  respecting  New  Holland  is  too  slen- 
der to  enable  us  to  descant  on  the  relations  which  it  bears  to  the  rest  of  this  division 
of  the  world. 

Fruit  trees  abound  in  Sunda,  and  other  islands  in  its  neighbourhood.  |  Fmit  trees. 
Perhaps  they  have  been  brought  thither  by  colonies,  or  at  least  improved  by  culture. 
They  have  tlie  sweet  man^o,  the  Eugenia  odorata,  the  sitodium,  and  the  cynomelra, 
distinguished  for  their  oily  and  farinaceous  almonds,  resembling  the  kernel  of  the 
hazel-nut,  and  enclosed  in  pulpy  fruits  surrounding  the  trunk  of  the  tree.  They  have 
the  tamarind,  which,  with  its  acid  juice,  alleviates  the  febrile  heats  so  incident  to 
the  inhabitants  of  that  climate.  The  pomegranate  and  the  orange  abound  in  all  their 
varieties.  The  orange  tree  extends  as  far  as  the  New  Hebrides.  The  bamboo,  the 
sugar  cane,  and  the  nardus,  three  gramineous  species  indigenous  in  India,  grow  still 
more  luxuriantly  in  the  marshes  of  Java  and  Sumatra  than  on  the  banks  of  the  Gan- 
ges. The  sugar  cane  is  found  as  far  to  the  east  as  Otaheite,  but  it  ditiers  essentially 
I'rom  that  of  the  West  India  islands. 

In  the  islands  of  the  north-west  of  Oceanica  some  valuable  products  arc  more 
perfect  in  quality  than  in  any  other  place;    such  as  sandal  wood,  aloe     vaiuabi 
wood,  or  calambac;  the  J\leluleuca  hucodendron,  which  produces  the  oil     -woods, 
of  cajeput;  the  Jlmyris  demifcra,  which  gives  out  the  resin  called  elemi  from  inci- 
sions in  its  bark;  the  cmnota,  cassia,  ebony,  and  several  others  yielding  valuable  gums, 
the  uses  and  even  the  names  of  which  are  unknown  in  Europe.     These  |  Gums. 
are  probably  found  in  all  the  Oceanian  countries.     In  Otaheite  there  has  been  found 
sandal  wood  of  good  quality. 

Under  such  a  sky  as  that  of  the  islands  of  the  great  Ocean,  we  may  Flowering 
expect  to  meet  with  a  multitude  of  those  plants  which  are  distinguished  shrubs, 
by  the  brilliancy  of  their  colours  and  the  grace  or  singularity  of  their  forms,  but 
scarcely  known  to  us  beyond  the  precincts  of  the  stove  and  green-house.  It  is  only 
among  a  small  number  of  readers  that  the  names  of  the  hibiscus,  the  erythrina,  aralia, 
ixora,  bauhinia,  and  euphorbia,  recall  the  ideas  of  vegetable  beauty  and  magnificence. 
Every  one,  however,  knows  those  which  contribute,  by  their  aromatic  pugency  or 
grateful  odour,  to  the  luxuries  of  the  table.  All  the  islands  of  the  north-  "^I'^^'J^/J'';, 
west  of  Oceanica  abound  in  the  two  species  of  pepper  called  the  long  n-ccs. 
and  the  round;  the  produce  of  the  one  being  presented  to  us  in  the  form  of  long 
spikelets  containing  seeds  of  minute  size,  while  we  know  the  other  only  in  the  state 
of  round  grains  separated  from  the  spike.  Of  these  plants  immense  plantations  are 
seen;  but  they  are  not  found  in  a  state  of  nature;  at  least  this  is  the  case  with  the 
black  pepper,  a  native  of  Malabar.*  The  islands  of  eastern  Oceanica  produce  in  too 
large  quantity  the  intoxicating  pepper  called  Piper  inelhyslicum,  used  for  preparing 
the  dangerous  drink  called  ava  or  kava.  The  cinnamon  tree  grows  abundantly  in 
Sumatra,  and  the  adjoining  islands.  In  the  Moluccas  nature  has  multiplied  in  the 
amplest  profusion  the  Eiigeiiia  caryophyllala,  the  calices  of  whoso  numerous  flowers 
are  so  well  known  in  the  European  market  under  the  name  of  cloves;  and  the  myris- 
tica,  the  fruit  of  which  forms  our  nutmeg,  and  the  inner  bark  or  mace.  The  jealous 
avarice  of  the  Dutch  East  India  Company  confined  these  species  entirely  to  the  small 
islands  of  Banda  and  Amboyna.     The  policy  of  other  nations  has  gone  in  quest  of 

•  Crawford's  History  of  the  Indian  Archipelago,  vol.  i.  book  iv.  chap.Y. 


Poisonous 
plants. 


Extension  of 
the  Malay 
race. 


302  BOOK  FIFTY-THIKI). 

these  lucrative  trees  to  New  G  uinea,  and  though  their  researches  Imve  not  yet  proved 
successful,  it  is  confidently  believed  that  they  exist  in  that  country.  The  nutmeg 
tree  grows  also  in  Borneo. 

But,  if  the  most  pleasant  aromatics  enrich  this  part  of  the  world,  the 
most  terrible  poisons  are  found  in  their  company.  The  same  heats  of  a 
vertical  sun  give  energy  to  the  juices  of  the  fatal  and  of  the  salubrious  species.  The 
ti*ee  known  under  the  name  of  the  Bohon  oopas,  or  the  "poison  tree,"  saddens  the 
forests  of  Turat,  of  Celebes,*  and  of  Balambooang  in  the  island  of  Java,  f  It  seems 
to  belong  to  the  genus  Euphorbia;  at  least,  the  poison  is  not  a  gum-resin  exuding 
through  the  bark,  but  a  milky  juice  which  issues  from  the  branches  when  broken 
over.  This  tree  has  been  the  subject  of  many  exaggerated  reports.  Even  the  phi- 
losophical Rumphius  tells  us  that  no  other  plant  can  live  within  the  distance  of  a 
stone-cast  round  it;  that  if  the  birds  happen  to  light  on  its  branches,  they  instantly 
drop  down  dead;  and  that,  in  order  to  procure  the  gum  without  endangering  life,  it 
is  necessary  to  have  the  whole  body  covered  with  a  strong  cotton  cloth.  He  adds, 
that  a  single  drop  of  its  recent  juice  applied  to  the  skin  produces  either  immediate 
death,  or  an  ulcer  of  a  most  malignant  character,  and  extremely  difficult  to  heaLj 
The  inquiries  of  Messrs.  Deschamps  and  Leschenault  de  la  Tour  have  thrown  some 
light  on  this  mysterious  tree.  The  former  broke  its  branches  without  experiencing 
any  harm:  the  latter  confirmed  the  fact,  that  the  juice  of  the  oopas,  when  mixed  witli 
the  blood,  occasions  speedy  death ;  at  the  same  time  he  showed  that  the  immediate 
application  of  ammonia  had  the  power  of  arresting  its  fatal  effects. § 
Races  of  men-  |  Having  given  a  general  physical  portrait  of  Oceanica,  we  shall  take 
a  view  of  the  races  of  human  beings  by  whom  this  part  of  the  world  is  inhabited. 
They  seem  to  be  referable  to  two  stocks,  totally  distinct  both  in  physiognomy  and  in 
language  ;  the  Malays,  or  Yellow  Oceanians,  and  the  Oceanian  Negroes. 

The  Malays  are  no  longer  considered  by  the  learned  as  having  ori- 
ginally come  from  the  peninsula  of  Malacca  :  it  is  now  understood  that 
it  was  not  till  a  comparatively  recent  period  that  they  became  inhabitants  of  that 
country.  Their  national  historians  trace  their  origin  to  the  island  of  Sumatra  ;  they 
also  describe  them  as  connected  with  the  Javanese  ;  but  we  find  them  at  present  ex- 
tending over  numerous  countries.  Not  only  are  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  maritime 
parts  of  Borneo,  Celebes,  Luzon,  and  the  Moluccas,  of  the  Malay  race  ;  but  the 
innumerable  tribes  of  Polynesia,  or  eastern  Oceanica,  seem  to  have  the  same  origin. 
Although  the  Marians  are  5500  miles  from  Easter  Island,  and  though  Owyhee  is  at 
nearly  an  equal  distance  from  New  Zealand,  we  have  a  collection  of  facts,  authenti- 
cated by  the  concurring  testimony  of  numerous  observers,  which  force  us  to  regard 
the  families  disseminated  over  this  wide  region  as  having  a  common  origin. 

The  islanders  have  tawny  complexions,  varying  a  little  in  the  different 
tribes,  independently  of  any  ascertainable  circumstances  in  their  habits 
of  life  or  their  climate.  The  fairest  are  generally  in  the  most  westerly  regions  ; 
some  of  them,  as  the  Battas  of  Sumatra,  are  directly  under  the  equator.  The  hair 
of  the  head  is  long,  lank,  rough,  and  always  black.  The  hair  of  the  beard,  and  in 
general  of  every  part  except  the  head,  is  scanty.  They  are  in  the  practice  of  pluck- 
ing out  that  of  the  beard  in  their  youth.  The  Mahometan  priests,  affecting  to  wear 
long  beards,  cultivate  them  to  the  best  of  their  power,  but  not  with  so  much  success 
as  to  escape  ridicule.  Their  persons  are  short,  squat,  and  robust ;  their  lower  limbs 
somewhat  large,  but  not  ill-formed.  The  busts  of  the  females  are  much  inferior  in 
symmetry  to  those  of  the  women  of  Indostan.  The  face  is  round,  the  mouth  wide, 
the  teeth  remarkably  good,  the  chin  square,  tlie  check  bones  high,  the  checks  rather 
hollow.  The  nose  is  short  and  small,  never  prominent,  but  never  flat ;  the  eyes  are 
small,  and,  like  those  of  other  orientals,  always  black.  They  are  an  ill-looking  peo- 
ple compared  to  the  Arabs,  Birmans,  and  Siamese.  They  are  less  handsomely 
formed  than  the  Chinese,  but  have  much  better  features.  || 

*  Valentyn.     Descri|)tion  d'Amboine  :  Vegetaux,  p,  218. 

f  Deschamps,  Annales  des  A'oyages,  i.  70. 

i  IJvimphii  Hortus  Amboinensis,  t.  ii.  tab.  87. 

§  Memoir,  in  tlie  Annales  du    Museum. 

U  Rlumenbach,  Dec.  Craii.  iii.  tab.  29.  Crawford's  Hist,  oflhe  Indian  Archipelago,  vol.  i.  p.  22. 


Their  physi 
ognomy- 


Similarity  of 
government 
and  laws. 


OCEANICA.  303 

Differences  in  colour  and  in  the  appearance  of  the  hair  have  been  observed  be- 
tween the  great  and  the  common  people  in  Otaheite,*"  which  led  Forster  to  believe 
that  a  Malay  colony  had  subdued  in  these  islands  some  prior  negro  tribes,  of  the 
race  which  inhabits  New  Guinea  and  New  Holland.  But  others  may,  with  some 
probability,  ascribe  this  difference  to  habit  and  diet,  as  the  great  live  on  the  flesh  of 
quadrupeds,  and  the  common  people  chiefly  on  fish. 

The  similarity  of  the  languages,  as  exhibited  in  the  very  imperfect  vo-  I  identity  of 
cabularies  given  by  Forster,  Father  Gobien,  Marsden,  and  others,  is  |  "aneuages. 
strongly  marked.  The  inhabitants  of  eastern  Oceanica  speak  the  same  language  in 
different  dialects,  and  this  presents  a  singular  analogy  to  that  of  the  Malays,  particu- 
larly that  spoken  in  Sumatra-t  M.  Du  Petit  Thouars  says,  that  the  resemblance 
extends  even  to  the  language  of  Madagascar,  which  is  its  richest  and  most  regular 
form.  Mr.  Crawford  denies  the  identity  of  the  vocabularies  of  the  different  island- 
ers, and  says,  that  on  the  contrary,  even  those  tribes  which  are  the  nearest  neigh- 
bours generally  speak  languages  totally  different  and  unintelligible  to  one  another  ; 
yet,  he  remarks,  that  in  character  and  structure,  they  are  all  exactly  similar.  Their 
roots  are  different,  but  the  mode  of  applying  and  combining  them  is  universally  the 
same. 

They  have  all  the  same  form  of  government.  Captain  Cook  tells  us 
that  in  Hamao,  one  of  the  Friendly  Islands,  Tamalao  signifies  a  chief.  + 
Father  Cantova,  speaking  of  the  Carolines,  tells  us,  that  "  the  authority  of  govern- 
ment was  divided  among  a  number  of  noble  families,  the  heads  of  which  were  called 
Tamoles ;  and  that  in  every  province  there  was  a  principal  Tamole,  to  which  the 
others  were  subject."§  The  same  species  of  feudal  aristocracy  prevails  in  the  greater 
part  of  the  islands  of  the  Ocean.  Cook  tells  us,  that  in  the  Friendly  Islands,  the 
chiefs  never  come  into  the  presence  of  the  monarch  without  demonstrations  of  pro- 
found respect,  such  as  touching  his  feet  with  their  heads  and  with  their  hands.  j[  Fa- 
ther Cantova's  letters  inform  us  that  the  Tamoles  of  the  Carohne  Islands  are  ap- 
proached with  the  same  reverence.  When  any  one  of  them  gives  an  audience,  he 
appears  seated  on  an  elevated  table,  the  people  bow  to  the  earth  before  him,  and,  at 
whatever  distance  they  come  in  sight,  they  walk  with  the  body  so  much  bent  that  the 
head  is  almost  between  the  knees,  till  they  are  near  his  person  ;  they  then  seat 
themselves  on  the  bare  earth,  and  receive  his  orders  with  downcast  eyes  and  other 
demonstrations  of  the  deepest  reverence.  His  words  are  regarded  as  oracles,  and 
his  orders  are  blindly  and  implicitly  obeyed.  In  imploring  any  favour  they  kiss  his 
hands  and  his  feet. IT 

In  the  Friendly  Islands  it  is  customary  to  honour  their  chiefs  and 
strangers  with  midnight  dances,  accompanied  with  vocal  and  instrumen- 
tal music.**  In  the  Caroline  Islands,  similar  concerts  are  held  in  the  evenings  round 
the  houses  of  the  chiefs.  In  going  to  sleep,  the  latter  are  always  serenaded  by  a 
band  of  young  musicians. H  The  ceremonies  on  several  solemn  occasions  are  the 
same  in  islands  situated  at  the  greatest  distances.  The  inhabitants  of  the  Palaos 
Islands,  those  of  the  New  Philippines,  of  the  Carolines,  and  of  Mangia,  who  are 
4000  miles  from  one  another,  observe  the  same  forms  of  salutation.  They  show 
their  civility  and  respect  by  taking  the  hand  or  foot  of  the  person  whom  they  mean  to 
honour,  and  drawing  it  gently  along  their  faces.  J  J  Another  mode  of  salutation,  which 
prevails  from  the  Sandwich  Islands  to  New  Zealand,  is  for  the  parties  to  bring  the 
points  of  their  noses  into  contact. 

In  almost  every  part  of  eastern  Oceanica,  the  Polynesians  receive  |  Solemn  songs, 
strangers  with  grave  songs,  and  present  them  with  a  branch  of  banana  us  an  emblem 
of  peace.  The  black  race,  on  the  contrary,  moat  commonly  avoid  all  conmmnication 
with  strangers. 

•  Bougainville,  Voyage  Autour  du  Monde,  p.  211. 

f  Marsden,  Archxologia,  vol.  vi.  i  Third  Vo3'age. 

§  l-ettres  Edifiantes  et  Curieuses,  vol.  xv.  p.  312.     (Edition  of  1781.) 

U  Third  Voyage.  K  I.ettrcs  Edifiantes  et  Curieuses,  t.  xv.  j).  312,  313. 

*•  Third  Voyage.  ft  Lettres  Edifiantes,  p.  314. 

^i  Cook,  Third  Voyage.     Lettres  Edif.  p.  208. 


Ceremonial 
dances. 


Society  of  Ar- 
reoy. 


SivisioDJ  into 

castes. 


Funeral  cere- 
monies. 


304  BOOK  FIFTY-THIRD. 

AmtiBenwntK.  |  The  saiKic  teims  are  applietl  to  designate  the  same  sort  of  national 
amusements.  The  words  fanger  ifaifil,  in  the  Carohne  Islands,  signify,  "  the  Fe- 
male Complaint,"  the  title  of  one  particular  form  of  public  entertainment.  In  the 
Friendly  Islands  the  same  thing  is  called  tangee  vefaine.* 

When  we  turn  to  the  Marians,  we  discover  still  more  decided  resemblances.! 
The  society  of  the  Arreoy  forms  a  most  singular  and  infamous  feature 
in  the  manners  of  Otaheite.     These  clubs  of  men  and  women,  who 
make  debauchery  and  infanticide  fundamental  laws  of  their  body,  present  a  phenome- 
non almost  unique  in  the  moral  history  of  our  species.  Father  Gobien  tells  us  that  there 
is  a  similar  society  in  the  Marian  Islands.   He  says  that  the  Uritoy  are,  among  them, 
young  people  who  live  with  mistresses  without  choosing  to  be  connected  by  the  mar- 
riage tie,  and  that  they  form  a  separate  association.  We  know  that  the  Otaheitans  use 
smooth  pronunciation ;  and  the  word  Uritoy,  when  the  consonant  T  is  suppressed, 
approaches  to  Arreoy  or  Erreoy,  as  the  Otaheitan  term  is  spelled  by  Mr.  Anderson. 
Capt.  Cook  obseiTed  in  the  Society  and  Friendly  Islands  three  castes, 
the  chiefs,  the  free  proprietors,  and  the  lowest  people,  or  serfs.    Gobien 
expressly  says  that  the  same  division  into  three  ranks  is  observed  in  the  Ladrone 
Islands.     In  the  whole  of  Polynesia,  the  nobihty  are  incredibly  proud,  and  hold  the 
people  in  a  degree  of  subjection  of  which  it  is  difficult  for  the  people  of  Europe  to 
form  an  idea.     The  whole  political  condition  of  these  islands  calls  to  mind  the  laws 
and  institutions  of  the  Malays.    The  case  is  the  same  with  their  notions  of  religion. 
Among  the   Carolinians,  some  keep  the  bodies   of   their  deceased 
relations  in  a  small  stone   building  within  their  houses,   others  inter 
them  at  a  distance  from  their  own  dwelling.^     Here  we  have  an  analogy  with 
the   Feiatooka  of   the  Friendly  Islands,  and  the  custom   universal  among   these 
nations,  of  leaving  the  dead  bodies  to  dry  in  the  air.     Their  cemeteries  are  also 
inclosed  in  the  same  manner.     The  natives  of  the  Society  Islands  strow  round 
their  burying  grounds  garlands  of  palm  clusters  and  cocoa  leaves,  together  with 
other  objects  particularly  consecrated  to  funeral  ceremonies,  and  near  to  which  they 
also  set  down  a  quantity  of  food  and  water.  The  natives  of  the  Ladrones,  according  to 
Gobien,  feast  round  the  tomb,  which  is  always  raised  on  or  near  the  spot  where  the 
dead  is  interred :  it  is  covered  with  flov,ers,  palm  branches,  shells,  and  every  thing 
which  the  people  esteem  valuable.     The  Otaheitans  do  not  bury  the  skulls  of  their 
chiefs  along  with  the  rest  of  the  bones,  but  deposit  them  in  boxes  appropriated  to 
that  use.   This  strange  custom  is  also  found  to  prevail  in  the  Ladrone  Islands.    Go- 
bien expressly  says,  that  they  keep  the  skulls  in  their  houses  ;  that  they  put  them  in 
small  baskets,  and  that  the  dead  chiefs  are  the  Anitis  to  whom  the  priests  address 
their  prayers.     The  opinions  regarding  a  future  state  of  existence  have 
a  general  similarity  among  all  these  nations.     They  believe  in  the  im- 
mortality of  the  soul,  and  in  a  heaven  and  a  hell ;  but  they  do  not  consider  these 
as  places  for  the  reward  of  virtue  and  the  punishment  of  vice.     In  the  creed  of  the 
New  Zealanders  the  man  who  has  been  killed  and  eaten  by  his  enemy  is  condemned 
to  eternal  fire.    The  inhabitants  of  the  Ladrones  also  consider  hell  as  the  destiny  of 
persons  who  have  died  a  violent  death. 

These  striking  coincidences  cannot  be  the  effect  of  mere  chance.  They  lead  us 
irresistibly  to  the  conclusion,  that  the  inhabitants  of  all  these  islands  have  derived 
their  customs  and  opinions  from  a  common  source,  and  are  to  be  regarded  as  scat- 
tered tribes  belonging  to  one  nation,  which  had  been  separated  at  a  period  subsequent 
to  the  formation  of  their  code  of  politics  and  religion. 

But  how  shall  we  conduct  our  inquiries  into  tlic  progress  of  that  dis- 
persion] Shall  we  believe,  with  Cook,  Forster,  and  others,  that  it  has 
taken  place  only  in  a  direction  from  west  to  east?  These  navigators 
justly  remark,  that  parties  of  savages  in  their  canoes  must  often  have  lost  their  way, 
and  been  driven  on  distant  shores,  where  they  were  forced  to  remain,  deprived  both 
of  the  means  and  of  the  requisite  intelligence  for  returning  to  their  own  country.     In- 

•  Cook,  Ibid.     Letters  Edif.  xv.  p.  315. 

•j-  See  rtlistoire  des  Isles  Marianes  i)ar  le  Fere  le  Gobien,  liv.  ii.  or  an  Extract  contained  in 
I'Histoire  ties  Navigations  aux  Teircs  Australes,  t.  ii.  p.  4y2 — 512. 
i  Leltrcs  Ediliantes,  t.  xv.  p.  308,  £ic. 


Ideas  of  a  fu- 
ture state. 


How  have 
these  ijeople 
been  dispers- 
ed? 


Hypotheses  of. 
fered. 


OCEANICA.  303 

stances  of  this  have  occurred  within  the  knowledge  of  modern  writers.  In  1696, 
two  canoes,  containing  thirty  persons  who  had  left  Ancorso,  were  |  strayed  boats- 
thrown  by  contrary  winds  and  storms  on  the  island  of  Saniar,  one  of  the  Philippines, 
at  a  distance  of  800  miles.*  In  1721,  two  canoes,  one  of  which  contained  twenty- 
four  and  the  other  six  persons,  men,  women,  and  children,  were  drifted  from  an  island 
called  Baroilep  to  the  island  of  Guam,  one  of  the  Marians. "j"  Captain  Cook  found 
on  the  island  of  Wateoo  three  inhabitants  of  Otaheite  who  had  been  drifted  in  a  si- 
milar manner,  and  the  distance  between  the  two  islands  is  550  miles. 

These  facts  are  incontestible.  But  when  we  throw  our  eyes  on  the  map,  we  per- 
ceive that  these  three  parties  of  unfortunate  sailors  have  all  been  carried  by  the  pre- 
vailinff  currents  and  the  trade  winds  to  countries  situated  to  the  west  of  those  to 
which  they  originally  belonged.  These  examples,  so  frequently  quoted,  would  there- 
fore lead  to  an  inference  the  reverse  of  that  generally  drawn  from  them.  They  would 
prove  that  Asia  and  Africa  may  have  received  colonies  of  savages  from  the  Oceanian 
islands,  but  not  that  these  islands  had  received  colonists  from  the  old  continent. 

In  revolving  this  problem,  we  should  believe  the  islanders  to  have  pro- 
ceeded from  South  America,  were  not  that  supposition  destroyed  by  the 
total  absence  of  any  similarity  in  language,  or  in  physical  character.J  We  might 
again  be  tempted  to  suppose  that  they  belonged  to  an  ancient  continent  now  buried 
in  the  sea,  leaving  these  islands  alone  above  the  surface.  But  this  hypothesis,  which 
has  been  hazarded  by  an  estimable  scholar,  only  explains  one  difficulty  by  giving 
birth  to  many  new  ones.§  If  that  ancient  people  left  their  few  descendants  in  a  state 
of  dispersion  over  the  east  and  the  west,  how  does  it  happen  that  none  of  them  are 
to  be  found  on  the  large  continent  of  New  Holland,  and  that  this  country  is  entirely 
peopled  by  negroes? 

We  consider  the  following  as  the  best  solution  of  this  historical  phc-  om-  hypotUe- 
nomenon.  The  large,  islands  of  Luzon,  Celebes,  Borneo,  Java,  and  "'• 
Sumatra,  ai-e  inhabited  by  nations  who  speak  languages  bearing  more  or  less  affinity 
to  that  of  the  Malays,  thus  showing  a  common  origin ;  yet  some  of  them,  such  as  the 
Tagal  and  Bissay  languages  of  the  Philippines,  the  Balian  of  the  island  Bali,  and 
that  of  the  Battas  of  Sumatra,  also  differ  so  essentially  from  one  another,  that  their 
national  separation  must  have  been  of  very  ancient  date.  At  the  same  time,  we  are 
informed  that  other  ramifications  of  the  Malay  tongue  are  found  in  Madagascar,  3000 
miles  west  from  Sumatra,  and  in  the  Society  Islands  and  beyond  them,  nearly  7000 
miles  to  the  east  of  the  Moluccas.  They  are  said  to  be  enriched  with  a  harmony  of 
modulation  and  a  diversity  of  grammatical  forms  which  suppose  some  advancement 
in  civilization.  The  same  feudal  government,  the  same  manners,  and  probably  the 
same  mythology,  ||  are  found  in  countries  thus  distant.  The  conclusion  which  seems 
to  follow  is,  that  this  language,  these  customs,  and  these  institutions,  were  formed 
in  the  bosom  of  an  ancient  empire,  a  powerful  nation,  and  one  which  cultivated  ma- 
ritime habits,  but  which  has  since  fallen  from  its  eminence,  and  been  frittered  down 
into  detached  local  communities,  unknown  to  one  another. 

But  what  was  the  seat  of  this  Malayan  Carthage  1  Every  considera' 
tion  shows  that  we  must  search  for  it  in  Borneo,  Sumatra,  and  Java 
The  first  of  these  islands  is  little  known.  The  second  appears  to  the  learned  Mars- 
denlT  to  be  the  true  country  of  the  Malay  nations.  Without  positively  adopting  or 
rejecting  this  opinion,  we  rather  incline  to  believe  that  the  country  of  Malayan  civili- 
zation is  to  be  sought  in  the  island  of  Java. 

In  the  first  place,  the  historical  traditions  of  the  Malay  colony  established  in  Ma- 
lacca make  Java  the  seat  of  a  great  empire,  from  which  that  emigrant  tribe  had 
•received  its  laws  and  its  religion.     Tlie  greater  part  of  the  Malay  books  are  trans- 
lations from  the  Javanese. 

•  Retires  Edifiantes,  t.  xv.  p.  19G.  f  Ibid.  p.  282,  &c. 

^  Forster's  Observations  on  Physical  Geography. 
§  Meincrs,  llecherches  sur  la  Hifierence  des  Races  Humaines. 
II  See  afterwards  our  account  of  Otaheite,  Bali,  and  other  islands, 
H  Grammar  of  the  Malay  Language.    London,  1812. 
Vol..  II.— Q  q 


Focus  of  Ma- 
layan civiliza- 
tion. 


305  BOOK  FIFTY-THIRD. 


Connectioiu 
WftI)  India. 


In  the  second  place,  the  Malay  language  has  a  copious  mixture  of 
Hindoo  or  Sanscrit  terms,  which  are  particularly  appropriated  to  reli- 
gious and  civil  uses.  These  terms  approach  most  of  all  to  the  Kalinga  or  Telinga 
language,  spoken  in  Golconda  and  Orissa.*  We  might  consequently  expect  to  find 
this  admixture  following  the  order  of  local  proximity.  But  we  find  the  affinity  with 
the  Sanscrit  to  prevail  chiefly  among  the  Javanese,  and  most  of  all  among  the  inha- 
bitants of  the  mountains  of  Java.  It  is  also  in  Java,  and  especially  in  the  interior 
of  that  island,  that  we  fii*d  the  feasts  and  ceremonies  of  the  Brahminical  religion. 
The  history  of  the  Javanese  makes  the  nation  to  descend  from  Vishnu. I 
Epoch  of  that  But  at  what  epoch  was  Java  the  seat  of  a  nation  which,  after  being 

civilization.  civilized  by  the  Telinga  Brahmins,  colonized  the  shores  of  the  vast 
Ocean  ?  It  certainly  was  prior  to  the  introduction  of  Mahometanism  ;  for  that  reli- 
gion has  not  extended  farther  than  the  Moluccas  :  and  the  pig,  an  animal  unclean  in 
the  eyes  of  the  Mussulmans,  has  accompanied  the  Malay  colonies  to  the  remotest 
islands  of  Polynesia.  It  was  probably  prior  to  the  travels  of  Marco  Polo  :  for  he 
seems  to  speak  of  this  world  of  islands  as  already  known  and  visited.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  ancients,  in  the  days  of  Ptolemy,  were  not  acquainted  with  any  civilized 
nation  to  the  south  of  the  Siiw.,  (the  Siamese  of  modern  times.)  The  chronology 
of  the  Javanese  goes  no  farther  back  than  the  king  of  Pajajaran,  who  must  have 
reigned  in  the  year  74  of  the  Christian  era.  Thus  probabilities  fix  the  foundation  of 
the  first  Malay  colonies  somewhere  between  the  fourth  and  the  tenth  century  of 
our  era. 

A  second  migration  of  the  Malays  was  occasioned  by  the  Mahometan 
fanaticism ;  and  this  migration,  which  is  better  known,  took  place  in  the 
twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries.  Hence  arise  the  palpable  differences  between  the 
Malays  of  the  coast  and  those  of  the  interior. 


Second  migra 
tion  of  the 
Malays, 


Race  of  Oce- 
anian negroes 


called  the 


The  second  great  race  of  men  belonging  to  Oceanica,  is  that  which 


■p.- 


we  have  denominated  the  Oceanian  negroes.  J  They  are  sometimes 
apuan  race.  Compared  to  the  Africans,  they  are  of  a  diminutive  size, 
being  about  four  feet  nine  inches  high,  and  never  exceeding  five  feet.  Such,  at  least, 
js  the  account  given  by  Mr.  Crawford,  of  those  whom  he  had  an  opportunity  of  see- 
ing in  western  Oceanica.  They  have  spare  and  puny  frames.  The  skin  is  not  jet 
black,  like  that  of  the  African,  but  of  a  sooty  brown.  Sir  Everard  Home  thus  de- 
scribes one  who  was  sent  to  England  by  Sir  Stamford  Raffles  to  distiiigush  him  from 
the  African  negro.  §  "His  skin  is  of  a  lighter  colour:  the  woolly  hair  grows  in 
small  tufts,  and  each  hair  has  a  spiral  twist.  The  forehead  rises  higher,  and  the 
hindhead  is  less  cut  oflT.  The  nose  projects  more  from  the  face.  The  upper  lip  is 
larger  and  more  prominent.  The  lower  lip  projects  forward  from  the  lower  jaw,  to 
such  an  extent  that  the  chin  makes  no  part  of  the  face,  the  lower  part  of  which  is 
formed  by  the  mouth.  The  buttocks  are  so  much  lower  than  in  the  negro  as  to  con- 
etitute  a  marked  distinction  ;  but  the  calf  of  the  leg  is  equally  high  as  in  the  negro." 
The  description  here  given  of  the  countenance  corresponds  exactly  to  a  very  strik- 
ing plate  of  a  New  Hollander,  prefixed  to  a  short  tract  entitled,  Dixon's  Narrative  of 
a  Voyage  to  New  South  Wales.  j| 

It  is  only  indeed  in  exterior  stamp  that  the  puny  negro  of  these  islands  bears  any 
resemblance  to  the  African,  who  in  vigour  of  frame  and  capacity  for  enduring  labour, 
is  superior  to  all  other  races,  except  the  European.  This  is  therelbre  evidently  a 
distinct  and  inferior  race  of  mankind.  Their  dwarfishness  and  feebleness  are  not 
the  effect  of  scanty  food,  or  the  hardships  of  their  lot;  for  they  do  not  attach  to  the 
lank  haired  races  living  in  circumstances  precisely  the  same.  They  have  exclusive 
possession  of  some  islands;  yet  have  nowhere  risen  above  the  most  abject  barba- 
rism.    AVhen  encountered  by  the  fairer  races,  they  have  been  hunted  like  wild  ani- 

•  Leyden's  Memoir  on  the  Indo-Chhiese  Languages. 
\  Seeafierwards  our  account  of  Java. 

i  See  a  I'late  representing  these  two  Races  in  Crawford's  History  of  tlie  Indian  Archi- 
pelago, vol.  i. 

§  Crawford's  History  of  tlie  Indian  Archipelago,  vol,  i.  p.  24, 
II  Publislied  at  Edlngurgh  in  1822. 


OCEANICA.  307 

mals;  and,  incapable  of  retaining  their  ground,  have  retreated  to  the  mountains  and 
the  fastnesses.     The  people  of  New  Guinea  and  some  adjacent  islands  have  been 
described  by  navigators  as  of  more  robust  constitution.     Forrest's  account  is  less 
satisfactory  than  that  of  Sonnerat.     This  author  describes  them  as  a  hideous  race, 
rendered  more  disgusting  by  the  prevalence  of  leprosy  or  elephantiasis,  yet  robust: 
he  adds,  that  their  hair  is  of  a  shining  black,  or  a  fiery  red.*     This  last  account, 
which  cannot  be  correct,  is  regarded  by  Mr.  Crawford  as  throwing  discredit  on  the 
whole ;  and  he  thinks  it  probable  that  they  are  equally  feeble  with  the  negroes  of 
western  Oceanica.f     To  suppose  that  this  race  has  emigrated  from  Africa  is  to  do 
violence  to  all  fact  and  reasoning,  both  on  man  and  on  the  physical  state  of  the 
globe.     The  different  negro  tribes  of  the  Indian  islands  have  different  languages, 
and  all  completely  different  from  those  of  Madagascar.     The  agreement  between 
the  languages  of  these  two  distant  countries  originates  not  in  the  negro  languages, 
but  in  those  of  the  men  of  brown  complexion.     The   coincidences  which  Occur  in 
points  of  arbitrary  custom  are  to  be  traced  to  the  same  soiuce,  and  the  mode  of  trans- 
mission must  have  been  found  from  east  to  west.     The  Oceanian  negroes  seem 
doomed  to  perpetual  misery,  and  incapable  of  rising  from  the  very  bottom  of  the 
scale  of  humanity.  They  have  been  found  hitherto  incapable  of  acquiring  the  habits 
and  feelings  of  civilized  beings;  and  we  cannot  allow  that,  at  any  former  period, 
they  existed  in  a  superior  state  of  society.     This  race  is  extended  over     ^^^-^^  g.jjg„. 
New  Holland,  Van  Diemen's  Land,  New  Caledonia,  the  New  He-     "o"- 
brides.  New  Britain,  and  Solomon's  Islands,  as  well  as  New  Guinea,  where  they  go 
under  the  Malayan  appellation  of  Papuas.     Of  these  places  they  have  exclusive 
possession,  the  Malays  having  either  been  expelled,   or  never  permitted  to  settle. 
They  seem  also  to  have  once  occupied  the  Moluccas  and  the  Philippines ;  but  in 
these  places  they  have  been  partly  destroyed  and  partly  driven  into  the  interior  by 
the  Malays.     In  the  Philippines  they  are  called  Ygolotes  and  JYegritos;  in  the  Mo- 
luccas, Haraforas  and  Alfureses.     Perhaps  they  are  extended  still  farther.     Their 
features  seem  to  be  recognised  in  the  inhabitants  of  the  Andaman  islands,  and  in 
the  Googos  of  Sumatra.     A  few  straggling  families  inhabit  the  central  parts  of  the 
peninsula  of  Malacca,  where  they  lead  the  lives  of  hunters.  J     But  the  Biajoos  of 
Borneo  and  the  Battas  of  Sumatra  do  not,  as  has  been  erroneously  supposed,  belong 
to  them.     Even  several  tribes  called  Alfureses,  such  as  those  of  Booro,  seem  rather 
to  be  related  to  the  olive-coloured  race. 

Besides  these  leading  races,  Oceanica  presents  to  the  observer  of  hu- 
man nature  a  few  more  unnatural  and  disgusting  varieties  of  the  species^ 
In  the  island  of  Mallicolo,  and  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Glasshouse  Bay  in  New 
Holland,  the  shape  of  the  head  approaches  nearer  to  that  of  the  ourang  than  in  other* 
negroes.  In  the  interior  of  Sumatra,  there  is  a  tribe  which,  from  the  large  size  of 
their  heads  and  their  small  bodies,  look  like  pigmies;  and  another,  with  long  hair 
over  the  whole  body,  like  the  amos  of  Jesso.  Deformities  are  often  occasioned  by 
hereditary  disease.  Thus  the  inhabitants  of  the  island  of  Nias,  off  the  west  coast 
of  Sumatra,  have  their  bodies  covered  with  scales,  from  a  disease  not  unknown  in 
Europe.  The  white  leprosy,  in  which  the  skin  of  the  negro  assumes  a  livid  white 
hue,  prevails  among  the  Papuans  of  New  Guinea,  and  also  extends  to  the  Malay 
race  in  the  isle  of  Java,  where  the  subjects  of  it  go  under  the  name  of  Kakerlaks, 
In  addition  to  these  effects  of  preternatural  change,  the  mixture  of  the  olive  with 
the  negro  race  of  Oceanians  accounts  for  all  the  gradations  found  in  this  division  of 
the  world. 

•  Voyage  a  Nouvelle  Guin^e,  par  M.  Sonnerat. 
f  History  of  the  Indian  Archipelago,  voLi.  p.  27, 
\  Crawford's  History,  voK  iii.  p.  5, 


Degenerate 
varietiesi 


308  BOOK  FIFTY-rOURTH, 

BOOK  LIV. 

OCEANICA. 

PART  II. 
NORTH-WESTERN  OCEANICA. 

Aparticulur  Account  of  the  Sunda  Islands;  or  Sumatra,  Java,  and  Borneo. 


Names  of 
Sumatra. 


The  first  country  which  Oceanica  presents,  as  we  proceed  eastward 
from  the  Indian  Ocean,  is  the  great  Island  of  Sumatra,  known  in  some 
measure  to  Ptolemy,  who  seems  to  designate  the  point  of  Acheen  under  the  name 
of  Jaba  Diu,  the  same  as  Java  Div,  or  "the  island  of  barley."  The  name  Sama- 
rade,  found  in  some  editions  of  Ptolemy,  seems  to  be  a  corruption  of  Sumatra.  It 
was  known  to  the  Arabs  under  the  names  of  Lamery  and  Saborma.*  Marco  Polo 
mentions  some  kingdoms  and  districts  belonging  to  it.  He  calls  it  little  Java :  some 
think  that  he  thus  contrasts  it  with  Borneo,  which  was  Great  Java;  but  the  fact 
seems  to  be,  that  he  had  no  conceptions  at  all  of  the  comparative  size  of  the  islands, 
and,  finding  that  Java  was  the  most  famous  and  the  best  known  island  in  this  archi- 
pelago, and  that  Sumatra  was  also  a  large  island,  concluded  that  Java  was  the  largest, 
and  Sumatra  the  next  in  order.| 

Extent.  I       This  island,  called  by  the  natives  Andelis,  and  perhaps  Samandra,| 

is  1040  miles  long,  from  north-west  to  south-east;  its  breadth  varies  from  55  to  235. 
Mountains.  |  A  chain  of  mountains  divides  it  longatudinally,  running  nearest  to  the 
western  coast.  The  maritime  parts,  on  both  sides,  are  low  and  marshy.  The  main 
chain  is  accompanied  by  others  of  a  secondary  order.  Four  large  lakes  on  the  sides 
of  these  mountains  discharge  their  water  by  rapid  torrents,  or  graceful  cascades. 
The  most  famous  of  them  is  called  Manselar.  Mount  Ophir  was  found,  by  the 
measurement  of  Mr.  Nairne,  to  be  13,842  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  Several 
Volcanoes.  |  of  the  mountains  are  volcanoes.  That  of  Ayer-Raya  is  1377  feet 
above  the  sea.§ 

Soil,  The  soil  is  for  the  most  part  a  fat  reddish  clay,  covered  with  a  stratum 

Mineralogy,  of  black  earth,  often  poor  and  barren.  In  the  mountains  have  been  found 
a  reddish  granite  and  marble.  Three-fourths  of  the  island,  especially  towards  the 
south,  are  covered  with  an  impenetrable  forest.  The  gold  mines  had  attracted  the 
attention  of  the  Dutch ;  but  the  German  miners  sent  to  Sillida  declared  the  ore  to 
be  in  sparing  quantity,  and  too  difficult  to  work.]]  The  Malays  of  Padang  and  Me- 
nangkaboo  sell  annually  from  10,000  to  12,000  ounces  of  gold,  which  they  collect 
principally  by  washing.  The  mines  of  Sipini  and  of  Caye  yield  gold  of  eighteen 
and  nineteen  carats.  There  are  excellent  mines  of  iron  and  steel  in  the  interior. 
The  steel  of  Menangkaboo  is  preferable  to  any  in  Europe.  Tin,  a  metal  found  in 
so  few  countries,  is  an  object  of  export.  It  is  found  chiefly  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Palembang,  on  the  east  coast,  being  a  continuation  of  the  rich  strata  of  the  isle 
of  Banka.  The  small  island  of  Poolo-Pcsang,  at  the  foot  of  the  mountain  Poogong, 
consists  almost  entirely  of  one  bed  of  rock-crystal.  The  soft  rock  called  napj)al 
seems  to  be  a  sort  of  soap-stone  or  steatite.     Petroleum  is  also  found  at  Ippoo,  and 

*  See  our  account  of  the  history  of  Geography,  Book  xvi. 
\  History  of  Geography,  Book  xix. 
4:  Valentyn's  Description  of  Sumatra,  (Ostindien,  vii.) 
§  Marsden's  History  of  Sumatra,  p.  8,  24. 

i  Voyage  of  Benjamisi  Olitscb,  counsellor  of  mines,  by  Elias  Ilesse,  Dresden,  1690,  (in 
German.) 


SUMATRA.  309 

elsewhere.     It  is  chiefly  used  as  a  preservative  against  the  ravages  of  the  white 
ants.     A  great  part  of  the  soa-coast  is  surrounded  with  coral  reefs. 

Though  situated  under  the  equator,  Sumatra  is  seldom  subjected  to  a  |  climate, 
higher  temperature  than  85°  of  Fahrenheit,  while  in  Bengal  the  thermometer  rises 
to  101°.  The  inhabitants  of  the  mountains  are  in  the  practice  of  hghting  fires  in 
the  cold  mornings.  But  frost,  snow,  and  hail,  are  unknown,  Thunder  and  lightning 
are  frequent,  and  principally  during  the  north-west  monsoon.  The  south-east  mon- 
soon, which  is  dry,  begins  in  May  and  ends  in  September;  the  north-west  or  rainy 
monsoon  begins  in  December  and  ends  in  March.  The  climate  of  Sumatra  has 
been  too  much  decried.  The  west  coast,  which  is  covered  with  extensive  marshes, 
may  deserve  the  character  of  a  pestilential  shore,  in  consequence  of  the  unhealthy 
fogs  to  which  it  is  subject.  But  many  other  parts  of  the  island,  especially  the  east 
coast,  contain  unhealthy  situations,  and  afford  examples  of  great  longevity.* 

The  Malay  Islands,  though  adorned  with  many  rare  native  plants  VegetaWe 
and  valuable  trees,  are,  in  general,  ill  adapted  for  cultivation.  The  facts  P'^°<'"ct'"iM« 
stated  by  Mr.  Marsden  leave  no  doubt  on  that  head.f  The  Sumatrans  cultivate 
two  kinds  of  rice.  They  extract  oil  from  sesamum,  and  chew  the  sugar  cane.  They 
obtain  a  black  sugar  called  jaggari,  from  the  anoo  palm,  which  also  yields  sago,  and, 
like  other  palms,  an  inebriating  liquor.  The  cocoa  is  the  chief  dependence  of  the 
people  for  subsistence.  Sumatra  abounds  in  the  most  envied  tropical  fruits,  such  as 
the  mangosteen,  that  celebrated  wonder  of  the  Indies,  esteemed  a  universal  remedy ;  J 
the  durion,  the  white  pulp  of  which  has  a  taste  resembling  that  of  roasted  onions, 
and  is  of  a  heating  nature ;  the  bread  fruit,  though  not  of  the  best  quality ;  the  fruit 
of  the  Yumho  mura,  which  is  shaped  like  a  pear;  pine  apples,  which,  at  Bencoolcn, 
sell  for  a  penny  or  two-pence;  guavas,  lemons,  citrons,  oranges,  and  pomegranates. 

The  mountains  of  this  island  are  richly  enamelled  with  the  finest  purple  and  yel- 
low hues,  in  an  endless  diversity  of  shades  and  forms,  developed  by  numberless 
species  of  flowers.  The  Soondal  mcdlam,  or  "fair  one  of  the  night,"  a  funnel- 
shaped  flower  in  this  country,  is  so  called  from  blowing  only  during  the  night. 

The  most  abundant  native  commodity  produced  for  exportation,  and  |  Spices. 
the  chief  object  of  the  European  establishments,  is  pepper,  the  produce  of  a  creeping 
plant  commonly  called,  from  the  analogy  of  its  habit,  the  pepper  vine.  It  begins  in 
the  third  year  to  be  productive,  and  continues  so  to  the  twentieth.  There  are  two 
pepper  harvests,  the  great  one  in  September,  and  the  small  one  in  March.  A  very 
small  proportion  of  it  is  in  the  form  of  white  pepper,  the  effect  of  a  process  for  remov- 
ing the  external  skin.§  Camphor  is  another  conspicuous  production,  found  in  the 
form  of  a  concrete  crystal  in  the  body  of  the  tree.  The  camphor  tree  grows  sponta- 
neously in  the  north  of  Sumatra,  which  is  the  warmest  part  of  the  island.  It  equals 
the  tallest  timber  trees  in  size,  and  is  often  fifteen  feet  in  circumference.  j|  Each 
tree  yields  about  three  pounds  of  hght  friable  and  very  soluble  camphor,  which  wastes 
on  exposure  to  the  air,  though  much  more  slowly  than  that  of  Japan.  The  oil  of 
camphor  is  the  produce  of  a  different  tree.  Benzoin  is  a  resin  obtained  from  a  tree 
resembling  the  pine.     Cassia,  a  sort  of  coarse  cinnamon,  is  found  in  the  interior. 

Rattans  grow  chiefly  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  island,  from  whence  |  Trees, 
they  are  exported  in  large  cargoes  to  Europe  for  canes.  Besides  the  herbaceous 
and  the  ligneous  cotton,  the  silk  cotton,  Bonihax  cliha,  is  to  be  met  with  in  every  vil- 
lage. In  appearance,  this  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  raw  materials  which  the  hand 
of  nature  has  presented.  Its  fineness,  gloss,  and  delicate  softness,  render  it  to  the 
sight  and  touch  much  superior  to  the  produce  of  the  silk-worm,  but  such  are  its 
brittlencss  and  shortness,  that  it  is  esteemed  unfit  for  the  reel  and  loom,  and  only  ap- 
plied to  the  humbler  use  of  stuffing  mattresses  and  pillows.  Yet  it  is  not  impossible 
that  farther  experiments  may  find  it  capable  of  being  adapted  to  a  superior  manufac- 
ture.    The  tree  is  remarkable  for  the  straightness  and  the  perfectly  horizontal  growth 

•  Radermachev's  Description  of  Sumatra,  §  7,  in  the  Batavian  Memoirs,  (in  Dutch.) 

f  Hist,  of  Sumatra,  p.  19  and  p.  59,  £cg. 

if  Rumphius,  Hortus  Ainboinensis,  vol.  i.  p.  132.  tab.  13,  Sic. 

§  Marsden's  Hist,  of  Sumatra,  p.  118.     Elias  Hesse,  p.  208.     Eschelskron,  p.  59, 

II  Valentini,  Ilistoha  Simplicium,  p.  488,  tab.  7. 


310  BOOK  FIFTY-FOUllTII. 

of  its  branches,  three  always  growing  together  and  forming  equal  angles.  The 
subordinate  shoots  also  grow  flat,  and  all  the  gradations  of  the  branches  observe  the 
same  regularity  to  the  top.  Some  travellers  have  called  it  the  umbrella  tree.  Mr. 
Marsden  compares  it  to  the  piece  of  furniture  which  we  call  a  dumb  waiter,  consisting 
of  a  gradation  of  circular  shelves  on  one  axis.*  The  coffee  tree  is  planted  in  great 
numbers ;  but  the  produce  is  rendered  indifferent  by  unskilful  management.  The 
plants  are  set  close  together,  too  much  shadowed  by  other  trees,  and  the  berries  are 
gathered  while  they  are  red,  and  before  they  have  been  sufficiently  ripened  to  acquire 
the  proper  flavour.  Ebony  trees  are  in  great  plenty.  Sandal  wood  and  the  cele- 
brated eagle  or  aloe-wood,  are  the  produce  of  this  island,  but  they  have  lost  much  of 
that  high  reputation  which  they  had  among  the  early  writers.  There  is  excellent 
timber  for  ship-building,  but,  for  want  of  rivers,  it  cannot  be  conveyed  to  the  coast. 
Teak  is  scarcely  to  be  met  with,  except  where  it  has  been  recently  planted.  The 
7'angee,  or  machined,  which  is  rendered  usefel  by  its  property  of  resisting  the  ravages 
of  the  white  ant,  is  found  in  this  island.  Iron-wood,  and  other  useful  species,  are 
also  found ;  among  which  is  the  elegant  camooning,  resembling  in  its  leaves  the  larger 
myrtle,  and  yielding  a  beautiful  wood,  susceptible  of  an  exquisite  polish,  and  much 
used  for  the  sheaths  of  kreeses.  The  celebrated  banyan  tree  also  grows  in  this  island, 
and,  besides  its  other  singularities,  was  remarked  by  Mr.  Marsden  to  spring  readily 
from  the  trunks  of  other  trees,  after  they  had  become  hollow  by  age,  though  still  in 
vegetation,  from  brick  walls,  and  even  the  smooth  surfaces  of  painted  wooden  pil- 
lars, where  its  seeds  have  been  lodged  by  birds,  or  other  modes  of  conveyance. 
The  fibres  which  hang  from  the  branches,  and  which,  when  they  reach  the  ground, 
readily  and  spontaneously  take  root,  are  observed  to  assume  curious  fantastic  forms 
wherever  obstructing  substances  are  placed  in  their  way ;  so  that  living  wicker  works, 
of  any  form,  may  be  produced  by  merely  furnishing  them  with  a  mould.'j" 
Aiumais.  |  The  horses  are  small  but  well  made  and  hardy.  The  cows  and  sheep 
are  of  middling  size;  the  latter  are  probably  of  the  Bengal  breed.  The  buffalo  is 
used  for  some  domestic  labours.  The  forests  contain  the  elephant,  the  royal  tiger, 
the  rhinoceros,  the  hippopotamus,  the  black  bear,  which  eats  the  kernel  of  the  cocoa- 
nut,  the  otter,  the  porcupine,  the  stag,  the  wild  boau,  the  civet  cat,  several  species  of 
the  monkey,  particularly  a  bearded  monkey,  the  simia  nemeslrina,  which  seems  to  be 
peculiar  to  this  island. 

Bii-ds.  I       Among  the  numerous  birds,  the  coo-ow,  or  Argos  pheasant,  is  re- 

marked for  its  uncommon  beauty,  but  no  complete  specimen  of  it  has  been  seen  in 
Europe.  Its  plumage  is  said  by  Mr.  Marsden  to  be  the  richest  of  all  the  feathered 
race,  yet  without  any  degree  of  gaudiness.  When  caught  it  cannot  be  kept  alive 
longer  than  a  month.  It  has  an  antipathy  to  the  light,  being  inanimate  through  the 
day,  and  uttering  in  the  night  a  harsh  cry  like  that  of  the  peacock.  Turkeys  are  in 
great  abundance,  and  in  the  southern  parts  there  is  a  very  large  species  of  that  bird, 
known  also  at  Bantam.  The  Jirdea  argala,  the  largest  known  species  of  the  heron, 
which  is  also  known  in  India,  and  in  the  south  of  Africa,  is  a  native  of  this  island. 
The  angang,  or  rhinoceros  bird  is  found  here,  remarkable  for  having  a  kind  of  horn 
projecting  from  its  bill;  perhaps  it  is  a  species  of  cassowary.  The  rivers  are  in- 
fested with  crocodiles,  and  stocked  with  a  great  variety  of  fish.  The  house  lizard  is 
in  great  abundance,  and  remarkable  for  being  the  largest  animal  capable  of  retaining 
its  hold  so  as  to  walk  in  an  inverted  position.  Its  body  has  such  a  degree  of  trans- 
parency as  to  allow  the  circulation  of  the  fluids  to  be  distinctly  seen  through  the  in- 
teguments. Insects  are  abundant,  as  in  all  hot  climates,  and  among  others  the 
destructive  white  ant. 

Geographical  I  ^^^^  natives  divide  Sumatra  into  three  countries.  Bulla,  in  the  north, 
divisions.  |  includcs  the  kingdom  of  Acheen,  (or  Atcheen,)  with  the  vassal  princi- 
palities of  Pedeer,  Passay,  and  Delli.  The  interior  of  this  division  is  inhabited  by 
the  Battas.  It  is  bounded  on  the  east  side  of  the  island  by  the  river  Siac,  and  on 
the  west  by  the  river  Sinkol.  The  second  division  is  the  ancient  empire  of  Menang- 
kaboo,  comprehending  the  kingdoms  of  Jamby  and  Andragiri  on  the  east  coast ;  in 

•  History  of  Sumatra,  p.  127.  t  Marsden,  p.  109. 


SUMATRA.  311 

the  interior  the  country  of  the  Rejangs,  and  part  of  the  present  empire  of  Menang- 
kaboo ;  and  on  the  western  coast  the  countries  of  Baroos,  Tappanooly,  Nattal,  and 
others ;  the  late  Dutch  possessions  of  Priaman,  Padang,  and  Sillida,  with  the  king- 
dom of  Indrapoora.  The  third  division,  called  BaUmn-ary  or  Kampang,  embraces 
the  south-east  end  of  the  island,  where  we  find  the  kingdom  of  Bancahoolo  or  Ben- 
coolen,  with  an  English  establishment,  the  country  of  the  Lampoons,  and  the  large 
kingdom  of  Palembang.* 

Acheen  is  the  only  kingdom  of  this  island  the  transactions  of  which  Kingdom  of 
have  been  deemed  sufficiently  important  to  occupy  the  attention  of  his-  Acht-eu. 
torians.  It  is  situated  in  its  north-western  extremity.  It  formerly  reached  as  far 
north  as  Indrapoor  on  the  west  coast,  but  now  extends  no  farther  than  forty  or  fifty 
miles  along  both  the  eastern  and  the  western  shore;  Carty,  near  Battoo-Bara  river, 
being  its  boundary  on  the  former,  and  Baroos  on  the  latter.  The  subject  inhabitants 
of  the  interior  form  three  tribes,  two  of  which,  called  Alias  and  Reeah,  resemble  the 
Achenese,  and  the  third,  called  Carrow,  come  nearer  in  manners  to  the  Battas.  The 
capital,  Acheen,  stands  two  miles  from  the  mouth  of  a  river,  which  ad-  |  The  capital 
mits  no  vessels  during  the  dry  monsoon.  It  carries  on  a  considerable  trade  with  the 
natives  of  the  coast  of  Coromandel,  who  bring  hither  their  cotton  manufactures,  and 
carry  home  gold  dust,  sapan  wood,  betel-nut,  patch  leaf,  (the  Costuslndicus,)  sul- 
phur, and  benzoin.  From  six  to  ten  Telinga  snows,  of  150  or  200  tons,  come  an- 
nually. They  are  prohibited  from  touching  at  any  other  port  on  the  east  or  west 
coast.  This  is  a  precaution  for  securing  to  the  monarch  the  profits  of  the  trade,  the 
customs,  and  the  presents  usually  made.  The  king  is  the  chief  merchant  of  the 
capital.  The  people  carry  on  the  subsequent  business  of  distributing  the  goods 
through  the  different  parts' of  the  kingdom.  In  this  neighbourhood  there  is  a  volcano, 
from  which  sulphur  is  procured.  The  Acheenese  are  darker  coloured,  and  stouter 
than  the  Sumatrans.  They  have  a  greater  portion  of  sagacity  and  of  industry.  The 
mercantile  transactions  of  those  not  connected  with  the  capital  are  conducted  on  a 
more  liberal  scale  than  in  many  other  places.  The  religion  is  Mahometanism,  and 
they  have  a  great  number  of  mosques  and  priests.  The  city  contains  several  public 
buildings,  but  none  of  them  elegant.  The  king's  palace  is  a  rude  piece  -of  archi- 
tecture, surrounded  with  strong  walls  built  for  protection,  but  without  the  least  atten- 
tion to  the  modern  principles  of  fortification.  There  are  some  cotton  and  silk 
manufactures  in  this  country.  The  seamen  are  expert  and  bold,  and  carry  on  a  con- 
stant and  successful  fishery.  Having  no  coin,  they  make  their  payments  in  gold 
dust,  which  they  keep  in  divided  parcels  contained  in  pieces  of  bladder,  and  these 
are  weighed  by  the  person  who  takes  them  in  payment.  The  govern-  |  Government, 
ment  is  a  hereditary  despotism,  subject  to  frequent  revolutions  and  inteiTals  of  anar- 
chy. The  sultan,  in  issuing  his  orders,  first  makes  them  known  to  a  woman  seated 
at  his  feet ;  she  communicates  them  to  a  eunuch  sitting  next  to  her,  and  he  to  thei 
Cajoorang-Go7idong,  an  officer  who  proclaims  them  aloud  to  the  assembly.  The 
throne  is  of  ivory  and  tortoise  shell.  Ambassadors,  and  other  strangers  introduced 
to  the  sovereign,  arc  rigidly  subjected  to  certain  ceremonies,  which  are  rather  trou-^ 
blesome  than  degrading,  and  they  are  treated  with  pompous  hospitality.  The  coun- 
try is  wonderfully  populous;  the  accounts  of  the  population  given  by  the  people 
themselves  are  incredible,  and  believed  to  be  exaggerations.  The  king  hardly  re.< 
ceives  any  land  revenue:  each  proprietor  is  only  obliged  to  give  a  measure  of  rice 
annually,  which  he  carries  in  person  to  the  court,  but  which  seems  rather  intended 
as  a  mark  of  homage  than  a  substantial  tax.  The  king's  revenues  arise  entirely 
from  the  customs  on  exports  and  imports,  which  amount  to  about  £2500  a-year. 
The  kings  of  Acheen,  besides  their  proper  territories,  possess  a  grant  along  the  sea 
coast  as  far  as  Bencoolen,  from  the  sultan  of  Mcnangkaboo,  whose  sovereignty  in 
these  parts  they  acknowledge.  The  criminal  laws  of  Acheen  are  par-  |  Laws, 
ticularly  severe,  and  fall  almost  exclusively  on  persons  in  the  lowest  walks  of  so- 
ciety :  mutilation  and  drowning  are  the  most  common  punishments.  The  robbery 
of  a  priest  is  punished  with  burning  alive.   An  adulterer  is  encircled  by  a  ring  of  his 

•  Uadcrmacher,  Description  de  Sumatra,  p.  9,  See. 


312  BOOK  FIFTY-FOURTH. 

countrymen,  and  furnished  with  a  weapon,  by  the  aid  of  which  lie  is  welcome  to 
make  his  escape  if  he  can  break  through  any  part  of  the  ring,  after  which  he  is  lia- 
ble to  no  further  prosecution ;  but  he  is  most  generally  cut  to  pieces  in  the  desperate 
attempt.  The  Achecnese,  however,  are  represented  by  travellers  as  the  most 
abandoned  and  unprincipled  nations  of  the  east.  Their  treacherous  and  sangui- 
nary character  was  amply  exemplified  in  their  early  transactions  with  the  Portu- 
guese. To  these  visitors,  indeed,  they  owed  little  delicacy,  nor  could  they  profit 
in  humanity  by  their  example ;  but  their  conduct  to  one  another  was  also  marked 
by  every  feature  that  can  render  man  an  object  of  distrust  and  abhorrence  to  his 
neighbour.* 

The  Batta  The  country  of  the  Battas  comprehends  the  mountains  of  Deirah  and 

country.  Papa,  to  the  south  of  the  plain  of  Acheen.     It  is  bounded  on  the  south 

by  Passamman,  and  the  independent  district  of  Aru.  The  northern  extremity  is 
abreast  of  the  great  river  Sinkel,  and  the  southern  a  little  beyond  that  of  Tabooyang. 
The  country  is  very  populous,  but  the  greater  part  of  the  people  live  at  a  distance 
from  the  sea-shore,  in  extensive  plains,  between  two  ridges  of  mountains  on  the  bor- 
ders of  a  great  lake.  It  is  divided  into  several  districts,  which  are  subdivided  into 
tribes.  The  English  settlements  connected  with  it  are  at  Natal  and  Tapanooly.  A 
large  quantity  of  gold  is  procured  from  the  country,  and  there  is  a  considerable  sale 
for  imported  goods.  The  English  live  on  good  terms  with  the  natives,  but  the  peo- 
ple are  too  spirited  to  allow  them  any  political  influence.  The  settlement  in  Tapa- 
nooly Bay  is  on  a  small  island  called  Punchong-cacheel,  who  has  one  of  the  most 
advantageous  harbours  in  the  world,  and  would  be  of  vast  importance  if  it  were  not 
so  remote  from  the  general  track  of  shipping.  The  bay  is  very  complicated,  and 
stretches  into  the  heart  of  the  Batta  dominions.  The  natives  trade  with  the  Europeans, 
and  their  conduct  is  inoffensive.  The  English  have  sometimes  gone  in  small  parties 
to  gratify  their  curiosity  in  the  interior,  and  on  such  occasions  are  treated  with  re- 
Ancient  build-  spect  and  hospitality.  High  up  on  the  river  Battoobara,  which  flows 
'"^'*  into  the  straits  of  Malacca,  there  has  been  discovered  a  large  brick 

building,  in  the  form  of  one  or  more  squares,  with  a  very  high  piUar  at  one  corner. 
Images,  supposed  to  be  Chinese  josses  or  idols,  are  carved  in  relief  on  the  walls,  but 
The  Battas.  |  no  tradition  is  preserved  respecting  the  erection  of  it.  The  Battas  arc 
of  lower  stature  and  fairer  complexion  than  the  Malays.  Their  dress  is  of  coloured 
cotton.  The  covering  of  the  head  is  generally  of  the  bark  of  a  tree.  The  women 
wear  rings  of  tin  in  their  ears,  sometimes  to  the  number  of  fifty  in  each.  Their 
ordinary  fare  is  maize  and  sweet  potatoes.  Rice  is  confined  to  persons  of  distinc- 
tion. It  is  only  on  great  occasions  that  cattle  are  killed  for  food  ;  but  they  will  eat  a 
part  of  any  dead  buffalo,  alligator,  or  other  animal  they  chance  to  meet  with.  The 
rivers  are  too  rapid  and  too  much  interrupted  by  waterfalls  to  have  many  fish,  except 
near  their  mouths.  They  delight  most  of  all  in  horse  flesh  ;  and  the  best  horses  arc 
carefully  fed  and  rubbed  down  for  the  table.  Their  houses  consist  of  wooden  frames, 
which  are  boarded  and  roofed  with  a  vegetable  substance  called  ejoo,  resembling 
horse  hair.  Their  campongs,  or  towns,  consist  of  about  twenty  houses  :  each  house 
consists  of  a  single  apartment,  which  is  entered  by  a  trap  door  in  the  middle,  and  op- 
posite is  an  open  shed  where  they  sit  during  the  day.  Each  campong  has  a  hall  for 
public  business,  and  the  reception  and  entertainment  of  strangers.  Polygamy  is 
freely  practised.  The  wives  sit  in  different  corners  of  the  same  apartment,  and  have 
their  separate  establishments  for  cookery  ;  but  their  respective  rights  and  duties  arc 
sufliciently  understood  to  obviate  the  heart-burnings  and  jealousies  which  are  usually 
imputed  to  the  harams  of  the  east.  They  are  represented  as  a  sort  of  slaves.  They 
perform  the  labours  of  agriculture.  The  men,  when  not  engaged  in  war,  lead  indo- 
lent lives,  passing  the  day  in  playing  on  a  kind  of  flute,  which  they  deck  with  gar- 
lands of  flowers.  Their  music  is  rather  better  than  that  of  the  other  Sumatrans. — 
They  arc  much  addicted  to  gaming.  A  man  who  is  unable  to  pay  his  gambling 
debts  is  liable  to  be  confined  and  sold  as  a  slave,  unless  released  by  the  generosity  of 
the  winner.    They  arc  fond  of  horse-racing.    They  use  no  saddles.    Sometimes  the 

•  Marsden's  History  of  Sumatra,  p.  311—370. 


SUMATRA.  313 

bit  i3  of  iron  and  the  reins  of  rattan ;  at  other  times  the  bit  is  of  wood  and  the  reins 
of  ejoo.     They  have  a  pecuhar  language  and  a  peculiar  ^vl•itten  character,  and  the 
majority  of  the  people  can  both  read  and  write.     The  bark  of  a  tree  is  used  among 
them  for  paper.     In  their  mutual  dealings  they  are  strictly  honest,  but  pilfer  leadily 
from  strangers,  when  they  are  not  restrained  by  the  rules  of  hospitality.     Adultery 
in  men  is  punished  with  death  ;  in  women  it  is  only  followed  by  the  disgrace  of  hav- 
ing the  head  shaved,  the  weaker  sex  being  looked  upon  as  less  accountable  for  their 
actions.     The  Battas  practise  cannabalism  in  the  punishment  awarded     singular  can- 
to particular  crimes.     This  fact  is  established  by  abundant  and  unques-     '>'''^*''*'"' 
tionable  evidence.     The  intention  of  it  is  to  testify  their  detestation  of  crime,  and 
inflict  the  greatest  possible  ignominy  on  the  victim.     It  is  sometimes  also  extended 
to  prisoners  of  war.     The  sufferer  is  first  killed  by  lances  thrown  at  him  by  the  peo- 
ple, who,  when  a  mortal  wound  is  given,  run  up  to  him  in  a  rage,  cut  pieces  from  the 
body  with  their  knives,  dip  them  in  salt  and  lemon  juice,  ligbtly  broil  them,  and  swal- 
low them  with  savage  enthusiasm.     This  is  not  accompanied  witb  any  intention  of 
giving  pain  to  the  sufferer,  and  therefore,  though  ferocious  and  inhuman,  cannot, 
when  rationally  viewed,  excite  so  much  detestation  as  the  refined  tortures  by  which 
some  nations  prolong  the  sufferings  of  obnoxious  individuals.     An  English  gentle- 
man, who  lately  made  some  inquiries  into  the  manners  of  these  people,  asked  them 
if  there  was  any  part  of  the  body  which  was  usually  preferred  to  the  rest.  They  told 
him  jestingly,  after  a  little  thought,  that  the  palms  of  the  hands  and  soles  of  the 
feet  were  the  best  eating.*     The  Batta  country  is  divided  into  a  num-  |  Government, 
her  of  petty  communities,  governed  by  rajas  who  are  generally  independent.     In 
some  instances  there  are  gradations  among  them.     The  people  have  a  permanent 
property  in  their  possessions,  and  sell  them  to  one  another  when  so  disposed.    This 
is  propably  one  cause  of  the  comfort  and  prosperity  which  they  are  observed  to  en- 
joy in  a  greater  degree  than  most  of  their  neighbours.     They  entertain  a  supersti- 
tious veneration  for  the  sultan  of  the  neighbouring  kingdom  of  Menangkaboo.  They 
submit  blindly  to  his  emissaries,  even  when  insulted,  imagining  that  if  they  offered 
to  resist  they  would  cease  to  thrive,  and  their  crops  and  their  cattle  Avould  be  ruined 
by  some  mysterious  spell.    They  often  go  to  war  with  one  another,  and  carry  on  the 
contest  not  by  open  or  general  engagements,  but  by  petty  hostilities,  waylaying  indi- 
viduals of  the  hostile  tribe.     Before  declaring  war  they  use  the  solemnity  of  firing 
with  gunpowder  without  shot  into  the  campong  of  the  enemy,  and  give  a  certain  time 
for  proposals  of  reconciliation  before  they  commence  actual  hostilities.    Their  arms 
are  matchlocks,  bamboo  lances,  and  a  sort  of  sword  or  large  knife.     They  carry  no 
kreeses  like  the  Malays.     They  manufacture  their  own  gunpowder.     They  believe 
in  a  good  and  an  evil  deity. — On  their  belief  in  a  future  state  accounts 
differ.   Marsden  says  they  have  no  such  idea.     They  are  credulous  in 
matters  of  sorcery  and  prognostication,  and  take  oaths  with  vehemen 
The  priests  predict  the  event  of  a  war  by  inspecting  the  intestines  of  a  dead  buffalo; 
but,  if  their  predictions  are  not  verified,  they  are  sometimes  put  to  death.    The  body 
of  a  deceased  man  of  rank  is  kept  in  a  cofiin  for  several  months  ;  the  soft  parts,  dis- 
solving during  that  interval,  are  conveyed  in  a  fluid  state  by  a  bamboo  tube  from  the 
bottom  of  the  cofiin  into  the  earth.     This  people  has  remained  separate  from  the 
other  races  partly  in  consequence  of  the  absence  of  gold  and  other  articles  of  traflic  to 
tempt  the  rapacity  of  conquerors  and  the  speculations  of  traders.  Their  marriages  are 
accompanied  with  some  singular  ceremonies.  The  intended  bride  appears  undressed 
before  the  man  in  a  bath,  after  which  he  makes  his  bargain  about  the  sum  of  money 
which  he  is  to  give  her  relations.     The  young  couple  partake  together  of  two  sorts 
of  rice,  and  the  father  of  the  woman  throws  a  piece  of  cloth  over  them. 

On  the  west  coast,  adjoining  the  Batta  country  to  the  south,  is  a  po-  |  Passaman. 
pulous  territory,  called  Passaman,  an  independent  Malay  sovereignly,  governed  by 
two  rajas,  formerly  subject  to  Menangkaboo.    The  Dutch  have  a  factory  at  Pudang, 
to  which  they  were  probably  attracted  by  the  quantity  of  gold  found  near  it.     About 
10,000  ounces  of  gold  are  annually  exported  from  the  west  coast  of  the  island.     To 

•  A  MS. -letter  from  a  British  officer,  read  before  the  Wernerian  Societv  of  F-dinbiu-gh,  1822. 
Vol.  II.— R  r 


Helipion  and 
customs. 

solemnity. 


314  BOOK  FIlTY-roURTH. 

the  south  of  Pailang  is  Indrapoor,  once  the  seat  of  a  considerable  monarchy,  from 
the  ruins  of  wluch  sprung  that  of'  Anac-eoongey,  the  capital  of  which  is  a  small 
TheRejangs.  |  place  Called  Moco-moco. — Next  to  this  is  the  country  of  the  Rejangs, 
who  live  under  chiefs  called  Panjerans,  whose  power  is  very  limited.  They  have 
adopted  Malay  civilization,  and  yet  preserved  their  primitive  character  and  manners. 
They  are  small  lean  figures.  Their  noses  are  artificially  flattened,  and  the  lobes  of 
their  ears  distended.  Their  eyes  are  black  and  lively.  Their  women  bear  a  resem- 
blance to  the  Chinese.  Their  complexions  are  rather  yellow  than  brown  or  copper 
coloured.  Their  mountaineers  are  extremely  subject  to  goitres.  A  little  to  the  south, 
Bencooien,  |  in  3°  16'  south  latitude,  is  Bencoolen,  a  Malay  town,  near  which  is  the 
English  presidency  of  Fort  Marlborough.  Hero  pepper  and  sugar  cane  are  culti- 
vated, but  the  produce  does  not  pay  the  expenses  of  the  government. 
Emiiiie  of  In  the  centre  of  the  island  is  Menangkajjoo,  extending  partly  to  the 

.Menangkaboo.  northv/ard,  but  mostly  to  the  southward  of  the  equator.  It  is  the  chief 
seat  of  the  empire  of  the  island,  formerly  extending  over  the  whole,  and  held  in  high 
respect  in  the  east.  At  present,  its  longest  diameter  does  not  exceed  100  miles, 
and  probably  falls  much  short  of  it.  The  capital  is  called  Pangarooyoong.  The  sul- 
Suitan,  I  tan's  power  is  greatly  limited,  and  is  chiefly  founded  on  a  superstitious 

veneration  in  which  he  is  held  as  a  sort  of  Mahometan  pontift'.  It  is  supported  by  the 
priesthood,  but  very  little  submitted  to  by  persons  possessing  any  military  power  be- 
yond a  very  limited  territory.  The  titles  which  he  assumes  in  the  preambles  to  his 
edicts  are  absurdly  pompous,  containing  a  minute  enumeration  of  his  wealth,  and  the 
mysterious  power  of  his  military  weapons.  The  people  have  no  records  or  annals. 
Literature.  ]  They  Write  cxpcrtly  in  the  Arabic  character  ;  but  their  whole  literature 
consists  of  transcripts  of  the  Koran  and  bold  historic  tales.  They  are  famous  for 
Their  arts. '  |  Composing  songs  called  pantoon.  The  arts  are  carried  to  greater  per- 
fection among  them  than  among  the  other  natives  of  Sumatra.  They  are  well  skilled 
in  the  manufacture  of  gold  and  fillagree.  They  have,  from  tire  earliest  times,  manu- 
factured arms  for  their  own  use,  and  for  sale  in  the  northern  parts  of  the  island. 
Kreeses.  |  Tlicy  usc  lances,  kreeses,  and  various  side  arms.     The  kreese  has  a 

blade  fourteen  inches  long.  It  is  not  polished,  but  has  a  waving  surface,  resembling 
that  of  an  imperfectly  mixed  metal ;  it  has  several  seipentine  bends.  The  handle  is 
of  ivory  or  some  beautiful  polished  wood,  finely  carved  and  ornamented.  The 
sheath  is  made  of  a  hollow  piece  of  beautiful  wood.  They  used  to  go  frequently  to 
war  with  the  Acheenese,  but  the  modern  English  settlement  at  Nattal  operates  as  a 
check  on  that  warfare,  the  settlers  in  that  locality  having  placed  themselves  under  the 
protection  of  the  English  Company.  The  people  of  Menangkaboo  differ  from  the 
other  inland  inhabitants,  in  being  all  Mahometans,  having  been  converted  at  a  very 
early  period.     The  capital  is  the  resort  of  pilgrims  of  that  religion. 

A  province  called  Tigablas  Cottas  yields  a  very  pure  gold,  and  contains  a  great 
lake  called  Dano.  In  the  interior  the  Googons,  a  wild  and  hairy  race  resembling 
ourang-outangs  rather  than  men,  dispute  v/ith  the  lower  animals  the  dominion  of 
the  forests. 

The  Lampoon  country  is  a  portion  of  the  southern  extremity  of  the 
island,  consisting  of  mountains  covered  with  impenetrable  forests  and 
plains  which  are  subject  to  frequent  inundations.  The  people  resemble  the  Chinese^ 
more  than  any  of  the  other  Sumatrans.  They  have  a  guttural  language,  and  a  cha- 
racter peculiar  to  themselves.  They  are  a  hospitable  and  unwarlike  race,  using  no 
fire-arms,  and  are  not  a  match  for  the  Javanese  banditti,  by  whom  they  are  much 
molested.  Their  manners  are  more  licentious  than  those  of  the  other  Sumatrans. 
They  have  public  dances  called  bimbangs,  where  the  young  women  exchange  their 
ordinary  for  their  dancing  dress,  letting  the  one  drop  off  dexterously,  as  the  other  is 
brought  down  over  the  head.  They  have  canoes  formed  of  the  hollowed  trunks  of 
single  trees,  and  large  enough  to  carry  13,000  pounds  weight. 

Kingdom  of  The  kingdom  of  Palembang,  an  ancient  dependence  of  the   Susuhu- 

aiembang.  nam,  or  cmpcror  of  Java,  is  mostly  peopled  by  Javans.  It  has,  in  re- 
cent times,  come  under  the  protection  of  the  Dutch  government  at  Rafavia,  which 
has  a  factory  in  the  country,  procures  from  it  pepper  and  tin,  and  makes  a  mart  for 


Lampoon 
country. 


Society  of 
lUieves, 

lole  island, 


SUMATRA.  315 

vending  opium  and  other  commodities  fiom  the  west  of  India.  It  comprehends  the 
southbast  portion  of  Sumatra,  and  the  ishmds  of  Banka  and  IJilliton.  Both  in 
Baiika  and  in  this  part  of  Sumatra,  there  are  tin  mines  ;  and  that  metal  is  always 
purchased  with  silver,  for  which  there  appears  to  he  no  elUux  from  the  country. 
Hence  probably  arose  the  accounts  given  of  the  immense  wealth  of  the  king  of  Pa- 
lembang.  But  to  all  appearance  both  the  chiefs  and  peoi)le  are  miserably  poor. 
There  is  said  to  be  a  remarkable  increase  of  land  in  this  kingdom,  by  deposition 
from  rivers  and  from  the  sea.  Ill  cultivated,  and  covered  with  forests,  this  country 
exports,  in  addition  to  the  other  productions  of  Sumatra,  sassafras,  dragon's  blood, 
and  excellent  timber.  The  climate  is  liable  to  many  al)rupt  changes  of  temperature, 
yet  not  unhealthy.*  The  large  city  of  Palembang  is  inhabited  by  Chinese,  Siamese, 
Malays,  and  Javanese,  but  the  only  stone  buildings  in  it  are  a  temple,  and  the  royal 
castle.  The  despotic  sovereign,  without  a  regular  army  or  a  lixed  revenue,  in- 
dulges his  pride  and  his  etlominacy  in  the  midst  of  an  ample  seraglio.  |  scmgiio. 
The  malo  inhabitants  of  the  Blida,  from  being  extremely  stupid  and  phlegmatic, 
have  tho  exclusive  privilege  of  being  admitted  within  the  walls  of  that  building, 
where  they  act  as  water-carriers.  The  laws  here  are  without  influence,  the  judges 
void  of  honour,  and  the  merchants  destitute  of  honesty.  Tho  Mahometan  priests 
engage  in  trade,  and  not  without  success.  The  thieves,  who  are  called 
Sumb^raws,  live  in  a  community  legally  acknowledged,  under  a  leader 
who  restrains  their  excesses,  and  keeps  up  the  police. "j"  Here,  as  in  tho  w 
tho  Malays  wear  a  vest,  and  a  kind  of  mantle,  with  a  belt  in  which  the  kreese  is 
thrust.  They  wear  very  short  trousers,  tho  legs  and  feet  are  naked.  The  head 
is  covered  with  a  pretty  handkerchief,  over  which  they  put  a  broad  hat  when  they 
travel.  Both  sexes  file  and  blacken  their  teeth.  Their  houses  are  of  wood  and 
bamboo,  covered  with  palm  loaves,  raised  on  pillars,  and  entered  by  an  ill  made 
ladder. 

The  interior  contains  some  negroes,  with  uncommonly  largo  heads, 
short  bodies,  and  very  slender  arms  and  limbs.  Mr.  Radermacher  saw 
some  specimens  of  this  race  at  Palembang. 

Tho  island  of  Banka,  oft'  this  coast,  is  130  miles  long  by  forty-five 
broad.  It  has  tin  mines,  in  different  places,  which  Avcre  discovered  acci- 
dentally in  1710,  by  the  burning  of  a  house.  They  are  worked  by  10,000  resident 
Chinese.  Navigators  havo  considered  this  climate  as  one  of  the  most  deleterious 
in  that  part  of  tho  world.  That  observation,  however,  applies  only  to  the  immediate 
neighbourhood  of  the  sea.  The  island  was  ceded  to  tho  British  in  1812,  and  being 
thinly  peopled,  in  proportion  to  its  soil,  is  recommended  by  Mr.  Crawford  as  a  good 
station  for  an  English  colony  ;  but  it  was  given  up  to  the  Dutch  by  tho  treaty  of 
peace  in  1814,  in  exchange  for  Cochin  on  the  coast  of  Malabar.  On  the  east  of 
llanka  lies  tho  round  shaped  island  of  Billiton,  separated  from  tho  former  by  Cle- 
ment's straits,  through  which  tho  vessels  bound  for  China  pass,  after  passing  those 
of  Sunda.  J  It  is  the  only  place,  in  this  whole  archipelago,  that  contains  iron  mines 
which  are  not  worth  tho  workintr. 

Jamby,  on  a  river  of  tho  same  name,  to  the  north-west  of  Palembang,  |  Jamby. 
was  formerly  a  place  of  note,  and  both  the  English  and  Dutch  companies  had  esta- 
blishments there  ;  but  tho  system  of  oppression  and  monopoly  which  they  brought 
along  with  them  issued  in  their  poverty  and  ruin.  There  are  many  other  petty 
Malay  states  at  every  largo  river  on  that  side  of  tho  island ;  but  the  extent  of  their 
respective  powers  is  little  known,  being  frequented  by  tho  Moorish  vessels  of  Te- 
linga.  Private  trading  ships  from  Bengal  sometimes  dispose  of  a  few  chests  of 
opium,  but  seldom  venture  on  shore,  so  great  is  the  antipathy  to  them  entertained  by 
the  natives.  They  are  generally  at  war  with  the  inhabitants  of  the  interior,  who 
confine  them  to  the  sea-coast.  The  chief  of  these  states  are  Indergerie  and  Siak, 
from  which  tho  beat  sago  is  obtained,  and  Batoo-Bara.     Tho  river  Racan,  in  the 

•  Radermacher,  p.  131.  |  Radermacher,  sect.  115. 

+  Fleurieu,  Voyage  de  Marchand,  ii.  p.  107,  &c. 


Diminutive 

negroes. 


Bnnka  ariJ 
ISilliton. 


Islands  on  the 
west  of 
Sumatra. 
Kyasa 


316  BOOK  FIFTY-FOURTH. 

Am  country,  so  often  mentioned  by  the  Portuguese  historians,  is  so  rapid,  and  at- 
tended with  60  great  a  swell,  as  to  be  unfit  for  navigation. 

North-eastern  '-^^6  whole  of  the  shoro,  from  the  Straits  of  Sunda  to  Diamond  Point, 

shore.  ig  yery  low  land,  mostly  covered  with  woods,  and  few  or  no  mountains 

are  in  sight  of  the  shore.     From  Diamond  Point  to  Acheen,  there  is  a  gradual  slope 
to  the  foot  of  a  range  of  high  hills,  and  the  lands  are  well  cultivated. 

A  multitude  of  islands  of  different  sizes  lie  between  this  shore  and  the  peninsula  of 
Malacca.  Poolo  Lingen  is  an  irregular  island,  fifty  miles  long,  by  thirty  in  breadth, 
having  a  remarkable  two-peaked  mountain  in  the  centre,  called  by  sailors  the  "Asses 
Ears."  It  is  held  by  a  piratical  chief,  and  much  frequented  by  pirates, 
sincapore.  |  The  island  of  Sincapore  has,  within  these  few  years,  been  occupied  by 
the  English,  and  constituted  a  free  port,  in  consequence  of  which  it  has  acquired 
great  importance  with  unexampled  rapidity.  When  the  British  flag  was  hoisted  by 
ISir  Stamford  Raffles,  it  was  almost  unoccupied,  the  population  not  exceeding  200 
souls.  In  three  months  it  increased  to  3000,  and  it  now  exceeds  10,000,  consisting 
chiefly  of  Chinese.  No  less  than  173  vessels,  principally  native,  arrived  and  sailed 
in  the  first  two  months.  The  Malays  to  the  east,  entertaining  a  great  objection  to 
pass  the  straits  of  Malacca,  are  encouraged  by  this  emporium  to  exchange  their  com- 
modities for  the  productions  brought  thither  from  the  west.  The  English  flatter 
themselves  with  the  hope  of  vending  through  this  medium  an  immense  quantity  of 
their  manufactures  among  the  natives  of  north-western  Oceanica.* 

The  islands  on  the  west  of  Sumatra  form  a  regular  chain.  The  isle 
of  Nyas,  very  fertile  and  populous,  is  inhabited  by  a  singular  race,  dis- 
tinguished by  a  skin  of  a  whitish  appearance  covered  with  scales,  and  by 
ears  of  uncommon  length.f  A  great  trade  is  carried  on  between  it  and  Nattal.  The 
articles  received  from  it  are  rice  and  slaves;  of  the  latter  450  are  annually  bought, 
besides  160  which  go  to  the  northern  ports;  and  in  the  act  of  kidnapping  them,  the 
chiefs  destroy  about  200.  These  facts  illustrate  the  exuberant  tendencies  of  the 
population.  They  are  remarkably  ingenious  in  handicraft  work.  Their  language 
and  manners  resemble  those  of  the  Battas.  They  cannot  pronounce  the  letter  P. 
Their  principal  food  is  pork.  They  are  said  to  be  revengeful  in  their  temper ;  but 
that  character  is  chiefly  founded  on  their  being  reckoned  dangerous  inmates  in  the 
Nausjau  I  situation  of  domestic  slaves. — The  Nassau,  or  Poggee  islands,  consist 
Islands.  J  of  rocks  and  mountains  covered  with  forests  to  their  tops,  and  affording 

excellent  timber.  Sago  grows  on  them  in  great  abundance.  The  inhabitants  do 
not  produce  rice,  but  they  cultivate  cocoa-nuts,  and  they  are  surrounded  by  plenty  of 
native  bamboos.  The  islands  contain  I'ed  deer,  hogs,  monkeys,  a  few  tigers,  but  no 
buffaloes  or  goats.  The  inhabitants,  in  number  1400,  are  a  tall  copper-coloured 
people,  similar  to  the  Otaheitans  both  in  aspect  and  in  simplicity  of  manners.  They 
are  in  the  habit  of  tattooing  their  bodies.  Polygamy  is  unknown  among  them,  but 
chastity  among  the  unmarried  is  scarcely  esteemed  a  virtue.  They  believe  them- 
selves descended  from  the  sun.  J — Enganno,  or  deceitful  island,  has  been  represented 
as  inhabited  by  a  race  of  cannibals.  Charles  Miller  landed  on  it,  and  found  the  na- 
tives rude  and  simple.  They  are  tall  and  copper-coloured,  living  in  circular  huts 
standing  on  pillars  of  iron-wood.  Their  food  consists  of  cocoa-nuts,  sweet  potatoes, 
sugar  cane,  and  dried  fish.§  It  has  been  said  that  they  lived  on  rock  lichens,  ||  a 
thing  not  at  all  improbable. 

Strait  of  Sun-  The  Celebrated  Strait  of  Sunda  separates  the  island  of  Sumatra  from 

"^  Java.     The  navigator  coming  from  the  Indian  ocean,  with  Sumatra  on 

his  left,  and  Java  on  the  right,  soon  sees  ttio  great  island  of  Borneo  right  a-hcad. 
Hence  these  islands  have  been  called  in  French,  isles  de  la  Sonde,  or  *'  the  islands 
of  the  Sound."  The  word  Sunda  seems  to  be  of  Sanscrit  origin,  and  as  such,  bears 
a  resemblance  to  the  Danish  word  Sund,  and  the  English  "  Sound,"  one  of  those 

•  See  the  Report  relative  to  the  Trade  with  the  East  Indies  and  China.    Printed  by  order 
of  the  House  of  Commons,  1821,  p.  194—205,  and  383. 
-j-  Radermacher,  p.  71. 

+  Asiatic  Researches,  t.  vi,  p.  77.     Annales  dcs  Voyages,  t.  i.  117. 
§  Bibliotheque  Britannique,  No.  147,  p.  203.  U  Radermacher,  \).  78. 


JAVA.  317 

nuinerous  coincidences,  to  the  existence  of  which  wo  have  on  former  occasions  ad- 
verted.* 

The  Island  of  Java,  the  seat  of  a  great  and  flourishing  native  empire,  |  inland  of  Jara. 
the  centre  of  the  power  of  a  commercial  company  which  lately  ruled  all  the  eastern 
sea,  is  worthy  of  a  more  extended  description  than  the  hmits  of  this  work  will  allow. 
This  island  commands  by  its  situation  the  principal  entrances  of  the  seas  of  Eastern 
Asia.  In  size  it  is  inferior  to  Borneo  and  Sumatra,  being  only  690  miles  long,  and 
varying  in  breadth  from  80  to  140.  Its  superficial  area  is  about  18,560  square  miles. 
The  name  Java  is  Malay,  and  signifies,  according  to  some,  "  the  great  |  Names. 
island,"  according  to  others  a  particular  grain  which  grows  on  it."!"  The  Arabs  and 
Persians  called  it  Djezyret  al  Maha-Iiadje,  "  the  island  of  the  great  king." 

According  to  Valentyn's  large  map,  this  island  is  traversed  from  east  |  Mountains, 
to  west  by  a  chain  of  mountains  which  generally  lie  nearest  to  the  southern  shore. 
In  some  parts  there  is  a  double  chain,  containing  between  them  elevated  table  lands, 
such  as  those  in  which  Priangam  and  Mataram  are  situated.  The  most  westerly 
part  presents  a  lower  terrace.  The  high  mountains  begin  strait  south  from  Batavia, 
and  are  called  the  Pangerannan,  or  "  Blue  Mountains. "J  Between  Tcheribon  and 
Mataram,  in  the  narrowest  part  of  the  island,  the  highest  mountains  are  collected, 
the  Gonnong-Kandang,  Toorenterga,  Tagal,  and  Keddo;§  farther  east,  the  two  bro- 
thers, or  Soodara-Soodara,  Mount  Loovon,  Domong,  Japan,  and  others,  continue 
the  chain  to  the  eastern  extremity.  The  plains  on  the  coast  consist  of  |  soii. 
a  reddish  clay  of  little  fertility,  a  black  rich  clay,  and  a  barren  yellow  till.  About 
three  miles  from  the  shore  are  the  limits  of  the  alluvial  land,  formed  of  sand,  mud, 
and  shells.  ]|  The  mountains,  covered  with  trees  and  herbs,  and  enriched  with  a  va- 
ried cultivation,  exhibit  a  most  agreeable  prospect.  Among  the  volcanoes  of  the 
island,  (for  scarcely  any  islands  in  this  part  of  the  world  are  without  volcanoes,)  that 
of  Gete  is  reckoned  8000  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea. 

The  northern  shore  of  Java  is  considered  as  extremely  unhealthy,  climate. 
Yet  the  heat  is  no  way  insupportable.  At  Surabaya,  the  thermometer 
rises  to  92''  or  93°  of  Fahrenheit  in  the  dry  season,  but  between  noon 
and  midnight  there  is  a  diflerenco  of  24  or  28  degrees. IT  The  fatality  of  Batavia, 
Samarang,  and  some  other  places,  to  European  constitutions,  seems  to  arise  in  a 
great  measure  from  the  marshy  lands,  the  stagnant  water  of  numerous  canals,  the 
excessive  number  of  trees,  and  general  want  of  cleanliness.**  At  Batavia,  an  earth- 
quake in  1706  produced  a  bar  which  dams  up  the  water  of  the  river.H 

Thirty  miles  from  the  sea  there  are  hills  of  considerable  height,  where 
the  air  is  fresh  and  healthy.  The  plants  of  Europe,  particularly  straw- 
berries, grow  very  well:  the  inhabitants  are  vigorous,  and  have  healthy  complexions. 
To  these  situations  invalids  are  sent,  and  are  found  soon  to  recover.  The  whole  of 
the  interior  has  similar  advantages.  At  Soora-Karta,  where  the  emperor  of  Java 
resides,  the  air  is  highly  salubrious  to  strangers,  and  the  waters  of  the  hmpid  rivulets 
are  good  and  pure.JJ 

The  very  circumstances  which  render  Batavia  and  its  vicinity  unhealthy 
to  man,  render  it  the  most  propituous  locality  to  vegetation.  The  rice 
crops  are  of  the  greatest  importance.  The  cultivation  of  this  article,  and  indeed  all 
the  branches  of  husbandry,  are  conducted  with  more  intelligence  and  neatness  by  the 
Javanese  than  by  the  Hindoos,  and  greater  facilities  are  aflbrded  for  increasing  their 
amount  by  irrigation,  in  consequence  of  the  numerous  rivulets  superseding  the  ne- 
cessity of  such  enormous  tanks  as  form  the  sole  dependence  of  many  agricultural 

•  Vol.  i,  p.  425.     See  also  p.  281  of  this  volume. 

t  Valentyn,  Description  de  Java,  p.  64—66,  (Indes  Orlentales,  t.  v.) 

+  Valentyn's  Map,  sheet  2d.  §  Idem,  sheet  4. 

0  Mem.  de  Ratavia,  i.  p.  24—190,  &c. 

•J  I-abillardiere,  Voyag'e  a  la  recherche  de  M.  de  La  Perouse,  t.  ii.  p.  309.  Compare  with 
Itadermacher,  Description  de  Batavia,  p.  45. 

*•  Cook's  First  Voyage,  book  iii.  chap.  xi.  Wurmb  and  WoUzogon's  Letters,  in  German,  p. 
572  and  580. 

ft  Valentyn,  p.  231  and  238.    Bogaerts,  Uistorische  Keizen,  liv.  i.  p.  170,  (en  Holl.) 
4t  Wollzogen,  p.  378. 


Temperatare 
of  the  coast. 


Temperature 
of  the  interior. 


Ve^table 
productions. 


318  BOOK  FIFTY-FOUIITII. 

districts  in  continental  India,  and  enabling  the  natives  to  accomplish  every  purpose 
by  canal  and  drains.  No  n)anure  is  applied  to  the  land,  either  here  or  in  any  other 
island  of  this  archipelago,  nor  is  any  advantage  sought  from  particular  rotations  of 
Maize.  j  crops.     Next  to  rice,  the  most  important  produce  is  maize,  bearing  a 

relation  to  the  former  similar  to  that  which  oats  or  barley  do  to  wheat  in  Europe. 
Mr.  Crawford  diflers  from  Humboldt  in  considering  this  as  an  indigenous  product, 
and  not  consequent  on  the  discovery  of  America.  The  name  of  it  bears  no  analogy 
to  any  American  term,  although  it  is  found  that  all  exotics  in  this  part  of  the  world 
Yams,  &c.  |  either  preserve  their  native  name,  or  others  which  point  at  their  origin.* 
The  yam  {Dioscorea  alata)  has  been  cultivated  in  this  part  of  the  world  from  time 
immemorial,  in  many  varieties,  and  seems  to  be  indigenous.  Sometimes  it  attains 
a  weight  of  forty  or  fifty  pounds.  It  is  less  cultivated  in  Java  however  than  in  the 
poorer  islands,  where  the  cerealia  are  more  scarce.  The  sweet  potato,  and  the 
European  potato  are  of  very  good  quality.  There  are  several  leguminous  species, 
such  as  beans,  lentils,  kidney-bean,  and  Angola  peas,  and  all  the  culinary  European 
plants ;  also  the  white  Chinese  radish,  and  the  fruit  of  that  species  of  solanum 
which  is  called  the  egg  plant.  Capsicum  grows  both  in  a  wild  and  cultivated  state, 
and  is  much  used  by  the  natives,  who  have  no  relish  for  black  pepper,  and  those 
other  spices  of  their  own  climates  which  are  so  much  relished  by  all  foreign  jiations. 
The  cocoa  tree  is  cultivated  as  an  article  of  food ;  a  little  oil  is  pressed  from  it  which 
is  highly  esteemed.  The  most  valuable  nut,  especially  considering  its  adaptation  to 
poor  soils,  is  the  Jlrachis  hypoga,,  or  ground  pistachio-nut,  yielding  an  abundant 
product  of  expressed  oil,  while  the  leaf  of  the  plant  makes,  like  clover,  excellent 
feeding  for  cattle,  and  the  oil  cake  is  used  as  dressing  for  the  land. 
Palms.  I      The  areca  or  betel  nut,  a  graceful  slender  palm,  grows  here  abun- 

dantly; also  the  Gomuti  palm,  (Borassus  gomutus,)  affording  the  principal' supply  of 
that  saccharine  liquour  which  yield  sugar  by  evaporation,  the  only  sugar  used  by  the 
natives ;  and  which,  when  fermented  and  distilled,  is  converted  into  toddy  and  into 
spirit.  A  valuable  production  of  this  tree  is  the  ejoo  already  mentioned,!  found  be- 
tween the  trunk  and  branches,  and  used  in  the  manufacture  of  cables  and  standing 
rigging.  It  affords  also  a  farina  of  the  nature  of  sago,  and  obtained  from  it  in 
a  similar  manner.  This  tree  grows  in  no  other  part  of  the  world  except  this 
archipelago ;  and  differs  from  the  cocoa  in  being  principally  an  inhabitant  of  the 
mountains. 

The  banana  (Musa  paradisiaca)  is  to  the  natives  the  most  important  of  the  fruits 
of  the  Indian  islands,  though  never  depended  on  as  their  chief  subsistence  in  the 
same  manner  as  it  is  in  the  tropical  parts  of  America.  Sixteen  species  or  varieties 
of  this  fruit  are  cultivated  in  these  islands ;  whereas  in  America  there  are  only  three. 
This  archipelago  furnishes  the  most  curious,  the  richest,  and  the  most  extensive 
variety  of  the  acido-dulces  fruits  of  any  portion  of  the  globe.  The  greater  number 
are  indigenous,  and  some  of  the  finest  so  peculiar  that  all  attempts  to  propagate 
them  in  other  countries,  even  of  parallel  climates,  have  failed.  Many  of  them  grow 
wild,  and  none  but  a  careless  cultivation  is  bestowed  on  any.  The  principal  fruit 
trees  are  planted  in  a  straggling  manner  about  the  villages.  The  common  peasantry 
cultivate  only  the  most  dehcate  varieties;  but  the  European  colonists  are  the  most 
successful  in  this  culture,  and  it  is  at  their  settlements  that  the  greatest  abundance 
The  Man-  1  o^  fi"©  fruits  is  to  be  seen.  The  Garcinia  mangostana,  or  mangostcen, 
gosteen.  j  ranks  first  in  order,  being  the  most  exquisite  of  all  known  fruits.     It  is 

mildly  acid  without  being  luscious.  In  appearance  it  resembles  the  pomegranate, 
though  smaller  and  more  perfectly  globular.  A  thick  hardish  rind  incloses  three  or 
four  large  seeds,  surrounded  by  a  soft  semitransparent  pulp  of  a  pure  white  colour, 
sometimes  slightly  tinged  with  crimson.  This  pulp  is  the  esculent  part,  and  may 
be  eaten  without  injury  in  larger  quantity  than  any  other  fruit.  It  is  only  in  the 
Avestern  parts  of  the  archipelago  that  the  mangostcen  is  a  native.  It  does  not  thrive 
in  the  Moluccas,  and  in  some  does  not  grow  at  all.  Luzon,  in  the  Philippines,  is 
the  highest  latitude  in  which  it  is  brought  to  grow. 

*  Crawford's  Hist,  of  the  Indian  Archipelago,  vol.  i.  p.  366.  f  P.  313. 


JAVA.'  319 

The  durion,  formerly  mentioned,*  is  preferred  to  the  mangosteen  by  |  xhe.intion. 
the  natives;  but  its  peculiar  odour  is  oficnsivo  to  strangers.  The  tree  is  lofty;  tho 
fruit  resembles  the  bread-fruit,  tliough  larger.  In  structure  and  disposition,  the  fruit 
resembles  tho  mangosteen.  The  seeds  which  the  pulp  incloses  are  as  large  as  pi- 
geons' eggs,  and  when  roasted,  have  the  taste  and  flavour  of  chesnuts.  One  durion 
costs  more  than  a  dozen  pine-apples.  It  is  never  found  wild,  like  the  mangosteen. 
In  geographical  locality,  it  is  equally  limited.  The  attempts  made  to  transplant  these 
fruits  to  the  isle  of  France,  and  other  equatorial  regions,  have  always  failed.  The 
common  jack,  tho  produce  of  tho  Artocarpus  integrifolia,  a  fruit  of  enormous  size, 
and  growing  in  great  abundance,  is  much  eaten  by  the  natives,  and  is  exceedingly 
sweet  and  nutritious.  The  champadak,  another  and  more  delicious  species  of  the 
jack,  is  also  cultivated.  The  mango  attains  as  great  perfection  hero  as  in  Malabar. 
The  orange  and  lemon  tribe  are  widely  diffused  over  this  and  all  the  islands  of  the 
archipelago.  The  shaddock  is  found  in  the  greatest  perfection.  The  lime  is  abun- 
dant, and  productive  through  the  whole  year.  Pine-apples  are  good  and  exceedingly 
plenty,  but  are  very  little  in  request.  The  jamboo,  the  guava,  tho  papaya,  the  cus- 
tard apple  or  anona,  tho  cashew,  (Jlnacardium  occichnlale,)  the  pomegranate,  tho 
tamarind,  and  the  pumpkins,  and  other  cucurbitaceffi,  are  only  a  few  of  the  numerous 
fruits  of  this  island.  The  flower-bearing  trees  most  frequently  cultivated  |  Flowers. 
for  the  market,  are  the  champaka,  (a  species  of  michelia,)  the  malor,  (nyctanthes,) 
and  the  tanjung,  or  Mimusops  elengi.  Water  lilies  are  particularly  frequent  in  Java. 
Tho  Plumeria  oblusa^  or  camboja,  is  a  strong  but  agreeable  aromatic,  and  the  Oc?/-. 
mum  siilasi,  or  Hindoo  tulsi,  another  aromatic  flower,  is  cultivated  for  the  express 
purpose  of  strewing  on  graves  at  the  annual  festival  observed  in  honour  of  ancestors. 
Roses  and  other  European  flowers  dwindle  in  size  and  lose  their  perfume  when  trans- 
planted to  this  part  of  the  world.  Cotton  is  the  most  important  article  plants  used  in 
of  commerce  produced  in  these  islands,  but  that  of  Java  is  the  coarsest  n^a»"'a""re' 
and  least  valuable.  Materials  for  cordage  are  obtained  from  the  rami,  a  species  of 
nettle  five  or  six  feet  high,  and  from  a  tree  called  the  bagu.  Among  the  useful 
plants  are  the  rattan,  (Calamus  rofang,)  the  bamboo,  and  the  nipa  or  cabbage  palm, 
the  leaves  of  which  are  better  adapted  for  thatch  than  any  others.  There  are  many 
valuable  timber  trees,  such  as  the  teak,  which  has  been  found  so  durable  a  material 
for  ship-building,  though  containing  an  odorous  resin  which  unfits  it  for  making  casks 
and  other  vessels  intented  to  contain  wine,  but  it  makes  excellent  water  casks.  The 
teak  of  Java  is  superior  to  that  of  the  Birman  empire,  but  not  so  good  as  that  of 
Malabar.  Those  parts  of  the  world  which  lie  between  China  and  Persia  are  tho 
only  regions  in  which  this  tree  grows.  Timaca,  ebony,  and  many  others  fitted  for 
ornamented  cabinet  work,  are  also  found  here.  '  Among  the  gums,  that  which  is 
called  damar  is  the  most  important.  It  is  produced  in  very  large  quantity,  and  with- 
out any  trouble,  from  several  trees.  Its  greatest  consumption  takes  place  in  the 
paying  of  the  bottoms  of  ships  and  boats.  Three  species  of  indigo  are  cultivated  in 
this  island,  but  the  preparation  of  it  for  use  is  conducted  in  a  very  rude  and  slovenly 
manner.  Kasumba,  American  arnotto,  turmeric,  sappan  or  Brazil  wood,  mankudee, 
and  ubar,  which  last  resembles  the  log-wood  of  Honduras,  are  the  principal  other  dye 
stuffs  produced  in  this  island.  Some  substances,  exerting  powerful  effects  on  the 
human  frame,  which  may  be  turned  to  advantage  at  some  future  period  in  this  coun- 
try, are  the  datura,  the  cubeb  pepper,  and  the  upas,  of  which  there  are  two  sorts,  the 
one  called  anchan,  and  the  other  chclik.  The  qualities  of  the  upas  have  given  rise 
to  some  ridiculous  exaggerations;  the  chetik  species,  the  most  powerful  of  the  two, 
kiUs  a  dog  in  six  or  seven  minutes,  but  it  does  not  kUl  men  or  animals  at  a  distance, 
nor  does  it  blast  the  growth  of  every  surrounding  plant. 

For  foreign  exportation,  Java  produces  the  sugar  cane,  of  which  there     Produce  for 
ai'O  several  varieties,  three  of  which  are  believed  to  be  indigenous.  They     exportation, 
grow  with  very  little  culture.     Pepper  grows  both  cultivated  and  wild.     Coffee  and 
cocoa  are  also  in  some  measm^e  cultivated,  the  latter  only  in  small  quantities  on  this 
island. 

•  P.  309. 


320  BOOK   FIFTY-FOURTH. 

Animals.  |  BufTaloes  of  a  small  brownish  breed  are  here  tamed  and  yoked  in  large 
wagons.  Sheep  are  few  in  number,  with  pendent  oars  and  coarse  hairy  wool. 
The  horses  are  small,  but  strong  and  lively.  The  wild  boars  breed  in  great  numbers 
in  the  forests.  We  are  told  by  travellers  that  the  rhinoceros  is  found  in  the  island. 
Among  the  monkeys  of  Java  are  the  Simla  apedio  and  the  Simia  aygvla.  In  the 
woods  are  found  the  flying  squirrel,  aud  another  species,  the  hicolor.  The  peacock 
is  very  common  in  the  forests.  There  are  also  wild  cocks  with  brilliant  plumage 
and  white  crests,  slightly  tinged  with  violet.  The  marshes  are  inhabited  by  that 
formidable  serpent,  the  Boa  constrictor,  which  swallows  birds  and  even  goats  entire. 
There  are  also  crocodiles  of  enormous  size.  Flying  dragons  flutter  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  the  towns  during  the  heat  of  the  day,  like  the  bats  of  Europe,  and  are 
easily  caught.  The  Cicada  tibicen,  or  musical  grasshopper,  perches  on  the  trees, 
where  he  utters  a  piercing  noise  like  the  sound  of  a  trumpet.  Moths  and  red  ants  find 
their  way  into  every  crevice,  destroying  every  thing  that  comes  in  their  way. 
Esculent  Java  produccs  in  great  abundance  the  hirundo  esculenta,  that  species 

birds' nests.  of  swallow  the  ncsts  of  wliich  are  used  as  an  article  of  luxurious  food 
among  the  Chinese.  This  nest  has  the  shape  of  a  common  swallow's  nest,  and  has 
the  appearance  of  fibrous  ill-concocted  isinglass.  Even  the  common  house  martin, 
and  all  the  other  swallows  in  that  country,  mix  more  or  less  of  this  substance  in  the 
structure  of  their  nests.  The  hirundo  esculenta  always  builds  in  the  caves  of  the 
rocks,  at  a  distance  from  any  human  dwelling.  Some  are  fifty  miles  from  the  sea. 
Alono-  the  sea-shore  they  are  particularly  abundant,  the  caverns  being  there  most  fre- 
quent. The  manner  in  which  this  substance  is  procured,  and  the  question  whether 
it  is  entirely  a  secretion,  elaborated  in  some  part  of  the  body,  are  points  not  yet  as- 
certained by  actual  examination.  The  finest  are  those  obtained  before  the  nest  has 
been  contaminatad  by  the  young  birds;  these  are  pure  white;  the  inferior  ones  are 
dark,  sometimes  streaked  with  blood,  or  mixed  with  feathers.  Some  of  the  caverns 
are  very  difficult  of  access,  and  dangerous  to  climb,  so  that  none  can  collect  the  nests 
but  persons  accustomed  to  the  trade  from  their  youth. 

hi  ai  '^^^  island  of  Java  is  divided  by  the  Dutch  into  four  unequal  parts ; 

divisions.  the  kingdoms  of  Bantam,  Jocatra,  and  Cheribon ;  and  the  eastern  shore, 

extendino-  from  the  river  Lossary  to  the  straits  of  Bah.  This  eastern  shore  is  subdivided 
into  three  parts;  the  territories  of  the  emperor  Susuhunam,  those  of  the  Sultan,  and 
the  provinces  under  the  immediate  jurisdiction  of  the  Company. 

The  city  of  Bantam,  the  capital  of  the  kingdom  of  that  name,  has  a 
harbour  which  has  been  rendered  inaccessible  by  its  extreme  unhealthi- 
le  gradual  accumulation  of  the  coral  reefs.  The  king  has  usually  fur- 
nished to  the  Company  3,000,000  lbs.  of  pepper  annually,  at  twenty-eight  livres  per 
quintal.  The  fort  of  the  residency  is  garrisoned  by  a  small  body  of  Europeans. 
This  depopulated  kingdom  contains  no  other  place  of  note;  and,  according  to  the 
latest  census,  is  peopled  by  90,000  inhabitants,  who  live  mostly  in  the  villages  scat- 
tered along  the  sea-coast.* 

KinKciom  of  The  old  kingdom  of  Jocatra  contains  the  famous  capital  of  the  Dutch 

nTtav'ia'.  Indies,  the  city  of  Batavia,  in  the  site  of  the  ancient  Javanese  city  of 

Sunda-Calappa.|  The  Dutch  seem  to  have  given  the  preference  to  this  situation 
for  the  convenience  of  the  inland  navigation.  It  is,  in  this  respect,  a  second  Hol- 
land. Almost  every  street  has  abroad  canal,  the  stagnant  waters  of  which  are  more 
remarkable  for  poisoning  than  for  embellishing  the  city.  The  public  buildings  are 
mostly  old,  heavy,  and  in  bad  taste.  The  city  is  enclosed  by  a  stone  rampart  of 
moderate  height,  but  old,  and  falling  to  decay.  The  citadel  contains  apartments 
wliich  serve  as  a  retreat  to  the  governor-general  and  council  of  India  during  a  siege. 
It  contains,  also,  the  great  magazines  of  the  Company.  Batavia  cannot  be  besieged 
by  sea ;  the  water  being  so  shallow  that  a  gun  boat  can  scarcely  come  within  cannon 
shot  of  the  ramparts,  except  in  a  narrow  channel  called  "  the  river,"  defended  on 
both  sides  by  moles  extending  for  half  a  mile  into  the  harbour,  and  terminating  under 

•  Memoirs  of  Batavia,  vol.  i.  p.  6.  iii.  424. 

f  Description  of  Batavia,  contained  in  the  Memoirs  of  the  Society  of  Batavia,  i.p.  42. 


Kingdom  of 
Bantam. 


ness, 


and  t 


The  Compa- 
ny'! govern- 
ment. 


JAVA.  321 

the  fire  of  the  strongest  part  of  the  fort.  The  harbour  of  Batavia  is  reckoned  the 
finest  in  India;  and  is  of  size  sufficient  to  contain  the  largest  fleets.  The  popula- 
tion, including  the  suburbs  and  campongs,  or  Chinese,  Macassar,  and  other  dependent 
villages,  was  found,  by  an  accurate  census  taken  in  1799,  to  amount  to  173,117 
souls;  of  whom  20,000  were  Chinese,  and  17,000  negro  slaves.* 

The  environs  contain  beautiful  walks,  resembling  the  boulevards  of  Environs  of 
Paris,!  with  rows  of  country  seats,  in  which  the  Europeans  seek  protec-  Bataria, 
tion  from  the  insalubrity  of  the  climate.  At  Wcltefrede,  and  at  Mester-Comehs, 
there  are  elegant  barracks  for  the  troops.  The  inland  provinces,  such  as  Priangan, 
Sookapoma,  and  Samadang,  are  governed  by  vassal  princes,  almost  reduced  to  the 
condition  of  mere  civil  magistrates.  The  whole  population  of  Jocatra,  at  the  time 
of  the  census  now  alluded  to,  was  340,915  souls. 

The  small  but  fertile  kingdom  of  Cheribon  furnished  the  Company  with  Kingdom  of 
330,000  lbs.  of  rice,  1,000,000  of  sugar,  and  1,200,000  of  cofl'ee.  chtrbon. 
Cheribon,  the  capital,  is  a  large  city.  Its  sovereign  reigns  over  90,000  subjects,  and 
takes  the  empty  title  of  Sultan.  About  four  miles  from  the  city  is  the  Tombof  a  Ma- 
tomb  of  Ibn  Sheik  MoUana,  the  first  apostle  of  Islam  who  visited  this  »«»"«««"«>'»«■ 
island,  and  consequently  held  in  great  veneration,  and  much  visited  by  the  Mussul- 
mans. The  tomb  is  shaded  with  palms,  and  near  it  five  terraces  are  cut  in  the  moun- 
tain, the  parapets  of  which  are  ornamented  with  beautiful  flower-pots,  presented  by 
the  kings  of  the  numerous  adjoining  islands. + 

In  the  east  part  of  the  northern  shore,  which  is  subject  to  the  Com- 
pany, we  observe  the  following  towns  in  an  order  from  west  to  east. 
Tagal,  containing  8000  inhabitants;  Samarang,  the  second  city  of  the  island,  the 
capital  of  the  Dutch  government,  containing  a  population  of  30,000;  Japara,  for- 
merly the  capital  of  this  coast;  Javana;  Rembang,  the  great  mart  for  jati  wood;§ 
Surabaya,  a  fortified  town,  very  healthy,  and  provided  with  a  road-stead,  where  ves- 
sels may  go  in  and  out  in  all  weathers ;  the  fortresses  of  Pamanoncan  and  Baniu- 
wangni,||  in  the  deserted  province  of  Balambonung,  the  capital  of  which  was  destroyed 
by  the  ravages  of  war.  The  population  along  this  coast  in  general,  has  diminished 
during  the  18th  century ;  and  the  Company's  subjects  in  1774,  did  not  exceed  414,000. 
It  is  not  unlikely,  however,  that  a  long  period  of  peace  subsequent  to  that  date  has 
ameliorated  the  general  state  of  the  country. 

The  inland  and  southern  parts  of  the  eastern  division  of  the  island, 
formed  the  political  state,  the  sovereign  of  which  bore  the  titles  of  Su- 
suhunam,  and  emperor  of  Java.  By  giving  encouragement  to  civil  dissensions,  the 
Company  has  contrived  to  divide  the  empire,  previously  much  reduced,  between  two 
princes,  one  of  whom  resides  at  Sura-Carta,  and  reigns  over  512,000  subjects,  with 
the  title  of  Emperor ;  the  other  lives  at  Jogo-Carta,  has  522,000  subjects,  and  the 
title  of  Sultan. IT  A  German  military  man,  who  visited  the  court  of  Susuhunam, 
describes  it  in  the  most  flattering  colours.**  The  air  is  pure,  cool,  and  perfumed 
with  the  odour  of  dehcious  flowers.  In  one  part  the  traveller  wanders  among  vast 
plains  covered  with  rice,  cotton,  coffee,  and  vegetables  of  every  kind.  In  another, 
ascending  the  hills,  he  sees  the  limpid  rivulets  forming  little  cascades  under  the 
shadow  of  close  and  deep  forests.  It  abounds  with  natural  grottos  of  delightful 
coolness.  In  the  distance,  the  eye  ranges  over  seas,  rocky  hills,  and  volcanoes,  va- 
rying by  their  perpetual  smoke  the  azure  of  a  serene  sky. 

The  population  of  the  island  of  Java,  amounting  to  more  than  two  |  PopuiaUon. 
millions,  consists  of  natives  or  Bhoomi,|t  and  strangers.  Of  the  latter,  the  Dutch, 
Chinese,  Macassars,  and  Balians,  are  the  most  conspicuous.  There  is  a  native  tribe  of 
negroes  who  wander  among  the  mountains,  and  another,  called  Isalam,  who  live  on 
the  sea-shore  ;  but  their  physical  character  and  their  language  are  not  known  with 
any  certainty.    The  native  Javanese  seem  to  be  a  Malayan  race  who  long  ago  setfled 

•  Batavian  Memoirs,  iii,  p.  425;  compared  with  ii.  p.  61. 
t  MS.  of  M.  Deschamps.  +  Valentyn,  p.  37. 

i  Valentyn,  Description  of  .lava,  p.  15.  B   MS.  by  M.  Deschamps. 

1  Batavian  Memoirs,  iii.  p.  427.  *♦  Wollzogen,  Lettres,  p.  378. 

It  Deschamps,  in  the  Annales  des  Vovajjes,  t.  i.  p.  145,  Sec. 
Vot.  II.-Ss 


Kingdom  of 
^lataram. 


Moral  cIm- 
racter. 

whenever  t 


323  imOK  FIFTY-FOURTH. 

in  this  island,  and  were  siibsequentlj  ciyihzed  by  a  colony  of  Talinga  Hindoos,  from 
whom  they  derived  several  terms  of  their  language,  and  many  institutions. 
Dereription  of  The  Javanese  in  general  are  of  middling  stature,  with  tawny  com- 
the  Javanese.  pJexions,  long  hair,  and  the  nose  a  little  flattened.  As  for  diseases, 
they  are  said  to  be  exempt  from  the  gout,  and  are  less  liable  to  nervous  disorders, 
such  as  apoplexy,  and  epilepsy,  than  the  people  of  Europe.  They  are  liable  to 
several  cutaneous  diseases,  some  of  which  are  unknown  in  Europe.  Some  loath- 
some contagious  diseases,  such  as  yaws  and  sibbens,  are  frequent  among  them,  and 
supposed  to  have  been  brought  by  the  Chinese.  Children  are  liable  to  Morms,  and 
other  fatal  complaints  of  the  intestines,  in  consequence  of  their  unlimited  indulgence 
Physicaicon-  in  raw  vegetables  and  fruit.  The  men  are  strong,  athletic,  and  perse- 
ititution.  vering,  though  not  active  in  their  personal  exertion.     The  porters  will 

carry  a  heavy  load,  walking  thirty  miles  a-day,  for  several  days  in  succession  ;  but 
they  neither  run  nor  leap,  and  never  attempt  feats  of  activity.  The  arts  of  the  jug- 
gler and  tumbler  are  quite  unknown  among  them.  They  bathe  frequently,  yet  are 
defective  in  personal  cleanliness.  They  live  frugally  on  rice  and  fish,  with  a  few 
spices.  Intoxicating  liquors  are  seldom  indulged  in,  and  only  at  the  public  feasts, 
when  the  chiefs  sometimes  make  themselves  sufficiently  merry,  and  caper  about  with 
no  small  extravagance.  They  have  been  described  as  devoid  of  indus- 
try, being  satisfied  with  a  life  of  comparative  poverty  and  privation;  but, 
ley  are  placed  in  a  situation  in  which  the  fruits  of  their  industry  are  se- 
cured to  them,  they  are  found  very  well  disposed  to  improve  their  condition  by  vir- 
tuous exertions.  They  have  an  abundant  portion  of  fortitude,  which  is  displayed 
rather  in  suffering  with  patience  than  in  braving  dangers  ;  but,  when  their  vengeance 
is  roused,  they  perform  acts  of  desperate  valour,  bordering  on  insanity.  In  under- 
standing they  are  slow  ;  of  narrow  though  sound  judgment ;  and  much  inferior  in 
subtlety  to  the  Hindoos  and  Chinese.  They  are  tolerably  good  imitators,  though 
not  equal  to  the  Hindoos.  They  have  a  remarkably  delicate  musical  ear,  and  readi- 
ly learn  to  play  the  most  difficult  and  complex  airs  on  any  instrument.  They  have 
an  abundant  share  of  laudable  curiosity.  Mr.  Crawford  mentions  an  instance  of  a 
sagacious  chief  of  Samarang,  who  lately  had  his  wife  and  children  well  educated,  the 
latter  being  sent  for  this  purpose  to  Calcutta,  and  who  afforded  a  promising  instance 
of  the  capability  of  these  islanders  to  profit  by  a  liberal  education.  The  Javanese 
Integrity.  |  are  honourably  distinguished  from  the  civilized  nations  of  Asia  by  their 
regard  for  truth.  To  persons  accustomed  to  the  people  of  Indostan,  the  candour  of 
the  Javanese  appears  singularly  valuable.  The  truth  is  readily  elicited  in  a  court  of 
justice,  and  it  is  not  uncommon  for  the  criminal  to  make  an  ample  confession  of  his 
guilt.  Having  no  capacity  for  intrigue,  they  are  much  imposed  on  by  strangers. 
They  are  not  litigious  nor  avaricious,  but  tenacious  of  their  rights,  and  disposed  to 
demand  justice  with  great  boldness,  considering  the  tyrannical  character  of  their  go- 
vernments. They  are  not  unkind  or  oppressive  to  inferiors,  and  are  much  more 
ready  to  relieve  distress  than  the  continental  Indians.  They  are  not  irascible,  or 
addicted  to  abusive  language,  and  have  the  character  of  great  and  willing  hospitality. 
Credulity.  |  They  are  remarkably  credulous  and  superstitious,  believing  in  dreams, 
omens,  fortunate  days,  the  casting  of  nativities,  supernatural  endowments,  sorceries, 
and  enchanments.  Their  forests,  mountains,  and  caves,  are  peopled  by  nume- 
rous invisible  beings  of  their  own  creation,  or  adopted  from  the  various  sorts  of 
people  who  have  come  among  them.  Their  ancient  code  denounced  the  most 
barbarous  punishments  for  practices  which  were  imputed  to  sorcery,  such  as 
writing  the  name  of  another  person  on  a  shroud,  on  a  bier,  on  an  image  of  paste, 
or  on  a  leaf,  which  is  then  buried  or  suspended  from  a  tree,  or  placed  on  haunted 
ground,  or  where  two  roads  meet.  For  these,  and  numerous  other  silly  acts  which 
the  law  enumerates,  the  punishment  is  death,  not  only  to  the  individual,  but  to  his 
parents  and  his  children.  That  code  is  not  now  in  force  except  in  the  neighbouring 
island  of  Bah.  But  Mr.  Crawford  mentions  two  recent  instances  of  very  whimsical 
superstition  in  Java.  It  was  discovered  by  accident,  that  from  some  motive  of  this 
kind,  Mie  skull  of  a  buflfalo  was  conducted  from  one  end  of  the  island  to  another;  the 
point  insisted  on  being,  aever  to  let  it  rest,  but  keep  it  in  constant  progressive  motion. 


JAVA.  323 

It  was  believed  that  some  dreadful  imprecation  was  denounced  against  the  man 
who  should  let  it  fall.  After  travelling  many  hundred  miles,  it  reached  Samarang, 
where  the  Dutch  governor  caused  it  to  be  thrown  into  the  sea.  No  resentment  was 
expressed,  and  the  matter  dropped  ;  but  it  was  never  discovered  how  or  where  it 
had  originated.*  In  1814,  a  smooth  road,  fifty  or  sixty  miles  long,  and  twenty  feet 
broad,  leading  to  the  top  of  an  inland  mountain  called  Sumbong,  was  suddenly 
formed,  crossing  no  rivers,  but  passing  in  an  undeviating  line  through  private  pro- 
perty of  all  descriptions.  The  population  of  whole  districts  was  employed  in  the 
labour,  and  all  because  an  old  women  pretended  to  have  dreamed  that  a  divine  per- 
sonage was  to  descend  on  the  mountain. 

Political  imposters,  preaching  a  new  religion,  very  often  take  advantage  of  this 
national  facility  of  the  Javanese,  and  give  rise  to  bloody  insurrections.  These  pre- 
tenders are  called  kraman.  One  who  was  apprehended  in  1812  had  disturbed  the 
district  in  which  he  appeared  for  six  years.  The  Javanese  are  much  savnge  pas- 
addicted  to  revenge,  never  forgiving  an  injury,  and  long  cherishing  the  "*""• 
deepest  resentments.  Their  revenge  and  impatience  occasionally  burst  out  in  those 
insane  and  horrible  excesses  called  mucks,  which  are  most  common  in  Celebes,  but 
occur  also  in  Java  and  most  of  the  other  islands.  The  state  of  society  in  Java,  as 
in  the  other  islands,  produces  among  the  inhabitants  a  disregard  for  human  life.  The 
lives  of  the  people  are  not  at  all  valued  by  the  chiefs,  or  by  one  another.  Familiar 
with  death,  they  view  it  with  no  horror.  An  assassin  may  be  hired  for  twenty  shil- 
lings, provided  the  person  to  be  assassinated  be  a  plebian.  Such  a  practice  is  in- 
deed not  common,  as  a  man  generally  takes  vengeance  with  his  own  hand. 

The  Javanese,  and  other  islanders  in  this  part  of  the  world,  have  been  accused  of 
treachery,  but  the  authority  on  which  this  accusation  is  advanced  is  more  than  ques- 
tionable. They  show  much  integrity  in  their  transactions  with  one  another.  It  is 
only  in  their  intercourse  with  strangers  that  gross  deceit  is  practised,  in  lawless  acts 
of  piracy.  As  for  the  resistance  whicli  they  have  made  to  the  restraints  imposed 
on  them  by  their  European  masters,  and  their  secret  attempts  to  evade  the  operation 
of  them,  they  had  certainly  more  to  complain  of  than  the  party  to  whom  their  con- 
duct was  obnoxious.  Their  women  are  not  at  all  secluded,  and,  though 
wives  are  purchased,  they  are  not  treated  with  contempt  or  disdain. 
Among  the  lower  ranks,  the  women  are  very  active  and  industrious.  T 
better  classes  are  withdrawn  from  the  public  gaze,  but  not  immured.  The  wife  and 
daughters  of  the  chief  of  Samarang  attended  the  public  parties  given  by  the  Dutch 
and  British,  and  conducted  themselves  with  the  most  creditable  propriety  and  deli- 
cacy. Polygamy  is  practised,  but  the  first  wife  is  the  only  one  who  possesses  the 
same  rank  with  the  husband,  and  is  mistress  of  the  family.  In  Java,  there  is  a 
greater  laxity  of  morals  than  in  the  other  islands.  Women  very  frequently  divorce 
their  husbands.  Complimentary  inquiries  after  men's  wives  are  not,  as  in  India, 
thought  improper,  but  rather  courteous.  Parental  attachment  and  filial  respect  are 
well  maintained  to  the  latest  period  of  life.  Fraternal  affection  between  children  of 
tho  same  mother  is  warm  and  active.  They  are  all  much  attached  to  their  tribe, 
and  to  the  place  of  their  birth. 

In  their  marriages  the  Javanese  differ  from  the  Hindoos.  The  women  |  customs, 
marry  at  fifteen,  and  the  men  about  eighteen  or  nineteen.  Widows  and  widowers 
marry  again  at  any  age;  and  discordant  matches,  from  disparity  of  ages,  are  com- 
paratively rare.  The  present  sultan  of  Java  is  married  to  his  cousin,  who  is  three 
years  older  than  himself.  Differences  are  observed  in  the  mode  and  terms  of  the 
married  state,  according  to  the  relative  rank  of  the  parties  ;  as  when  the  woman  is 
of  superior  family  to  the  man,  or  his  equal,  or  his  inferior.  The  last  sort  of  connection 
is  commenced  without  Jlny  form  or  ceremony.  They  give  their  children  their  names 
when  the  umbilical  cord  drops  off'.  Some  give  an  Arabic  name.  This  is  common  among 
the  Malays,  and  is  intended  as  an  expression  of  piety.  Others  give  the  child  such  an 
appellation  as  "  the  handsome  one,"  or  "  the  weak  one ;"  and  the  parents  will  be  called 
the  father  and  motherof  the  handsome  or  the  weak  one.  Thus  the  names  are  frequently 

•  Crawford's  History,  vol.  i.  p.  57. 


Treatment  of 
women. 

lose  of  the 


324  BOOK  FIFTV-FOURTH. 

mere  titles,  and  are  changed  at  every  promotion  of  a  man's  state  or  circumstances. 
This  would  render  it  difficult  to  identify  individuals  if  they  were  liable  to  a  frequent 
change  of  habitation.  They  bury  their  dead  in  the  manner  of  the  Mahometans, 
and  attend  much  to  beauty  and  simplicity  in  the  appearance  of  their  burying  grounds. 
In  showing  respect  for  superiors  they  sit  with  the  head  covered.  In  approaching  a 
superior,  and  retiring,  they  stoop  as  low  as  is  consistent  with  locomotion.  A  superior 
testifies  his  most  marked  regard  for  an  inferior  by  offering  him  the  chewed  refuse  of 
the  betel,  which  the  latter  swallows  with  great  satisfaction.  They  never  salute  by 
kissing,  but  by  applying  the  nose  to  the  head  or  neck  of  the  person  saluted;  hence 
the  term  for  smelling  signifies  to  salute.  The  chewing  of  betel,  of  holding  tobacco 
Amusements.  |  in  the  mouth,  and  of  eating  opium,  are  almost  universal  practices.  They 
are  passionately  fond  of  gaming,  particularly  of  staking  on  the  issue  of  combats 
between  pugnacious  animals,  such  as  cocks,  quails,  and  even  crickets,  which  they 
excite  to  combat  by  tickling  them  with  a  blade  of  grass.  They  will  even  childishly 
risk  their  money  on  the  strength  and  hardness  of  a  nut.  They  are  also  fond  of  the 
spectacle  of  fights  between  the  large  ferocious  animals,  such  as  the  tiger  and  the 
Tiger  fights.  |  buffalo.  The  tiger  being  shy  and  unwiUing  to  fight,  is  shut  up  with  his 
antagonist  in  a  close  catjo.  The  bufialo  exerts  himself  to  crush  him  to  death  on  the 
bars  of  his  cage,  in  which  attempt  he  generally  succeeds.  The  efforts  of  the  tiger 
are  directed  to  the  head  and  throat  in  a  sudden  and  insidious  manner.  The  first 
onset  is  tremendous,  but  if  one  or  the  other  is  not  immediately  victorious  there  is  no 
interest  in  the  combat;  both  animals  worn  out  are  reluctant  to  renew  their  efforts. 
Under  these  circumstances  the  natives  use  abominable  means  for  rousing  them ; 
such  as  firebrands,  boiling  water,  poisonous  nettles,  and  infusions  of  capsicum  poured 
an  the  lacerated  skin.  They  scarcely  ever  amuse  themselves  with  those  exercises 
which  display  address  or  agihty.  The  country  is  unfavourable  to  the  chase  ;  and  it 
is  but  seldom  that  they  hunt.  Some  of  the  more  abject  savage  tribes  indeed  hunt 
tlie  deer,  the  hog,  and  the  monkey,  as  their  chief  means  of  subsistence.  In  some 
of  the  ill-peopled  districts  in  the  eastern  and  western  extremities  of  the  island,  they 
follow  tire  chase  for  amusement,  but  it  is  a  mere  butchery  of  game,  without  sport  or 
address.  The  tiger  is  sometimes  pursued  with  more  skill.  An  extensive  circle  of 
spearmen  is  formed  round  his  known  haunt ;  this  is  gradually  contracted,  till  the 
animal,  hemmed  in  on  all  sides,  is  compelled  to  attempt  an  escape  by  rushing  through 
the  phalanx,  in  which  attempt  he  is  commonly  killed  by  the  numbers  and  dexterity 
of  tlio  hunters.  A  similar  scene  is  sometimes  acted  before  the  Javanese  princes  at 
their  palaces.  Dancing  is  considered  as  a  necessary  accomplishment  to  evcy  Ja- 
vanese chief;  and  they  practisfe  it  at  their  public  festivities,  brandishing,  at  the  samo 
time,  their  kreeses,  and  mingling  with  the  hired  dancing  women.  In  this  amusement 
respectable  women  never  join.  The  intellectual  amusements  of  the  Javanese  con- 
'iiie  drama.  |  sist  in  Ustcning  to  professed  story-tellers,  and  a  rude  species  of  drama, 
sometimes  executed  by  Uving  actors,  sometimes  by  means  of  puppets.  In  the  first 
case  the  whole  is  performed  by  men.  In  the  second  they  sometimes  use  ordinary 
puppets,  much  inferior  to  those  of  Europe  ;  and  sometimes  certain  scenic  shadows, 
which  are  peculiar  and  national.  Their  acting  is  a  sort  of  pantomime,  accompanied 
by  a  recitative  performance,  read  by  a  conspicuous  individual  called  the  dalang,  who 
sits  full  in  view  of  the  audience,  and,  before  the  interlocutors  commence  acting  each 
scene,  repeats  the  narrative  of  what  they  have  to  perform.  The  whole  is  accom- 
panied by  a  Javanese  band  of  music.  The  subjects  are  taken  from  the  Hindoo 
legends  and  the  fabulous  parts  of  their  own  history.  They  have  also  exhibitions  of 
men  personating  the  appearance  and  manners  of  wild  beasts,  which  are  very  well 
managed.  All  these  amusements  excite  a  lively  interest  in  a  native  audience. 
Houses.  j       Their  houses  consist  of  apartments,  each  of  nhich  stands  on  four  pil- 

lars. Those  of  the  rich  consist  of  a  collection  of  them;  those  of  the  poorer  classes 
of  one  only.  The  houses  are  never  solitary,  but  always  grouped  into  villages  or 
towns.  Some  remains  of  brick  and  hme  walls  show  that  architecture  has  declined 
among  them  in  modern  times.  There  are  arches  still  standing,  but  they  have  now  lost 
the  art  of  building  them.  The  art  of  weaving  is  rudely  conducted,  and  entirely  in 
the  hand^  of  the  women.     A  cubit  of  coarse  cloth,  five  spans  wide,  is  a  common 


JAVA.  325 

day's  work.  They  are  ignorant  of  calico  printing;  and  ae  a  substitute  |  Useftdwu. 
for  it,  they  daub  their  cloth  with  wax  in  particular  figures,  and  then  put  it  through 
the  dying  vat,  thus  obtaining  a  coloured  ground  while  the  figures  are  left  white.  Tho 
silk  worm  has  never  been  bred  in  this  island,  though  its  climate  is  undoubtedly  fa- 
vourable for  it.  With  regard  to  the  metals,  their  chief  skill  is  exerted  on  gold.  Iron  is 
not  found  in  Java,  and  is  extremely  rare  in  the  whole  archipelago.  It  bears  a  high 
price,  and  the  art  of  the  blacksmith  is  held  in  a  sort  of  reverence.  The  terra  for  that 
craft  is  equivalent  to  the  word  "learned."  His  principal  skill  is  displayed  in  the 
manufacture  of  the  dagger  or  kreese,  and  the  spear.  They  do  not  possess  the  art 
of  tempering  their  blades.  The  kreese  is  a  piece  of  ordinary  iron,  which  seldom  re- 
covers its  shape  when  bent.  Ship-building  is  the  only  department  of  carpentry  in 
which  they  have  made  any  proficiency.  There  is  no  art  which  they  have  carried  to 
so  great  perfection  as  that  of  fishing,  which  is  chiefly  conducted  by  drag-nets,  and 
traps  or  snares  slcilfully  formed  of  palUsades.  A  large  supply  is  obtained  from  the 
salt  marshes  of  the  coast,  which  are  embanked  for  the  purpose  of  rearing  and  feeding 
sea-fish.  This  practice  was  probably  introduced  from  China  or  some  part  of  Chin- 
India.  The  fish  are,  for  the  sake  of  economy,  almost  always  eaten  salted  and  dried. 
They  universally  use  a  sauce  formed  by  the  putrefaction  of  small  fish,  chiefly  prawns; 
and  no  food  is  deemed  palatable  without  it.  They  manufacture  great  abundance  of 
salt  by  slow  solar  evaporation,  and  obtain  it,  mixed  with  some  soil  and  dust,  but  free 
from  tliose  saline  admixtures  belonging  to  sea-water,  which  injure  the  culinary 
article  by  the  bitterness  and  deliquescent  quahty  which  they  impart  to  it.  They 
manufacture  gunpowder  from  the  nitre  found  in  the  caves  frequented  by  bats  and 
swallows,  and  from  sulphur  found  near  the  volcanoes;  but  it  is  always  an  inferior  ar- 
ticle, and  the  gunpowder  imported  from  Europe  is  much  in  request.  They  are  un- 
acquainted with  the  art  of  cutting  and  polishing  precious  stones.  Their  diamonds 
are  cut  by  Hindoos;  their  rubies  and  sapphires  are  worn  in  the  rough  state.  The 
manufacture  of  glass  seems  never  to  have  been  known  among  them.  In  the  me- 
chanical arts,  however,  they  have  none  of  that  bigotry  in  favour  of  their  own  methods 
and  tools  which  characterizes  the  Hindoos,  and  show  an  open  docility  which 
would  soon  profit  by  instruction. 

Cotton  is  the  grand  material  of  their  dress,  which  is  a  medium  between  |  Dress, 
the  close  habit  of  the  Europeans  and  the  loose  flowing  robe  of  the  continental  Asia- 
tics. The  ancient  practice  seems  to  have  been  to  go  with  the  head  uncovered,  which 
is  still  followed  in  the  neighbouring  island  of  Bali.  At  present  the  Javanese  gene- 
rally wear  a  cap  in  imitation  of  the  Mahometan  turban.  The  legs  are  always  bare ; 
the  feet  are  often  covered  with  sandals,  in  imitation  of  the  Arabs.  They  adorn  their 
persons  with  diamonds,  gold  ornaments,  and  flowers.  Men  of  all  ranks  invariably 
wear  the  kreese.  They  constantly  file  and  blacken  the  teeth.  It  is  on  the  canine 
teeth  that  the  first  operation  is  performed.  They  express  their  contempt  for  persons 
who  do  not  follow  this  practice,  by  saying  that  white  teeth  make  men  hke  dogs  and 
monkeys. 

The  Javanese,  like  the  rest  of  the  inhabitants  of  these  islands,  areal-  |  Calculations, 
together  unacquainted  with  arithmetical  processes.  The  Chinese  are  much  employed 
by  them  in  their  mercantile  transactions.  Though  they  know  the  Hindoo  numeral 
characters,  they  frequently  calculate  by  cutting  notches  on  slips  of  wood.  The  wo- 
men are  more  expert  than  the  men  in  all  pecuniary  transactions,  and  are  commonly 
employed  as  brokers.  The  methods  used  by  the  people  of  this  island  have  rather 
greater  facihties  than  those  of  their  neighbours,  their  numerical  scale  extending  to  ten 
billions.  Some  of  the  Indian  languages  have  no  term  for  any  number  higher  than  a 
thousand.  Mr.  Crawford,  who  resided  some  time  in  Java  in  dillerent  |  Music, 
ofllcial  situations,  considers  the  Javanese  as  having  made  very  great  proficiency  in 
music  for  so  rude  a  state  of  society.  Tliey  have  wind  instruments,  stringed  instru- 
ments, and  instruments  of  percussion.  The  two  first  are  rude.  The  mountaineers 
have  a  sort  of  Pan's  reed,  nmde  of  bamboo,  which  is  not  used  for  any  melody,  but 
merely  made  to  give  a  confused  sound  by  means  of  a  rapid  motion,  given  to  the 
whole  contained  in  a  frame.  They  have  fifes  from  Indostan  and  trumpets  from  Per- 
sia.    The  drum  is  a  native  instrument.     Their  gong  is  perhaps  of  Chinese  origin. 


326  BOOK  FIFTY-FOURTH. 

They  have  a  great  variety  of  staccados,  some  made  of  graduated  pieces  of  wood, 
which  give  a  sweet  sound  when  struck  with  a  hammer,  others  of  metal,  which  have  a 
stronger  sound.  These  have  various  arrangements  and  contrivances  for  improving 
the  sound. 

Language.  |  The  Javanese  language  is  praised  by  Mr.  Crawford  for  the  beauty  and 
regularity  of  its  written  alphabet,  having  a  separate  mark  for  each  sound,  and  no 
mark  expressing  more  than  one.  They  have  an  ancient  language  they  call  Kawi, 
which  is  peculiar  to  the  priesthood,  and  in  which  the  mythological  writings,  called 
the  Mahabarat  and  the  Ramayana,  are  composed  in  verse.  It  contains  many  San- 
scrit terms,  but  seems  to  be  radically  native  and  original.  The  language  in  common 
use  is  sufficiently  well  adapted  to  the  ordinary  purposes  of  life,  but  not  to  any  thing 
like  abstract  reasoning  or  science,  in  which  tlie  Javanese  have  never  had  any  prac- 
tice. Their  compositions  are  wretchedly  feeble  and  empty,  containing  nothing  to 
reward  research.  Their  chief  productions  are  the  dramas  already  mentioned.  In 
their  letters  and  conversations  they  have,  in  a  great  measure,  a  separate  vocabulary 
in  addressing  a  superior.  In  this  language  of  deference,  which  is  associated  with 
feelings  of  delicacy  and  refinement,  both  the  names  of  provinces  and  cities,  and  the 
terms  for  common  ideas,  are  changed  for  others.  Notwithstanding  the  long  period 
in  which  the  Mahometan  religion  has  been  established,  and  Arabian  literatme  made 
known,  (between  300  and  400  years,)  the  Arabic  language  and  literature  have  made 
very  little  progress  among  them.  A  little  Arabic  is  taught  in  the  schools,  but  few 
even  of  the  upper  ranks  make  any  proficiency  in  it.  All  the  Arabic  writings  circu- 
lated in  Java  relate  to  religion  and  law.  In  writing  their  own  language  they  are  ex- 
tremely inexpert  in  the  mechanical  as  well  as  in  the  mental  part.  Before  the  intro- 
duction of  the  Mahometan  religion  they  knew  nothing  of  the  writing  of  history,  and 
Hiotoriej.  |  wcrc  as  ignorant  of  chronology  as  the  Hindoos. — The  history  of  trans- 
actions are  now  written  under  the  direction  of  their  princes,  who  employ  the  most 
expert  individual  in  versification  that  they  can  find.  The  great  object  is  to  turn  every 
event  into  a  long  solemn  tale,  in  a  string  of  verses. 

One  of  them  gives  an  account  of  the  following  event.  Surapati,  a  native  of  Bali, 
the  slave  of  a  Dutch  citizen  of  Batavia,  raised  himself  to  sovereign  authority  in  op- 
position to  the  native  and  European  governments,  and  maintained  it  till  his  death. 
The  Dutch,  having  defeated  his  descendants  and  despoiled  their  territory,  took  up 
the  dead  body  of  the  extraordinary  founder,  and  treated  it  with  indignity.  This  vile 
transaction  is  thus  described  by  the  Javanese.  "  The  commissary  remained  long  at 
Pasuruhan,  making  diligent  search  for  the  body  of  Surapati,  but  it  was  not  to  be 
found.  He  was  distressed  at  this,  and  said  to  the  inhabitants,  *  I  will  reward  who- 
ever finds  for  me  the  body  of  Surapati.'  Those  people  forgot  their  lord,  and  accepted 
the  proftered  bribe.  The  commissary  was  shown  the  spot  where  was  the  chief's 
grave,  but  it  was  level,  and  no  one  could  discern  it  to  be  a  tomb.  The  body  was  dug 
for  and  found.  It  was  still  entire  as  when  ahve,  and  shed  a  perfume  like  a  flower- 
garden.  The  Hollanders  bore  it  away  to  the  camp,  and  placing  it  in  a  sitting  pos- 
ture in  a  chair,  the  officers  took  the  corpse  by  the  hand,  saluting  it  acccording  to  the 
custom  of  the  country,  and  tauntingly  exclaiming,  '  This  is  the  hero  Surapati,  the 
mighty  warrior,  the  enemy  of  the  Dutch.'  After  this,  they  threw  the  corpse  into  a 
great  fire,  and  burnt  it  to  ashes,  and  the  ashes  they  took  and  preserved.  The  com- 
missary all  this  time  rejoiced  in  his  heart." 

Besides  the  Javanese  language,  there  is  one  spoken  by  the  moun- 
taineers in  the  west  part  of  the  island,  and  over  one-third  of  the  area  of 
the  whole,  though  only  by  a  tenth  part  of  its  inhabitants.  The  same  language  is 
spoken  on  the  opposite  coast  of  Sumatra,  and  is  called  the  Sunda.  It  is  more  gut- 
tural, and  in  other  particulars  has  less  euphony  than  the  Javanese.  The  letters  d 
and  t  are  wanting  in  it.  It  has  some  tendency  to  separate  style  for  deference,  which 
is  not  carried  so  far  as  in  the  Javanese.  Although  this  langtiage  has  an  alphabet 
and  written  character,  there  are  no  books  in  it,  as  the  people  have  no  national  litera- 
ture. The  vestin^es  of  their  writing  are  only  found  on  ancient  rude  stones.  Those 
who  aspire  at  a  little  education,  learn  Arabic  and  Javanese,  and  business  is  generally 
conducted  in  the  latter. 


Sunda  Ian 
guage. 


JAVA.  327 

The  ancient  religion  of  Java  wae  a  sort  of  Brahminism,  though  not    J^'^^dlmi. 
in  that  strict  and  dogmatical  form  in  which  it  exists  in  Indostan,  and  par-     quitie*. 
taking  of  the  doctrines  and  spirit  of  the  religion  of  Buddha.     Some  of  the  moun- 
taineers still  abstain  from  animal  food,  and  believe  in  the  transmigration  of  souls.* 
They  trace  their  origin  to  a  monkey,  which  they  call  woo-woo.     The  nature  of  the 
ancient  system  is  chiefly  to  be  inferred  from  the  antiquities  still  to  be  found  in  this 
island.     There  are  many  architectural  remains  in  its  best  parts.     In  some  places 
there  are  largo  groups  of  small  temples  of  hewn  stone,  with  a  statue  in  each ;  in 
others,  large  single  temples  of  the  same  materials  without  any  cavity ;  in  others,  sin- 
gle temples  of  brick  and  mortar ;  besides  which,  there  are  stone  temples  of  ruder 
construction  and  more  recent.     The  most  perfect  remains  are  the  ruins  of  Bramba- 
nan,  in  the  districts  of  Pajang  and  Mataram.     One  group  goes  under  the  name  of 
"  the  thousand  temples."  There  is  a  temple  in  the  middle,  sixty  feet  high,  surrounded 
by  four  rows  of  small  temples,  all  pyramidal,  of  the  same  character,  and  containing 
a  profusion  of  sculpture  on  large  blocks  of  hewn  stone. |     The  temple  of  Boro-Bu- 
dur,  in  the  mountain  and  romantic  land  of  Kadu,  is  a  square  building,  embracing  the 
summit  of  a  small  hill,  and  ending  in  a  dome.     The  whole  building  is  116  feet  high, 
consisting  of  nine  terraces,  the  lowest  six  being  faced  with  square  ascending  walls, 
and  the  three  uppermost  containing  each  a  circular  row  of  latticed  cages  of  hewn 
stone,  in  the  form  of  bee-hives.     At  the  base,  each  side  measures  526  English  feet. 
There  is  no  concavity  except  in  the  dome.     From  the  engraving  given  of  it  by  Mr. 
Crawford, ;|;  it  seems  to  present  an  elegant  and  imposing  appearance.     The   oldest 
structures  are  remarkable  for  the  excellence  of  the  materials,  their  great  solidity, 
and  the  minute  laboriousness  of  the  execution.     There  is  an  evident  design  in  every 
group,  and  in  every  individual  temple  in  Brambanan.  They  contain  numerous  friezes, 
cornices,  architraves,  and   flat  pilastres  carved  on  the  stone,  but  no   balustrades,  or 
colonades,  a  defect  which  gives  them  a  heavy  look.     None  of  the  representations 
are  gross  or  indecent.     There  are  many  vegetable  decorations,  but  fewer  figures  of 
animals  ;  the  most  usual  are  the  lion,  the  elephant,  and  the  doer  ;  the  cow  is  never 
seen.     There  are  many  historic  groups,  and  several  containing  figures  of  Buddha  ; 
but  in  the  latter,  that  personage  is  never  represented  as  an  object  of  worship  in  a 
temple,  none  of  the  figures  round  him  being  in  a  posture  of  adoration,  and  no  attri- 
bute of  a  Hindoo  divinity  being  attached  to  him.     The  rudest  and  most  recent  class 
of  temples  are  mere  heavy  masses,  without  plan  or  design,  the  interior  abounding  in 
sculptures,  generally  rude,  often  half-finished,  and  sometimes  extremely  indelicate. 
They  are  peculiar  in  containing  representions  of  native  manners  and  costume,  (fre- 
quently, for  example,  introducing  the  kreese,)  and  in  the  circumstance  of  having 
inscriptions.     Java  contains  a  variety  of  genuine  Hindoo  images,  both  in  brass  and 
stone.     Those  of  Siva  are  the  most  frequent.     Durga ;  Ganesa ;   Surya,  the  deity 
of  the  Sun  ;  the  Bull  of  Mahadeva ;  the  Linga,  and  the  Yoni,  are  the  most  common 
except  those  of  Buddha.   The  latter  are  never  in  the  great  central  temples,  but  only 
in  the  smaller  surrounding  ones.     Several  of  them  are  together,  and  when  an  object 
of  worship  exists  in  the  same  place  they  look  towards  it,  tlms  appearing  not  to  repre- 
sent deities,  but  sages  worshipping  Siva.     Mr.  Crawford  concludes  from  the  various 
relicts  of  Javanese  antiquities,  that  the  Hindooism  of  that  island  was  the  worship  of 
Siva,  Durga,  and  the  Linga  and  Yoni,  united  to  Buddhism,  and  that  it  was  a  refor- 
mation of  the  bloody  and  indecent  worship  of  Siva,  brought  about  by  persons  of 
more  kindly  aflections  than  the  rest  of  their  countrymen.     The  word  Buddha  is  not 
associated  with  any  precise  form  of  faith  or  worship  in  the  minds  of  the  Javanese  of 
the  present  day,  but  merely  used  as  a  name  for  idolatry  or  paganisn,  as  distinguished 
from  the  religion  of  Mahomet. 

The  Mahometan  religion  was  introduced  from  Arabia,  and  has  been  kept 
alive  by  the  intercourse  which  has  subsisted  with  that  country.    Its  most 
distinguished  triumph  took  place  in  1478,  in  the  capture  of  the  city  of  Mojopahit, 
and  the  destruction  of  that  Hindoo  monarchy,  by  Raden  Patah,  who  erected  a  Ma- 

•  l)e  Wurmb,  p,  1"A.  f  Crawford's  History,  vol.  ii.  p.  197. 

+  Frontispiece  to  his  second  vohimc. 


Present  reli- 
gion. 


328  BOOK  FIFTY-FOURTH. 

hometan  empire  in  Java,  assuming  the  title  of  Susuhuimm,  or  apostle,  equiralent  to 
tliat  of  caliph.  The  Javanese  are  the  most  lax  of  all  the  Mahometans  of  these 
islands,  both  in  principles  and  practice,  in  consequence  of  the  Arabs  having 
been  excluded  by  the  commercial  jealousy  of  the  Dutch.  Wine  is  drunk  openly, 
even  at  their  religious  festivals.  The  Mahometan  institutions  are  mixed  with 
marks  of  the  Hindoo  system.  The  priests  are  the  successors  in  duty  to  the  priest 
and  astrologer  of  the  Hindoo  village,  a  peaceful  and  respectable  portion  of  the  pea- 
santry, living  on  terms  of  perfect  equality  with  the  ordinary  cultivators.  Many  of 
the  inhabitants  do  not  know  the  name  of  their  prophet.  The  higher  classes  pay  more 
attention  to  the  forms  of  their  religion,  but  in  the  use  of  wine  and  opium,  and  in  the 
laws  against  games  of  chance  and  usury,  scarcely  any  among  them  entertain  the 
smallest  scruple  ;  the  only  negative  precept  which  they  rigidly  obey  is  that  of  absti- 
nence from  pork.  It  is  remarkable  that  some  of  the  royal  families  abstain  from 
touching  beef,  thus  evincing  a  traditional  remnant  of  Hindoo  feeling. 
Government.  |  The  native  government  in  Java  is  a  hereditary  despotism,  exactly  such 
as  is  established  in  all  the  great  empires  of  Asia.  A  Javanese  monarch,  being  also 
chief  priest  of  his  religion,  is  under  no  control  from  rehgion  or  the  priesthood.  He 
has  no  hereditary  nobility  under  him  to  share  or  limit  his  authority.  He  is  addressed 
in  the  most  bombastic  style  of  flattering  and  abject  etiquette.  Hia  ministers  and 
vicegerents  are,  in  their  different  departments  or  provinces,  invested  with  nearly  all 
the  authority  of  the  sovereign.  They  are  now,  however,  overawed  by  their  Dutch 
masters,  though  they  continue  to  display  all  the  pomp  of  eastern  despotism.  The  court 
of  the  Susuhunam  preserves  more  of  the  former  national  customs  than  most  others. 
All  the  great  servants  of  the  crown  are  designated  by  the  most  high  sounding  titles. 
His  civil  and  military  oflicers  are  the  "  Suns  of  Prudence,"  and  the  "  Suns  of  Hero- 
ism."* His  residence,  subjected  to  the  power  of  a  small  Dutch  fort,  is  known  by 
the  name  of  Surakarta,  which  means  "  The  habitation  of  the  Sun."  The  palace  is 
inhabited  and  guarded  by  10,000  females,  of  whom  3000  belong  to  the  royal  haram. 
The  inner  enclosure  of  the  palace  is  called  the  thalm.  A  circular  court,  two  miles 
in  circumference,  is  adorned  with  statues  of  Javanese  heroes.  Here  the  ffetes  and 
tiger  fights  are  exhibited.  Two  tamarind  trees  present  an  inviolable  asylum  to  every 
person  who  has  a  request  to  present  to  the  emperor.|  Yet  the  whole  force  which 
this  prince  can  command  scarcely  amounts  to  20,000  or  30,000  men,  and  these  badly 
armed.  The  people  are  treated  by  their  sovereign  and  chiefs  with  the  most  con- 
temptuous indifference,  and  their  lives  sacrificed  to  sport  and  caprice.  Instead  of 
mock  fights  for  the  amusement  of  the  great,  real  battles  are  exhibited,  in  which  the 
wretched  combatants  are,  without  the  slightest  quarrel,  instigated  to  destroy  one  an- 
other. Yet  Java  is  the  only  country  of  this  archipelago  where  slavery  does  not  exist 
Revenue.  |  among  the  natives.  The  revenue  generally  consists  of  one  half  of  the 
produce  of  wet,  and  one  third  of  that  of  dry  lands.  There  seems  to  be  no  right  of 
property  in  the  soil  among  the  subjects,  and  there  are  no  large  accumulated  estates. 
Yet  the  condition  of  the  cultivator  is  more  fortunate  than  in  any  country  of  the  east, 
in  consequence  of  the  great  demand  for  cultivators  and  for  labour  in  general.  A 
sixth  part  of  the  produce  is  the  pay  of  shearers.  The  servants  of  the  king,  from 
his  ministers  of  state  to  his  grooms,  are  paid  by  allotments  of  corn,  or  of  land,  or  of 
a  certain  number  of  cultivators.  This  system  supersedes  the  employment  of  numer- 
ous revenue  agents,  and  a  consequent  system  of  chicanery,  and  probably  contributes 
to  give  the  Javanese  a  character  of  greater  integrity  than  the  Hindoos.  Capitation 
taxes,  fishery  taxes,  taxes  on  consumption,  and  transit  duties,  are  also  levied.  The 
laws  have  the  defects  common  to  all  eastern  codes  ;  but  the  administration  of  jus- 
tice is  rendered  more  pure  than  in  India,  by  the  greater  honesty  of  the  people,  and 
the  greater  reliance  due  to  the  testimony  of  witnesses,  who  are  not  sworn  except  on 
occasions  of  peculiar  solemnity  ;  and  their  regard  for  an  oath  will  restrain  them  hi 
the  most  trying  situations.  An  oath  taken  by  the  accused  to  his  own  innocence,  is 
thought  entitled  to  respect  and  credit. 

•  Valentyn,  p.  56.  t  WoUzogen,  Lettres  sur  Java,  p.  385. 


JAVA.  329 


Connection  of 
the  Dutch  na- 
tiun  with 
Java. 


The  Portuguese  visited  Java  in  1511,  but  did  not  attempt  any  con- 
quests. The  Dutch  arrived  in  1595,  which  was  117  years  after  the 
estabUshment  of  the  Mahometan  rehgion.  Their  object  was  phmder, 
under  the  name  and  appearance  of  commerce.  The  simple  natives  were  considered 
as  fair  game  to  their  rapacity,  and  were  ill  fitted  to  withstand  the  intelligence,  expe- 
rience, and  violence  of  these  visitors.  Till  1612,  they  traded  chiefly  with  the  king- 
dom of  Bantam.  Then  they  removed  to  Jacatra,  where  they  traded  peaceably  for 
six  years ;  but  at  last  quarrelled  with  the  prince  who  afforded  them  protection,  sub- 
dued his  country,  sacked  his  capital,  put  its  inhabitants  to  the  sword,  and  built  Ba- 
tavia  on  its  ruins,  in  1619.  A  handful  of  Europeans  at  this  time  subdued  the  largest 
military  combinations  that  were  ever  formed  in  Java.  Ten  years  after  this,  when 
their  fortress  was  not  yet  finished,  they  were  attacked  in  two  successive  years,  by  the 
Sultan  of  Mataram,  whose  forces  are  said  to  have  amounted  in  the  first  year  to 
100,000,  and  in  the  next  to  120,000.  The  principal  soldiery  of  the  Dutch  were 
Japanese ;  they  also  derived  the  most  effectual  assistance  from  the  zeal  and  courage 
of  the  Chinese  inhabitants.  From  1629  to  1675,  the  Dutch  transactions  were  chiefly 
mercantile,  and  here,  as  in  their  other  settlements,  this  interval  formed  the  most 
flourishing  period  of  their  colonial  history.  In  this  year,  having  assisted  the  Sultan 
of  Mataram  to  subdue  a  rebellion  among  his  subjects,  they  made  a  treaty  with  him, 
the  object  of  which  was,  to  restrict  the  commercial  enterprise  of  his  subjects,  and 
thus  confer  on  the  Dutch  the  advantages  of  a  monopoly.  The  effect  however  was, 
that  these  Javanese  merchants  being  ruined,  the  Dutch  had  no  natives  to  trade  with, 
and  suffered  an  immediate  decline  in  those  commercial  profits  which  they  were  so 
desirous  by  this  piece  of  injustice  to  extend.  In  a  similar  case  they  interfered  in 
the  politics  of  Bantam,  followed  the  same  policy,  and  with  the  same  ruinous  conse- 
quences. In  1686,  began  the  public  career  of  the  illustrious  Surapati,  who,  from 
the  situation  of  a  slave  under  a  Dutchman  of  Batavia,  raised  himself  to  the  head  of 
a  sovereignty  in  the  east  end  of  the  island,  which  he  and  his  successors  held  for 
twenty  years.  This  state  was  subdued  in  1707,  and  the  importance  of  it  virtually 
acknowledged  by  the  indignities  with  which  the  disinterred  remains  of  that  hero  were 
honoured.  In  1722,  a  conspiracy,  headed  by  Peter  Erberfield,  a  Westphalian,  for 
the  massacre  of  all  the  Christians,  was  discovered,  and  the  conspirators  were  put  to 
death  with  every  species  of  inhuman  torture  and  savage  insult.* 

The  bloodiest  act  of  the  Dutch  in  Java,  or  any  where  else,  was  the 
massacre  of  the  Chinese  in  1740.  That  people  had  been  induced,  by 
the  security  afforded  under  the  European  government,  to  settle  in  great  numbers  in 
this  island.  But  the  Dutch,  jealous  of  their  numbers,  kept  them  down  by  excessive 
taxations,  arbitrary  punishments,  and  frightful  executions.  That  people,  goaded  in 
this  manner,  turned  their  attention  to  the  means  of  a  combined  resistance.  A  few 
of  them  having  been  shipped  off  to  Ceylon  for  some  pretended  irregularities,  the 
Chinese  around  the  city  flew  to  arms.  Numbers  of  those  within  were  put  to  the 
torture;  and  a  story  of  a  "  wicked  and  long  meditated  conspiracy"  was  thus  put  to- 
gether. On  a  fire  happening  in  the  Chinese  quarter  of  the  city,  the  Dutch  colonists 
took  the  alarm,  this  being  construed  into  an  artifice  for  commencing  a  massacre  of 
the  Europeans.  They  now  rose  on  the  Chinese.  The  massacre  was  formally  au- 
thorized hy  the  regency,  the  houses  were  burst  open,  and  the  inhabitants  dragged 
out  and  murdered,  without  ofl'ering  the  smallest  resistance.  For  fifteen  days  the 
appalling  scene  was  continued,  and  not  less  than  10,000  were  massacred  in  the  town 
of  Batavia  alone.  Tliose  who  escaped  fled  to  the  Susuhunam,  and  joined  him  in  a 
series  of  desolating  wars  and  rebellions,  which  lasted  for  fifteen  years.  From  the 
termination  of  these  contests  to  1810,  the  Dutch  continued  in  a  state  of  subsequent 
peace.  In  that  year  they  moved  a  force  to  Yugyacarta,  deposed  the  Sul-  history, 
tan  of  Java,  and  placed  his  eldest  son  on  the  throne.  In  1811,  all  the  Dutch  colo- 
nics having,  along  with  the  mother  country,  fallen  under  the  dominion  of  France, 
the  British  took  possession  of  Java.     In  1813,  many  liberal  and  beneficial  changes 

*  Crawford,  vol,  ii.  p.  422,  8cc. 
Vol.  II.— Tt 


Massacre  of 
the  Chinese. 


CliaracltT  of 
the  Dutch  CO 
lonists. 


Of  the  Chinese 
tettlera. 


Island  of  Ma' 
dura. 

breadth. 


330  BOOK  FIFTY-FOUUTU. 

were  effected.  The  island,  however,  was  restored  to  the  Dutch  by  the  treaty  of  peace 

ia  181G. 

The  Dutch  are  freely  permitted  by  their  government  to  purchase  and 

hold  lands,  and  are  fairly  naturalized.  The  Creole  and  mixed  races  la- 
bour under  the  disadvantage  of  a  want  of  liberal  education ;  are  habituated  to  tyran- 
nize over  the  persons  of  the  Javanese;  and  are  entirely  served  by  slaves.  They  are, 
with  few  exceptions,  ignorant,  timid,  servile,  and  indolent.  They  indulge  in  convi- 
vial parties,  but  labour  under  a  constant  reserve,  arising  from  the  arbitrary  and  jea- 
lous nature  of  their  government.  The  women,  marrying  early,  and  habituated  to  the 
society  of  their  female  slaves,  have  the  character  of  gross  ignorance  and  insipidity. 
They  entertain  a  great  jealousy  of  the  attractions  of  the  slaves  by  whom  they  are 
surrounded,  and  under  that  feeling  inflict  gross  cruelties  on  them  with  their  own 
hands.* 

The  Chinese  settlers  in  Java  have  generally  been  numerous.     The 

talents  of  this  nation  for  business  and  commerce  enable  them  to  thrive 
in  these  regions ;  and  they  would  be  much  more  numerous  were  it  not  for  the  law  of 
the  Chinese  empire,  which  strictly  prohibits  the  emigration  of  women.  They  are 
enterprising,  keen,  and  laborious,  but  luxurious,  debauched,  and  pusillanimous.  They 
are  much  employed  in  handicraft  trades,  in  which  they  greatly  excel.  They  are 
noted  for  a  total  want  of  faith,  the  least  temptation  of  gain  inducing  them  to  evade 
the  fulfilment  of  any  engagement.  All  of  them  are  from  the  province  of  Fokien,  or 
that  of  Canton;  the  former  maintain  the  best  character,  being  rarely  from  the  very 
lowest  ranks  of  society,  and  less  gross  and  abject  in  their  manners. 

The  small  Island  of  Madura,  near  the  eastern  part  of  the  northern 

shore  of  Java,  is  separated  from  it  by  a  narrow  strait  not  two  miles  in 
is  supposed  to  contain  60,000  inhabitants,!  who  are  a  poorer  and  ruder 
people  than  the  Javanese.  They  have  a  pecuhar  and  totally  distinct  language,  but 
such  of  them  as  are  at  all  educated  understand  Javanese.  The  island  is  subject  to 
a  prince  who  is  called  Pahambana,  or  "  the  Adorable."  He  has  been  deprived  of 
two  of  his  provinces,  and  now  possesses  the  western  portion  of  the  island.  J  Bull- 
fights are  common  in  this  island,  a  species  of  amusement  not  known  in  any  other 
part  of  the  archipelago. 

BaU,  I       The  Island  of  Bali,  which  is  separated  from  the  east  end  of  Java 

by  a  narrow  strait,  has  been  called  by  some  Dutch  authors  "  little  Java."  A  chain 
of  high  mountains,  clothed  with  impenetrable  forests,  crosses  it  from  north-west  to 
south-east,  containing  mines  of  gold,  copper,  and  some  say  iron ;  this  last  metal, 
however,  is  rarely  found  in  these  islands.  The  level  part  is  extremely  fertile  in  rice. 
Gilgil,  the  sultan's  capital,  stands  on  a  river  of  the  same  name,  which  falls  into  the 
strait  of  Lombok,  at  the  east  end  of  the  island.  The  inhabitants  are  fairer  and  bet- 
ter formed  than  the  Javanese,  and  are  noted  for  intelligence  and  courage.  Slaves 
are  often  obtained  from  this  island,  and  a  particular  value  is  set  on  them.  The  in- 
habitants have  a  peculiar  language,  which  has  been  extended  by  conquest  to  the  ad- 
joining island  of  Lombok.  Bali  is  the  only  country  in  the  archipelago  in  which  the 
Hindoo  religion  is  maintained,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  of  the  mountainous  parts 
in  the  east  end  of  Java.  The  Bahnese  belong,  in  general,  to  the  sect 
of  Siva,  and  there  are  among  them  a  few  Buddhists.  They  have  divi- 
sions of  caste  similar  to  those  of  Indostan ;  and  some  outcasts,  such  as  their  potters, 
dyers,  dealers  in  leather  and  in  ardent  spirits.  The  Brahmins  are  genuine  Hindoos, 
but  the  people  in  general  are  left  to  their  local  superstitions.  The  Brahmins  are 
treated  with  great  respect,  and  the  administration  of  justice  is  in  their  hands.  They 
live  entirely  on  vegetable  food,  but  the  people  cat  animal  food  without  scruple.  They 
perform  no  such  extravagant  acts  of  self-mortification  as  are  so  common  in  India; 
but  the  voluntary  sacrifices  of  widows  on  the  funeral  piles  of  their  husbands  are  car- 
ried to  an  excess  unknown  even  in  India.  It  chiefly  takes  place  among  the  military 
and  mercantile  classes.     At  the  funeral  of  a  chief,  seventy  or  a  hundred  women  have 

•  Stavorinns,  quoted  by  Crawford,  vol.  i.  p.  139 — 149. 

\  Batavian  Jlemoirs,  ii.  427.  +  Valentyn,  Groot.  Java,  p.  44—46. 


reeuliarity  of 
religion. 


nouNEO.  331 

been  known  to  immolate  themselves.*  The  female  slaves  also  devote  their  lives  in 
a  similar  manner  at  the  funeral  of  a  royal  mistress.  They  are  generally  poignarded 
before  their  bodies  are  committed  to  the  flames.  Bali  was  the  resort  of  the  Hindoo 
refugees  from  Java  when  persecuted  by  the  Mahometans ;  about  which  time  the 
Brahminical  system  was  inculcated  on  them  with  increased  strictness  by  fresh  Indian 
missionaries.  The  inaccessibility  of  the  shores  of  the  island  has  contributed  to  pre- 
serve it  from  the  encroachments  of  other  religions. 

The  strait  of  Bali  is  the  safest  route  for  vessels  bound  to  Europe  during  the  west- 
ern monsoon,  when  the  passage  by  the  strait  of  Sunda  is  rendered  difficult.  The 
current  in  the  strait  of  Bali  carries  the  vessels  along  even  when  the  winds  are 
contrary. 

To  the  north  of  Java,  and  the  south-west  of  the  Philippine  islands,  |  Borneo. 
is  the  great  Island  of  Borneo,  the  largest  in  the  world  next  to  New  Holland.  It 
is  probably  about  750  miles  long,  and  620  broad.  Its  central  parts  have  never  been 
explored  by  Europeans,  and  the  insalubrity  of  the  climate  has  prevented  them  from 
frequenting  its  shores.  On  this  account  the  geography  of  Borneo  is  very  imperfect. 
It  is  probable  tiiat  the  centre  of  the  island,  where  the  springs  take  their  rise,  is  a 
marshy  table  land,  inundated  during  the  rainy  season.  This  seems  to  be  the  best 
explanation  of  an  old  tradition,  of  the  existence  of  a  lake  in  the  centre  from  which 
all  its  rivers  issue. f 

The  principal  chain  of  mountains  must  lie  north  and  south,  not  far  j  Mountainj. 
from  the  east  coast.  The  Dutch  call  them  "  the  crystalline  mountains,"  from  the 
numerous  crystals  found  in  them.  One  of  the  most  remarkable  peaks  is  called  by 
tlie  natives  Keenec-Bollo.;j;  This  island  is  often  devastated  by  volcanoes  and  earth- 
quakes. The  coasts,  for  a  breadth  of  from  fifteen  to  fifty  miles,  present  nothing  but 
marshy  soil,  part  of  which  is  a  moving  bog  or  half  inundated  land. 

It  is  only  by  means  of  the  rivers  that  we  can  penetrate  the  country.  [  Rivers, 
They  have  many  branches,  which  are  connected  together  with  natural  canals.  The 
rivers  Pontiana  and  Sukadana,  in  the  west,  and  Banjermassin  in  the  south,  seem  to 
be  the  largest.  Though  situated  under  the  equator,  this  island  is  sub-  |  climate, 
jected  to  no  insupportable  heats.  The  sea  and  mountain  breezes,  and  the  rains, 
which  are  constant  from  November  till  May,  impart  a  degree  of  coolness  to  the  at- 
mosphere. At  Sukadana  the  thermometer  varies  very  little,  being  scarcely  ever 
under  82°  of  Fahrenheit,  or  above  94°. 

Gold  is  found  in  Borneo  in  large  quantity,  and  more  is  exported  from  [  Minerals, 
it  than  from  any  of  the  adjoining  islands.  It  is  the  only  island  of  this  archipelago 
which  alibrds  the  diamond,  a  mineral  not  found  indeed  in  any  other  country  except 
Indostan  and  Brazil.  The  diamond  mines  are  confined  to  the  west  and  south  coasts, 
being  principally  situated  in  the  territories  of  the  princes  of  Pontiana  and  Banjermas- 
sin. The  best  are  at  a  place  called  Landak.  A  perpendicular  shaft  is  first  dug,  and 
the  stratum  containing  the  diamond  is  from  this  ])ursued  in  a  horizontal  direction. 
The  roof  is  supported  by  wooden  posts,  but  frequently  falls  in,  to  the  imminent  risk 
of  the  miners.  They  are  worked  by  persons  belonging  to  the  aboriginal  savage 
races.  The  Bugis  resident  merchants  are  the  great  dealers  in  diamonds.  The 
petty  prince  of  Mattan,  in  this  island,  is  now  in  possession  of  one  of  the  largest 
diamonds  in  the  Avorld,  obtained  100  years  ago  from  the  mines  of  Landak.  Its  value 
is  i3269,378;  being  less  than  that  of  the  Russian  diamond  by  i^34,822,  and  £119,773 
more  than  the  Pitt  diamond. 

Rice,  yams,  and  betel,  together  with  all  the  fruit  trees  of  India,  are  |  Vegetable*, 
cultivated  in  this  island.     The  cabbage  palm  is  used  for  food.     The  forests  contain 
trees  of  prodigioiis  height,  some  excellent  ship  timber,  and  abundance  of  the  tree 
which  yields  the  sanguis  draconis.     Groves  of  nutmeg  and  clove  trees  are  said  to 
have  been  found  in  some  mountains  of  the  south  west.§    The  best  known  and  most 

*  Crawford,  vol.  ii.  p.  241. 

t  Radertnacher's  Account  of  Borneo,  in  the  Batarian  Memoirs,  ill.  109.  Philon,  ibid,  ii.  435, 
Beckman's  Voyage  to  Borneo,  London,  1718. 

:f  Meinungen's  Letters  from  Borneo,  in  the  Freimuthige,  a  Berlin  journal,  1811,  No.  237, 
§  Valcntyn's  Account  of  Borneo,  iv.  235. 


333  BOOK  FlFTY-rOURTH. 

valuable  species  is  the  camphor  tree,  which  grows  here  in  all  its  perfection.  It  is 
the  Dryobalanops  cumphora  of  Colebrooke  ;*  a  different  tree  from  the  Laurus  cam- 
phora,  the  camphor  tree  of  Japan.  It  grows  near  the  sea-coast,  and  is  found 
nowhere  in  the  world  except  in  the  two  great  islands  of  Sumatra  and  Borneo.  The 
Borneo  camphor  sells  a  third  dearer  than  that  of  Sumatra ;  the  one  being  £500  per 
quintal,  and  the  other  56330.  That  of  Japan  is  much  lower.  Benzoin,  the  resin  of 
a  species  of  styrax,  is  found  in  the  same  islands  as  camphor.  The  principal  use  of 
it  is  for  incense  in  the  ceremonies  of  the  Romish,  Mahometan,  Hindoo,  and  Chi- 
nese worships.  It  is  also  used  as  a  luxury  in  the  houses  of  the  great.  The  Java- 
nese chiefs  smoke  it  along  with  tobacco.  The  demand  for  this  article  has  been  steady 
in  all  ages.  Borneo  affords  a  plentiful  supply  of  rattans,  {Calanuis  rotang.)  This 
is  a  prickly  bush,  sending  forth  shoots  of  an  amazing  length.  The  manner  in  which 
the  wood-cutter  carries  them  off  ready  peeled,  is  sufficiently  simple.  He  makes  a 
notch  in  the  trunk  of  any  tree  at  the  root  of  which  the  rattan  is  growing,  and,  cut- 
ting the  latter,  strips  off  a  small  portion  of  the  outer  bark,  inserts  the  peeled  part  in 
the  notch,  then  pulls  it  through  as  long  as  its  size  continues  uniform.  One  man  will 
carry  away  300  or  400  at  a  timcf"  Pepper,  ginger,  and  cotton,  grow  here,  and  the 
nutmeg  and  clove  are  said  to  have  been  successfully  cultivated. 
Animals.  j  It  is  in  Borneo  that  the  largest  of  the  monkey  tribe,  the  pongo,  equal- 
ling the  human  race  in  stature,  is  found ;  also  the  ourang-outang,  or  Simia  satynis, 
which  comes  nearer  to  man  in  his  looks,  manners,  and  gait.  Some  have  told  us,  that 
this  animal  lights  fires,  at  which  he  broils  his  fish  and  rice  ;  but  these  accounts  are 
not  verified  by  recent  observers. +  The  Borneans  have  an  animal  which  they  call 
the  water  stag,  which  lives  most  generally  in  the  marshy  grounds,  and  seems  to  be 
the  largest  variety  of  the  Cervus  axis  of  Pennant.  This  island  contains  also  two 
species  of  wild  buffalo  of  immense  size,  wild  boars,  tigers,  and  elephants.  The 
species  of  birds  are  innumerable,  and  most  of  them  totally  different  from  those  of 
Europe.  The  swallows  which  build  edible  nests  are  in  great  abundance.  Wild 
bees  are  so  numerous  that  their  wax  forms  a  very  large  article  of  export. 
Inhabitants.  |  The  coasts  are  occupied  by  Malays,  Javanese,  Bugis,  or  natives  of 
Celebes,  and  some  descendants  of  Arabs,  who  are  all  subject  to  despotic  princes 
styled  sultans.  Mahometanism  is  the  prevailing  religion.  The  princes  and  nobles 
live  in  a  state  of  barbarous  pomp. 

The  kingdom  of  Banjermassin  is  the  best  known  to  Europeans,  oc- 
cupying the  south  side  of  the  island.  The  large  river  Banjar  flows 
through  it.  Tlie  present  capital  is  Martapana.  Here  the  Dutch  have  the  post  of 
Tatas,  near  the  town  of  Banjermassin.  The  west  side  contains  the  kingdoms  of 
Ijandak  and  Sukadana.  The  king  of  Bantam  in  Java  was  formerly  the  sovereign, 
but  resigned  his  rights  to  the  Dutch  company  in  1778,  and  they  established  a  mili- 
tary post  at  Pontiana.  The  Sultan  of  Sambas  is  the  most  powerful  prince  of  that 
coast,  which  is  also  the  residence  of  diflerent  independent  political  chiefs.' 

Borneo,  a  town  containing  3000  houses  on  the  north  coast,  is  the  seat  of  a  sultan 
who  formerly  reigned  over  the  whole  island.  Here,  as  along  the  whole  coast,  the 
houses  are  often  built  on  a  sort  of  rafts,  moored  to  the  shore,  so  as  to  fall  and  rise 
with  the  ebbing  and  flowing  of  the  tide. 

The  north-east  part  belongs  to  the  kings  or  sultans  of  Soolo.  Passir,  in  the 
south-east,  is  the  chief  commercial  resort  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  island  of  Ce- 
lebes. 

The  Malays  of  the  coast,  whose  principal  establishments  we  have 
now  mentioned,  consist  of  colonies  which  have  come  from  Java  and 
Sumatra.  The  interior  is  peopled  with  a  race  of  the  same  original  stock,  but  esta- 
blished for  a  greater  length  of  time  in  the  island.  They  are  called  Biajoos,  properly 
Yiajas,§  a  term  evidently  Sanscrit,  and  synonymous  with  Battas,  Weddahs,  and 

•  Asiatic  Researches,  vol.  xii. 

t  Crawford,  vol.  iii.  p.  423,  424.  +  De  Wurmb,  Memoirs  of  Balavia,  iii.  250. 

4  J  Janse  de  Uooy,  in  the  travels  of  Vander  Aa,  quoted  by  Kadermacher.  Compare  our 
former  observations  on  the  Battas,  Weddahs,  and  other  analogous  tribes,  p.  232. 


Different 
states. 


Inhabitants  of 
tlie  interior. 


Badjooa. 
Teciongs. 


BOKNEO.  333 

Vyadjas,  the  names  given  to  certain  old  tribes  in  Sumatra,  Ceylon,  and  Indostan. 
Some  others  are  called  Malem,  a  Hindostaneo  term  for  mountaineers.*  The  speci- 
mens of  their  language  which  we  have  collected,  contain  many  words  common  to 
the  Malay  and  the  Sanscrit;!  ^  circumstance  which  throws  additional  light  on  the 
ancient  consanguinity  of  all  these  nations.  The  natives  of  Borneo  call  themselves 
Dayaks  or  Eidahans.  They  are  fairer  than  the  Malays,  of  tall  stature,  and  a  stout 
make;  and  extremely  fierce  and  sanguinary  in  their  character.  Their  principal  peo- 
ple are  in  the  practice  of  extracting  one  or  more  of  their  front  teeth,  and  inserting 
pieces  of  gold  in  their  stead.  They  paint  their  bodies  with  various  figures;  and  a 
girdle  round  their  middle  is  their  only  clothing.  Their  houses  are  large  boarded 
huts  without  partitions;  a  hundred  persons  sometimes  live  together  in  one.  The 
Biajoos  hang  the  skulls  of  their  enemies  at  the  doors  of  their  huts.  A  young  man 
is  not  permitted  to  marry  till  he  has  either  cut  ofi"  the  head  or  some  other  part  of  the 
body  of  an  enemy.  J  In  their  mutual  intercourse  they  observe  strict  regulations. 
Their  women  are  treated  with  gentleness  and  consideration.  They  are  dressed  in 
a  scarf,  and  wear  an  enormous  bonnet  or  parasol  of  palm  leaves  on  the  head.  Some 
of  them  display  a  distinguished  talent  for  pantomimic  dancing. § 

One  tribe  of  Eidahans,  called  Badjoos,  lives  by  fishing.     Their  vil- 
lages are  built  half  in  the  water.  The  Tedongs,  on  the  north-west  coast, 
seem  to  be  a  colony  from  the  Philippine  islands,  and  are  formidable  for  their  pi- 
racies. 

The  Alfors  or  Haraforas,  a  race  belonging  to  the  interior,  seem  to  (  Haraforas. 
differ  from  the  Eidahans  only  in  having  browner  complexions,  and  extremely  long 
ears.     The  dancing  girls  of  this  tribe  are  much  admired  by  Europeans  for  the 
nimbleness  of  their  movements,  which,  however,  border  on  licentiousness. 

Besides  these  different  races,  of  which  we  know  so  little,  there  are  |  Negniioj. 
also  some  Negrillos,  a  tribe  inhabiting  forests  inaccessible  even  to  the  Eidahans, 
and  of  whom  no  specimens  have  been  hitherto  seen  by  the  Europeans.     These 
must  belong  to  the  Papuan  or  Oceanic  negi-oes. 

Several  European  nations  had  attempted  to  form  settlements  on  the  coast  of  Bor- 
neo, but  they  had  always  been  expelled  or  massacred  by  the  natives  ;  and  from  such 
particulars  as  are  related  to  us  of  their  conduct,  they  seem  to  have  fully  merited  all 
their  disappointments,  being  continually  disposed  to  presume  so  much  on  their  own 
superiority  as  to  insult  the  natives  indiscriminately.  The  Dutch,  whose  Dutch  settle- 
first  attempts  had  suffered  a  similar  fate,  appeared  in  force  on  the  coasts  «>«"*»• 
in  1748  ;  and  their  fleet,  though  insignificant,  so  far  awed  the  prince  of  Tatas,  the 
only  one  who  had  pepper  plantations  in  his  dominions,  that  he  granted  them  an  ex- 
clusive privilege  of  trade  ;  only  reserving  to  himself  a  right  to  give  500,000  lbs.  of 
pepper  to  the  Chinese.  In  consequence  of  this  treaty  the  Dutch  Company  has  im- 
ported to  Banjermassin,  rice,  opium,  salt,  and  coarse  cloths,  but  can  scarcely  defray, 
by  this  trade,  the  expenses  of  their  settlement.  Their  chief  profits  are  derived  from 
the  diamonds  which  they  procure,  together  with  6,000,000  lbs.  of  pepper.  The  Chi- 
nese take  an  active  part  in  the  trade  of  Borneo.  Diamonds,  however,  are  in  no  re- 
quest in  Cliina,  so  that  the  dexterity  of  this  nation  has  not  been  applied  to  that 
branch  of  mining  or  of  trade. 

In  1706,  the  English  Company  were  allowed  to  build  a  factory  at 
Banjermassin,  but  abused  their  privilege  so  grossly,  by  domineering 
over  the  inhabitants,  levying  toll  from  those  who  passed  up  the  river,  and  showing 
disrespect  to  the  reigning  power,  that  the  natives  burned  the  factory,  and  drove  the 
English  from  the  country.  They  were  afterwards  permitted  to  trade,  on  pretending 
to  be  private  merchants  ;  which  they  did  with  much  greater  success  than  while  their 
odious  self-protected  establishment  existed.  || 

•  Stuart,  a  Dutch  resident.     See  the  Batavian  Memoirs,  11.  436. 

f  Meinungen,  1.  c.  No.  238. 

i  "  Avant  d'avoir  coupe  soit  une  tete,  soit  les  parties  viriles  d'un  ennemi." 

§  Meinungen,  loco  citat. 

I  Crawford,  vol.  iii.  p.  223 — 229.    Beckman's  Voyage  to  Borneo,  p,  101. 


English  fac- 
tory. 


334  BOOK  FIFTY-FIFTH. 

In  1773  that  nation  formed  an  establishment  in  the  island  of  Balambangan,  on  the 
northern  coast  of  Borneo,  which  was  destroyed  by  the  natives.  It  was  renewed  in 
1803,  but  soon  voluntarily  abandoned. 


BOOK  LV. 

OCEANICA. 


PART  III. 

NORTH-WESTERN  OCEANICA  CONCLUDED. 

The  Philip'pmes,  JMoluccas,  and  Timorian  Chain. 

Philippine  isl-  I  To  the  north  of  Borneo  we  find  the  great  archipelago  of  the  Philip- 
*""*^*  I  pine  islands.     They  were  discovered  in  1521  by  Magellan,  who  gave 

them  the  name  of  the  archipelago  of  St.  Lazarus.  But  the  Portuguese  seem  to  have 
known  the  island  of  Luzon  in  the  year  1511.*  The  Spaniards,  who  established 
themselves  here  in  1560,  gave  the  name  of  their  king  Philip  only  to  the  northern  ar- 
chipelago. The  central  part  often  receives  the  separate  appellation  of  the  Bissay 
islands. 

Mountains.  |  The  chains  of  mountains  which  traverse  these  islands  in  all  directions, 
seem  lost  in  the  clouds;  none  of  them  have  been  measured.  They  are  full  of  vol- 
voicanoei.  |  canoes.  That  of  Mayon,  in  the  island  of  Luzon,  has  the  figure  of  a 
sugar  loaf;  this  at  least  was  the  case  some  years  ago.  It  continually  emits  smoke, 
and  sometimes  flames  and  volcanic  sand.  In  the  neighbourhood  of  the  volcanoes  of 
the  islands  Mindoro  and  Sangui,  inexhaustible  quantities  of  sulphur  are  found  in  large 
masses. 

Nature  of  the  I  Th»  land  of  the  Philippine  islands  is  not  only  diversified  by  number- 
country,  j  jggg  torrents,  and  many  straits,  like  all  mountainous  archipelagos,  but 
also  present  the  peculiarity  of  a  great  number  of  marshes,  mossy  grounds,  and  lakes. 
There  is  little  regular  firm  land^.  During  droughts  the  miry  and  spongy  soil  is  full 
of  chinks  in  all  directions.  Earthquakes  occasion  the  most  dreadful  ravages.  These 
islands  are  sometimes  inundated  by  violent  drenching  rains,  and  are  frequently  ex- 
posed to  hurricanes.  Those  which  are  felt  at  Manilla  are  nothing  compared  to  those 
which  occur  on  the  coast  of  Cagayan  in  Mindanao. 

Seasons  and  1  There  is  nearly  the  same  variety  of  seasons  here  as  on  the  coasts  of 
dimate.  |  Coromandcl  and  Malabar,  and  arising  from  the  same  cause.     The  prin- 

cipal mountain  chain  runs  north  and  south  like  the  Ghauts. | 

In  the  western  parts,  the  rains  prevail  during  the  months  of  June,  July,  August, 
and  part  of  September;  the  season  of  the  west  and  north-Avest  winds.  The  adjoin- 
ing seas  are  tempestuous,  the  lands  inundated,  and  the  plains  converted  into  wide 
lakes.  At  this  time,  the  easterly  and  northerly  parts  enjoy  fine  weather.  But  in 
October,  and  the  succeeding  months,  the  north  winds,  in  their  turn,  sweep  the  coasts 
with  equal  fury,  accompanied  by  an  equal  abundance  of  rain;  the  same  inundations 
take  place,  so  that,  when  the  weather  is  dry  in  one  district,  it  is  rainy  in  the  other. 
Vegetable  fet-  I  Yet  it  is  to  this  humidity  that  the  Philippines  owe  their  fertility.  Dur- 
^"'y-  I  ing  the  whole  year  the  meadows,  the  fields,  and  the  mountains,  are 

•  See  our  History  of  Geography,  Book  xxi. 

t  Voyage  dans  les  mers  de  I'lnde,  par  Legentil,  t.  ii.  p.  8 — 12,  et  p.  334—360. 


PHILIPPINE  ISLANDS.  335 

clothed  with  perpetual  verdure.  The  trees  are  always  in  leaf:  the  fields  almost  con- 
stantly enamelled  with  flowers;  blossom  and  fruit  are  often  exhibited  together  on  the 
same  tree.*  The  principal  food  in  these  islands  is  rice.  Wheat  was  introduced  by 
the  Spaniards.  The  cacao  or  chocolate  bean,  which  succeeds  so  admirably,  was 
brought  hither  about  the  year  1670,  and  is  culivated  by  the  Indians  in  all  the  islands. 
The  sugar  cane  is  common.  The  cinnamon  tree  grows  in  Mindanao.  The  Euro- 
pean fruit  trees,  when  planted  in  the  Philippines,  bear  very  little  fruit,  some  of  them 
none  at  all.  The  fig  trees  succeed,  and  attain  to  great  beauty,  but  they  are  very 
rare.  Oranges  and  citrons  abound,  and  bear  excellent  fruit.  The  orange  tree  grows 
in  the  open  fields  to  the  height  of  thirty  feet."!"  Among  the  indigenous  plants  are 
the  cotton  tree,  the  bamboo,  the  banana,  the  mango,  the  pine  apple,  ginger,  pepper, 
and  cassia.  The  wild  banana,  or  J\Iusa  textilis,  grows  in  natural  groves,  which  are 
considered  as  property ;  and  from  the  fibrous  bark  is  manufactured  a  kind  of  cloth  in 
frequent  use  with  the  natives.  It  also  affords  the  material  of  the  most  valuable  cord- 
age obtained  from  any  plant  indigenous  in  north-western  Oceanica.  It  is  known  to 
our  navigators  under  the  name  of  "  Manilla  rope;"  and  is  equally  applicable  to  ca- 
bles, to  standing  and  to  running  rigging.  J  The  ejoo,  obtained  from  the  Aren  palm, 
or  Borassus  goimiti,  abounds  in  the  Philippines. 

These  islands  contain  numerous  herds  of  cattle.     Hog's  lard  is  used  |  Animals, 
instead  of  butter,  which  last  is  not  at  all  used,  the  keeping  and  milking  of  cows  re- 
quiring too  much  attention  for  the  indolent  inhabitants.     The  forests  abound  in  deer. 

The  numbers  and  varieties  of  fish  are  so  great,  that  those  of  all  the  lakes,  rivers, 
and  seas  in  the  world  appear  to  be  collected  here  as  in  a  focus.  But  the  rivers  are 
infested  with  crocodiles.  The  serpent  called  the  "  rice  field  bear,"  or  damonpalay, 
contains  a  poison  under  the  teeth,  which  occasions  immediate  death. §  There  are 
swarms  of  the  white  ants,  which  sometimes  consume  a  whole  store  in  one  night. 

According  to  native  traditions,  all  these  islands,  and  especially  Luzon,  |  inhabiumi. 
were  once  entirely  possessed  by  negroes,  who,  when  the  other  races  arrived,  fled  to 
the  mountains,  which  are  still  inhabited  by  their  descendants.    The  prin-  |  The  Ygoiots. 
cipal  tribe  is  called  Ygoiots  or  Ygorrots.    The  others  are  called  Finguians,  Kalingas, 
and  Italones.||     We  are  told  by  a  Jesuit,  that  these  tribes  are  divided  into  two  races, 
one  of  which  comes  nearer  to  the  negroes  than  the  other. IT 

About  eighty  years  ago  they  came  down  from  the  mountains  to  demand  Manners  and 
tribute,  and  did  not  return  till  they  had  murdered  some  of  the  other  in-  '**'' 
habitants,  whose  heads  they  carried  off"  to  their  own  haunts.  Legentil  mentions  that 
an  act  was  passed,  by  which  a  certain  tribute  was  allowed  them,  along  with  free 
possession  of  their  fields.  More  recent  accounts  say  merely  that  the  savages  trade 
with  the  Spaniards,  without  taking  notice  of  any  tribute.  They  live  on  honey,  roots, 
and  game.  Their  clothes  are  made  of  the  bark  of  trees.  Their  huts  are  sheltered 
by  palm  trees,  but  scarcely  afford  them  protection  from  the  rain.  A  few  knives  arc 
their  only  furniture.** 

The  coasts  are  inhabited  by  a  race  not  inferior  in  ferocity  of  character,  though 
addicted  to  the  pursuits  of  agriculture  and  commerce.  The  leading  tribes  are  the 
Tagales  in  the  island  of  Luzon,  and  the  Bissays  in  the  central  islands.  The  different 
dialects  spoken  by  these  nations  bear  a  resemblance  to  the  Malay,  and  perhaps  also 
to  the  Chinese.  The  Tagales  believe  themselves  to  be  a  colony  of  Malays  from 
Borneo.  The  practice  of  tattooing  appears  to  be  still  continued,  and  was  at  one 
time  so  frequent,  that  the  Spaniards,  from  this  circumstance,  gave  some  islands  of 
the  group  the  name  of  the  Pintados. "fl 

Nothing  certain  is  known  regarding  the  population  of  these  islands.  |  Population. 
M.  de  la  Perouse  supposes  it  to  be  3,000,000,  M.  Gentil  not  more  than  700,000. 
Another  conjecture  is  given  by  M.  Raynal,  who  says,  "that  only  1,350,000  Indians 
have  submitted  to  the  Spanish  yoke;  that  the  greater  part  arc  Christians;  and  that 

•  Legentil,  t.  ii.  p.  25,  8ic.  f  Ibid.  p.  45,  Sec. 

^  Crawford's  History  of  the  Indian  Archipelago,  vol.  iii.  p.  424,  425. 

§  MS.  Memoir  of  Rear- Admiral  Kichery.  ||  Voyage  de  Legentil,  t.  ii.  p.  51,  &c. 

■I  Bernardo  de  la  Fuente,  cite  par  Hervas;  Catalogo  delle  Lingue,  p.  99. 

••  MS.  of  M.  Uichery,  p.  289.  f\  Crawford's  History,  vol.  i.  p.  218. 


Q 


36  BOOK  FIFTY-FIFTIi'. 


Account  of 
the  Island  of 
Luzon. 


all  of  them,  from  the  age  of  sixteen  to  fifty,  pay  a  capitation  tax  of  four  reals,  about 
two  shillings  Sterling."  The  natives  of  the  Philippines  who  are  Christians,  have, 
by  their  more  intimate  intercourse  with  Europeans,  acquired  a  share  of  energy  and 
intelligence  superior  to  their  Pagan  and  Mahometan  neighbours,  and  to  all  the  in- 
habitants of  the  more  westerly  islands  of  Oceanica,  to  whom,  in  former  periods, 
they  were  indebted  for  their  improvements.  In  intrepidity  they  also  excel  the  people 
of  Indostan.  Hence,  natives  of  Manilla  are  almost  universally  employed  as  gunners 
and  steersmen  in  the  intercolonial  navigation ;  offices  for  which  the  continental  Hin- 
doos are  at  present  incapable  of  being  educated.* 

Spanish  colony  "^^^^  colony  is  commanded  by  a  governor,  subject  to  the  viceroy  of 
and  trade.  Mcxico,  who  remains  eight  years  in  office.     The  trade  between  the 

Philippines  and  Acapulco  in  Mexico,  has  for  ages  been  conducted  by  a  single  gal- 
leon of  1200  or  1500  tons.  It  is  a  monopoly  in  which  the  cargoes  are  limited  to 
half  a  million  of  dollars,  (56112,500,)  and  never  amounting,  by  connivance,  to  more 
than  a  milhon  and  a  half,  (£337,500,)  or  two  millions,  (£450,000.)  They  chiefly 
consist  of  the  manufactures  of  China  and  Indostan,  with  the  produce  of  the  Spice 
and  Sunda  Islands,  for  which  Manilla  is  thus  merely  a  place  of  transit.  The  eccle- 
siastical corporations  have  a  large  share  in  their  investment.  She  sails  in  July  or 
August,  the  voyage  lasts  between  three  and  four  months,  and  she  returns  in  about 
half  the  time,  with  a  miUion,  or  from  that  to  1,300,000  dollars  in  silver,  some  cochi- 
neal, cocoa,  Spanish  wines,  oil,  wool,  and  bar  iron,  but  chiefly  in  ballast.  Mr.  Craw- 
ford, in  stating  the  great  losses  sustained  in  this  instance  by  commercial  restrictions, 
mentions,  that  in  a  free  trade,  two  annual  voyages  might  be  made,  while  under  the 
present  system  there  is  only  one."]"  A  smaller  vessel  occasionally  sails  to  Lima  by 
the  same  route. 

The  largest  of  the  Philippines  is  Luzon,  the  most  northerly  island  of 
the  group.  It  is  indented  by  two  gulfs,  that  of  Cavite,  or  Manilla,  on 
the  west,  and  that  of  Lampon  on  the  east.  A  great  part  of  the  space  intervening 
between  these  in  the  interior  is  occupied  by  a  wide  lake  called  Bay,  which  discharges 
its  waters  into  the  gulf  of  Cavite.  The  largest  river  is  that  of  Tagayo  or  Cagayau, 
which  runs  due  north.  The  island  produces  gold,  copper,  and  iron  ;  the  working  of 
iron  has  been  abandoned  ;  gold  is  found  in  the  form  of  sand  or  dust.  The  exports 
are  ship-timber  and  masts,  gomuti  cordage,  sugar,  cotton,  rattans,  wax,  gums,  and 
resins. J 

Manilla  and  I  The  city  of  Manilla§  contains  38,000  inhabitants,  including  1200 
other  towns,  j  Spaniards.  The  streets  are  handsome,  though  unpaved.  The  inha- 
bitants lead  hves  of  ease  and  even  of  luxury.  Every  thing  participates  of  the  gay 
and  simple  spirit  of  the  Indians.  The  suburbs  are  inhabited  by  Chinese  and  other 
foreigners.  The  motions  of  the  sea  being  gentle,  allow  the  front  part  of  the  houses 
to  be  built  in  the  water.  The  transparent  mother-of-pearl  is  sometimes  used  for 
windows.  At  Cavite,  the  port  of  Manilla,  ships  of  war  are  built.  Nueva  Segovia 
and  Nueva  Caceres  are  episcopal  cities. 

Mode  of  living.  |  The  Tagals,  erroneously  called  Indians,  live  in  a  state  of  plenty,  tran- 
quillity and  innocence,  resembling  the  golden  age.  The  indolent  are  enabled,  by 
the  munificence  of  their  brethren,  to  dispense  with  every  kind  of  labour.  It  is  not 
uncommon  for  a  man  in  good  circumstances  to  maintain  in  his  house  a  numerous 
train  of  relations  belonging  to  different  branches,  who  live  in  good  terms  with  one 
another,  and  eat  from  the  same  dish.  Numerous  families,  with  the  addition  of 
strangers,  often  sleep  in  the  same  room,  on  mats  laid  along  the  floor.  The  benig- 
nant character  of  the  Indians  extends  its  influence  to  the  wealthy  Spaniards.  All 
the  rich  houses  support  two  or  three  creansas ;  these  are  poor  children  who  are  fed 
and  clothed  exactly  like  those  of  the  family. 

The  character  of  the  Spanish  colonists  at  Manilla  is  drawn  by  some  authors  in 
very  unfavourable  colours.     According  to  Legentil,  the  baths  are  conducted  without 

•  Crawford,  vol.  ii.p.  277, 278.  f  Ibid.  iil.  p.  338—341. 

+  MS.  of  M.  Richery.     See  also  Blancard  sur  la  Commerce  des  Iiides. 
§  Voyage  de  La  Perouse,  t.  ii.  p.  345. 


PHILIPPINE  ISLANDS.  337 

the  due  regard  to  decorum,  persons  of  both  sexes  bathe  piomiscuousi/,  wearing  rery 
thin  semi-transparent  coverings.  Opportunities  are  talien  to  make  assignations 
while  performing  the  civil  office  of  lighting  a  segar  for  a  friend,  as  the  ladies  com- 
monly carry  a  lighted  segar  in  their  mouths.  It  is  said  to  be  a  commmon  thing  for 
the  priests  to  have  acknowledged  children.  A  due  submission  to  the  Catholic  faith 
and  forms  is  all  the  morality  required  to  support  a  character.* 

The  Chinese  have  been  at  different  times  attracted  to  Manilla  in  great  1  Chinese re»i- 
numbers,  by  it  its  profitable  trade.  They  have  been  much  brow-beat  and  |  '^*^'"*" 
oppressed  by  the  Spaniards;  and  in  1603,  25,000  of  them  were  massacred.  In  1639, 
having  again  increased  to  the  number  of  30,000,  they  were  driven  to  revolt  by  op- 
pression, and,  in  the  contest,  were  reduced  to  7000.  In  1662,  the  island  being 
threatened  by  the  arms  of  Coxinga,  who  conquered  Formosa  from  the  Dutcli,  the 
whole  of  the  Chinese  were  ordered  away.  In  1709  the  Chinese  Avere  again  expelled 
from  Manilla,  being  ignorantly  accused  of  monopoly,  because  they  watched  the  state 
of  the  market,  and  e.\i)Osed  or  withheld  their  goods  accordingly,  and  also  of  carry- 
ing off  the  wealth  of  the  Philippines  to  China.  In  1751  they  were  again  expelled 
by  a  royal  order,  in  some  measure  extorted  by  popular  clamour,  but  when  the  public 
began  to  suffer  from  the  want  of  supplies  and  of  trade,  the  measure  was  bitterly 
complained  of,  and  the  governor  who  carried  it  into  effect  subjected  to  public  odium. 

The  accounts  which  we  possess  of  the  other  Philippine  islands  pre-  The  Uissay 
sent  few  characteristic  features.  In  physical  character,  and  in  the  ge-  '*'»'"''• 
nius  of  the  people,  they  resemble  Luzon.  All  those  situated  between  Luzon  and 
Mindanao  go  under  the  appellations  of  the  Bissay  Islands.  Zebu  is  very  populous 
and  productive  in  rice.  Its  chief  town  is  Gu'igan,  It  was  in  the  small  island  of 
Mactan  that  the  celebrated  Magellan  lost  his  life.  The  island  of  Buglas  or  Negros 
has  received  this  last  name  from  the  circumstance  of  containing  a  race  of  negroes 
in  the  interior. 

Samar  is  one  of  the  leading  islands,  lying  to  the  south-east  of  Luzon.  |  samar. 
It  has  a  fertile  and  easily  cultivated  soil,  yielding,  at  least,  a  return  of  forty-fold,  and 
exports  large  quantities  of  rice.  The  forests  abound  in  wild  birds ;  they  contain 
three  species  of  the  turtle-dove,  and  many  beautiful  species  of  parroquets,  some  no 
larger  than  linnets.  The  quadrupeds  are  also  very  numerous.  The  woods  swarm 
with  monkeys  of  very  large  size,  wild  buffaloes,  and  deer.  Numberless  hives  of 
wild  bees  hang  from  the  branches,  and  alongside  of  them  are  the  nests  of  humming 
birds  dangling  in  the  wind. 

The  island  of  Panay  is  rich  in  game,  especially  in  deer,  boars,  and  |  Panay. 
wild  hogs. I  In  this,  and  the  immediately  surrounding  islets,  food  and  clothing  are 
obtained  by  the  Indians  with  the  utmost  ease.  A  species  of  banana  fig  affords  a 
fibrous  bark,  easily  separated  by  maceration.  By  joining  the  fibres  together,  a  cloth 
of  fine  texture  is  obtained,  which  at  first  is  somewhat  stiff,  but  becomes  flexible  by 
being  treated  with  lime.     This  flax  goes  under  the  name  of  abaca. 

Between  the  islands  of  Mindoro  and  Palawan,  is  the  group  called  the  J^'"''°''j'''^'*' 
Calamian  islands,  or  "  the  Islands  of  Canes."  The  chain  by  which  islands. 
these  islands  are  formed,  goes  off  from  Luzon  in  a  south-westerly  direction.  It 
seems  to  be  very  high  and  very  narrow,  the  arable  land  at  the  bottom  of  the  moun- 
tains being  of  very  trifling  extent.  Their  productions  are  rice,  ebony  wood,  canes, 
wax,  several  gums,  pearls,  fish  in  endless  variety,  and  turtles.  Some  of  the  inha- 
bitants live  wholly  at  sea.  The  Spaniards  have  posts  at  Baco  in  Blinder,  and  some 
other  places.  All  modern  maps  give  the  island  of  Paragoa  the  name  of  Palawan, 
by  which  it  was  known  to  Marco  Polo,  but  D'Anville  places  the  island  of  Balaba, 
(a  name  which  must  be  identical  with  Palaba,  or  Palawa,)  to  the  south-cast  of  Pa- 
ragoa. In  Mr.  Crawford's  map,  Palawan  is  marked  among  those  which  are  under 
native  jurisdiction. 

The  preceding  islands  arc  the  only  part  of  the  archipelago  of  which 
the  Spaniards  hold  the  undisputed  sovereignty.  It  is  a  circumstance 
worthy  of  remark,  that  the  Philippines  are  the  only  islands  of  north- 

•  Legentil,  quoted  by  Mr.  Crawford,  vol.  i.  p.  119,  &c. 
t  Sonuerat,  Voyage  aux  Indies,  t.  iii.  p.  46.  8vo. 
Vol.  11— U  u 


General  influ- 
ence of  the 
Sitanish  atcea* 
dency. 


■5^ 

338  BOOK  FIFTY-FIFTH. 

western  Oceanica  which  have  improved  in  civilization,  wealth,  and  population,  in 
consequence  of  their  intercourse  with  Europe.  When  first  visited,  the  inhabitants 
were  a  race  of  half  naked  savages,  inferior  to  all  the  great  tribes  :  but  now  they  are 
in  almost  every  respect  superior.  A  monopoly  of  commerce  happened  to  form  no 
part  of  the  Spanish  policy.  Private  industry,  though  not  altogether  unshackled,  has 
been  allowed  some  scope,  and  private  competition  some  operation.  The  govern- 
ment, finding  here  no  spices,  and  no  rich  manufactures,  satisfied  itself  with  drawing 
a  fixed  capitation  tax  from  its  native  subjects,  which,  however  oppressive,  did  not 
extinguish  the  spirit  of  improvement.  They  also  gave  full  freedom  to  European 
colonization,  and  freely  distributed  the  unappropriated  lands  among  the  colonists. 
The  consequence  of  this  was,  a  free  intermixture  of  the  local  society,  and  a  com- 
munication of  the  genius  and  manners  of  Europe  to  the  native  races.* 
Mindanoa.  |  The  island  of  Mindanao,  the  most  southerly  of  the  Philippines,  ranks 
the  second  for  size  and  consequence.  Its  name  (which  is  also  written  Magindanao) 
signifies  in  the  language  of  the  country,  "  the  united  people  of  the  channel."!  It  is 
properly  the  name  of  the  capital  of  the  principal  state  belonging  to  it.  This  island 
is  about  830  miles  in  circumference,  but  it  contains  little  arable  land.  Gulfs  and 
peninsulas  give  an  irregularity  to  the  whole  coast.  Pools  and  rivulets  occur  at  every 
Productions,  jstcp.  It  has  morc  than  twenty  navigable  rivers,which  abound  in  fish.  The 
chief  nutritious  plants  are  rice,  potatoes,  and  sago  ;  cinnamon  is  also  very  common. 
When  fresh,  it  seems  equal  in  aromatic  power  to  that  of  Ceylon,  but  soon  loses  its 
strength,  and  in  two  or  three  years  becomes  totally  insipid.  The  vine  grows  in  the 
treUis  way,  not  admitting  of  any  other  mode  of  culture.  It  is  not  certain  whether  or 
not  this  island  contains  mines.  J  Great  quantities  of  talc  are  found  in  it,  and  mill- 
stones are  exported  by  the  Spaniards. §  There  are  numerous  caverns,  especially  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  the  capital  Mindanao,  aflfording  a  retreat  to  bats,  which  are  as 
large  as  common  fowls.  About  sunset  they  issue  in  thousands  from  these  caverns, 
which  protect  them  from  the  heat  and  light  during  the  day.  From  the  earth  polluted 
by  their  sojourning,  a  quantity  of  nitre  is  extracted.  (| 

This  island  is  ruled  by  its  own  kings  and  princes,  who  are  styled  sultans  and  rajas. 
The  nobles  are  called  Latoo.  The  marshes  and  the  forests  present  an  insurmount- 
able barrier  to  the  enterprises  of  the  Spaniards.  The  inhabitants  of  the  interior  are 
black  savages,  called  Haraforas.  Some  represent  them  as  cruel  and 
bloody  in  their  dispositions  ;  others  as  a  weak,  timid,  and  oppressed 
race.  They  are  the  aboriginal  inhabitants.  Three  tribes  are  distinguished  by  their 
language,  the  Luta,  the  Sabani,  and  the  negro  esproperly  so  called. IT — The  inhabi- 
other  natives.  |  tants  of  the  sca-coast  have  a  great  resemblance  to  the  Borneans,  the  Ma- 
cassars, and  the  people  of  the  Moluccas.  Dampier  found  the  natives  of  Mindanao 
very  subject  to  a  cutaneous  disease,  in  the  form  of  white  flakes  and  scurf  over  all 
the  body.**  They  have  a  language  peculiar  to  themselves,  and  also  speak  Malay. 
Their  native  idiom  seems  to  be  the  Bissayan.  They  are  all  Mahometans  ;  and  have 
Imams  who  teach  their  children  to  read  and  write.  In  their  devotions  they  use  many 
Arabic  words. 

The  sultan  of  Mindanao  is  the  most  powerful  prince  in  this  island,  but  there  are 
several  petty  independent  sultans.  The  Mindanayans,  when  not  at  war  among  them- 
N«vy.  I  selves,  follow  the  occupation  of  pirates.    Their  vessels  carry  small  guns, 

and  crews  of  seventy  or  eighty  men. 

The  settlement  at  Sambuangan  is  the  only  one  which  the  Spaniards 
have  kept.     It  is  a  town  situated  in  the  south-west  part  of  the  island, 
feebly  defended  by  a  small  fort,  and  of  little  use  to  its  possessors. 
Sooioo.  I       The  island  of  Sooloo,  or  Suluk,  written  Xullu  by  the  Spaniards,  though 

small,  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  in  this  part  of  the  world. If     It  lies  to  the  south- 

•  Crawford's  History,  vol.  ii.  p.  447, 448.  •}•  Forrest's  Voyage  to  New  Guinea. 

*  Forrest's  Voyage  to  New  Guinea.  §  Forrest,  ibid. 
I  Forrest,  in  a  Note  where  he  quotes  Combes,  a  Spanish  Jesuit. 

K  Hervas,  Cat.  des  Langues,  p.  96.  *•  Dampier'»  Voyages,  vol.  i.  p.  334. 

tt  Dalrymple's  account  of  the  natural  curiosities  of  the  island  of  Sooloo,  in  his  collection  of 
Voyages,  vol.  i,  p.  21. 


The  Harafo- 
ras. 


Spanish  settle' 
ment. 


Amber^ij 
found  here. 


The  Moluccas, 
or  Spice  Isl- 
ands. 


CELEBES.  339 

west  of  Mindanao;  produces  excellent  fruits,  elephants,  and  a  small  species  of  deer, 
the  Cervus  axis. 

The  sea  in  this  neighbourhood  throws  up  a  great  quantity  of  amber- 
gris. It  is  said  that  before  the  coming  of  the  Spaniards,  the  natives 
made  torches  with  it  to  give  them  light  while  they  fished  during  the  night.  It  is 
thrown  out  on  the  shores  of  Sooloo,  chiefly  towards  the  end  of  the  western  monsoons. 
Some  of  it  has  been  found  in  a  liquid  state.  Whatever  may  be  the  origin  of  this  sub- 
stance, it  is  very  curious  that  it  should  in  this  quarter  be  confined  to  the  small  island 
of  Sooloo,  and  seldom  or  never  found  on  the  coast  of  Mindanao. 

Sooloo  derives  wealth  from  its  pearl  fishery,  which  takes  place  at  the  |  Pearl  fishery, 
end  of  tlie  western  monsoons.  There  is  at  that  time  a  constant  calm.  The  sea  is 
so  smooth  that  the  eye  can  discern  objects  under  water  to  a  depth  of  forty  or  fifty 
feet.  The  natives  of  Sooloo  are  excellent  divers,  and  nothing  escapes  them  that 
comes  within  their  view.  But  the  Sooloo  pearls  labour  under  the  disadvantage  of 
tarnishing  in  a  few  years. 

The  sultan  of  Sooloo  holds  several  neighbouring  islands,  and  a  part  of  the  coast 
of  Borneo.  He  keeps  a  small  navy.  Bowan,  his  capital,  is  situated  in  |  Navy, 
the  north-west  part  of  the  island.  It  contains  6000  inhabitants,  which  form  a  tenth 
part  of  the  population  of  the  island.  In  162S  and  1629,  the  Spaniards  sent  two  great 
expeditions  for  the  conquest  of  Sooloo,  but  both  of  them  disgracefully  failed.  In 
1637,  they  made  a  temporary  conquest  of  Sooloo  and  Mindanao,  which  they  were 
soon  obliged  to  abandon.  In  1751,  they  were  beaten  in  their  last  attempt,  and  the 
natives  of  these  islands  joining  their  Mahometan  neighbours,  invaded  the  Philippines, 
and  laid  waste  the  Spanish  provinces  for  three  years.* 

The  islands  situated  to  the  east  of  Borneo  and  Java,  and  to  the  south 
of  the  Philippines,  and  extending  to  the  immediate  neighbourhood  of 
New  Guinea,  are  called  by  the  French  geographers  the  Moluccas,  or  Spice  Islands. 
The  one  of  these  names  is  by  this  extension  completely  alienated  from  its  original 
and  special  meaning;  the  other  is  somewhat  vague.  But  there  are  intimate  physical 
relations,  and  old  political  ties,  which  justify  us  in  grouping  them  as  one  archipelago. 
More  divided  and  irregular  than  the  Sunda  Islands,  they  also  contain  a  greater  num- 
ber of  volcanoes.  Trees,  bearing  more  or  less  exquisite  spices,  seem  to  be  diffused 
over  the  whole  of  them.  The  king  of  Ternati  possesses  the  whole  north  coast  of 
Celebes;  and  the  governments  of  Macassar  and  Banda  share  with  each  other  the 
Timoorian  chain.  The  Dutch  of  Batavia  comprehend  all  these  countries  under  the 
general  name  of  De  Groote  Oost,  or  "  the  Great  East. ""I" 

The  largest  of  these  islands  is  Celebes,  separated  from  Borneo  on  |  Celebes, 
the  west  by  the  strait  of  Macassar,  from  the  Moluccas,  properly  so  called,  on  the 
east,  by  the  Molucca  passage.     That  portion  of  the  sea  on  the  north  which  lies  be- 
twixt this  island  and  Mindanao,  is  sometimes  called  the  Sea  of  Celebes,  sometimes 
the  Mindanao  Sea. 

The  figure  of  Celebes  is  extremely  irregular.  The  bays  of  Boni,  of 
Tolo,  and,  most  of  all,  that  of  Tomini  or  Gunong-Tellu,  divide  it  into 
a  number  of  peninsulas  connected  by  narrow  isthni.  The  more  our  maps  have 
been  improved  in  correctness,  the  more  ragged  and  skeleton-like  does  this  island 
appear.  It  may  be  compared  to  a  star-fish  from  which  the  radiating  limbs  on  that 
side  which  lies  to  the  west  have  been  removed;  and  it  is  remarkable  that  the  smaller 
island  of  Gilolo,  adjoining  to  it  on  the  east,  has  the  very  same  singular  form.  The 
numerous  gulfs  confer  on  this  island  the  advantage  of  a  temperate  mild  for  its  equi- 
torial  situation,  the  heat  being  moderated  by  the  copious  rains  and  the  cooling  winds. 
The  eastern  monsoon  lasts  from  May  to  November;  the  opposite  one  prevails 
through  the  rest  of  the  year.  The  tides  here  are  extremely  irregular.  Celebes  con- 
tains several  volcanoes  in  a  state  of  activity.  The  bold,  broken,  and  verdant  coasts, 
present  some  charming  landscapes.  Numerous  rivers  fall  in  broken  cascades  at  the 
iect  of  immense  rocks,  in  the  midst  of  majestic  groups  of  picturesijue  trees.  The 
most  poisonous  of  known  vegetables  grow  in  this  island.    The  famous  upas,  the  ex- 

•  Crawford,  vol.  ii.  p.  4-71,  472.  f  See  Valentyn. 


Soil  and  pi-o- 
ductions. 


340  LOOK  FIFTY-FIFTH. 

istence  of  Avliich  in  Java  has  given  occasion  to  so  many  fables,  grows  also  here; 
and  the  Macassars  dip  their  arrows  in  its  juice.  Here  also  grow  the  clove  and  nut- 
meg trees,  which  the  Dutch  so  avariciously  engross,  the  ebony,  the  sandal,  the  calam- 
bac,  the  valuable  woods  of  which  are  articles  of  export,  the  sago  tree,  the  pith  of 
which  is  used  as  an  aliment  by  so  many  nations,  the  bread-fruit,  and  other  fruit- 
bearing  species.  Rice  and  cotton  "are  abundant.  No  elephants  or  tigers  are  seen 
in  the  forests,  but  many  deer,  boars,  and,  according  to  some  accounts,  elks  or  ante- 
lopes. There  is  an  infinity  of  monkeys  of  a  very  strong  and  very  mischievous  kind  ; 
and  there  is  a  large  species  of  serpent,  by  which  many  of  them  are  devoured.  The 
cattle  of  Celebes  are  small,  and  have  a  hump  on  the  back.  The  island  also  produces 
buffaloes,  goats,  and  sheep,  which  arc  remarka])ly  lively  and  sure-footed,  being  well 
accustomed  to  the  mountain  roads.*  Besides  the  fishes  common  to  the  seas  of  Ce- 
lebes with  others  in  the  same  regions,  we  may  remark  that  large  quantities  of  turtle 
are  taken  on  the  eastern  coast,  for  the  sake  of  the  tortoise  shell,  which  is  here  a 
vahiable  article  of  commerce. 

Mines.  |       The  minerals  of  this  island  seem  deserving  of  attention.    The  south- 

ern part  contains  none ;  but  the  northern  peninsula,  from  the  isthmus  to  the 
district  of  Boolan  and  beyond  it,  is  full  of  gold  mines.  Those  of  the  district  of 
Ankahooloo,  near  the  Dutch  settlement  of  Gorontala,  yield  gold  of  twenty-one 
carats  ;  that  found  in  the  others  is  of  eighteen.  The  ore  is  found  in  beds  at  a  depth 
of  some  fathoms,  and  is  accompanied  with  copper. "f  Some  of  the  mountains  yield 
crystal,  others  iron.  In  the  north-cast,  the  territories  of  Mongondo  and  Manado, 
Sulphurous  which  are  liable  to  frequent  destructive  earthquakes,  contain  a  soil  which 
lands.  jg  filled  with  immense  quantities  of  sulphur.  J 

The  topography  of  Celebes  is  confounded  amidst  the  contradictory  accounts  of  tra- 
vellers, who  give  totally  different  names  to  the  numerous  states  into  which  it  is  divided. 
Different  In  the  south  part,  on  the  gulf  of  Boni,  the  two  leading  states  are  those 

states.  ^^  Boni  and  Macassar,  or  Mankashar.     The  best  known  place  in  the 

island  is  Macassar,  a  for  tified  town  in  possession  of  the  Dutch.  It  is  situated  in 
the  south-west,  on  a  point  of  land  watered  by  two  rivers.  One  of  these  rivers  is  broad, 
and  allows  a  vessel  to  sail  up  within  half  cannon  shot  of  the  town  walls. 

Bonthain  is  also  in  the  south,  on  the  bay  to  which  it  gives  its  name.  It  has  a 
Dutch  fortress  immediately  adjoining  it.  The  Bay  of  Bonthain  is  large,  and  affords 
Boni.  I  safe  anchorage  during  both  monsoons.      The  city  of  Boni  is  at  a  short 

distance  from  a  lake  which  goes  by  the  classical  name  of  Tempi?,  and  gives  rise  to  a 
fine  river. 

The  northern  provinces  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Company,  the  capital  of 
which  is  Maros,  supply  the  whole  island  with  rice.  They  contain  370  large  villages, 
occupying  the  plains  on  the  west  coast.  §  Beyond  the  Gulf  of  Kaieli  the  territory 
of  the  king  of  Ternati  begins,  comprehending  the  whole  northern  and  eastern  shores, 
as  far  as  the  Gulf  of  Tomini,  and  extending  a  considerable  way  along  the  shores  of 
this  gulf.  This  territory,  which  is  able  to  furnish  17,000  soldiers,  is  divided  among 
a  number  of  vassal  princes.  The  district  which  the  Dutch  call  Paloo,  a  flat  and 
fertile  territory,  is  the  Parlow  of  Captain  Woodward.  ||  Tolatola,  a  large  town,  ac- 
cording to  an  English  traveller,  is  the  Tontoly  of  the  Dutch. IT  Magondo  and  Boo- 
lan  are  the  largest  states.  Near  Manado  is  Fort  Amsterdam.  On  the  Gulf  of  To- 
mini the  Dutch  have  the  settlement  of  Gorontalu,  in  a  country  which  abounds  in 
buffaloes,  in  iron-wood,  and  in  rattans,  and  where  the  nights  are  rendered  very  chill 
by  the  air  of  the  mountains.**  The  Tomitans  occupy  the  central  part  of  the  island 
where  the  gulf  terminates.  Tambooko,  and  a  part  of  the  eastern  coast,  are  pos- 
sessed by  the  Badshoos,  a  savage  race,  who  spend  a  greater  proportion  of  their  time 
in  their  fishinc-boats  than  on  land. 


• 


Valentyn,  DesciMption  de  Macassar.     I'ailcrmaclier,  idem. 
t  Duhr,  in  tlie  Hatavian  Memoirs,  iii.  p.  179 — 182. 

+  Valentyn,  Mollnques,  p.  (i4,  vol.  i.  < 

§  Radermacher.     Notice  on  Celebes  in  the  Batavian  Memoirs,  iv.  215. 
I   Woodward.     Radermacher,  p.  204.  H   Valentyn  Moluques,  p.  72. 

*•  Valentyn,  Moluqnes,  p.  79. 


Running  a 
muck. 


MililaiT  cha- 
racter and 
habits. 


CELEBES.'  341 

The  inliabitants  of  Celebes,  who  arc  distinguished  into  Booghiese,  |  inhabitantj, 
or  Biigis,  and  Macassars,  are  a  vigorous  and  high-minded  people.  The  very  meanest 
of  them  are  as  impatient  of  a  blow  as  any  modern  European  gentleman,  and  their 
law  allows  any  individual  to  revenge  such  an  affront  by  the  death  of  tlie  person  who 
inflicts  it,  ptovided  he  takes  this  revenge  within  three  days.  Among  the  more  scru- 
pulous a  haughty  manner  will  not  be  tolerated.  These  principles  generate  a  great 
deal  of  habitual  politeness  of  behaviour.  In  cases  of  murder  the  law  of  retaliation 
is  urged  to  a  greater  length  than  in  the  other  islands.  Yet  every  murder  may  be 
compensated  to  the  f\xmily  of  the  deceased  by  a  price  which  is  fixed  for  persons  of 
each  condition.  When  it  has  been  committed  by  a  person  of  a  difiierent  tribe,  the 
iryury  is  reckoned  a  public  one,  and  the  death  of  any  individual  of  that  tribe  is  deemed 
a  sufficient  reparation.  The  practice  of  running  a  muck,  which  is  com- 
mon in  all  the  surrounding  islands,  is  particularly  frequent  in  this  island. 
A  person  who  has  suffered  a  severe  affront,  especially  if  his  life  or  honour  is  in  dan- 
ger, and  he  is  laid  under  restraint  or  captivity,  if  any  weapon  is  within  his  reach,  lays 
bold  of  it  without  the  slightest  warning  ;  sometimes  with  a  hideous  shout,  imme- 
diately stabs  those  nearest  to  him,  and,  running  about  with  an  infuriated  look,  deals 
death  among  friends  and  foes  indiscriminately,  till  he  is  himself  put  to  death  by  some 
person,  who  thus  performs  an  important  service  to  society.  The  officers  of  police 
are  furnished  with  three-pronged  forks,  for  the  purpose  of  overpowering  persons  in 
this  unfortunate  and  desperate  condition.  In  these  islands  it  is  dangerous  to  be 
seen  running,  as  none  run  except  persons  in  a  muck,  or  thieves,  and,  when  any  one 
s  seen  to  run,  it  is  reckoned  justifiable  to  pursue  and  put  him  to  death.* 

The  inhabitants  of  Celebes  are  better  and  braver  soldiers  than  the 
other  islanders.  They  have  on  different  occasions  made  descents  on 
Java,  beaten  forces  more  numerous  than  their  own,  and  laid  waste  the  country. t  In 
this  island  every  individual  capable  of  bearing  arms  must  appear  in  the  field  if  sum- 
moned. War  is  determined  in  the  council  of  the  state ;  and  the  assembled  chiefs 
take  a  solemn  oath  binding  themselves  to  the  prosecution  of  it.  The  banner  is  then 
unfurled  and  sprinkled  with  blood.  Each  chief  in  succession  dipping  his  kreese  in  a 
vessel  of  water,  drinks  of  this  liquid,  and  dances  round  the  bloody  banner  with  wild 
motions,  brandishing  violently  his  bare  weapon,  and  repeating  the  oath  with  dreadful 
imprecations.!  In  war  their  first  onset  is  furious;  but  a  resistance  of  two  hours  is 
sufficient  to  exhaust  all  their  impetuosity.  Some  have  inferred  that  their  first  efforts 
are  made  under  the  intoxicating  influence  of  opium,  which  dissipates  itself  in  these 
frenzied  transports ;  but  it  is  not  necessary  to  have  recourse  to  such  a  supposition  in 
order  to  explain  the  fact,  which  is  analogous  to  many  other  instances,  varying  in 
character  with  the  physical  constitutions  and  moral  habits  of  different  tribes.  The 
kreese  is  their  favourite  weapon.  They  sometimes  carry  off  the  heads  of  their  slain 
enemies  as  triumphant  trophies  to  their  wives  and  families,  and  on  some  occasions 
go  so  far  as  to  devour  the  heart  of  an  enemy.  The  Dutch  governors  have  on  some 
occasions  had  the  barbarity  to  encourage  their  native  allies  to  bring  them  baskets 
full  of  the  heads  of  their  enemies. § 

The  inhabitants  of  the  Celebes  are  rendered  active,  industrious,  and 
robust  by  an  austere  education.  At  all  hours  of  the  day,  the  mothers^ 
rub  their  children  with  oil  or  with  water,  and  thus  assist  nature  in  forming  their  con- 
stitutions. At  the  age  of  five  or  six,  the  male  children  of  persons  of  rank  are  put 
in  charge  of  a  friend,  that  their  courage  may  not  be  weakened  by  the  caresses  of 
relations,  and  habits  of  reciprocal  tenderness.  They  do  not  return  to  their  family 
till  they  attain  the  age  at  which  the  law  declares  them  fit  to  marry. 

The  are  very  much  addicted  to  games  of  chance,  in  which  they  often  |  Amusements, 
stake  their  whole  property,  and  afterwards  their  wives,  their  children,  and  their  per- 
sonal freedom.     The  disputes  which  arise  at  the  gaming  table  are  often  terminated 
by  the  dagger,  or  generate  incurable  family  feuds. 

They  are  uncommonly  fond  of  the  sports  of  the  field:  deer  and  wild  |  The  chase. 

•  See  Crawford,  vol.  i.  67.  iii.  127.  t  Crawford,  vol.  i.  p.  231. 

+  Id.  vol,  iii,  p   233.  §  Id.  vol.  i.  p.  243. 


Manners  and 
customs. 


342  BOOK  FIFTY-FIFTH. 

bulls  being  their  principal  game.  Their  country  differs  from  most  of  the  other  islands 
in  having  extensive  open  grass  fields  adapted  to  the  chase.  These  are  the  property 
of  particular  communities,  and  jealously  guarded  against  the  intrusion  of  strangers. 
As  soon  as  the  rice  is  sown,  they  collect  for  this  purpose,  mounted  on  small  but  active 
and  hardy  horses,  forming  companies  of  sixty,  and  sometimes  as  many  as  200,  and 
forget  every  thing  else  in  the  transports  of  the  field. 

Women  in  this  island  eat  out  of  the  same  dish  with  their  husbands,  though  always 
on  the  left  side,  and  are  in  other  respects  treated  on  terms  of  equality.  They  appear 
in  public  without  any  scandal,  mingle  with  the  men  at  the  festivals,  take  an  active 
concern  in  all  the  business  of  life,  are  consulted  on  public  affairs,  and  frequently 
raised  to  the  throne  even  where  the  monarchy  is  elective.* 

Religion.  |       The  ancicnt  natives  of  this  island  worshipped  the  sun  and  moon,  and 

some  local  deities.  They  built  no  temples,  deeming  the  canopy  of  heaven  the  only 
temple  corresponding  in  magnificence  to  the  leading  objects  of  their  sacrifices  and 
devotions.  The  influence  of  Hindooism  existed  but  in  a  very  limited  degree.  The 
Mahometan  faith  has  now  been  established  in  the  island  for  two  centuries,  and  its 
priesthood  possesses  an  extensive  influence. 

Government.  |  The  governments  in  the  Celebes  are  not  despotisms,  like  those  of 
Java  and  the  other  islands  ;  but  aristocracies  combined  with  elective  monarchy,  not 
unlike  the  late  government  of  Poland.  Boni  is  a  federal  state,  consisting  of  eight 
petty  states,  each  governed  by  a  hereditary  absolute  chief,  and  the  general  govern- 
ment is  vested  in  one  of  the  number  elected  by  the  rest.  These  are  his  counsellors, 
without  whom  he  can  do  nothing.  They  manage  the  public  treasure,  decide  on 
peace  and  war,  and  the  head  of  the  confederacy  corresponds  in  their  name,  not  in 
his  own.  A  woman  or  a  minor  may  be  raised  either  to  the  government  of  particular 
states,  or  to  the  head  of  the  general  government,  and  in  that  case  the  constitution 
provides  a  guardian. "j" 

All  the  other  governments  in  the  island  are  formed  on  similar  principles,  but  with 
some  variety.  Among  the  Goa  Macassars,  ten  electors,  besides  choosing  the  sove- 
reign, nominate  also  an  oflScer  who  can  of  his  own  authority  remove  the  king,  and 
direct  the  electors  to  proceed  to  a  new  election,  or  can  remove  any  one  of  the  elec- 
tors. The  Bugis  state  of  Wajo,  has  a  great  council  of  forty  princes.  It  is  divided 
into  three  chambers,  each  of  which  elects  two  princes,  who  in  their  turn  elect  the 
chief  of  the  confederacy,  called  the  Matuwa. 

The  present  sovereign  of  the  Bugis  state  of  Lawu,  is  wife  to  the  king  of  Sopeng, 
another  Bugis  state;  but  the  king  does  not  presume  to  interfere  in  the  affairs  of  the 
state  which  is  subject  to  his  wife.  The  wife  of  Kraing  Lembang  Parang,  are  specta- 
ble  Macassar  chief,  is  sovereign  of  the  small  state  of  Lipukasi,  and  has  the  reputa- 
tion of  being  one  of  the  first  politicians  of  Celebes,  exercising  great  influence  even 
on  the  armies  by  her  spirited  harangues. 

The  revenue  in  all  the  states  is  raised  from  the  land,  and  consists  of  a  tenth  part 
of  the  produce. 

Historical  '^'^^  historical  records  of  Celebes  are  more  imperfect  and  limited  than 

epociis.  even  those  of  Java.     They  lead  us  no  farther  back  than  400  years. 

They  seemjfo  have  reckoned  time  by  the  reigns  of  their  monarchs,  like  the  Chinese. 
The  first  positive  date  is  that  of  the  arrival  of  the  Portuguese  in  1512.  Since  this 
time  their  annals  are  filled  with  details  of  turbulence  and  violence.  The  Goa  Ma- 
cassar kings  are  put  on  record  under  names  expressive  of  such  scenes.  One  is 
called  "throat-cutter;"  another,  "he  who  ran  a  muck;"  another,  "he  who  was  be- 
headed;" a  fourth,  "he  who  was  bludgeoned  to  death  on  his  own  staircase;"  and 
a  fifth  is  distinguished  from  all  his  fellows  by  "having  died  reigning,"  that  is,  a  natu- 
ral death. 

The  more  civilized  inhabitants  are  divided  into  the  two  great  tribes  of  Macassars 
and  Bugis,  who  are  subdivided  into  small  nations,  that  of  Goa  being  the  most  emi- 
nent among  the  Macassars,  and  that  of  Boni  among  the  Bugis.  It  was  not  till  100 
years  after  the  first  visit  of  the  Portuguese  that  the  Mahometan  religion  was  generally 

•  Crawford,  vol.  i.  p.  73,  74.  f  Crawford,  vol.  iii.  p.  11,  12. 


CELEBES.  343 

adopted,  though  a  few  Mahometans  were  found  in  the  island  in  1512.     The  Macas- 
sars, being  the  first  converts,,  attacked  Boni  and  Wajo,  and  forced  them  to  embrace 
the  new  laith.     The  Macassars  have  been  generally  the  most  enterprising  race.     In 
1655  they  destroyed  the  Dutch  settlement  on  the  island  of  Butung.     In  1660  the 
Dutch  defeated  them,  though  assisted  by  the  Portuguese.     By  this  exploit  they  put 
an  end  to  the  trade  in  cloves  and  nutmegs  which  the  Portuguese,  after  being  driven 
from  the  Moluccas,  had  carried  on  through  the  medium  of  Celebes.     The  Macas- 
sars, in  1665,  raised  a  fleet  of  700  ships  and  boats,  carrying  20,000  men,  which  con- 
quered Butung  and  the  Sooloo  islands,  and  was  proceeding  to  the  Moluccas,  when 
Admiral  Speelman,  with  a  fleet  from  Batavia,  encountered  and  destroyed  it.     In  1672 
Raja  Palaka,  who  had  fled  to  the  Dutch,  and  by  whose  instrumentality  the  Dutch 
were  made  masters  of  the  principal  part  of  Celebes,  was  elected  king  of  Boni,  sub- 
jected several  small  states,  and  thus  confirmed  the  European  ascendency.     In  1710 
the  Goa  Macassars  were  reduced  to  entire  subjection  by  a  Dutch  expedition.     In 
1735,  and  some  subsequent  years,  attempts  were  made  by  some  bold  characters  to 
unite  the  Macassars  for  the  expulsion  of  the  Dutch.     Goa  was  taken  by  a  chief  called 
Bontolangkas,  assisted  by  the  people  of  Waju,  but  the  Dutch  retook  it.     In  1776  an 
adventurer,  called  Sankilang,  raised  a  formidable  rebellion  in  the  island,  which  kept 
the  country  in  a  state  of  distraction  for  sixteen  years.     In  1811  the  authority  of  the 
Dutch  was  transferred  to  the  British.     The  kings  of  Boni  being  in  possession  of  the 
regalia  of  Macassar,  maintained  an  ascendency  in  the  aftairs  of  the  latter,  by  which 
the  European  authority  was  undermined.     The  king  of  Boni  was  defeated  by  the 
British  in  1814,  and  the  regalia  delivered  into  their  hands  with  great  ceremony,  for 
the  purpose  of  being  restored  to  the  Macassars.     They  consisted  of  the  following 
articles : — the  book  of  the  laws  of  Goa — a  fragment  of  a  small  gold  chain — a  pair  of 
China  dishes — an  enchanted  stone — a  pop-gun — some  kreeses   and  spears — and 
above  all,  the  revered  weapon  called  the  sudan<x,  a  kind  of  cleaver,  expressly  intended, 
as  the  natives  say,  "for  ripping  open  bellies."*     In  1S16,  Celebes  was  restored  to 
the  Dutch,  along  with  the  rest  of  their  colonies.     The  Chinese  are  the  only  foreign- 
ers permitted  to  trade  with  this  island,  to  which  they  import  tobacco,  gold  wire,  por- 
celain, and  raw  silk.    The  Dutch  import  opium,  liquors,  gum  lac,  and  fine  and  coarse 
cloths.     Rice,  wax  in  large  quantities,  slaves,  trepan,  a  kind  of  marine  animal  sub- 
stance belonging  to  the  order  of  mollusca,  and  a  little  gold,  are  the  exports  which  this 
island  affords. 

On  the  north-east  a  chain  of  islands  extends  between  Celebes  and 
the  south-east  point  of  Mindanao.  The  principal  one  is  called  Sanghir, 
which  is  said  to  be  fertile  and  populous.  It  is  occupied  by  a  Dutch  post.  The  island 
Siao,  and  the  Talautzi  group,  form  a  chain  along  with  Sanghir.  These  islands  are 
rich  in  sago  and  oil  of  cocoa,  and  were  said  a  century  ago  to  contain  28,768  inhabi- 
tants.    They  contain  two  or  three  tremendous  volcanoes. "f" 

On  the  south  coast  of  Celebes  we  find  the  islands  of  Salayer  and  Butung  and 
Butung.  The  latter  forms  a  separate  kingdom  or  sultanate.  The  capi-  ^^'"J"- 
tal  of  Butung  is  a  fortified  city.  The  inhabitants  manufacture  cotton  stuffs,  and 
make  cloth  of  the  fibre  of  agave.  Its  extensive  forests  swarm  with  parroquets  and 
cuckatoos.  A  species  of  nutmeg  tree  grows  here,  called  by  naturalists  JMyristica 
microcarpa,  or  uvifoi-mis,  from  the  fruit  being  of  small  size  and  in  clusters  like  the 
grape.  Much  of  the  ground  is  overrun  with  rattans,  which  climb  trees,  then  trail 
along  the  ground,  and  climb  other  trees  in  a  long  succession.  The  fruit  of  the 
Boinbax  cliba,  or  silky  cotton,  supplies  the  monkeys  with  abundance  of  food.  J 

The  Moluccas,  according  to  the  original  and  proper  application  of    xhe  Moiueca 
the  term,  consist  of  five  small  islands  to  the  west  of  Gilolo,  viz.  Ternati,     ^''''"''»- 
Tidore,  Motir,  Makian,  and  Bakian  or  Batchian.     But  the  sovereigns  of  the  Mo- 
luccas had   possessions  in  Gilolo,  Coram,  and  other  islands  in  the  neighbourhood, 
and  these  are  called  the  Great  Moluccas.     The  name  seems  to  be  of  Arabic  deri- 

I 

•  Crawford,  vol.  i.  p.  62,  63.  f  Valentyn,  Moluques,  p.  37—61. 

*  Labillardiere,  Voyage  a  la  Recherche  de  La  Perouse,  t.  ii.  p.  305. 


Sanghir,  Siao, 
he. 


344  UOOK  FIFTY-FIFTH. 

vation,  signifying  "  Royal  Islands,"  because  they  were  the  places  of  residence  of 
the  sovereigns  of  the  adjoining  islands. 

Volcanoes.  |  The  archipelago  of  the  Moluccas  bears  the  most  evident  marks  of  a 
country  overturned  by  one  of  those  physical  revolutions  which  naturalists  calls  deba- 
cles ;  containing  islands  broken  and  indented  in  a  singular  manner ;  enormous  peaks, 
projecting  abruptly  from  the  surface  of  the  deep  rocks,  piled  up  to  immense  eleva- 
tions ;  and  a  great  number  of  volcanoes,  some  of  which  are  in  a  state  of  activity 
and  others  extinguished.  The  earthquakes,  which  in  these  regions  are  frequent  and 
dreadful,  render  the  navigation  dangerous ;  for  not  a  year  passes  without  the  forma- 
tion of  new  sand-banks,  and  the  disappearance  of  old  ones. 

Climate  and  The  heat,  attended  with  excessive  moisture,  followed  by  long  droughts, 

plants.  ^^^  ^j^g  nature  of  the  soil,  which  is  a  spongy  rock,  prevent  the  cultiva- 

tion of  the  cerealia.  The  pith  of  the  sago-tree  serves  for  bread  to  the  natives.  The 
bread-fruit  tree,  the  cocoa,  and  all  the  fruit  trees  of  India,  succeed  in  them.  The 
Pterocarpus  draco,  or  Lingoa,  is  a  native  of  these  islands,  being  seldom  found  in  the 
west.  It  is  used  as  a  substitute  for  the  teak.  It  is  also  cultivated  for  its  fragrant 
blossoms,  which  are  much  esteemed.  The  wood  of  some  of  its  varieties  is  so 
highly  perfumed  as  to  be  used  as  a  substitute  for  sandal.  Though  less  hard  and  du- 
rable than  teak,  it  is  handsomer,  and  therefore  fitter  for  cabinet  work.  The  enor- 
mous excrescences  which  grow  on  it  are  wrought  into  beautiful  articles,  equalling  in 
lustre  the  finest  variegated  marble.  In  these  islands  the  best  gamuti,  or  ejoo,  is 
found  ;  the  fibrous  substance  obtained  from  the  aren  palm.  It  is  less  flexible  than 
that  of  the  coir  or  cocoa-nut  husk,  but  more  durable,  and  therefore  better  adapted 
for  cables  and  standing  rigging,  though  less  fit  for  running  rigging.  The  native  ship"- 
ping  of  all  kinds  is  entirely  equipped  with  it,  and  for  large  European  vessels  it  is 
found  to  make  good  cables.  It  resists,  in  a  remarkable  degree,  the  influence  of  heat 
and  moisture,  and  of  the  changes  in  these  respects  to  which  it  is  exposed,  and  there- 
fore needs  no  tar  or  pitch.  The  spice  trees,  however,  are  the  objects  by  which  the 
avarice  of  Europeans  has  been  principally  attracted  to  this  part  of  the  world. 
Cloves.  I       The  clove  tree,  (now  called  by  botanists  Eugenia  canjophyllata,)  is 

about  forty  or  fifty  feet  high,  with  long  pointed  leaves  like  those  of  the  laurel.  Some 
compare  its  appearance  to  that  of  the  beech.  At  the  beginning  of  the  wet  season  in 
May,  it  throws  out  a  profusion  of  leaves.  Soon  after  the  germs  of  the  fruit  are  to 
be  seen  at  the  extremities  of  the  shoots,  and  in  four  months  the  cloves  are  fully 
formed.  The  fruit,  at  first  of  a  green  colour,  assumes  in  time  a  pale  yellow,  and 
then  a  blood  red.  At  this  period,  it  is  fit  to  be  used  as  a  spice,  consequently  this  is 
the  clove  harvest.  But  to  ripen  sufficiently  for  the  purposes  of  propagation,  it  re- 
quires three  weeks  longer;  in  which  period  it  swells  to  an  extraordinary  size,  loses 
much  of  its  spicy  quality,  and  contains  a  hard  nucleus  like  the  seed  of  the  bay.  It 
is  now  called  "  the  Mother  Clove."  There  are  five  varieties  of  this  fruit.  It  has  a 
more  limited  geographical  distribution  than  any  other  useful  plant.  It  was  originally 
confined  to  the  five  Molucca  islands,  and  chiefly  to  Makian.  It  had  been  conveyed 
to  Amboyna  a  very  short  time  before  the  arrival  of  the  Portuguese.  Not  partial  to 
large  islands,  it  does  not  grow  well  in  Gilolo,  Coram,  Booro,  or  Celebes.  It  has 
been  cultivated,  and  has  produced  fruit,  in  the  western  part  of  Oceanica.  It  has  also 
borne  fruit,  though  of  inferior  quality,  for  these  fifty  years  in  the  Mauritius.  Even 
at  Amboyna,  the  tree  is  not  productive  before  the  tenth  or  twelfth  year  of  its  growth, 
and  requires  great  attention ;  whereas,  in  the  parent  islands,  it  bears  in  its  seventh  or 
eighth  year,  and  requires  very  little  care  or  culture.  It  neither  thrives  near  the  sea 
nor  on  the  high  hills.  The  gathering,  the  drying,  and  the  packing  of  it,  are  all  as 
simple  operations  as  possible;  and  very  little  care  is  required  for  its  preservation  as 
an  article  of  commerce. 

The  nutmeg.  |  The  other  valuable  species  is  the  JMyristica  moschala,  or  nutmeg  tree; 
which,  in  its  general  appearance,  resembles  the  clove  tree,  only  it  is  less  pointed  at 
the  top,  and  its  branches  are  more  spreading.  Its  leaves  are  similar  to  those  of  the 
pear  tree,  but  larger,  and,  like  all  those  of  the  nut  tribe,  dark  green  on  the  upper  sur- 
face and  gray  beneath.  After  small  white  flowers,  it  produces  a  fruit  very  similar, 
in  form  and  colour,  to  a  nectarine.     Vihcn  ripe  it  resembles  a  ripe  peach,  and,  burst- 


MOLUCCAS.  345 

ing  at  the  furrow,  discovers  the  nutmeg  with  its  reticulated  coat,  the  mace,  of  a  fine 
crimson  colour.  The  external  pulpy  covering  has  an  austere  astringent  taste.  Within 
the  mace  is  the  nutmeg,  inclosed  in  a  thin  shell  of  a  glossy  black,  and  easily  broken. 
It  has  eight  varieties,  wiiich  appear  to  be  permanent.  The  limits  of  its  geographical 
distribution  arc  much  wider  than  those  of  the  clove.  It  grows  in  New  Holland,  in 
the  south  of  India,  and  in  Cochin-China;  but  in  these  countries  it  is  void  of  flavour; 
and  for  all  useful  purposes  its  geographical  limits  are  nearly  as  narrow  as  those  of 
tlie  clove,  and  indeed  almost  exactly  the  same.  The  cultivation  of  the  nutmeg  is 
nice  and  diincult.  The  best  trees  are  those  produced  by  the  seeds  voided  by  a  blue 
pigeon,  called  the  nutmeg  bird,  by  the  excrement  of  which  its  growth  is  much  faci- 
litated. 

In  this  part  of  the  world,  there  are  several  minor  spicy  productions  which  are  found 
in  no  other  country;  viz.  Massoy  bark,  used  for  culinary  purposes  by  the  Malays  and 
Javanese,  and  of  late  in  request  in  China  and  Japan.  The  Launis  culitlawan  also 
yields  an  aromatic  bark.  The  leaf  of  the  JMelaleuca  Icucodendron,  or  cajeput  tree,  is 
well  known  to  yield  a  fragrant  essential  oil. 

The  most  remarkable  animals  in  these  islands  are  the  barbyrossa,  the  |  Animals, 
opossum,  the  phalanger,  the  Indian  jerboa,  and  the  chevrotain  or  JVloschus  pijgmaeus.. 
There  are  but  {ew  domestic  animals.     The  eye  is  delighted  with  the  magnificent 
plumage  of  some  of  the  birds,  such  as  the  bird  of  paradise,  the  fishing  martin,  the 
different  parroquets,  cuckatoos,  and  others.     We  know  little  of  the  minerals  of  these 


regions. 


European 
aggressions. 


The  natives  of  the  Moluccas,  before  they  were  visited  by  foreign  na- 
tions, attached  no  value  to  the  vegetable  riches  which  are  peculiar  to 
their  islands,  and  which  have  rendered  them  at  once  so  celebrated  and  so  unfortunate. 
The  Chinese  first  accidentally  landed  in  the  middle  ago,  and  discovered  the  clove 
and  the  nutmeg,  in  consequence  of  which  a  taste  for  these  commodities  was  difiused 
over  India,  and  thence  extended  to  Persia  and  to  Europe.  The  active  Arabians, 
who  then  engrossed  almost  all  the  commerce  of  the  world,  turned  their  attention  to 
the  native  country  of  these  precious  commodities,  and  repaired  to  it  in  numbers; 
when  the  Portuguese,  who  always  followed  close  behind,  wrested  the  treasures  from 
that  nation.  In  1521,  Antonio  dc  Brito  first  appeared  in  force  in  the  Moluccas,  for 
the  express  purpose  of  taking  possession  of  them  in  the  name  of  the  king  of  Portugal. 
The  unsuspecting  sovereigns  received  their  treacherous  guests  with  caresses, but  soon 
found  cause  to  entertain  very  different  sentiments  towards  them.  One  of  the  first 
acts  of  the  commander  was  to  imprison  some  of  the  followers  of  Magellan,  who  had 
been  left  in  this  part  of  the  world,  because  they  belonged  to  the  hostile  nation  of  Spain. 
A  system  of  violence,  intrigue,  and  perfidy  towards  the  natives  was  immediately 
begun  and  continued  for  sixty  years,  with  the  single  exception  of  the  two  years  of 
the  government  of  the  virtuous  Galvan.  At  the  end  of  that  period  the  Dutch,  with 
the  assistance  of  the  natives,  drove  out  the  Portuguese;  but  they  soon  discovered  a 
rapacious  policy  equally  oppressive.  In  1606  the  king  of  Teinati  attempted  to  league 
the  different  princes  for  their  expulsion,  but  the  jealousies  of  his  neighbours  defeated 
his  intentions.  In  1613  the  intrigues  of  the  Dutch  procured  for  them,  from  the  na- 
tive princes,  an  exclusive  right  of  buying  cloves.  Every  infraction  of  these  iniqui- 
tous compacts  was  resented;  and  from  this  cause  the  country  was  now  desolated  for 
seventy  years  with  wars  and  invasions.  The  natives  displayed  much  bravery,  but 
were  finally  subdued.  The  Portuguese  and  English  sometimes  interfered,  and  their 
policy  wavered  according  to  the  prospects  which  events  at  difibrent  times  held  out 
to  their  base  avarice.  The  English  were  allowed  at  one  time  to  have  a  mercantile 
establishment  at  Amboyna,  when  held  by  the  Dutch.  But  the  latter,  in  the  year 
1623,  after  forcing  some  Chinese  and  Javanese  soldiers,  by  the  torture,  Massac»-eof 
to  make  confession  of  a  plot  on  the  part  of  the  English,  seized  on  the  Amboyna. 
whole  of  the  English  residents,  and  put  them  to  death  with  circumstances  of  indig- 
nity and  cruelty  sufficient  to  disgrace  any  barbarians.  In  this  unfortunate  island 
Governor  Vlaming,  one  of  the  detestable  monsters  that  even  colonial  depravity  can 
boast  of,  carried  on  a  scene  of  bloody  excutions,  putting  to  death  people,  nobles,  and 
priests,  by  dozens,  in  all  the  different  forms  of  cruel  death ;  strangling,  breaking  on 
Vol.  II.— X  x 


346  BOOK  FIFTY-riFTH. 

the  wheel,  drowning  in  the  sea,  and  beating  to  death  with  bludgeonf(.  Those  who 
were  taken  prisoners,  and  tliose  who  surrendered  under  promise  of  pardon,  shared 
the  same  fate.*  It  was  not  till  1680  that  the  Dutch,  by  completely  crushing  the  na- 
tives, carried  the  principles  of  their  commercial  policy  into  rigid  practice. 

While  the  culture  of  cinnamon  was  confined  to  Ceylon,  that  of  the  clove  was  con- 
fined to  Amboyna,  and  that  of  the  nutmeg  to  the  Banda  islands.     It  was  not  till  1778, 
when  the  plantations  at  Banda  were  greatly  damaged  by  an  earthquake,  that  the 
Company  allowed  the  nutmeg,  as  well  as  the  clove,  to  be  cultivated  in  Amboyna. 
Effects  of  the  In  consequence  of  this  monopoly  of  cloves  and  nutmegs,  the  quantity 

^^c e°l'°  ^  °  produced  is  greatly  diminished,  and  the  price  enhanced.  The  particulars 
of  this  department  of  mercantile  history  are  given  in  detail  in  the  enlightened  work  of 
Mr.  Crawford,  and  the  inferences  are  luminously  drawn,  pointing  out  the  ruinous' ten- 
dency of  all  those  cruel  and  unjust  measures.  The  price  given  for  cloves  to  the 
cultivator  is  3-^d.  per  lb.  avoirdupois,  nearly  eight  dollars  per  picul  of  133^  lbs. 
When  the  trade  was  conducted  by  the  natives,  it  even  sold  in  Java  at  an  average  of 
fourteen  dollars  per  picul.  When  the  article  arrived  by  a  difficult  and  hazardous  land 
carriage  to  the  Caspian  Sea,  it  cost  91  dollars  ;  at  Aleppo  141  ;  and  in  England  237. 
Since  the  close  monopoly  of  the  Dutch,  i.  e.  since  1623,  the  price  paid  for  cloves  to 
the  Dutch  on  the  spot  has  been  eight  times  the  price  paid  by  them  to  the  cultivator. 
When  brought  directly  to  England,  they  are  sold  at  an  advance  of  1258  per  cent,  on 
the  natural  export  price.  Concerning  the  quantities  produced,  our  information  is  not 
exact.  During  the  Portuguese  and  Spanish  supremacy,  the  five  Moluccas  produced 
annually  2,376,000  lbs.  When  the  trade  was  free,  the  quantity  was  one  half  more. 
The  whole  produce  at  present  does  not  exceed  700,000  lbs.  Before  the  last  time 
that  the  islands  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Enghsh,  Europe  consumed  annually  563,000 
lbs.  ;  since  that  time  about  365,000.  The  duty  imposed  in  England  was  then  more 
than  twenty  fold  the  price  of  the  commodity  where  it  grows.  The  price  indeed  fell, 
but  not  in  proportion  to  that  of  pepper,  and  other  analagous  articles.  The  quantity 
now  consumed  in  England  exceeds  that  consumed  in  1615  by  56  per  cent.  ;  but,  if 
the  trade  had  been  free,  it  ought  in  the  present  state  of  wealth  and  luxury  to  jiave 
increased  in  the  proportion  of  147  per  cent,  that  being  the  case  Avith  pepper.f  The 
Dutch  monopoly  has  occasioned  a  cultivation  of  cloves  in  Bourbon  and  Cayenne, 
which  would  immediately  cease  if  the  Molucca  trade  were  laid  open,  the  produce 
being  so  much  inferior. 

The  same  principles  operate  on  the  trade  in  nutmegs.  In  the  ancient  commerce, 
down  to  the  estabhshment  of  the  monopoly,  nutmegs  were  always  sold  and  trans- 
ported in  the  shell,  and  the  natives,  when  left  to  themselves,  are  still  disposed  to 
continue  that  practice.  The  Dutch,  to  secure  their  monopoly  more  effectually,  sub- 
ject them  to  processes  which  destroy  the  powers  of  germination,  consisting  in  slow 
kiln-drying  and  smoking  for  three  months,  and  immersion  in  quick-lime  and  salt 
water,  with  drying,  which  require  two  months  longer.  This  process  is  attended,  not 
only  with  loss  of  time  and  labour,  but  with  great  waste,  and  other  inconveniences. 
The  kernel  is  exposed  by  it  to  the  depredations  of  the  nutmeg  fly.  It  is  estimated  that  a 
tenth  part  of  the  produce  perishes  in  consequence  of  the  separation  of  the  shell. 
The  English,  when  they  conquered  the  Spice  islands  in  1810,  found  in  store  more 
than  37,000  lbs.  of  bad,  broken,  and  rotten  nutmegs.  The  natural  price  of  the  ar- 
ticle ought  not  to  exceed  four  dollars  per  picul,  or  2|d.  per  pound,  and  in  Europe  the 
pound  should  not  exceed  6d.,  but  it  is  in  general  twelve  times  that  price  ;  and  in 
England,  duties  included,  seventeen  times  as  much.  Mr.  Crawford,  while  he  details 
these,  among  other  important  circumstances,  observes,  that  "  the  consumer  pays 
this  price  for  no  other  purpose  than  that  a  political  juggle  may  be  played,  by  which 
the  party  who  plays  it  imposes  on  itself,  without  gaining  any  advantage  whatever, 
while  the  grower  is  cheated  out  of  his  property  and  out  of  his  liberty."  The  con- 
sumption of  nutmegs,  as  well  as  cloves,  in  Europe,  is  smaller  at  the  present  day  than 
in  the  middle  ages.     Black  pepper  and  ginger  have  in  a  great  measure  taken  their 

•  Crawford's  History,  vol.  ii.  p.  440,  441. 
flbid.vol.  iii.p.  393. 


MOLUCCAS.  347 

place,  and,  above  all,  the  pimento  and  Chili  commodities,  unknown  to  Europe  before 
tlie  discovery  of  America,  and  of  the  route  by  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  The  fol- 
following  is  the  state  of  the  nutmeg  trade  at  diflerent  periods : 

lbs. 
Consumption  of  nutmegs  in  all  Europe  in  1615,  -  -  400,000 

Do.         of  mace  in  do.     -  -  -       150,000 

Consumption  of  nutmegs  in  England  in  1615,  -  -  100,000 

Do.         of  mace '  -  -  -  -  -  15,000 

AVhen  the  monopoly  first  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  English  in  1796,  the  con- 
sumption of  nutmegs  in  Europe  was  -  -  .  85,960 
And  of  mace,                    .                  .                  -                  .         24,234 
Consumption  of  nutmegs  in  England,            -                 .                 -  39,071 
Of  mace,             .             .                 -                 -                 .  5,400 
When  the  monopoly  was  last  in  the  hands  of  the  English,  in  1811,  the  con- 
sumption of  nutmegs  in  Europe  was          -                 .                 -                 214,720 
Of  mace,              -             .                  -                  .                  .       250,040 
Consumption  of  nutmegs  in  England,                -                 .             -                   56,960 
Of  mace,             -             -                 -          •       -                 -           3,620 


Description 
of  the  island 
of  Gilolo. 


Island  of 
Mortay. 


We  shall  now  give  a  description  of  the  individual  islands  of  this  ar- 
chipelago. Gilolo  has  an  irregular  form,  representing  Celebes  in  mi- 
niature, the  irregularities  and  incursions  of  the  ocean  lying  on  the  eastern  side  of 
both.  Its  interior  contains  some  lofty  peaks.  It  abounds  in  buffaloes,  goats,  deer, 
and  boars,  but  contains  very  few  sheep.  Many  bread-fruit  trees  grow  in  it,  also  the 
sago  tree,  and  probably  some  clove  and  nutmeg  trees,  notwithstanding  the  assiduity 
with  which  the  Dutch  exert  themselves  to  extii-pate  these  species.  One  of  the  prin- 
cipal towns  is  Satanag,  which  is  situated  on  a  small  promontory  on  the  east  side,  and 
is  only  accessible  by  means  of  steps.  The  sultan  of  Ternati  seems  to  hold  the  so- 
vereignty of  the  north  part  of  this  island,  while  the  southern  part  belongs  to  the  sul- 
tan of  Tidore. 

The  north  end  of  Gilolo  is  separated  by  a  narrow  channel  from  the 
beautiful  island  of  Mortay,  which  has  few  inhabitants,  though  covered 
with  sago  trees,  which  are  cut  down  by  the  people  of  Gilolo. 

The  Moluccas  Proper  form  a  chain  situated  on  the  west  side  of  Gilolo  in  a  line 
parallel  to  the  direction  of  its  coast.  The  most  northerly,  and  the  principal  of  these 
islands,  is  Ternati,  though  not  thirty  miles  in  circumference.  Its  sultan  |  Tei-nati. 
reigns  over  Makian  and  Motir,  the  north  part  of  Gilolo,  Mortay,  some  parts  of  Ce- 
lebes, and  a  part  of  Papua  or  New  Guinea,  from  which  he  draws  a  revenue  of  gold, 
amber,  and  birds  of  paradise.  He  can  command  an  army  of  80,000  men.  The 
government  is  a  mixture  of  three  forms.  The  nobles  and  the  commons  are  repre- 
sented by  magistrates  invested  with  great  power;  but  the  Mussulman  clergy,  having 
obtained  seats  in  the  senate,  have  rendered  its  sittings  tumultuous  and  anarchical.* 

Ternati  consists  chiefly  of  elevated  grounds  abounding  in  springs:  the  tops  of  the 
mountains  are  lost  in  the  clouds.  It  contains  a  volcano,  which  had  a  violent  erup- 
tion in  1693.  Its  birds  are  remarkable  for  their  uncommon  beauty,  especially  the 
martin  fisher,  a  bird  of  a  red  colour  mixed  with  sky-blue,  and  called  by  the  natives 
"  the  goddess."  The  island  of  Tidore  resembles  the  preceding,  but  is  |  Tijorp. 
somewhat  larger.  Its  sultan  is  not  so  powerful  as  the  other,  possessing  only  the 
south  of  Gilolo,  Mixoal,  and  some  inferior  islands. 

Motur,  according  to  an  ancient  writer,  was  formerly  the  asylum  of 
Venus  and  of  pleasure.  The  island  of  Makian  contains  a  volcano,  the 
crater  of  which  has  the  form  of  a  long  crevice,  reaching  to  the  foot  of  the  mountain. 
Batchian  is  the  largest  of  the  original  Moluccas.  It  is  governed  by  a  sultan,  who 
also  possesses  Oby,  Coram,  and  Goram ;  but  he  is  more  dependent  on  the  Dutch 
than  the  other  two  princes.  The  coasts,  like  those  of  most  of  the  islands  of  this 
archipelago,  are  surrounded  by  coral  rocks  of  great  beauty  and  infinite  variety. 

•  Valentyn,  Moluques,  p.  98. 


Mofur,  Ma- 
kian and 
Batchian. 


348  BOOK  FIVTY-VIFTH. 


Oby,  and 
Mi.ioal. 


Island  of 
Booro. 


Description  of 
Ceram. 


Between  Gilolo  and  Ceram  we  find  the  island  of  Oby,  which  originally 

abounded  in  clove  trees.     The  Dutch  keep  a  small  fort  on  its  west  side. 

Its  inhabitants  consist  in  a  great  measure  of  slaves  who  have  escaped  from  Ternati. 

In  Mixoal,  or  Mysoal,  which  lies  near  the  great  Papua  country,  the  villages  are 

built  on  posts   in  the   water.     Its  wofjds  contain  beautiful  birds  of  paradise,  which 

seem  to  come  from  New  Guinea. 

zuia  islands.  |  The  three  Zula  islands  named  Taliabo,  Mangola,  and  Bcssi,  form  a 
group  lying  between  the  Moluccas  and  Celebes.  Abounding  in  sago  and  ebony  wood, 
they  contain  a  population  which  has  the  character  of  being  exceedingly  treacherous 
and  indolent.  On  the  shore  of  one  of  the  channels  which  separate  them,  there  is 
a  rock  resembling  the  human  form,  which  is  an  object  of  adoration  to  the  Maylay 
seamen.* 

The  island  of  Booro  rises  abruptly  from  a  very  deep  sea,  and  has  the 
appearance  of  being  surrounded  by  a  wall.  It  is  seen  at  a  distance  of 
seventy-six  miles.  In  the  interior  the  Alfoors,  a  race  of  gentle  and  timid  savages, 
live  on  the  banks  of  a  circular  lake,  which  appears  to  rise  and  fall  like  that  of  Cirk- 
nitz.  An  islet  sometimes  appears  and  disappears  again  in  the  middle  of  the  lake.f  The 
atmosphere  in  the  interior  is  exceedingly  humid.  The  trees  are  overrun  with  moss, 
and  seats  like  little  altars,  covered  with  that  substance,  surround  the  fountains.  This 
island  contains  buffaloes,  deer,  and  barbyrossas.  Among  the  trees  are  a  green- 
coloured  ebony,  a  kind  of  iron  wood,  and  teak.;|;  In  these  solitary  places,  probably 
the  clove,  and  perhaps  the  nutmeg  also,  defy  the  avarice  of  mankind.  The  town  of 
Cayeli,  called  also  Booro,  is  handsomely  built,  on  a  bay  which  affords  good  an- 
choraee. 

The  island  of  Ceram  is  186  miles  long,  and  thirty-six  or  thirty-eight 
broad.  Forrest  tella  us  expressly  that  Ceram  still  produces  cloves.  It 
has  large  forests  of  sago,  an  article  which  constitutes  a  considerable  object  of  export. 
Account  of  the  This  is  the  humblest  of  the  palm  tribe,  except  the  nipa,  and  the  thickest 
sago  palm.  cxcept  the  gomuti.  While  under  a  height  of  five  or  six  feet,  it  is  covered 

and  protected  by  sharp  spines,  which  afterwards  drop  off.  Before  it  reaches  its  full 
growth,  the  stem  consists  of  a  thin  hard  case,  about  two  inches  thick,  and  an  enor- 
mous volume  of  spongy  pith,  like  that  of  the  elder.  This  is  the  edible  farinaceous 
substance,  the  bread  of  the  islanders.  Wlien  the  tree  attains  maturity,  this  mealy 
pith  disappears,  and  the  stem  is  reduced  to  an  empty  shell.  It  grows  in  low  marshy 
situations,  and  thrives  best  in  knee-deep  bogs.  This  part  of  the  archipelago,  where 
the  eastern  monsoon  is  boisterous  and  rainy,  is  its  true  native  country.  It  is  most 
abundant  in  those  islands  which  are  most  distinguished  for  tlie  production  of  the 
clove  and  the  nutmeg,  and  its  geographical  distribution  seems  nearly  co-extensive 
with  that  of  these  spices.  Ceram  is  most  of  all  distinguished  for  it.  The  tree  is 
generally  ready  to  be  cut  down  for  sago  when  about  fifteen  years  old.  After  being 
cut  down,  it  is  divided  into  convenient  lengths,  split,  and  scooped  out ;  the  pith  is 
separated  from  the  fibrous  matter  by  means  of  water,  in  which  it  falls  to  the  bottom. 
To  make  it  keep  well,  it  is  formed  into  dense  cakes,  by  means  of  heated  moulds.  In 
this  form,  the  lai-gest  quantities  are  consumed  and  exported.  The  finest  of  the  meal 
is  made  into  a  paste  with  water,  which  is  then  rubbed  down  into  small  grains.  When 
constantly  used  for  food,  it  is  found  both  by  the  natives  and  others  inferior  to  the  farina 
of  the  cerealia.  The  hard  woody  shell  of  the  trunk  is  used  for  building  houses  and 
bridges,  and  making  troughs  and  other  vessels.  The  stem  of  its  branches  is  more  ex- 
tensively used  in  carpentry.  Tiic  refuse  of  the  pith  is  given  to  the  hogs.  When  thrown 
into  heaps  it  putrefies,  and  a  delicate  edible  mushroom  grows  on  the  heaps.  In  this 
putrefaction  a  white  worm  is  also  generated,  which  the  natives  consider  as  delicate 
eating,  and  some  Europeans  have  also  learned  to  relish. §  One  tree  will  sometnnes 
yield  500  or  600  lbs.  avoirdupois  of  sago.      The  average  is  supposed  to  be  300  lbs. 

•  Valentyn,  Moluqiics,  vol.  i.  p.  88. 

t  Leipzig  and  Keller's  Journey  to  the  Lake  of  Booro,  in  Valentyn,  Amboyna,  vol.  ii.  chap. 
ii.  p.  16—27. 

^  Labillardidre,  vol,  ii.  p.  295. 

§  The  ancient  Romans  reckoned  some  wood  worms  dainties. 


MOLUCCAS.  349 

If  each  tree  is  ten  feet  asunder,  which  the  cultivated  pahns  generally  are,  an  acre, 
when  cut  down,  will  yield  120,500  lbs.  or  8000  lbs.  a-year.* 

This  island  has  been  little  visited  even  by  the  Dutch,  whose  dominion  |  Mountaius. 
over  it  is  not  complete.  Valentyn  represents  in  twelve  plates  the  enchanting  aspect 
of  several  parts  of  the  coast,  particularly  Lissa-Bata  on  the  north  coast,  at  the  foot 
of  a  mountain,  rugged  with  awful  ravines.  In  the  west  end  there  is  a  peninsula 
called  Howanchel  by  the  Dutch,  and  Ycranola  by  the  Portuguese,  which  contains 
two  beautiful  places,  called  Lochoc  and  Cambello.|  The  north  coast  is  covered 
Avith  the  casnarina  tree.  The  trees,  hung  over  ravines  resembling  a  profound  abyss, 
where  torrents  are  roaring  beneath,  meet  to  form  bridges,  without  which  the  inhabi- 
tants of  different  districts  could  not  keep  up  any  mutual  intercourse.  In  other  places 
the  villages  are  situated  on  terraces,  which  are  ascended  by  long  stairs.  Among 
the  rocks  is  found  a  bituminous  stone  or  coal,  capable  of  keeping  up  the  strongest 
furnace  heat.  There  are  also  largo  hills  of  chalk,  down  which  rivulets  pour,  which 
are  impregnated  with  that  substance.  J 

The  island  of  Coram  is  traversed  from  east  to  west  by  several  parallel  chains  of 
mountains,  one  of  which  seems  to  be  more  than  8000  feet  above  the  level  of  the 
sea.     The  deep  forests  abound  with  birds,  among  which  is  found  the  cassowary. 

Of  the  inhabitants  of  Coram,  the  aborigines,  called  Alfoors,  are  the  I  Aia.ors.or 

.  „  .  rni  1       1  r-    1  •  -11  •  abonpnal  in- 

most deservmg  of  notice,     ihe  only  dress  oi  the  men  is  a  gu-dle  encir-  |  habiiaius. 

chng  the  loins.  They  fix  bunches  of  flowers  and  palm  leaves  to  the  head,  shoulders, 
and  knees,  and  wear  square  bucklers,  which  they  ornament  with  considerable  taste. 
The  young  men  court  the  favour  of  their  mistresses  by  presenting  them  with  five  or 
six  of  the  heads  of  their  enemies.  In  order  to  seize  then-  victims  by  surprise,  they 
lie  in  ambush  in  the  woods,  cover  themselves  with  moss,  and  hold  branches  of  trees 
in  their  hands,  which  they  shake  in  a  manner  so  natural  that  they  have  the  appearance 
of  real  trees,  allow  the  enemy  to  pass,  assassinate  him  by  coming  up  behind  him, 
and  cut  off  his  head,  which  they  carry  off,  flying  with  great  rapidity. §  They  are  re- 
ceived by  the  people  of  their  village  with  all  the  honours  of  a  barbarous  triumph. 
The  eyesight  of  these  people  is  uncommonly  acute,  and  their  swiftness  is  such  as  to 
enable  them  to  chase  the  wild  hog  with  success.  Rats  and  serpents  form  part  of 
their  food.  They  never  marry  more  than  one  wife,  and  are  strangers  to  the  disor- 
ders of  debauchery.  The  nation  is  governed  by  three  princes,  and  occupies  the 
whole  interior  of  the  island.  A  king  of  these  Alfoors  gave  a  very  sin 
gular  entertainment  to  a  Dutch  preacher,  of  the  name  of  M.  Montanus 
After  receiving  him  with  great  demonstrations  of  joy,  and  treating  him  with  the  most 
splendid  repast  that  the  resources  of  the  country  could  afford,  the  prince  ordered  a 
number  of  men  armed  with  swords  to  step  forward.  They  performed  a  war  dance  ; 
and,  after  a  few  feats  of  this  sort,  commenced  a  serious  fight ;  their  swords  clashed, 
blood  flowed,  and  some  of  their  bodies  were  laid  dead  on  the  ground.  The  peace- 
ful minister  of  religion,  shocked  at  the  horrid  spectacle,  entreated  the  king  to  put  a 
stop  to  it.  "  It  is  nothing,"  was  the  reply,  "  they  are  my  slaves  :  it  is  only  the  death 
of  a  few  dogs.  Happy  shall  1  be  if  this  mark  of  my  high  respect  convinces  you  of 
my  eager  desire  to  please  you."  This  was  equal  in  barbarity  to  the  ancient  Roman 
amusement  of  gladiators. 

The  small  but  important  island  of  Amboyna,  on  tlie  south  of  Ceram, 
claims  our  particular  attention.  It  is  fifty- five  miles  long.  A  large  bay 
divides  it  into  two  peninsulas,  giving  it  a  shape  not  unlike  that  of  a  blunt  pair  of  com 
passes  or  forceps,  or  the  bill  of  a  bird  half  opened.  "When  lately  taken  by  the  Eng- 
lish, it  was  found  to  contain  45,252  inhabitants,  of  whom  17,813  were  Protestant 
Christians,  and  the  rest  Mahometans,  excepting  a  small  number  of  Chinese  and 
savages.  It  is  occupied  by  mountains  of  moderate  height,  principally  in  the  east 
end,  where  the  two  j)eninsulas  meet.  Its  fields  are  watered  by  several  streams,  en- 
livened by  niuncrous  hamlets,  and  embellished  by  valuable  crops.     The  soil  of  the 

•  See  Crawford's  History,  vol.  i.  p.  386—390. 

■}-  Valentyn's  Map  of  the  Government  of  Amboyna, 

*  Valentyn's  Description  of  Amboyna,  ch.ii.  p.  35 — 70. 
§  Ibid.  ch.  iii. 


A  singular  en- 
tertainment. 


Island  of  Am. 
boyna. 


Plants  and 
flowei's. 


350  BOOK   FIFTY-FIFTH. 

plains  is  composed  of  a  reddish  clay,  sometimes  black  and  sandy,  particularly  in  the 
narrow  valleys.  Several  of  the  rocks  are  composed  of  a  brittle  slate,  accompanied 
with  very  hard  asbestos.  A  beautiful  fine-grained  granite  forms  the  basis  of  several 
of  the  hills.  At  an  elevation  of  nearly  1000  feet,  are  found  calcareous  stones  of  a 
pure  white.* 

The  celebrated  Rumphius  has  given  a  flora  of  this  island,  to  which 

Labillardiere  has  subjoined  some  new  remarks.  The  clove  is  always 
the  principal  plant  cultivated  in  it.  There  is  a  small  quantity  of  coffee,  and  which  is 
not  of  the  best  quality.  The  greater  part  of  the  marshy  grounds  are  employed  in 
the  cultivation  of  the  sago  tree,  from  which  are  obtained  sago,  wine,  sugar,  and  cord- 
age. Among  the  best  fruits  may  be  mentioned  several  sorts  of  litchi,  such  as  the 
rambootan  of  the  Malays,  (the  jYcjjhelinm  lapjjaceum,)  several  species  of  banana, 
oranges,  guavas,  papaw  trees,  the  beautiful  Laurus  cnlilahan — the  ornament  of  the 
shores — a  tree  which  yields  by  distillation  an  aromatic  oil  which  is  in  great  request.^ 
The  tallest  tree  of  the  forests  is  the  Canarium  commune.  The  Eleocarpus  monogy- 
nus,  though  overtopped  and  shadowed  by  the  surrounding  trees,  is  covered  with  ele- 
gantly formed  flowers  down  to  its  lowest  branches.  In  the  solitary  forests,  the  close 
foliage  of  which  scarcely  allows  the  light  of  the  sun  to  penetrate,  we  observe  a  won-i 
derful  vivacity  of  colours  in  some  parasitical  plants,  formerly  referred  to  the  natural 
order  of  Orchidecz,  and  now  arranged  by  botanists  as  a  separate  order,  under  the 
name  of  Epidendra,  because  they  adhere  to  the  trunks  of  large  trees.  In  places 
less  crowded  with  exuberant  species,  we  find  the  Cussonia  thyrsijlora  arising  to  adorn 
these  enchanting  scenes  with  its  broad  palmate  leaves.  Among  the  most  common 
trees  or  shrubs  we  may  take  notice  of  the  henne,  which  is  applied  to  the  same  uses 
in  Egypt,  Turkey,  Arabia,  and  all  the  east,  that  of  staining  tlie  fingers  of  the  women ; 
the  Chalcas  pcnicidaia,  champac,  several  of  the  Uvari(z  and  Arabian  jessamines, 
which,  rising  up  among  those  delightful  trees,  mingle  their  gentle  odour  with  the 
other  delicious  perfumes.  J  In  the  marshy  grounds,  and  along  the  banks  of  the  rivers, 
we  find  such  aquatics  as  the  Jussicea  tenella,  the  mangroves,  and  the  Acanthus  dios- 
coridis.  From  the  bastard  aloe,  the  inhabitants  procure  a  flax  subservient  to  do- 
mestic uses.  Several  gardens  are  adorned  with  the  Chinese  boxwood,  formed  into 
beautiful  rows  along  the  walks.  Jusiicia^.  and  variegated  turnsoles  here  display  all 
the  beauty  of  their  flowers  and  their  foliage.  On  the  sides  of  steep  sandstone  rocks, 
towering  above  the  waters  of  the  ocean,  grows  the  Pandanus  odoratissimus,  suspend- 
ing over  the  sea  its  large  globular  fruit,  which,  when  arrived  at  maturity,  falls  down 
and  lies  thick  strewed  on  the  surface.  To  heighten  still  more  the  beauty  of  these 
delightful  places,  we  see  the  brilliant  red  flowers  of  the  Erytlirina  corallodendrum.§ 
The  sea  is  peopled  with  brilliant  shell-fish  and  other  singular  species,  and  its  shores 
are  covered  with  crabs  and  lobsters  without  number. 

Towns.  I       The  city  of  Amboyna,  the  capital  of  the  island,  is  situated  at  the  south- 

west extremity.  Its  regular  streets,  its  canals,  and  its  bridges,  give  it  very  much  of 
a  Dutch  aspect.  The  citadel  is  a  place  of  great  strength,  and,  next  to  that  of  Ba- 
tavia,  the  most  important  in  this  part  of  the  world. 

The  natives,  who  are  descended  from  the  same  stock  with  the  Malays 

and  Javanese,  have  adopted  the  practice  of  wearing  tight  vests  and 
breeches.  They  are  fond  of  the  bath,  and  rub  their  bodies  with  odoriferous  oils. 
The  women  load  themselves  with  golden  bracelets,  of  an  endless  diversity  of  forms, 
and  adorned  with  crystals.  In  personal  charms,  in  elegance  of  manners,  heightened 
by  the  lustre  of  their  flowing  dress,  and  even  almost  in  complexion,  they  make  some 
approach  to  our  ideas  of  the  ancient  Greeks.  Their  dances  are  enlivened  with  songs, 
which  are  frequently  descriptive  of  the  historical  events  of  their  country.  These 
songs  often  take  the  form  of  dialogues,  like  the  ambKbeon  of  the  ancients.  An  Am- 
boynese,  called  Ridjali,  has  written  in  the  Malay  language  the  history  of  one  of  the 
districts  of  the  island.  But  several  of  its  ancient  customs  have  been  abolished  by 
the  strict  notions  of  the  Dutch  ministers. || 

•  J-abillardierc.  t,  il.  309—311,  &c.  f  Ibid.  il.  p.  325. 

t  Ibid.  t.  ii.  p.  292.  §  Idem.  t.  ii.  p.  332. 

!|  Valentyn,  Amboyna,  p.  152,  124,  164,  &c. 


Mjnners  of 
llie  natives. 


TIMORIAN  CHAIN.  351 


Keiglibonring 
iblauds. 


Among  the  islands  adjoining  Ceram  and  Amboyna  we  must  notice  the 
following:  Noossa  Laoot,  the  inhabitants  of  which,  in  1707,  were  still 
cannibals,  and  valued  the  human  cheeks  and  palms  of  the  hands  as  the  most  deli 
cious  morsels;*  Honimoa,  a  fertile  island,  containing  a  Dutch  fort;  and  Oma,  which 
abounds  with  thermal  springs.     These  three  islands  are  to  the  east  of  Amboyna. 
To  the  east  of  Coram  we  have  Manipa,  Kelang,  and  Bonoa,  which  are  covered  with 
cocoa  and  ebony  trees,  and  rice  fields.     Bonoa  is  properly  a  circular  group  of  islands, 
forming  a  good  harbour  in  the  centre.     In  Manipa  there  is  a  fountain     Foumaia  of 
called  Ayer  Sampoo,  *'the  well  of  oaths,"  which  is  beUeved  to  give  the     "*""• 
itch  to  any  perjured  person  who  drinks  of  it. 

To  the  south-east  of  the  island  of  Amboyna,  is  a  small  and  distinct  |  Banda  isiandi. 
volcanic  group,  taking  the  name  of  Banda  from  the  leading  island,  which  is  also  called 
Lantor.  The  nutmeg  tree  is  cultivated  chiefly  in  Nera,  Gonong,  Ay,  or  Way,  and 
Lantor  or  Lontor.  This  celebrated  species,  which  dehghts  in  a  black  mould,  grows 
also  amidst  the  lavas  of  gonong,  the  highest  of  all  the  islands,  its  summit  being 
1940  feet  above  the  sea. 

On  the  island  of  Poolo  Ay,  the  stones  of  mysterious  origin,  called  aerolites,  or 
atmospheric  stones,  because  they  are  believed  to  proceed  from  the  atmosphere,  fre- 
quently make  their  appearance.  The  frequency  of  their  occurrence  in  the  Moluc- 
cas may  seem  to  countenance  the  opinion  which  assigns  to  these  bodies  a  volcanic 


origm. 


On  the  east  of  Banda  there  is  a  chain  of  islets,  extending  from  the  east  point  of 
Ceram  to  a  group  of  three  larger  islands,  to  which  the  Dutch  give  the  name  of 
"  The   Keys."     These  are  near  tho  eastern  termination  of  an  important  chain  of 
large  islands,  which,  from  Timor,  we  have  called  "  the  Great  Timorian     The  Great 
Chain."     Taken  in  an  enlarged  view,  this  chain  begins  with  Sumatra,     cLin.' 
and  includes  Java  as  well  as  all  those  islands,  large  and  small,  which    ie  between 
Java  and  Arroo,  forming  along  with  them  one  magnificent  sweep ;  but,  as  Sumatra, 
Java,  and  Borneo  derive  importance  and  peculiar  features  from  their  size  and  their 
central  situation  in  the  communication  between  the  Indian  and  Chinese  seas,  we  have 
already  considered  them  under  the  appellation  of  the  Sunda  islands.     We  now,  in 
an  order  from  east  to  west,  take  a  view  of  the  numerous  islands  forming  the  eastern 
part  of  this  extended  line.     In  geological  structure  they  belong  to  that  description 
of  country  which  is  called  by  geologists  the  secondary  formation,  being  distinguished 
by  the  horizontal,  or  nearly  horizontal,  position  of  its  strata,  while  Borneo  and  others 
to  the  north  consist  partly  of  primitive  rocks,  one  leading  character  of  which  consists 
in  a  comparative  upright  position  of  their  strata.     This  distinction  is  accompanied 
with  another  important  difference,  that,  while  the  primary  strata  contain  tin  and  gold 
mines,  these  are  wanting  in  the  Timorian  chain. 

The  most  easterly  islands  of  this  chain  are  the  Arroos,  which  are 
very  populous  and  very  fertile.  Their  surface  is  low  and  covered  with 
woods.  They  abound  in  all  the  fruits  of  the  Moluccas.  They  contain  poultry 
without  number,  the  bird  of  paradise,  and  the  beautiful  lori.  Among  their  quadru- 
peds we  find  the  kangaroo,  which  is  there  called  the  pilandoc."f 

To  the  west  of  these  are  the  Keys  already  mentioned,  fertile  in  cocoa,  |  The  Keys, 
lemon,  and  orange  trees,  and  pisangs,  and  containing  a  nation  whose  complexion 
and  hair  declare  them  to  belong  to  the  Malay  race.  Here  each  village  has  its  chief, 
its  temple,  and  its  idol.  Tho  inhabitants  sometimes  dispute  and  war  about  their 
different  rights  of  fishing.  They  immerse  the  bodies  of  the  dead  in  oil,  dry  them 
before  a  fire,  and  keep  them  for  some  months  before  interment,  a  custom  which  re- 
minds us  of  the  islanders  of  Otaheite.  Weak  and  badly  armed,  these  people  have 
always  behaved  with  mildness  and  hospitality  to  Europeans.  They  carry  on  some 
trade  with  the  Banda  islands.     Goats  and  pigs  are  their  only  quadrupeds.]; 

To  the  south-west  of  the  Keys  is  the  beautiful  island  of  Timor-Laot,  I  Timor- 
which,  with  that  of  Laarat,  forms  a  large  bay;  also  Baber,  where  the  j  Laot,&c. 

•  Valentyn,  Amboyna,  p.  152, 164,  &c,  f  Ibid,  p.  42. 

t  Dutch  Report  of  1624,  quoted  by  Valentyn,  in  his  Account  of  Banda,  p.  40. 


The  Arroo 
islands. 


Island  of 
Timor. 


352  BOOK  FIFTY-FIFTH. 

Dutch  have  a  miUlary  station;  Duma,  wliere  there  are  harbours  and  a  volcano,  but 
so  unhealthy  a  climate  that  the  Dutch  were  obhged  to  desert  it;  Moa  and  Lati, 
which  supply  the  Banda  islands  with  excellent  sheep. 

The  large  island  of  Timor  is  better  known.  Its  hmestone  mountains, 
composed  of  sea-shells  at  elevations  of  800  feet,  are  covered  with  all 
sorts  of  trees  and  shrubs.  At  every  turn  of  bay  or  promontoiy  we  are  presented 
with  some  new  prospect  of  a  picturesque  and  romantic  character.*  The  enthusiasm 
of  navigators,  who  visited  it  immediately  after  leaving  the  tiresome  shores  of  New 
Holland,  has  created  some  exaggeration  in  their  descriptions  of  the  fertility  of  this 
Productions,  |  island.  Yet  it  contains  beautiful  eucalijpti,'\  and  a  species  of  pine  which 
might  well  be  adapted  for  masts. J  The  coffee  tree  has  succeeded  in  it;  cinnamon, 
perhaps  also  cloves,  grow  in  the  interior.  The  stony  nature  of  the  soil,  and  the  ir- 
regularity of  its  surface  from  mountains  and  ravines,  leave  little  space  adapted  to  the 
cultivation  of  rice ;  and,  were  it  not  for  its  bananas,  its  cocoas,  its  jack  trees,  euge- 
nias,  and  other  fruit-bearing  species,  Timor  could  not  maintain  its  scanty  popula- 
tion. Its  only  exports  are  sandal  wood,  the  salangan  swallow's  nests,  and  bees 
wax.§  The  bee  is  not  domesticated  here,  nor,  indeed,  in  any  part  of  these  islands 
or  of  Asia.  The  honey  of  this  insect,  in  these  equatorial  regions,  is  inferior  in  fla- 
vour to  that  of  higher  latitudes;  and,  as  the  plants  are  in  flower  during  the  whole 
year,  the  quantities  which  they  lay  up  are  comparatively  small,  so  that  the  honey  of 
Arabia  is  imported  to  the  Indian  islands  as  a  luxury.  But  the  vegetation  supports 
an  infinity  of  wild  bees,  afibrding  an  abundant  supply  of  wax,  which  is  largely  ex- 
ported to  Bengal  and  China.  The  largest  supply  is  obtained  from  Timor  and  Floris.|| 
The  water  of  the  rivers  is  said  to  be  deficient  in  salubrity.  The  hot  and  dry  sea- 
ciimate.  |  SOU,  which  reigns  from  May  to  November,  is  succeeded  by  torrents  of 
rain,  accompanied  by  a  violent  north-west  wind,  lasting  from  November  to  March. 
Diseases.  |  The  European  visitor  is  liable  to  fevers  of  a  fatal  character,  from  the 
slightest  irregularity  in  exposure  to  the  air,  the  use  of  water,  of  baths,  or  of  fruits. 
The  inhabitants  are  very  subject  to  cutaneous  diseases,  and  to  scurvy.  Another 
disadvantage  of  this  island,  so  highly  praised  by  M.  Peron,  is  the  want  of  a  safe  and 
convenient  harbour.  Its  Dutch  masters  have,  in  the  south-west  end.  Fort  Concor- 
dia, near  an  anchoring  ground  called  Coopang,  from  a  town  of  that 
name,  very  pleasantly  situated  in  the  midst  of  delightful  orchards; 
which,  with  scarcely  any  culture,  produce,  all  the  year  round,  abundance  of  the  most 
exquisite  fruits,  and  exhale  delicious  odours.  The  mixed  European  race,  the  Dutch 
colonists,  and  Malays  of  this  island,  pass  their  time  in  voluptuous  inactivity,  devolv- 
ing the  cares  and  labours  of  life  on  their  slaves. IT  The  north-east  side  is  subject 
to  the  Portuguese,  who,  after  abandoning  the  Fort  of  Lifao,  have  now  a  fort  at  Di- 
dil,  a  place  where  there  is  an  anchorage.  The  canton  of  Uikoessi,  on  the  north 
coast,  is  possessed  by  a  Portuguese  colony,  mixed  with  aboriginal  natives.**  The 
native  chiefs  of  the  whole  of  the  south  coast  are  independent,  and  reign  over  tribes 
of  negroes  similar  to  those  who  live  in  the  interior  of  Borneo,  and  the  other  neigh- 
bouring islands.  Despotism,  superstition,  and  voluptuousness,  have  ge- 
nerated in  the  Timoreans  the  same  character  which  prevails  among  the 
other  islanders  of  these  regions.  Some  of  the  rajas  call  themselves  the  descendants 
of  caimans,  or  crocodiles,  and  seem  to  be  every  way  worthy  of  that  illustrious  de- 
scent. It  has  been  supposed  that  not  less  than  forty  languages  are  spoken  among 
the  rude  and  scattered  population  of  this  island.||  This  is  a  characteristic  by  which 
the  Oceanian  negroes  are  distinguished  from  the  Malay  or  olive  race.     The  former, 

*  Peron,  Voyage  aux  Terres  Australes,  oh.  8. 
t  Leschenault  de  Latour.     Annales  des  Voyages,  t.  xvi.  p.  280. 

^  M.  de  Rosily,  in  a  MS.  Memoir,  read  to  the  Societe  d'Emulation  of  the  Isle  of  France. 
§  Hogendorp's  Account  of  Timor,  translated  from  the  Dutch.     Annales  des  Voyages,   t.   vi. 
p.  281. 
H  Crawford's  Hist,  of  the  Indian  Archipelago,  vol.  iii.  p.  438. 

H  Leschenault  de  Latour,  Description  de  Coupang,  Annales  des  Voyages,  t.  xvi.  p.  287. 
•*  Hogendorp,  loo.  cit.  p  279. 
tt  Crawford's  Hist,  of  the  Indian  Archipelago,  vol.  ii.  p.  79. 


Toxvns,  road 
steads,  &c. 


Character  of 
the  people. 


TIMOUIAN  CHAIN.  353 

never  enjoying  the  advantages  of  union  or  extensive  mutual  communication,  have 
possessed  insulated  languages  and  manners,  while  the  latter  exhibit,  in  these  par- 
ticulars, proofs  of  the  ancient  unity  of  their  nation. 

The  island  of  Samao,  on  the  south-west  of  Timor,  rather  barren,  I  Neighbouring 
though  covered  with  trees,  aftbrds  a  slielter  to  vessels  driven  from  the  |  "'«"'''• 
anchorage  of  Coopang,  during  the  north-western  monsoon.  The  island  of  Kamhing 
exliibits  a  curiosity  in  physical  geography,  in  the  bubbling  up  of  sulphurous  waters, 
like  those  in  some  parts  of  Italy.*  The  Island  of  Rotti,  beyond  Samao,  is  both  larger 
and  more  fertile,  and  supplies  the  Dutch  with  rice  and  jags^ari,  or  palm  sugar. 
Cook  says  that  the  sugar  cane  grows  here.  The  inhabitants,  better  made,  and 
stronger  than  the  Timorians,  refuse  both  the  government  and  the  religion  of  Euro- 
peans ;  they  are  said  to  lead  licentious  lives,  and  to  indulge  in  the  most  depraved 
inclinations.     The  inhabitants  of  the  little  island  of  Dao  are  all  goldsmiths. 

Savoo  is  the  name  of  two  small  islands  to  west  of  the  preceding.  I  The  savoo 
Thoy  are  very  populous,  yet  export  a  large  quantity  of  rice.     Their  as-  \  "'=""''• 
tonishing  fertility  makes  them  productive  under  the  most  protracted  droughts.     The 
men  pluck  out  their  beards,  and,  in  the  figures  with  which  their  bodies  are  marked, 
preserve  some  traces  of  tattooing.f 

The  large  island  called,  from  its  produce,  "  Sandal  wood  island,"  in  sandalwood 
Dutch,  Sandal  Bosche,  has,  in  the  Malay  language,  the  name  of  Poolo  "'*'"'• 
Tchinnana,  which  has  the  same  import. ;[;  But  that  valuable  article  is  exported  from 
it  only  in  small  quantity ;  some  suppose  that  the  natives  are  unwilluig  to  cut  down 
the  trees,  believing  that  they  are  the  present  abodes  of  the  souls  of  their  ancestors.§ 
Cotton,  butfaloes,  horses,  poultry,  and  pheasants,  abound  in  this  island,  which  is  very 
steep  on  the  south  side.  At  present  it  is  nearly  independent  of  foreign  influence. 
According  to  some  late  authors,  the  true  name  of  the  island  is  Sumba. 

The  chain  of  islands  to  the  west  of  Timor  is  double.  We  have  followed  the  south- 
ern links,  and  are  now  to  take  a  survey  of  the  northern,  which  are,  in  general,  larger 
and  closer  together.  Leaving  tlie  north  side  of  Timor,  we  count  four  islands  in  a 
Avesterly  direction,  called  Omba,  Pontar,  Lombet,  and  Sabrao  ;  but  we  know  little 
more  about  them  than  their  names.  The  last  of  them,  Sabrao,  is  high,  picturesque, 
and  full  of  villages.  II  Solor  island  is  much  better  known.  The  Dutch,  |  soior  island, 
who  have  a  fort  in  it  called  Frederic-Henry,  think  well  of  the  courage  of  the  Solo- 
rians  as  seamen,  and  keep  a  number  of  them  in  their  employment.  The  whale  fish- 
ery furnishes  these  islanders  with  oil  and  ambergris ;  articles  which,  together  with 
bees  wax,  form  their  principal  exports. IT 

The  island  of  Floris,  or  of  Ende,  is  nearly  as  large  as  Timor ;  but, 
as  the  only  European  establishment  on  it,  that  of  I^arantooka,  belongs  to 
the  Portuguese,  our  knowledge  of  it  is  but  slender.  It  is  subject  to  earthquakes.  The 
Macassars  come  to  it  for  slaves,  oil  of  cocoa,  tortoise  shell,  wood,  and  wild  cinna- 
mon, though  this  last  is  prohibited  by  the  Dutch.**  In  this  island,  as  in  Timor,  there 
is  a  great  multiphcity  of  local  languages. 

The  large  island  situated  to  the  west  of  Floris,  and  separated  from  it 
by  the  strait  of  Sapy,  takes  indilfcrently  the  name  of  Bima,  or  Suinba- 
wa.  These  are  properly  the  names  of  two  difierent  kingdoms,  into  which  it  is 
divided,  one  at  the  east,  and  the  other  at  the  west  end.  The  Portuguese  call  it  Com- 
bava.  All  the  princes  of  the  island,  six  in  number,  have  in  one  confederate  body 
concluded  a  treaty  with  the  Dutch  Company,  by  which  the  latter  has  the  exclusive 
riglit  of  trade  ;  but  the  treaty  is  not  rigorously  enforced.  The  exports  are  rice,  cad- 
jaiio;or  ground  pistachio  nuts,  sapan  wood,j"y  wax,  and  horses.;j".|  Mr.  Crawford  re- 
marks that,  though  the  size  of  the  island  is  considerable,  there  are  only  Rcm»rkj  on 
five  languages  in  it.  As  we  proceed  westward  civilization  is  more  ad-  '^"S"ae"- 
vanced,  and  the  languages  tcwer  in  number.  In  the  civilized  portion  of  Ce  ebes,  there 

•  Hoi^enclorp,  loc  cit.  p.  312.  f  Cook's  First  Voyage,  book  iii.  ch.  9. 

i  Valeiityn'.s  Map  of  tin;  Islands  ofTimor,  &c. 

§  Hoj^endorp'.-,  AccoiiiU  of  Timor,  loc.  cit.  ]).  322.  .     \\  Vakntyii,  Bandy,  p.  120. 

H    Ifoscondorj),  loc.  cil.  p.  o2U.  ••   Uadermaclicr,  Dcscript.  do  Celebes,  p.  13o2. 

ft  liadermacher,  Celebes,  p.  253 — 2oG»  Tt  Valeiilyii,  Maciissar,  p.  141.  (vol.  iv.) 

Vol.  ll._Y  y 


Island  of  Flo- 
ris. 


Isliind  of  Siim- 
ba\va,orBima. 


354 


BOOK  FIFTY-FIFTH. 


are  not  more  than  four;  six  in  Sumatra  ;  and  only  two  in  Java.*  Sumbawa  is  a  pretty 
Lombok.  |  large  town.  The  kingdom  of  this  name  formerly  included  the  island  of 
Lombok,  now  connected  with  Bali.  Its  true  name  is  Salanparang.  Il  is  rich  in 
sapan  wood. 

Molucca  sea.  (  We  have  now  made  the  interesting  tour  of  the  Moluccas,  or  Spice 
islands,  in  the  largest  acceptation  of  the  term,  returning  to  the  island  of  Bali,  which 
was  described  under  the  head  of  the  Sunda  islands,  being  a  dependence  of  Java. 
We  have  some  remarks  to  make  on  the  Molucca  sea.  Like  all  those  parts  of  the 
ocean  which  are  under  and  near  the  equator,  it  is  full  of  zoophytes,  contains  many 
coral  reefs,  and  is  subject  to  permanent  periodic  winds.  It  resembles  the  neigh- 
bouring seas  in  containing  a  great  number  of  volcanoes,  which  occasionally  produce 
changes  in  the  form  of  its  bed.  One  phenomenon  peculiar  to  this  sea,  is  the  perio- 
whito  water.  |  dical  appearance  of  a  current  of  opaque  white  water,  like  milk,  which, 
from  June  till  August  or  September,  covers  the  surface  of  the  basin  in  which  the 
Banda  islands  are  situated.  It  is  first  seen  about  the  Keys  and  Timor-Laot,  then 
extends  north  to  the  shores  of  Amboyna  and  Ceram,  and  west  to  those  of  Timor 
and  Ombai,  losing  itself  between  Floris  and  Celebes.  During  the  night  it  is  some- 
what luminous,  which  makes  the  eye  confound  it  with  the  horizon.  It  is  dangerous 
for  vessels,  for  the  sea  seems  to  undergo  an  inward  boiling  agitation,  wherever  it 
passes.  During  its  prevalence  the  fish  disappear. "f  This  white  water  seems  to  come 
from  the  shores  of  New  Guinea  and  the  Gulf  of  Carpentaria. 

Table  of  Geographical  Po»itio7is  in  JVoHh-western  Oceaiiica;  or  the  Sunda,  PMlifinne^ 

and  JWolucca  islands. 


I' laces. 


Latitude. 


Long.  East 
from  Lond. 


Authorities. 


(leg. 

5 
13 
2 
2 
3 


Sumatra. 

Acheen     

Bencoolen      .... 
Fort  of  Palembang 
Nassau  island,  northern  point 

Do.       southern  point 
Island  of  Lucipara  (in  Banca 

Strait) 

Mount  Monopin  (in  Banca 

Island) 

Gaspar  Island  (in  the  strait 

between  Banca  and  Billi- 

ton.) 

Java. 
Prince's  Island  (in  the  Sunda 

Strait) 6 

Island  of  Cracatoa  (ibid.)        6 

Batavia 6 

Idem 6 

Surabaya 7 

Borneo. 
Banjermassing    ....      2 
Island  of  Balambangan      .      7 
Philippines. 

Manilla 14 

Cape  St.  Augustine       .     .      G 
Sooloo  Island       ....      5 


22  0  N 

49  16  S. 

40  0  S. 

18  0  S. 

16  0  S. 

10  45  S. 

SOS. 


2  21     OS. 


36   15  S. 
6     0 
10  33  S. 
12     0  S. 
14  23  S. 


40 
30 

36 
12 
56 


0  S. 
0  N, 

8  N. 
0  N. 
0  N. 


deg.  min.  sec. 

95  41   16  Mannevillette. 

102  10  45  Conmaiss.  des  Terns. 

103  23  15  Batavian  Memoirs. 
Crisp.  Asiat.  Researches. 
Idem. 

106  17  45  Mannevillette. 
105  22  45  Idem. 

107  5  15Marchand.  Fleurieu. 


105  15   15  Mannevillette. 

105  36   15  Idem. 

107     7  45  Batavian  Memoirs. 

106  54     1  Connaiss.  des  Tems. 
112  41  28Rossel. 

Batavian  Memoirs. 
117     5   15Dcilrymple. 

120  52   15,'Connaiss.  des  Tems. 
126    10   16Idem. 

121  2   15,'Dahyniple. 


*  Crawford's  Hist,  of  the  hidian  Archipelag'o,  vol.  ii.  p.  80. 


f  Valentyn,  Banda. 


NKW  HOLLAND. 


355 


Table  Cotiiinued. 


Places. 

Latitude. 

Long.  East 
from  Lond. 

AuthoritieH. 

Moluccas. 

deg.  rain.  tec. 

(leg.   mln.  »ec. 

Fort  Victoria  (Amboyna)  . 

3  41   41  S. 

128     7  20 

Rossel. 

Cayeli  (Booro)    .... 

3  22  33  S. 

127     2  49 

Connaiss.  des  Terns. 

Timor,  north  point   .     .     . 

8  28     OS. 

125  22    15 

Ro.s.«;el. 

Ibid.  Fort  Lefas       .     .     . 

9   12   15  S. 

124   10   15 

Idem. 

Salayer  Island      .... 

5  45     OS. 

120  25   15 

Idem. 

BOOK  LVI. 


r 


O  C  E  A  N  I  C  A. 


PART  IV, 


New  South 
Wales. 


JVew  Holland  and  Us  Dependencies. 

From  the  archipelago  of  north-western  Oceanica,  where  the  Moluccas  raise  their 
spicy  heads,  we  proceed  by  a  short  interval  to  the  Great  Oceanic  land,  which  the 
Dutch  navigators  have  named  New  Holland.  These  were  the  first  who  procured 
for  us  any  distinct  knowledge  of  it,  though  the  Portuguese  and  Spaniards  had  landed 
on  its  shores  a  century  before.  In  no  part  has  this  immense  island  presented  any 
aqueous  opening  by  which  the  interior  can  be  explored  by  navigators;  no  deep  creeks, 
or  large  navigable  rivers.  Hence  all  our  geographical  knowledge  of  this  extensive 
country  reduces  itself  to  a  series  of  observations  on  its  coasts,  and  even  these  labour 
under  interruptions. 

New  South  Wales,  or  the  east  coast  of  New  Holland,  begins  at  Cape 
York,  the  point  at  which  it  comes  nearest  to  New  Guinea,  in  10|°  of 
south  latitude,  and  ends  at  Ilickes's  point,  about  38  degrees  of  south  latitude ;  so  that 
this  coast  is  1870  miles  in  length.  The  claims  of  the  English  have  no  fixed  boun- 
daries; they  seem  desirous  to  confound  the  whole  of  New  Ilnlland  under  the  modern 
name  which  they  have  given  to  tlie  east  coast,  which  was  minutely  explored  by  Cap- 
tain Cook.  It  is  worthy  of  remark,  however,  that  the  French  goograpiicrs  had,  from 
a  comparison  of  the  tracks  navigated  by  Abel  Tasman,  previously  concluded  on  the 
existence  and  direction  of  this  coast  itself. 

A  chain  of  mountains  seems  to  run  in  a  direction  parallel  to  this  coast, 
at  a  distance  of  from  500  to  800  miles.  It  is  only  of  late  tlmt  a  passage 
has  any  where  been  found  across  that  chain.  The  coast  itself  is  higli,  but  not  moun- 
tainous; and  is  partly  shaded  by  trees  of  gigantic  size.  Towards  the  south-east, 
a  great  part  of  it  is  covered  with  coppice:  much  also  is  occupied  with  marshes. 
About  Botany  Bay  the  soil  is  black,  rich,  and  exceedingly  productive  in  plants:  from 
this  last  circumstance  it  has  obtained  the  name  which  it  bears.  The  north-east  part 
seems  lower.  The  coast  is  covered  with  mangroves,  and  skirted  by  an  immense 
line  of  reefs,  rocks,  and  islets:  but  in  every  part  of  it  a  mountain  chain,  lying  north 
and  south,  bounds  the  horizon;  and,  though  it  is  lower  tlian  tlio  lin)it  of  n,.iR|,tofiiie 
perpetual  snow,  its  numerous  terraces,  resembling  those  of  tiie  Alleghany     ""'UHtams. 


Cliain  of 
mouiitaint. 


Their  eonsti' 
tuent  parts. 


356  BOOK    FIFTY- SIXTH. 

Mountains  and  Mount  Atlas,  long  proved  insurmountable  to  the  keen  and  enterpris- 
ing curiosity  of  Europeans.  In  the  neighbourhood  of  Port  Jackson,  the  first  terraces 
begin  at  a  distance  of  ten  or  twenty  miles  from  the  coast.  Several  expeditions,  un- 
dertaken for  the  purpose  of  crossing  the  chain,  proved  unsuccessful.*  Wilson  pro- 
ceeded 140  miles  in  a  south-west  direction,  along  an  extensive  table  land,  and  broad 
valleys. I  A  passage  was,  hovvevei',  at  last  discovered  in  1814,  and  a  road  is  now 
opened  from  Port  Jackson  of  a  tolerably  easy  ascent ;  but  the  descent  from  the  sum- 
mit of  the  ridge  to  the  westward  is  steep  and  rugged.  Beyond  these  hills  a  large 
extent  of  arable  and  habitable  country  has  been  discovered;  and  some  large  rivers, 
which,  as  far  as  has  been  hitherto  found,  seem  to  terminate  in  one  or  more  extensive 
morasses.  The  elevation  of  Mount  York,  the  highest  point  in  this  quarter,  above 
the  level  of  the  sea,  is  only  3200  feet.  J     Their  breadth  is  fifty-eight  miles. 

These  mountains  are  very  rocky;  but  granite,  the  characteristic  of 
primitive  mountains,  has  not  been  found  as  one  of  their  constituents. 
They  consist  chiefly  of  sand-stone  and  quartz;  but  in  the  flat  country,  to  the  west  of 
the  mountains,  granite  makes  its  appearance,  and  is  the  only  sort  of  stone  to  be  met 
with  for  200  miles.  Limestone  is  found  in  some  parts,  and  Wilson  saw  an  enormous 
block  of  rock  salt.  The  promontories  are  in  several  places  faced  with  columns  of 
basalt.  In  Howe's  Island  these  are  high  enough  to  be  seen  at  a  distance  of  thirty- 
three  miles.  The  specimens  of  granite,  mica,  and  rock  crystal,  which  have  been 
brought  from  New  Holland  by  M.  Bailly,  and  deposited  in  the  collection  of  the  Coun- 
cil of  the  Mines  in  Paris,  are  similar  to  those  of  Europe.  None  of  the  precious  me- 
tals have  hitherto  been  seen;  but  strata  of  a  more  useful  mineral,  coal,  have  been 
found  to  the  north  of  Port  Jackson,  at  a  place  called,  from  that  circumstance,  New- 
castle. 

Rivers.  |       Noue  of  the  rivers  discovered  on  this  coast  have  the  appearance  of  a 

long  course.  Near  to  Glasshouse  Bay,  Captain  Flinders  found  the  mouth  of  a  wide 
river.§  Endeavour  river,  farther  to  the  north,  is  quite  insignificant.  Hawkesbury 
river  waters,  and  sometimes  inundates  the  English  colony.  Beyond  the  Blue  Moun- 
tains two  rivers  have  been  found ;  one  called  Lachlan  river,  running  a  little  to  the 
south  of  west,  which  was  followed  by  Mr.  Oxley  in  1817  as  far  as  500  miles  west 
from  Sidney,  and  within  150  of  Cape  Bernouilli,  on  the  west  coast;  and  another, 
called  Macquarrie  river,  which  has  been  followed  to  30"  11'  of  south  latitude,  and 
147°  10'  of  east  longitude.  Both  are  found  to  terminate  in  marshes  or  shallow  lakes. 
It  is  most  probable  that  they  never  reach  the  sea,  and  that  ultimately  their  water  is 
entirely  dissipated  by  evaporation  from  an  extended  surface,  consisting  partly  of  a 
lake  and  partly  of  a  morass.  Some  of  the  natives  previously  gave  an  account  of  an 
immense  inland  lake,  the  borders  of  which  were  inhabited  by  white  men;  but  that 
account  was  pure  fabrication.  The  country  has  been  found  uninhabited;  and,  from 
the  wildness  and  inutility  of  its  vegetation  at  a  certain  distance  from  the  mountains, 
and  its  evident  liability  to  extensive  inundations,  is  uninhabitable.  In  a  westerly  di- 
rection from  these  terminations  of  the  rivers,  no  elevated  grounds  have  been  seen  by 
the  expeditions  of  discovery,  so  that  the  nature  of  the  country  beyond  the  humid  flats 
remains  unknown.  || 

Lying  to  the  south  of  the  equator.  New  Holland  has  seasons  corre- 
sponding to  those  of  the  south  of  Africa  and  America,  being  the  reverse 
of  those  of  Europe ;  its  summer  correeponds  to  our  winter,  and  its  spring  to  our 
autumn.  The  heat  of  December  rises  to  112°  of  Fahrenheit.  The  forests  and 
the  grass  have  been  known  spontaneously  to  take  fire.  11  The  north-west  wind,  like 
the  iehatnseen,  of  Egypt,  scorches  the  soil,  and  reduces  it  to  a  light  dust.**  Violent 
rains  often  fall  on  the  Blue  Mountains,  cause  a  sudden  rise  of  the  rivers,  and  their 

•  Plron,  Voyage  aux  Terres  Aiistrales,  i.  390. 

f  Collins's  Account,  Sec.  ii.  p.  89. 

^  Wentworth's  Description  of  New  South  Wales,  2d  edition,  p,  82. 

§  Collins,  vol.  ii.  p.  247. 

«   Wentworth's  Description  of  New  South  Wales,  p.  88—123.  (2d  edition.) 

H  Collins,  ii.  p.  72—199.  i.  15.3. 

••  I'cron,  tome  i.  p.  418. 


climate  aad 
leaioDi. 


NEW  HOU.AND.  357 

waters,  prodigiouely  augmented,  deposite  a  fertilizing  mud.*  The  crops  have  some- 
times  been  devastated  by  hail  of  enormous  size;  some  stones  are  said  to  hcTve  been 
found  eight  inches  long.  Notwithstanding  these  disadvantages,  the  climate  ia  very 
healthy,  and  very  favourable  to  population,  "f 

Tho  vegetation  of  New  South  Wales  presents  two  gum  species,  the  |  Vegetation, 
Eucalyptus  resinifcra,  and  the  xanthorrhoaa^  which  are  characteristic  of  the  whole  of 
New  Holland.  Acajou  is  exported  from  it,  and  largo  trees  have  been  discovered, 
resembhng  pines  and  oaks.  Some  of  the  wood  of  the  forests  is  said  to  be  too  brit- 
tle for  the  purposes  of  carpentry.  Perhaps  the  interior  may  display  a  vegetation 
different  from  that  of  the  coasts.  Nature  has  been  sparing  of  indigenous  Alimentary 
alimentary  plants  in  this  country.  Some  bad  gramineous  species,  arum  i''*""- 
roots,  the  sago  palm,  the  cabbage  palm,  and  a  species  of  wild  pisang,  are  the 
only  native  vegetables  that  furnish  food  for  man.  The  Eiicnlyptus  piperita  pro- 
duces an  oil  which  is  found  a  good  remedy  in  colic.  J  Wheat,  maize,  oats,  and 
rye,  are  all  cultivated,  the  two  former  in  largest  quantity.  Those  parts  in  which 
different  trials  have  been  made,  have  rather  too  warm  a  climate  for  common 
barley  and  oats,  though  these  grains  have  been  found  to  succeed  tolerably' well  on 
the  poorer  soils.  The  skinless  barley,  or  Siberian  wheat,  arrives  at  great  perfec- 
tion.§  Potatoes,  cabbages,  carrots,  parsnips,  turnips,  pease,  beans,  onions,  and 
all  the  vegetables  grown  in  England,  are  produced  in  the  English  colony.  The 
same  locality  is  now  famed  for  the  goodness  and  variety  of  its  fruits;  peaches,  apri- 
cots, nectarines,  oranges,  lemons,  guavas,  loquets,  cherries,  walnuts,  almonds,  grapes, 
pears,  pomegranates,  and  melons,  attain  the  highest  maturity  in  the  open  air;  and 
the  pine-apple  may  be  reared  with  a  common  forcing  glass.  The  peach  is  the  most 
abundant,  and  the  most  useful  of  the  fruits.  It  is  given,  as  in  America,  for  feedin"- 
the  hogs,  and  is  fermented  into  cider.  ||  From  the  great  extent  of  terrestrial  latitude 
through  which  this  country  passes,  we  must  conclude  that  those  parts  which  lie  nearer 
the  tropic  and  the  equator  are  capable  of  yielding  products  suited  to  the  torrid  zone, 
as  soon  as  fair  experiments  are  made ;  and  that  those,  on  the  contrary,  which  have 
a  higher  southern  latitude,  will  exhibit  the  vegetation  of  colder  countries.  Accord- 
ingly the  island  of  Van  Diemen  has  been  found  to  produce  apples,  gooseberries,  and 
some  other  fruits,  in  greater  perfection  than  the  colonial  settlement  of  Port  Jackson. 

Of  the  quadrupeds  of  New  South  Wales,  the  largest  is  the  kangaroo,  |  Animals, 
which  is  sometimes  six  feet  long,  and  can  kill  a  dog  with  a  stroke  of  its  tail.  Some 
of  them  have  a  degree  of  elegance  in  their  form. IT  There  is  also  the  kangaroo-rat, 
or  potoroo,  which  is  no  larger  than  a  common  rat.  The  phascatomys,  a  species  of 
opossum,  called  the  wombat  by  the  natives,  has  some  points  of  resemblance  to  the 
bear.  These  animals,  with  the  flying  squirrel,**  and  some  others,  are  examples  of 
the  tendency  of  the  quadruped  races  of  this  country  to  the  nature  of  the  didelphis, 
or  opossum,  by  having  a  pouch  under  (he  belly.  The  taclujolossus  resembles  the 
African  hedge-hog  in  figure,  and  the  American  ant-eater  in  its  habits.  It  is  not  cer- 
tain whether  any  wolves  are  found  in  this  country.  The  native  dogs  are  a  sort  of 
wolves,  or  jackals;  they  do  not  bark;  some  of  them  are  very  handsome,  but  they 
are  not  tameable,  and  are  destructive  to  flocks. 

The  ornithorinchus  of  this  country  is  a  singular  animal,  nature  hav- 
ing in  its  structure  departed  from  her  usual  laws.  It  is  a  quadruped  with 
its  jaw  prolonged  so  as  to  form  a  bill  like  that  of  a  duck,  and  its  feet  webbed  like 
those  of  that  bird.  No  appearance  of  breasts  has  been  found  in  the  female,  which 
makes  it  probable  that  it  is  oviparous.  In  its  internal  structure  it  has  some'charac- 
ters  approaching  to  those  of  the  seal,  and  some  to  those  of  the  reptile  tribes,  whose 
eggs  are  hatched  within  the  body  of  the  parent.  Externally  viewed,  it  has  the  ap- 
pearance of  an  intermediate  link  between  the  seal  and  the  class  of  birds.  It  is  about 
sixteen  inches  long,||  and  hves  in  fresh  water  lakes. 

•  Collins,  ii.  p.  199,  &,c.  f  Hunter  on  the  Origin,  &c.  p.  375. 

i  Wentworth,  p.  124—126.  §  White's  Voyage  to  New  South  \\  ales,  p.  326. 

I   Wentworth,  p.  127—129.  ^  Peron's  Atlas,  tab.  x.wii. 

*"   White's  Voyage.  Zimmerman,  Australien,  i.  891. 

t|-  Rlumenbach,  Abbildunjj  naturalis.  gejfenslocnclc,  cah.  5.  No.  41. 


Ornitliorln- 
dius. 


358  BOOK  FIFTY-SIXTH. 

Birdi.  I      Birds  are  exceedingly  abundant,  and  of  numerous  species.     Among 

those  which  resemble  the  birds  of  Asia,  are  tlie  brown  eagle,  eeveral  kinds  of  fal- 
cons,"many  beautiful  parroquets,  rooks,  crows,  a  large  species  of  martin-fisher  ;  there 
are  also  bustards,  partridges,  and  pigeons.  This  country  has  birds  peculiar  to  itself. 
The  largest  of  them  is  a  new  species  of  cassowary  called  the  emu,  which  we  are 
told  is  seven  feet  long,  and  its  flesh  tastes  like  beef.  It  is  intermediate  in  character 
between  the  cassowary  of  the  Moluccas,  and  the  American  toucan.*  The  Moe- 
nura  superba  is  as  remarkable  for  beauty  as  the  cassowary  is  for  size.  This  bird  has 
much  the  air  of  the  pheasant  and  the  peacock,  with  a  tail  formed  like  a  lyre,  glitter- 
ing with  orange  and  silver  white.f  Among  aquatic  birds  are  found  the  heron,  a  kind 
of  ibis  or  curlew,  and  pelicans  of  gigantic  size.  There  are  also  some  peculiar  spe- 
BJack  iwan.  |  cics  of  the  duck  and  swan  kind.  The  black  swan  is  an  uncommon  pro- 
duction of  this  continent.  In  size  it  exceeds  the  common  white  swan.  Its  beak  is 
a  rich  scarlet,  with  a  yellow  point.  All  its  plumage  is  of  a  very  beautiful  black,  ex- 
cept the  primary  and  secondary  feathers,  which  are  white.  The  eyes  are  black,  and 
the  feet  dark  brown.  It  is  found  on  the  Hawkesbury  river,  and  other  fresh  waters 
near  Broken  Bay.  In  its  motions  it  has  all  the  gracefulness  of  the  white  species. 
This  bird  was  first  discovered  by  the  Dutch  navigator,  Vlaming,  on  the  banks  of 
Swan  river,  in  D'Endracht's  Land. J 

Amphibia.  I  Green  turtles  abound  about  Norfolk  island  and  Howe's  island.  They 
also  make  their  appearance  on  the  coast  of  New  Holland.  There  are  a  great  many 
lizards  and  serpents.  The  blue  crab  is  an  animal  of  uncommon  beauty.  The  but- 
terflies are  splendidly  diversified. 

Fish.  I       Among  the  cetaceous  tribes  are  dolphins  and  porpoises.     There  is 

also  a  singular  fish  which,  when  left  uncovered  by  the  ebbing  of  the  sea,  leaps  about 
like  the  grasshopper  by  means  of  strong  fins.§  Thus,  in  these  regions  we  find  that, 
while  nature  has  confounded  birds  with  quadrupeds,  she  has  in  some  measure  allowed 
the  fish  to  take  possession  of  the  land.  The  instincts  of  animals  seem  to  have  a  more 
extensive  range  in  proportion  to  the  degradation  of  the  human  intellect  in  the  same 
regions.  The  activity  of  the  inferior  creation  presents  a  curious  contrast  to  human 
indolence  and  indifference. 

Inhabitants.  |  Ncw  South  Walcs  sccms  to  oflcr  at  least  three  native  varieties  of  in- 
habitants, all  belonging  to  the  race  of  Oceanian  negroes.  In  the  neighbourhood  of 
Glasshouse  Bay,  the  savages  have  large  heads,  which  in  shape  resemble  those  of  the 
ourang-outang.  Their  very  limited  intellects,  their  hairy  bodies,  and  habitual  agility 
in  climbing  trees,  seem  to  bring  them  near  the  monkey  character.  ||  To  the  south- 
west of  the  EngUsh  colony,  tribes  have  been  found  which  speak  a  distinct  language, 
and  have  hardier  constitutions  than  those  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  that  colony. 
The  latter  are  the  only  race  that  io  weU  known  to  us.  Perhaps  no  people  in  the 
world  has  made  less  progress  towards  civilization.  They  are  simply  divided  into 
families  or  tribes,  each  of  which  is  distinguished  by  adding  the  syllable  gal  to  the 
name  of  its  place  of  residence.  The  south  shore  at  Botany  Bay  is  called  Givea,  and 
Description  of  the  tribe  that  lives  in  it  Givea-gal  The  features  of  the  women  are  not 
the  Gwea-gai.  altogether  unpleasant.  A  black  thick  beard,  and  pieces  of  bone  stuck 
in  the  cartilages  of  the  nose,  give  the  men  a  disgusting  appearance,  and  the  fetid 
odour  of  their  bodies,  from  the  fish  oil  with  which  they  habitually  anoint  themselves, 
to  obviate  the  supposed  noxious  agency  of  the  air,  and  the  bites  of  the  musquitoes. 
They  paint  themselves  with  white  or  red  figures.  The  women  are  distinguished  by 
the  want  of  two  joints  of  the  little  finger  of  the  left  hand.  This  practice  of  amputa- 
tion, together  with  that  of  extracting  one  or  two  teeth  of  the  boys  at  an  early  period, 
are  thought  by  some  to  be  intended  for  the  purpose  of  innuring  them  to  suffer  pain 
with  fortUude.     Their  eye-sight  is  uncommonly  acute.     Some  of  them  are  almost 

'         '      their 


•   Zimmerman,  AustraTien,  p.  884.  f  Collins,  ii.  p.  87. 

+  Valentyn,  Description  de  Banda,  vol.  iv.  §  G.  Forster's  Opuscula,  p.  2a.5,  (.German.) 

ti  Collins,  i.  554. 


NEW  HOLLAND.  359 

by  Mr.  Dixon,  is  correct,  which  we  have  no  reason  to  doubt.*     They  have  flattened 
or  aquehne  noses,  wide  nostrils,  hollow  eyes,  thick  eyebrows,  thick  lips,  larger 
mouths  than  any  other  people,  and  white  regular  teeth.     Their  arms,  legs,  and  thighs, 
are  extremely  lean,  probably  in  consequence  of  the  indifferent  quality  of  their  diet. 
Those  on  the  sea-coast  live  on  fish;  a  few  live  in  the  woods  on  such  animals  as  they 
can  catch,  and  climb  the  trees  to  eat  the  honey  contained  in  them,  or  to  catch  flying 
squirrels  and  opossums. f     Their  huts  are  rudely  constructed  of  the  bark  |  Dwellings, 
of  trees,  in  the  shape  of  kilns.     The  fire  is  placed  at  the  entrance,  and  the  interior  is 
full  of  smoke  and  dirt.     There  they  sleep  promiscuously,  in  so  far  as  their  hostilities 
and  frequent  assassinations  Mill  allow.     It  is  only  in  the  fabrication  and  use  of  their 
weapons  that  wc  perceive  any  proofs  of  intelligence.     "With  the  aid  of  a  wooden  rest 
they  throw  their  javelins  with  such  dexterity  as  to  be  sometimes  formidable  to  Euro- 
peans.    They  kill  fish  with  a  kind  of  fork.     The  women  also  fish  with  lines  made  of 
the  inner  bark  of  some  trees,  and  hooks  made  of  the  shell  of  the  pearl  oyster,  filed  to 
the  requisite  form  with  a  stone.     Some  of  them  catch  kangaroos  in  snares.     Cater- 
pillars and  worms  also  constitute  a  part  of  their  food.     Their  canoes  are  made  of  the 
bark  of  trees,  fixed  on  wooden  franaes.     Nothing  can  equal  the  brutality  of  these 
tribes  in  the  treatment  of  the  weaker  sex.     In  order  to  obtain  a  woman     courtship  auu 
in  marriage,  a  man  lies  in  wait  for  her  in  some  place  of  retreat,  knocks     marriage, 
her  down  with  a  bludgeon  or  wooden  sword ;   and,  while  she  is  yet  besmeared  with 
blood,  takes  her  to  his  own  home,  where  the  nuptial  ceremony  is  completed  in  a  man- 
ner loo  shocking  to  be  described.     Polygamy  is  very  generally  practised.     Both 
sexes  go  naked,  and  have  no  feelings  of  shame.     One  tribe,  which  is  strong  and 
numerous,  maintains  the  singular  privilege  of  extracting  a  tooth  from  all  the  youths 
belonging  to  another;  this  being  the  only  mark  of  superiority  on  the  one  side,  and  ho- 
mage on  the  other.   This  tribute  of  the  teeth  is  exacted  every  four  years,  and  is  repre- 
sented, in  a  number  of  engravings  published  by  Mr.  Collins,  as  a  singular  feature  of 
savage  life.     In  some  parts  of  these  plates  we  see  the  figure  and  character  of  man 
degraded  by  being  placed  on  all  four,  and  furnished  with  an  artificial  tail,  as  if  the 
dog  or  the  kangaroo  were  his  superior.     In  other  parts  the  custom  now  mentioned 
seems  to  be  a  sort  of  initiation  to  physical  pain  and  the  hardships  of  war.  J     They 
have  very  faint  notions  of  a  future  state,  believing  that  at  death  they  shall  |  SupersUtiens. 
either  roam  through  the  regions  of  the  air  like  cuckatoos,  or  return  to  the  clouds 
from  whence  they  originally  came — a  strange  notion,  common  otthem  with  the  Alfoors 
in  the  island  of  Coram.     These  poor  savages  are  also  enslaved  by  superstition;  be- 
lieving in  magic,  sorcery,  and  ghosts.     The  latter  may  probably  owe  their  rise  to  the 
disturbed  sleep  and  the  habitual  terrors  of  their  miserable  lives.     They  employ 
charms  against  thunder  and  hghtning;  and  pretend  to  foresee  future  events  by  the 
meteors  called  falling  stars.     When  children  die,  they  bury  them ;  but  the  bodies  of 
warriors  who  are  past  the  meridian  of  life  are  burned :    and  their  graves  are  distin- 
guished by  rude  monuments.     If  a  woman  dies  while  suckling  an  infant,  the  latter  is 
buried  alive  in  its  mother's  grave. §     Yet  these  barbarians  are  seen  crying  over  the 
grave  of  a  child  or  a  friend.     Their  eyes,  humanized  by  the  tears  of  af-  |  Language. 
■fection,  are  then  turned  up  to  heaven.     They  show  some  respect  for  old  men,  and  do 
not  labour  under  that  irresistible  propensity  to  theft  which  characterizes  the  isl- 
anders of  Polynesia.     Mr.  Collins  has  given  us  a  short  vocabulary  of  their  language. 
It  is  bold,  harmonious,  and  expressive,  and  has  no  resemblance  to  any  other  known 
language.     But  in  different  parts  of  the  country,  the  languages  seem  to  differ  as  much 
from  one  another  as  from  those  of  the  rest  of  the  world. 

England  has  long  been  in  the  practice  of  disposing  of  her  bad  sub- 
jects in  a  manner  both  philanthropic  and  politic,  by  transporting  them  to 
certain  distant  countries  which  they  employ  them  in  cultivating  and  peop 
in  this  manner  that  the  banks  of  the  Potomac  and  Delaware  first  received  a  civilized 
population.     On  the  conclusion  of  the  American  war,  there  was  some  hesitation  in 


English  Co- 
lony. 

ing.  It  was 


•  Narrative  of  a  Voyage  to  New  South  AVales,  Edinburgh,  1822.     See  the  frontispiece. 

t  Collins's  Account  oi"  Botany  li3iv,  passim. 

t  Collins,  vol.  i.  p.  567—581.        '  §  Ibid.  vol.  i.  p.  607. 


360  BOOK  FIFTY- SIXTH. 

the  choice  of  a  country  to  which  criminals  should  be  sent,  who  had  received  a  sen- 
tence of  banishment.  Sir  Home  Popham  was  first  employed  in  examining  for  this 
purpose  the  coast  of  CafTraria,  between  Negro  Cape  and  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope : 
but,  on  the  representations  of  Sir  Joseph  Banks,  New  South  Wales  obtained  the  pre- 
ference. Here  the  first  vessel,  laden  with  colonists,  arrived  on  the  20th  of  January, 
1788.  The  first  place  of  settlement  was  Botany  Bay  ;  but,  this  not  having  answered 
the  expectations  formed,  Governor  Phillips  determined  on  removing  the  colony  to  a 
place  twelve  miles  to  the  north,  called  Port  Jackson,  containing  one  of  the  finest 
harbours  in  the  world,  about  twelve  miles  long,  with  numerous  creeks  and  bays. 
Town  of  syd-  Sydney,*  the  capital  and  seat  of  government  of  this  remarkable  co- 
'»^y-  lony,  is  in  33°  55'  of  south  latitude  and  151"  25'  of  east  longitude, 

about  seven  miles  from  the  entrance  of  the  bay  called  the  heads  of  Port  Jackson. 
It  stands  principally  on  two  necks  of  land,  along  which  the  water  is  in  general  of 
sufficient  depth  to  allow  vessels  of  the  largest  burden  to  approach  to  the  sides  of  the 
rocks.  In  the  first  instance  all  the  houses  were  built  according  to  the  wishes  of  indi- 
viduals, without  any  plan,  so  that  the  older  part  of  it,  called  "  the  Rocks,"  is  quite 
irregular.  But  by  the  arrangements  of  Governor  Macquarrie,  a  perfect  regularity 
has  been  established  in  most  of  the  streets.  It  contains  about  7000  inhabitants,  but 
is  diffused  over  a  proportionably  large  space.  The  houses  are  in  general  small,  and 
each  has  a  garden  adjoining  to  it.  It  contains  many  public  buildings,  and  a  few 
elegant  private  houses,  built  by  successful  traders,  which  give  it  the  character  of  a 
rising  metropolis.  The  market,  which  is  held  three  days  in  the  week,  is  well  supplied 
with  a  variety  of  provisions.  It  has  a  bank  with  a  capital  of  £20,000,  which  is  allowed 
eight  per  cent,  on  money  lent  in  discounting  bills.  It  has  one  of  those  valuable  institu- 
tions of  recent  invention,  called  "saving  banks,"  which  so  happily  promote  a  provident 
spirit  among  the  labouring  classes.  There  are  two  gratuitous  schools,  one  for  boys  and 
another  for  girls,  at  which  224  children  are  at  present  educated ;  and  some  other  insti- 
tutions particularly  directed  to  the  dissemination  of  rehgious  instruction.  In  this  place, 
and  in  other  parts  of  the  colony,  there  are  excellent  academies  for  the  education  of  the 
children  of  people  in  good  circumstances.  A  weekly  newspaper  has  been  printed 
here  almost  from  its  first  estabhshment. 

At  the  head  of  the  harbour  of  Port  Jackson,  fifteen  miles  from  Sydney,  is  another 
Paramatta.  |  town  called  Paramatta,  to  which  the  river,  for  the  last  eight  miles,  is  only 
navigable  for  boats  of  fifteen  tons  burden.  This  town  consists  chiefly  of  one  street, 
a  mile  long.  Though  inferior  to  Sydney  in  the  style  of  buildings,  it  contains  some 
good  ones,  which,  with  the  church,  the  government  house,  the  new  orphan  house, 
and  some  villas,  give  it  a  respectable  appearance.  The  population  is  estimated  at 
1200.  Two  annual  fairs  are  held  here.  It  contains  some  excellent  public  institu- 
tions, one  of  the  most  interesting  of  which  is  a  school  for  the  education  and  civiliza- 
tion of  the  aborigines  of  the  country,  founded  five  years  ago.  It  has  produced  some 
pleasing  and  promising  effects,  and  the  children  discover  not  the  least  deficiency  in 
mental  capacity. 

Further  from  the  sea,  and  about  thirty-five  miles  from  Sydney,  is  the  town  of 
Windsor.  |  Windsor,  situated  on  one  of  the  tributaries  of  the  large  navigable  river 
Hawkesbury ;  which  falls  into  the  sea  at  Broken  Bay,  to  the  north  of  Port  Jackson. 
It  stands  on  a  hill  about  100  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  The  buildings  here,  as 
at  Paramatta,  are,  in  general,  weather-boarded  without,  and  lathed  and  plastered 
within.  It  contains  a  church,  a  government-house,  hospital,  barracks,  court-house, 
store-house,  and  jail.  It  contains  a  more  splendid  inn  than  any  other  in  the  colony. 
Its  population  is  about  600  souls,  consisting  chiefly  of  settlers,  who  have  farms  in 
the  neighbourhood,  with  a  few  inferior  traders  and  mechanics. 

Hawkesbury  Wiudsor  is  situatcd  at  the  confluence  of  the  South  Creek  river  with 

river.  the  Hawkcsbury.     The  course  of  the  latter  (which,  higher  up,  is  called 

the  Nepean)  forms  a  sort  of  semicircular  sweep,  rising  forty  miles  to  the  south  of 
Sydney,  about  ten  or  twelve  miles  from  the  coast,  proceeding  northerly,  as  well  as 
inland  and  westerly,  then  turning  east  and  falling  into  the  sea  at  Broken  Bay,  nearly 
as  far  north  as  its  rise  is  to  the  south  of  the  capital.     It  is  navigable  for  vessels  of 

•  See  Mr.  Wentworlh's  uileresling  account  uf  the  Topography  of  ihis  Colony. 


Colonial  insii- 
tutiuiis  and 
improvtmeiKs. 


NEW  HOLLAND.  361 

IDO  tans  for  about  four  niiles  above  Windsor;  which  is  140  nnlcs  by  water  from  its 
mouth,  though  only  thirty-five  in  a  straight  hue  by  land.  The  Hawkcsbury  is  re- 
markable for  its  inundations,  which  occur,  not  annually,  but  occasionally.  There 
have  been  four  within  the  last  two  years.  In  the  preceding  six  there  had  not  been 
one.  In  these  inundations,  cattle,  crops,  and  men,  are  swept  away  in  indiscriminate 
devastation.  They  arise  from  the  rains  which  fall  among  the  Blue  Mountains,  pro- 
moted by  the  slow  current  of  the  river,  but  not  increased  by  any  confinement  in  tlie 
situation  of  llie  low  country;  for,  after  the  banks  of  the  river  are  filled,  tlie  water 
spreads  over  plains  too  extensive  for  the  eye  to  reach.  Such  occurrences,  when 
they  happen,  occasion  a  great  destruction  of  produce ;  but  on  the  latest  occasion  of 
this  kind  the  scarcity  was  considerably  relieved  by  a  large  importation  of  grain  from 
the  more  recent  colony  of  Van  Diemen's  Island. 

The  town  of  Liverpool  is  about  eighteen  miles  west,  and  a  little  south  |  Livi-rpooi. 
from  Sydney,  on  St.  Georgc'a  river;  which  flows  into  Botany  Bay,  and  is  navigable 
for  boats  of  twenty  tons  burden  a»  high  up  as  the  town.  This  town  is  only  of  tjight 
years'  standing.  The  surrounding  land  is  indifferent,  but  to  the  south  there  are  some 
remarkably  fertile  districts ;  and  Liverpool  is  likely  to  derive  a  degree  of  prosperity 
from  its  central  situation,  between  these  districts  and  Sydney. 

This  colony  has  its  regular  establishment  of  courts,  for  the  adminis- 
tration of  civil  and  criminal  justice.  The  roads,  which  have  been  formed 
between  the  different  townis,  by  the  direction  of  the  governors,  especially  by  G'o- 
vernor  Macquanie,  have  been  admired  for  then  goodness  and  groat  extent,  particu- 
larly one  leading  across  tlie  Blue  Mountains  to  a  new  station  called  Bathurst,  on  the 
west  side  of  that  range,  which  is  180  miles  from  Sydney.  The  climate  of  this 
colony  has  been  found,  on  the  whole,  agreeable  and  salubrious.  Pulmonary  consump- 
tion and  dysentery  arc  the  prevailing  diseases.  Hitherto  we  have  heard  of  no  such 
fatal  epidemic  fevers  as  are  so  frequent  in  some  other  colonies  situated  in  warm 
climates.  The  small  pox  was  introduced  among  the  natives  by  Captain  Cook's 
crews,  and  committed  dreadful  devastation;  the  descriptions  of  which  are  still  handed 
down  in  simple  songs,  among  the  descendants  of  the  sufferers.  The  soil  is  found 
to  vary  greatly  in  fertility,  being  most  barren,  in  general,  in  the  immediate  neigh- 
bourhood of  the  shore,  and  more  fertile  at  a  distance  of  ten  or  twenty  miles.  The 
banks  of  the  rivers,  in  some'places,  yield  exuberant  crops.  On  those  of  the  Ncpean, 
an  acre  of  land  has  been  known  to  produce,  in  one  year,  fifty  bushels  of  wheat,  and 
a  hundred  of  maize. 

About  sixty  miles  to  the  northward  of  Port  Jackson  is  the  town  of 
Newcastle,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Coal  river.  Its  population  is  550  souls ; 
all  of  whom,  except  about  thirty  free  settlers  and  fifty  troops,  are  incorrigible  ofl^euders, 
who  have  been  convicted  in  the  colony,  and  re-transported  to  this  place ;  where  they 
arc  worked  in  chains,  in  the  burning  of  lime,  and  the  procuring  of  coal  and  timber. 
These  articles  are  partly  used  in  carrying  on  the  public  works  at  Port  Jackson,  and 
partly  sold  by  govemment  for  the  use  of  the  colonists.  The  coal  mines  |  coai  miuw. 
are  considerably  elevated  above  the  level  of  the  sea;  the  strata  are  visible  on  the 
face  of  the  cliffs ;  very  rich,  and  as  easily  worked  as  can  well  be  imagined.  The 
lime  is  made  by  calcining  oyster  shells,  which  are  found  in  large  heaps  in  the  same 
neighbourhood,  five  or  six  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  Cedar  and  rose-wood 
are  the  chief  species  cut  down,  and  have  been  removed  in  such  quantities  that  they 
cannot  now  be  obtained  without  going  150  miles  or  more  up  the  river.  The  harbour 
is  tolerably  good,  and  receives  vessels  of  300  tons.  A  certain  way  up  this  river,  it 
is  thought  probable  that  the  summer  heats  are  sufficient  for  the  production  of  cotton, 
an  article  which  would  greatly  add  to  the  opulence  of  the  colony.  The  fertility  of 
the  land  round  the  harbour  is  superior  to  that  of  Port  Jackson;  and  it  will  probably, 
by  its  varied  advantages,  attract  a  rapid  accession  of  settlers. 

The  attention  of  the  colony  has  been  directed  to  a  situation  still  far- 
ther north  than  the  Coal  river,  and  to  which  the  name  of  Port  Mac- 
quarrie  has  been  given  by  Mr.  Oxlcy,  whose  expedition  of  inland  discovery  took 
this  direction  after  having  traced  the  Macquarrie  river  beyond  the  Blue  IMountains 
as  far  as  possible.     Port  Macquarrie  is  situated  between  the  points  called  "  Smoky 

\oL.  II. Z  Z 


Newcastle  and 
Coal  river. 


Port  Mac- 
quarrie. 


Coontry  to 
the  west  of 
tlie  Blue 
Mountains. 


362  UOOK  FIFTY-SIXTH. 

Point"  and  "The  Three  Brothers,"  in  south  latitude  31°  23'  30".  It  had  been  seen 
by  Captain  FHnders.  Mr.  Oxley,  however,  discovered  that  it  had  a  navigable  en- 
trance, and  that  the  adjoining  country  is  fine  and  fertile.  From  its  latitude  sanguine 
expectations  are  entertained  that  some  of  the  productions  of  warm  climates  will 
succeed  in  this  place,  and  that  a  reciprocal  interchange  of  commodities  may  arise 
between  it  and  the  settlements  of  the  more  southerly  and  temperate  climates,  con- 
ducive to  the  prosperity  of  both. 

We  have  already  taken  notice  of  the  more  inland  parts  in  the  latitudes 
of  the  British  colonies,  as  the  only  specimen  yet  known  to  us  of  the 
interior  of  this  singular  continent.  The  first  known  pass  leading  over 
these  mountains,  which  was  discovered  in  1814,  is  narrow,  and  at  one  place  has  a 
steep  descent  towards  the  interior.  A  more  easy  communication  between  these 
new  regions  and  the  first  settlements  was,  in  1819,  discovered  by  an  expedition  of 
fifteen  days,  executed  by  a  large  stock-holder  of  the  name  of  Throsby.  It  is  to  the 
south  of  the  one  first  discovered,  and  runs  through  lands  of  the  best  description. 
For  an  extent  of  200  miles  beyond  the  mountains  the  country  abounds  with  rich 
herbage,  and  is  well  supplied  with  running  water.  As  long  as  the  rivers  Lachlan 
and  Macquarrie  run  nearly  parallel  to  the  mountain  range,  the  one  southerly  and  the 
other  northerly,  they  are  fed  by  a  profusion  of  rivulets ;  but  when  they  begin  to  take 
a  westerly  course,  a  want  of  water  is  perceptible,  and  increases  with  the  distance. 
The  country  is,  in  general,  free  from  underwood,  and  in  many  places  has  no  timber 
at  all.  Bathurst  plains,  where  there  is  a  military  depot,  contains  60,000  acres,  on 
which  there  is  scarcely  a  tree.  The  extensive  tract  of  country  thus  discovered  is 
less  adapted  for  increasing  population  than  the  easterly  territory,  in  consequence  of 
the  distance  and  comparative  difficulties  of  the  communication  between  it  and  coun- 
tries already  peopled;  but  its  herbage  is  sweeter  and  more  nutritive  for  live  stock; 
and  its  remote  situation  adapts  it,  in  the  mean  time,  to  an  unlimited  extension  of  the 
speculations  of  the  grazier. 

state  of  so-  From  the  materials  of  which  the  population  of  this  whole  colony  was 

«"='y'  originally  composed,  it  could  not  be  expected  to  be,  in  the  first  instance, 

virtuous  and  orderly.  Yet  it  is  pleasing  to  find  that  several  individuals,  who  had  been 
transported  for  the  gross  offensiveness  of  their  actions  in  Europe,  have  betaken 
themselves  to  a  virtuous  industry  ;  have  maintained  the  most  respectable  conduct ; 
and  earned  the  reward  of  their  ameliorated  lives,  in  the  acquirement  of  a  comfort- 
able, and  even  an  opulent  establishment.  The  prospects  of  success  which  the 
country  affords,  have  also  attracted  free  persons  from  Great  Britain,  who,  of  course, 
are  justly  viewed  as,  in  the  first  instance,  more  to  be  depended  on  than  convicts. 
Yet  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  too  many  of  these  have,  by  their  ungenerous  principles, 
^orarfest^di-  1  ^^^  ^'^^^  systematic  and  unbending  aversion  to  the  society  of  any  quon- 
ousness.  j  dam  convict,  however  meritorious,  created  more  mischief,  in  the  form  of 

division  and  discord,  than  can  be  compensated  by  the  example  of  all  their  virtues. 
This  evil  can  only  be  counteracted  by  new  judicious  combinations,  for  the  express 
purpose  of  enabling  the  varieties  of  the  population  to  maintain  some  cordial  inter- 
course, guarded  by  regulations,  directed  to  the  prevention  of  all  the  bad  conse- 
quences of  hazardous  communications.  A  generous  forgetfulness  of  faults,  extended 
by  one  individual  to  another,  is  hable  to  be  abused.  But  where  no  forgetfulness  is 
understood  to  be  implied,  and  no  romantic  confidence  displayed,  yet  the  system  of 
distance  not  suffered  to  be  carried  beyond  the  bounds  necessary  to  secure  the  future 
good  habits  of  all  concerned,  methods  the  most  conciliating  and  friendly  might  be 
openly  followed,  which  would  exhibit  points  worthy  of  the  approbation  and  imitation 
of  other  communities,  which  are  conceived  to  be  more  happily  constituted,  only  be- 
cause those  who  describe  them  have  not  turned  their  attention  to  the  gall  and  the 
wormwood  which  enter  their  composition.  We  have  been  informed  that  some  indi- 
viduals, otherwise  respectable,  have  declined  to  sit  in  a  court  of  justice  with  any  one 
who  had  been  forcibly  transported.  Legislative  enactments,  tending  to  counteract 
such  fastidious  steps,  might  be  conceived  ;  but  novel  legislation  is  always  a  delicate 
task,  and,  unless  adapted  to  circumstances  with  a  masterly  hand,  and  administered 
with  an  enlightened  and  refined  policy,  might  be  productive  of  extensive  unforeseen 


NEW  HOLLAND.  3G3 

mischief. — A  largo  proportion  of  the  convicts,  however,  give  little  evidence  of  refor- 
mation in  their  principles  and  lives. 

Agriculture,  and  the  other  useful  arts,  have  made  considerable  pro-  |  industry, 
gross  since  the  first  establishment  of  the  colony.  The  poverty  of  the  earliest  set- 
tlers, and  the  want  of  general  resources,  made  the  hoe  husbandry  necessary,  but  the 
plough  is  now  almost  universally  introduced  in  agriculture.  Several  of  the  convicts 
Avork  in  mechanical  arts  to  which  they  had  been  originally  educated,  and  thus  con- 
tril)ute  to  the  conveniences  of  life.  Some  individuals  have  embarked  considerable 
capital  in  various  manufactures,  such  as  woollen  cloths,  hats,  earthen  ware,  salt,  can- 
dles, soap,  breweries,  tanneries,  and  establishments  of  carpenters,  blacksmiths,  tin- 
men, rope-makers,  and  other  artificers.  Mr.  Wentworth  supposes  the  whole  capital 
invested  in  the  colonial  manufactories  to  be  nearly  £50,000.  Considerable  trade 
and  income  are  derived  from  the  following  various  sources  : 

Expended  by  government,* j680,000 

Ditto          by  foreign  shipping,            -         -         -         -         -         -         -  6,000 

Brought  annually  by  emigrants  and  convicts, 30,000 

Articles  of  export,  collected  from  the  adjacent  seas  and  shores;  as  seal- 
skins, fish  oil,  and  sandal-wood,           ......  1 5,000 

Produce  exported  to  Africa,  India,  and  north-western  Oceanica,              -  10,000 

Wool  grown  in  the  colony,        - --  10,000 

Other  sundries, -  6,000 


£157,000 


Van  DiemenV 
Island. 


The  government  collects,  from  various  taxations,  a  revenue  of  £21,180. 

From  Port  Jackson  the  direction  of  the  coast  is  due  south,  as  far  as  Cape  Howe, 
where  it  turns  to  the  south-west.  The  country,  consisting  of  extensive  plains, 
terminates  in  Wilson's  promontory,  which  is  the  southern  extremity  of  the  whole 
continent. 

The  large  Island  of  Van  Diemen,  which  it  will  be  convenient  to  de- 
scribe in  this  place,  is  separated  from  New  South  Wales  by  a  channel 
called  Bass's  Strait,  which  is  100  miles  broatl,  and  contains  a  great  many  small  isl- 
ands. It  is  situated  between  the  parallels  of  40"  and  44°  of  south  latitude,  and  be- 
tween 145"  and  149°  of  east  longitude.  It  was  discovered  in  1644  by  Tasman,  who 
named  it  Van  Diemen's  land,  in  honour  of  the  Dutch  governor-general  in  the  East 
Indies.  It  was  considered  as  a  part  of  the  mainland  of  New  Holland  till  1797,  when 
Captain  Flinders,  then  a  lieutenant  of  the  ship  Reliance,  and  Mr.  Bass,  the  surgeon, 
discovered  Port  Dalrymple  on  its  north  coast,  circumnavigated  the  island,  and,  on 
returning  to  Sidney,  represented  it  as  a  promising  country  for  a  new  colonial  settle- 
ment. 

In  1803  the  first  English  settlement  was  formed  at  Risdon,  consisting  of  a  few 
convicts  from  Port  Jackson,  and  a  small  military  and  civil  establishment. 

In  1804,  an  establishment  under  Lieut.  Colonel  Collins  was  removed  from  Port 
Philip  in  Bass's  Strait,  on  the  south  coast  of  New  Holland,  to  the  south  of  Van  Die- 
men's  island,  to  the  very  place  where  Hobart  Town,  the  present  capital,  stands. 
About  the  year  1811  the  dependency  of  Norfolk  island  was  abandoned;  and  its  in- 
habitants were  chiefly  removed  to  this  island,  part  being  settled  on  the  Derwent,  above 
Hobart  Town,  in  a  place  hence  called  New  Norfolk,  and  the  remainder  in  a  fine  dis- 
trict in  the  north  part  of  the  island,  called  Norfolk  Plains,  near  the  village  of  Laun- 
ceston,  previously  formed. 

The  aborigines  of  this  island  bear  a  great  resemblance  to  those  of  Port 
Jackson,  and  other  parts  of  New  Holland ;  but  their  complexions  are  of 
a  deeper  black,  and  their  hair  more  universally  woolly.  They  are  deficient  in  some 
of  the  arts  practised  by  the  former.  They  have  no  sort  of  canoes,  and  in  moving 
across  streams  or  narrow  channels,  merely  make  use  of  the  rudest  temporary  rafts, 

•  Weutworth'a  Account  of  New  South  Waksr 


original 
inhabitants. 


o 


64  BOOK   FIFTY-SIXTH. 


Their  spears  are  heavier  and  worse  made ;  and,  in  throwing  them,  they  make  use  of 
no  wooden  rest,  Hke  those  of  the  continental  tribes.  Their  huts,  however,  are  much 
better  formed.  Their  language  is  totally  distinct  from  any  one  spoken  on  the  con- 
tinent. Their  tempers  are  less  ferocious,  and  their  countenances  more  humane  than 
those  of  the  New  Hollanders.  They  have  shown  themselves  less  disposed  to  enter- 
tain dread,  distrust,  and  hostility  to  their  European  visiters,  till  a  very  lamentable  oc- 
currence converted  their  unsuspecting  friendliness  into  well-founded  terror,  and  im- 
placable antipathy.  A  military  officer,  in  the  absence  of  the  lieutenant-governor, 
took  an  alarm  on  the  approach  of  a  largo  party  of  them  to  the  English  settlement, 
though  accompanied  by  the  emblems  of  peace  and  friendship,  and  ordered  his  men 
to  receive  them  with  musket  shot,  by  which  a  dreadful  havock  was  produced.  The 
bad  opinion  formed  of  the  settlers  in  consequence  of  that  event  has  been  most  proba- 
bly confirmed  by  the  lawless  conduct  of  those  run-away  Englishmen,  who,  under  the 
name  of  bush-rangers,  lead  the  lives  of  plunderers  amidst  the  extensive  wilds  of  this 
new  coimtry.  The  women  are  better  formed,  of  more  agreeable  aspect,  and  clean- 
lier in  their  habits,  than  those  of  New  Holland.  They  do  not,  like  them,  practise 
the  amputation  of  part  of  the  little  finger.  Some  of  them  have  foraned  temporary 
intimacies  with  the  sailors  belonging  to  English  vessels  in  the  sea  trade,  who  visit 
the  east  coast  of  the  island,  and  some  specimens  of  a  mixed  breed  have  been  pro- 
duced of  a  copper  colour,  said  to  be  handsome,  with  rosy  cheeks  and  large  black 
eyes,  the  whites  of  which  are  tinged  with  blue,  good  teeth,  and  well-formed  limbs. 
Sometimes  the  natives  have  been  found  naked,  sometimes  clothed  in  kangaroo  skins : 
the  women  have  generally  more  or  less  covering. 

Climate.  |      The  climate  of  this  island  has  been  found  singularly  salubrious  for  the 

European  constitution.  Neither  the  summers  nor  the  winters  are  subject  to  great 
extremes  of  temperature.  In  the  mountains  the  snow  lies  for  the  greater  part  of  the 
year;  but  in  the  valleys  never  longer  than  a  few  hours.  The  mean  temperature  in 
the  latter  is  about  60°,  and  the  range  from  36°  to  80°. 

Mountains.  |  This  island  contains  several  mountains  of  considerable  elevation. 
The  principal  one  is  called  the  Table  Mountain,  situated  immediately  behind  Hobart 
Town,  and  ascertained  to  be  3964  feet  in  height.  Its  immediate  vicinity  is  liable  to 
violent  blasts,  which  seldom  last  more  than  three  hours.  Towards  the  western  part 
of  the  island  there  is  a  range  of  high  hills,  called  the  Western  Mountains,  about  3500 
feet  in  height.  There  is  a  great  diversity  of  hills  in  other  parts  of  the  island,  but 
none  that  can  be  called  mountains. 

Rivers.  |       The  two  principal  rivers  ai'e  the  Derwent,  running  to  the  south,  and 

the  Tamar,  running  to  the  north.  The  banks  of  these  two  have  attracted  the  ear- 
liest colonial  settlements,  in  consequence  of  the  convenience  of  their  mouths,  aiford- 
ing  excellent  harbours  for  shipping,  and  still  more  from  the  excellence  of  the  soil 
alonof  their  banks.  Their  tributaries  rise  near  one  another  in  the  centre  of  the 
island,  and  an  easy  communication  is  kept  up  in  this  direction  through  the  interior, 
from  the  northern  to  the  southern  coast.  To  the  east  of  the  Derwent  there  is  a 
river  called  the  Coal  river,  which  runs  into  a  marine  lake  called  Pitt  Water.  The 
river  Tamar  is  of  great  importance,  on  accoimt  of  the  agricultural  value  of  its  banks, 
although  towards  the  mouth  the  soil  is  sandy  and  barren.  Port  Dalrymple,  at  the 
mouth  of  this  river,  is  beset  with  reefs  and  shallows,  which  render  the  entrance  dan- 
gerous for  vessels  in  foul  weather.  On  the  western  side  of  the  island,  two  rivers, 
supposed  from  their  direction  to  proceed  from  a  lake  in  the  interior,  flow  into  the 
head  of  a  deep  creek,  called  Macquarrie  Harbour.  Two  others  fall  into  an  opening 
farther  to  the  south,  called  Port  Davey.  A  small  river,  called  the  Huon,  runs  from 
Table  Mountain  straight  south,  and  empties  itself  into  a  creek  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Derwent. 

Lakes.  |       This  island  has  numerous  and  extensive  lakes.     One  which  has  been 

visited,  on  the  top  of  the  Western  Mountains,  is  about  fifty  miles  in  circumference, 
and  supposed  to  have  several  overflowing  points,  giving  origin  to  rivers  in  different 
directions.     There  is  one  called  Lemon's  lake,  besides  several  others  in  the  central 
partsof  the  island. 
coasii.  I      The  western,  southern,  and  south-eastern  coasts,  are  high  and  bold; 


NEW  HOLLAND,  365 

but  afibrd  numerous  bays,  creeks,  and  harbours.  The  north  coast  is  generally  low 
and  sandy.  Dcrwent  harbour  is  one  of  the  best  in  the  world.  Macquarrie  harbour 
is  diflicult  of  entrance,  but  when  entered  affords  safe  anchorage. 

The  natural  trees  of  this  island  are  nearly  the  same  with  those  of  |  vegetation. 
New  Holland.  But  no  cedar,  mahogany,  or  rosewood,  has  been  found  here.  There 
is  a  species  of  oak,  called  black-wood,  which,  with  the  Huon  pine,  serve  as  good 
substitutes  for  these  useful  trees.  The  Huon  pine  grows  in  great  abundance  on  the 
rivers  of  Macquarrie  harbour.  The  indigenous  botany  is,  like  that  of  New  Holland, 
exceedingly  scanty  in  articles  fit  for  human  sustenance.  Labillardierc  describes 
many  new  plants,  remarkable  for  the  beauty  and  singularity  of  their  flowers  and 
foliage.  The  sands  produce  a  species  of  planta^o,  called  iricuspidalus,  which 
is  a  good  salad,  and  one  of  the  most  useful  plants  that  this  island  furnishes.  In 
the  woods  of  the  interior  a  new  species  of  ficoides  is  found,  the  fruit  of  which  is 
eaten  by  the  natives.  Those  useful  plants  introduced  by  the  British,  which  are 
adapted  to  the  latitude  of  the  country,  grow  in  great  luxuriance. 

The  best  known  wild  animals  of  Van  Diemen's  island  are  the  kan-  |  Animals, 
garoo,  the  emu,  the  opossum.,  the  squirrel,  the  bandycoot,  the  kangaroo  rat,  and  the 
opossum-hycena.  The  native  dog  of  New  Holland  is  here  unknown.  Yet  the  flocks 
of  the  settlers  are  not  for  that  reason  exempt  from  the  attacks  of  beasts  of  prey,  for 
there  is  a  sort  of  panther  which  occasionally  commits  dreadful  havock  among  them. 
It  is  an  animal  of  considerable  size,  sometimes  measuring  six  feet  between  the  mouth 
and  the  end  of  the  tail.  But  it  is  of  a  cowardly  nature,  and  invariably  flies  from  the 
approach  of  man.  Among  the  numerous  birds  of  these  regions  there  is  one  called 
the  wattle  bird,  about  the  size  of  a  snipe,  which  is  here  reckoned  a  great  delicacy. 
Oysters  are  in  great  perfection,  and  the  rocks  are  literally  covered  with  muscles. 
Some,  though  not  all  of  the  poisonous  serpents  found  in  New  Holland,  are  also  seen 
here.  Among  these  are  one  called  the  black  snake,  resembling  a  piece  of  burned 
stick,  and  another  called  the  yellow-brown  snake. 

This  island  produces  copper,  iron,  alum,  coal,  slate,  hmestome,  as-  |  Minerals, 
bestos,  and  basalt,  all  in  great  abundance,  with  the  exception  of  copper.  It  also 
affords  cornehan,  rock  crystal,  chrysolite,  jasper,  marble,  and  many  petrifactions.  In 
the  neighbourhood  of  Launceston  there  are  mountains  of  iron-ore,  which  must  prove 
a  source  of  great  wealth  to  the  island  when  once  it  is  sufficiently  populous.  Coal  also 
is  met  with  in  extensive  beds,  particularly  near  Macquarrie  harbour,  where  an  attempt 
is  just  made  to  work  it  by  means  of  convicts,  under  the  control  of  a  party  of  mili- 
tary.*    The  success  of  this  attempt  is  as  yet  unknown. 

Van  Diemen's  Island  is  divided  into  two  counties,  Buckingham  in  the     Topography, 

SHQ  St3t£  ot 

south,  and  Cornwall  in  the  north.  The  capital  of  Buckingham  county  the  colony, 
is  Hobart  Town.  This  place  is  described  in  the  official  account  of  Governor  Mac- 
quarrie's  visit  in  1S21,  as  exhibiting  a  most  encouraging  contrast  in  its  present  state 
to  its  appearance  in  181 1,  the  period  of  his  former  visit.  Instead  of  wretched  huts 
and  cottages,  of  which  it  had  then  consisted,  there  were  substantial  buildings  laid  out 
in  regular  streets  ;  several  of  the  houses  were  of  two  stories,  and  in  a  respectable  style 
of  architecture.  It  contained  the  usual  public  buildings,  four  water-mills,  a  signal 
post,  and  telegraph.  The  people  discovered  much  industry  and  enterprise,  and  a 
plan  was  formed  for  the  construction  of  a  commodious  quay. 

The  county  of  Cornwall  does  not  differ  materially  from  Buckinghamshire,  being 
equally  fertile,  and  rather  more  so  in  proportion  to  its  area,  as  the  greater  part  of  the 
land  is  lower  and  better  watered.  The  settled  parts  are  all  on  the  Tamar  river,  and 
in  its  vicinity.  The  village  of  Launceston  is  delightfully  situated  at  the  junction  of 
a  tributary  called  the  South  Esk  with  the  Tamar :  but,  since  the  establishment  has 
been  formed  at  George  Town,  it  has  not  the  advantage  of  being  the  chief  place  in 
the  county.  The  situation  selected  for  George  Town  is  not  only  in  itself  beautiful, 
and  well  supplied  with  water,  but,  being  at  the  mouth  of  the  river,  is  better  fitted  for 
keeping  up  the  communication  between  this  part  of  the  colony  and  other  countries 

•  MS.  Letters  from  Lieut.  Governor  to  the  Colonial  Office.    MS,  Letters  from  Surgeon 
Spence,  appointed  on  the  expedition,  and  others.    Tn. 


366  BOOK  FIFTY-SIXTH, 

T)y  sea.     Governor  Macquarrie  has  marked  out  four  other  situations  for  townships  in 
the  interior,  along  the  basins  of  the  Tamar  and  Derwent. 

In  all  the  inhabited  parts  good  roads  have  been  made  between  Hobart  Town  and 
the  different  settlements. 

Exports.  I  The  exports  from  this  island  consist  of  cattle,  sheep,  wood,  flour, 
corned  meats,  dried  fish,  hides,  barilla,  tanning  bark,  seal  skins,  whale  oil,  and  spars. 
It  appears  from  the  notices  in  the  Sydney  Gazette,  that  vessels  have  sailed  for  the 
Mauritius  and  other  foreign  parts,  laden  with  1200  sheep  or  fifty  cows  at  a  time.* 
Wool  has  every  appearance  of  becoming  a  staple  commodity  in  this  country,  as 
both  its  quantity  and  quality  have  been  very  much  improved  by  the  introduction  of 
the  Merino  breed  of  sheep,  which  is  found  to  succeed  as  well,  if  not  better,  than  in 
any  other  part  of  the  world.  The  great  fertility  of  the  land,  with  the  present  scanty 
state  of  its  nascent  population,  enables  it  to  export  corn  and  other  landed  produce, 
wherever  a  market  presents  itself.  When  the  crops  on  the  river  Hawkesbury,  in 
the  parent  colony,  were  destroyed  by  a  flood  in  1817,  about  20,000  bushels  of  wheat, 
besides  380  tons  of  potatoes,  were  sent  from  this  island  to  supply  the  deficiency 
thus  unexpectedly  created.  Persons  zealous  for  the  prosperity  of  the  colony,  in  a 
sense  strictly  commercial,  have  been  very  desirous  that  the  liberty  of  brewing  and 
distilling  liquors  from  grain,  both  for  home  consumption  and  exportation,  which  has 
hitherto  been  withheld  by  the  colonial  regulations,  should  be  granted  to  the  settlers. 
The  prevailing  passion  for  these  articles,  with  all  the  mischiefs  attending  the  ex- 
cesses to  which  the  greater  part  of  the  quantities  made  are  subservient,  forms  at 
present  a  necessary  element  in  commercial  and  political  economy  ;  and  the  impor- 
tant problem  is  not  yet  settled,  how  mankind  might  be  delivered  from  their  evil  con- 
sequences without  the  creation  of  fresh  mischiefs  ? — A  court  of  civil  and  criminal 
justice  is  established  at  Hobart  Town,  but  pleas  exceeding  the  value  of  ^50,  and 
capital  criminal  trials,  are  removed  to  Sydney.  On  the  whole,  this  country  presents 
at  this  moment  such  an  encouraging  aspect,  that,  for  those  inhabitants  of  Great  Bri- 
tain who,  in  their  own  country,  labour  under  a  want  of  satisfactory  prospects  from 
the  application  of  a  small  capital,  and  possess  the  means  requisite  for  undertaking  a 
distant  emigration.  Van  Diemen's  island  is  considered  as  the  most  eligible  country, 
and  the  tide  of  emigration  to  it  is  consequently  very  strong.  For  a  few  years  three 
or  four  vessels  annually  have  sailed  from  Britain,  laden  with  emigrants  possessed  of 
more  or  less  capital.  Not  only  entire  families,  but  neighbourhoods  and  clans  have 
in  some  instances  embarked  in  that  distant  speculation,  that,  while  each  establishes 
his  own  fortune,  they  may  encourage  and  comfort  one  another's  efforts,  by  keeping 
up  those  habits  of  social  intercourse  which  had  been  formed  in  their  native  country. 
Statistical  In  a  small  tract  on  Van  Diemen's  island,  by  Mr.  Evans,  surveyor- 

tables,  general,  a  table  is  given  containing  the  names  of  all  the  settlers  to  whom 

lands  have  been  assigned,  with  the  number  of  acres  given  to  each.  In  this  table 
there  are  the  names  of  694  persons,  of.  whom  only  309  have  lands  to  the  extent  of 
1000  acres,  and  all  the  latter  have  under  500,  except  sixty.  The  largest  estate  (3000 
acres)  is  that  of  Lieut.  Col.  Thomas  Davey.  Horatio  William  Mason,  Elizabeth 
Paterson,  and  Edward  Abbot,  have  each  2000,  and  other  six  have  1200  or  upwards. 
The  British  government  gives  to  emigrants  among  its  own  subjects,  lands  in  propor- 
tion to  the  capital  which  they  take  along  with  them.  None  get  any  encouragement 
who  take  less  than  £500  Sterling.  These  generally  receive  a  grant  of  500  acres  ; 
but  the  extent  given  is  in  some  measure  left  to  the  discretion  of  the  governor.  No 
person  is  prohibited  by  the  British  laws  from  setthng  at  his  own  risk,  but  some  friends 
of  that  new  world  wish  that  greater  positive  encouragement  were  given  to  virtuous 
persons  in  the  humblest  spheres  of  life,  whose  society  might  operate  as  a  correcting 
ingredient  in  the  motely  population. 

Two«ucce»-    I  Acres  of  land  in  cultivation  in  1819,         -        -        -        -        89,746 
comS       I  Ditto  in  1820, 116,641 

Horses,  male  and  female,  in  1819,            .        -        -        -  363 

Ditto  in  1820, 411 

•  See  the  Sydney  Gazette,  July  18, 1818. 


NEW  HOLLAND. 


367 


Horned  cattle  in  1819, 
Ditto  in  1S20, 

Sheep  in  1819,       - 
Ditto  in  1820, 

Free  persons  and  settlers  in  1819, 


Ditto  in  1820, 


23,124 

28,838 

172,129 

182,468 


Men  887 

Women     411 
Children    674 


Men  1111 
Women  530 
Children  1060 


1,972 


2,701 


Convicts  in  1819,    - 


Ditto  in  1820, 


Men 
Women 


Men 
Women 


1954 

278 


3107 
370 


2,232 


3,477 


We  now  return  to  Wilson's  Promontory,  on  the  continent  of  New  Hoi-     fj^'re'/™  New 
land.     The  whole  coast,  from  this  to  Cape  Farewell,  in  129°  56'  of  east     Holland, 
longitude,  receives  from  M.  Peron  the  designation  of  Napoleon's  Land,  but  Captains 
Grant  and  Flinders,  who  had  previously  visited  a  large  portion  of  it,  have  given  the 
places  names  different  from  those  of  the  French  navigators. 

Mr.  Bass,  after  having  turned  the  southern  point  of  New  Holland,  discovered 
Western  Port,  a  superb  basin,  which,  when  more  minutely  explored  by  Baudin's  ex- 
pedition, was  found  to  contain  two  islands.  Governor  King's  Bay,  in  which  Port 
Philip  is  situated,  was  discovered  by  Captain  Grant  in  1800.  This  English  naviga- 
tor believed  that  he  had  followed  the  coast  from  the  142d  degree  of  east  longitude 
to  146°  45';*  but  it  appears  from  the  longitude  which  he  assigns  to  Cape  Otway,  the 
Cape  Marengo  of  the  French,  that  his  discoveries  must  have  begun  a  degree  farther 
west  than  he  thought.  His  Cape  Northumberland  corresponds  to  the  Cape  Boufllers 
of  the  French,  and  his  Cape  Bridgewater  to  their  Cape  Montaigne.  But  his  island 
of  Lady  Julia  Percy  is  badly  delineated,  and,  according  to  the  more  exact  observa- 
tions of  Baudin  and  Freycinet,  cannot  have  the  extent  which  he  assigns  to  it. 

This  coast  seems  to  contain  several  fertile  places.  Cape  Otway  and  |  Productions. 
Cape  Northumberland  are  covered  with  fine  forests.  The  large  gum-l)earing  trees 
prevail  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Port  Philip  and  Western  Port.  In  that  quarter  there 
are  some  extremely  liard  and  heavy  kinds  of  timber,  among  which  is  a  species  of 
acajoo.^  Different  sorts  of  apples  and  wild  plums  grow  here,  likewise  some  legu- 
minous species,  which  seem  to  be  adapted  for  human  sustenance.  There  is  a  spe- 
cies of  indigo,  and  a  grass  which  has  been  called  kangaroo  grass.  Besides  the  ani- 
mals common  to  the  whole  continent,  wolvesj  and  wild  cats§  have  been  |  quadmpedj. 
found  here.  Some  traces  of  a  very  large  quadruped  have  been  believed  to  be  ob- 
served. Among  its  numberless  birds  are  distinguished  some  beautiful  parroquets, 
as  the  Psiltacus  fimbriahis,  and  tabiian,  the  laughing  bird,  and  the  beU  bird.||  The 
cries  of  a  flock  of  the  latter  resemble  the  sound  of  the  bells  on  the  necks  of  wagon 
horses,  announcing  their  approach  at  a  distance.  The  sea  abounds  with  fish,  and 
there  is  excellent  salmon  in  the  rivers. 

•  Grant's  Narrative  of  a  Voyage  of  Discovery,  p.  68,  &c.  London,  1803. 
t  Tuckey's  Voyage  to  establish  a  Colony  at  Port  Philip,  p.  167,  326,  230. 
+  Idem,  p.  201.  §  Grant,  p.  159.  ||  Idem,  p.  112. 


Baudin's  couii' 
try,  or  Napo- 
leon's Land. 


Gulf  St. 
Vincent. 


Spencer's 
Gulf: 


368  BOOK  FIFTY-SIXTH. 

Inhabitants.  |  The  inhabitants  of  these  coasts  differ  from  one  another,  both  in  moral 
and  in  physical  character.  Captain  Grant  saw  some  men  who  approach  to  the 
ourang-outang,  whose  hideous  picture  we  have  already  drawn.  They  eat  birds  in  a 
raw  state,  with  all  the  entrails.  Some  of  the  other  savages  accuse  them  of  canni- 
balism.* In  the  neighbourhood  of  Western  Port,  the  inhabitants  are  more  numerous, 
seem  to  be  better  formed,  and  live  in  villages  under  chiefs,  who  deck  their  heads 
with  the  feathers  of  the  black  swan,  paint  their  bodies  with  red,  white,  and  black 
pigments,  and  are  carried  on  the  shoulders  of  their  subjects. |  But  this  tribe  mani- 
fests a  haughty  sense  of  its  power,  and  a  ferocious  and  inhospitable  character.  In 
filthiness  of  habits  they  surpass  the  most  disgusting  picture  that  imagination  can 
form. 

The  country  around  Western  Port,  provided  with  water  and  wood,  rich  in  plants 
and  animals,  affords  a  promising  locality  for  a  European  establishment.  The  shores 
of  Port  PhiUp,  where  the  English  wished  to  settle  a  colony,  has  an  excellent  vege- 
tation, but  is  deficient  in  fresh  water. 

The  country  to  the  north  of  Cape  Northumberland  was  called  Napo- 
leon's Land  by  Captain  Baudin,  who  discovered  it.  Between  that  Cape 
and  Cape  Mollien,  the  shores  seemed  to  M.  Peron  to  be  dreary  and  barren  in  the 
extreme,  presenting  the  uniform  aspect  of  one  continued  arid  rock,  rising  like  a  wall 
from  the  water's  edge.  Yet  numerous  columns  of  smoke  were  observed,  indicating 
a  considerable  population.  An  inland  survey  would  perhaps  modify  the  views  enter- 
tained by  our  navigators,  who  admired  nothing  but  the  immense  flocks  of  sea-birds 
which  covered  the  coast,  and  the  quantity,  no  less  wonderful,  of  seals  and  dolphins 
with  which  the  sea  swarmed.  J  At  the  peninsula  of  Fleurieu,  which  projects  to  the 
west,  the  face  of  the  country  begins  to  change.  More  elevated  in  the  interior,  and 
more  indented  on  the  shore,  it  opens  to  form  the  Gulf  of  St.  Vincent, 
which  is  eighty-three  miles  long,  and  from  twenty-two  to  twenty-six 
broad.  This  gulf  is  bounded  on  the  north-west  by  York's  Peninsula,  which  is  shaped 
exactly  like  a  boot,  and  ends  in  Spencer's  Cape.  At  the  mouth  of  the  same  gulf 
is  Kangaroo  island,  193  miles  in  circumference.  On  the  west  side  of 
York  Peninsula  is  Spencer's  Gulf,  between  Cape  Spencer  and  Cape 
Catastrophe.  In  the  middle  of  the  entrance  there  are  some  islands,  called  by  the 
French  Berthier's  islands.  This  gulf  penetrates  190  miles  into  the  country,  and 
terminates  in  two  channels  too  shallow  to  allow  the  Casuarina  schooner  to  explore 
farther.  The  existence  of  a  large  river  in  this  place  is  probable ;  but  the  probability 
was  not  confirmed  by  any  difference  to  be  observed  between  the  water  here  and  that 
of  the  neighbouring  sea.  Yet  it  is  possible  that  the  waters  of  some  river  may  flow 
in  a  direction  somewhat  different  from  the  exact  track  of  our  navigators.  On  its 
western  shore  we  find  a  harbour,  which  was  called  by  the  French  Port  Champagny, 
one  of  the  finest  and  safest  in  New  Holland.  In  all  the  three  noble  basins  of  which 
it  is  formed,  the  bottom  is  excellent,  and  the  depth  is  from  ten  to  twelve  fathoms  to 
the  very  shore.  The  mouth  of  it  is  protected  by  La  Grange's  island,  about  twelve 
miles  in  circumference.  Its  shores  present  a  complete  contrast  to  the  sterility  and 
monotony  of  those  of  the  neighbourhood,  being  finely  elevated  and  covered  with 
thick  forests.  M.  Peron  found  no  fresh  water,  but  the  strength  and  freshness  of  the 
vegetation,  and  the  elevation  of  the  land,  showed  that  there  must-  be  some  rivulets, 
or  some  considerable  spring.  § 

To  the  west  of  this  large  gulf  is  Cape  Catastrophe,  on  the  south  of 
which  there  are  some  reefs  and  a  small  archipelago.  Here  Captain 
Flinders  lost  one  of  his  boats  with  a  number  of  men.  From  Cape  Lincoln  to  Cape 
Correa,  the  coast,  which  contains  a  creek  or  bay,  has  not  been  narrowly  examined. 
Lewis  Bay  presents  an  extent  of  coast  of  more  than  forty  miles,  where  our  naviga- 
tors saw  several  fires  belonging  to  the  inhabitants.  The  islands  here  are  very  nume- 
rous on  the  Dutch  charts.  St.  Peter's  islands,  discoverd  by  Peter  Nuyts,  in  1628, 
occupy  a  large  space  in  eveiy  direction. 

*  Grant,  p.  114,  115.  t  Tuckey,  p.  170—1/8. 

*  P(^ron,i.  3ir-r-324.  §  Peron,  i.  p.  327. 


Cape  Catas- 
ti'ophe. 


D'Entrecas- 
teaiix's  obser- 
vatioDs. 


Plants  teen  by 
M.  Labillar- 
di6re. 


NEW  HOLLAND.  369 

Nuyts's  Land  begins  about  the  132d  degree  of  longitude,  and  the  coast  |  Niiyt«*$  Ltnd. 
in  this  part  runs  almost  due  west,  giving  a  much  greater  breadth  to  this  vast  continent 
in  its  northern  than  in  its  southern  part.  This  also  terminates  wliat  may  be  con- 
sidered as  the  southern  shore  of  New  Holland.*  It  is  unfortunate  that  the  discoverer 
has  left  us  no  circumstantial  description  of  it.  Two  modern  travellers,  Vancouver 
and  d'Entrecasteaux,  have  minutely  examined  its  western  part;  but  the  east  part, 
which  forms  a  sort  of  gulf,  by  turning  somewhat  to  the  north,  deserves  to  be  better 
known  than  it  now  is. 

D'Entrecasteaux  only  once  anchored  on  this  dangerous  coast.  Le- 
grand's  Bay,  the  place  where  he  made  some  stay,  is  a  vast  basin,  pro- 
tected by  more  than  twenty  islets,  rocks,  and  shallows.!  Some  of  these  islets  are 
composed  of  granite,  containing  black  mica.  There  are  likewise  needle-shaped 
crystals  of  black  schorl.  Other  islets  have  on  their  highest  parts  calcareous  rock,  in 
horizontal  strata.  The  rock  is  fine-grained,  with  some  small  cavities,  and  without 
any  appearance  of  shells.  The  shore  of  the  continent  consists  of  a  calcareous  sand, 
sometimes  in  heaps.  Fresh ^water  is  found  at  moderate  distances  from  the  sea.  At 
a  distance  of  four  hours'  walking  a  large  lake  was  found,  the  margins  of  which  were 
marshy  on  the  side  towards  the  sea,  with  which  it  communicated. 

Among  the  plants  which  Labillardiere  observed  in  this  wild  country, 
so  seldom  visited  by  any  European,  are  several  new  species  of  the  new 
genus  called  Banksia  by  Forster,  belonging  to  the  family  of  the  Thymeleoc;  also  the 
Eucalyptus  cornuta,  a  new  species  ;  a  new  papilionaceous  species,  called  Chorizema 
ilicifolia;  and  another  new  plant  approaching  to  the  genus  Iris,  and  denominated 
Jlnigozmithus  rufa.  On  the  sandy  borders  of  the  sea  was  found  the  grass  known 
under  the  name  of  Spinifex  squarrosus ;  and  a  beautiful  species  of  Leptospermum, 
■with  silvery  leaves.  J  Among  the  animals  are  found  the  small  seal  of  Buffon,  but 
the  head  is  smaller  than  the  neck,  and  the  ears  are  conical,  and  not  open,  as  described 
by  that  naturalist.  Among  the  birds  are  the  Goeland  burgomaster  oi  Buffon;  the 
penguin,  called  Aptenodyta  minor ;  the  Molucca  parroquet,  swans,  and  cassowaries, 
which  were  seen  by  the  French  navigators.  In  December,  one  of  the  summer 
months  in  this  part  of  the  world,  the  weather  was  cold  enough  to  oblige  them  to  use 
fires ;  it  was  in  the  mean  time  very  rainy.  Some  savages  were  seen  in  a  state  of 
complete  nudity,  but  they  kept  aloof  from  their  visiters. 

Vancouver  stopped  chiefly  at  King  George's  Sound,  one  of  the  best 
harbours  on  this  coast.  The  naturalist  Menzies,  one  of  his  companions, 
made  some  curieus  observations  on  the  country.  The  shores  contain  hills  of  mid 
dling  height,  and  some  high  rocks,  the  feet  of  which  were  destitute  of  verdure,  and 
worn  by  the  waves  of  the  troubled  ocean.  In  the  interior  are  mountains  of  lime- 
stone or  sandstone,  the  whitish  and  notched  surfaces  of  which,  in  some  measure, 
resemble  ruinous  buildings.  The  country  near  Cape  Baldhead  is  principally  com- 
posed of  coral ;  a  substance  not  only  found  on  the  sea-shore,  but  on  the  tops  of  the 
highest  adjoining  hills,  which  were  computed  to  have  an  elevation  of  a  thousand  feet. 
The  coral  retains  its  natural  appearance,  and  is  of  various  degrees  of  friability.  § 
There  are  hkewise  some  chalky  soils,  granite  and  quartz  rocks,  and  marshes  covered 
with  turf,  and  impregnated  with  ochre.  The  climate  appeared  to  our  navigators  to 
be  agreeable  and  healthy.  There  was  a  great  variety  of  plants  and  flowers.  In 
the  forests,  which  were  of  easy  access,  and  not  difficult  to  penetrate,  trees  were  ob- 
served bearing  a  resemblance  to  the  holly ;  others  which  seemed  to  be  the  gum- 
bearing  species  found  in  New  South  Wales ;  and  two  kinds  of  odoriferous  woods. 
Vultures,  parroquets,  parrots,  and  a  variety  of  small  singing  birds,  peopled  the  woods. 
Pelicans,  ducks,  and  black  swans,  made  their  appearance  in  great  abundance.  The 
natives  seemed  to  be  a  wandering  race  ;  their  villages,  recently  deserted,  wore  com- 
posed of  wretched  huts,  in  the  shape  of  half  a  bee-hive. 

•  Desbrosses,  Hlstoire  des  Navigations  aux  Terres  Aiv^trales,  i.  p.  342.  » 

t  Uossel,  Voyage  de  d'Entrecasteaux,  i.  p.  213. 

t  Labillardiere,  vol.  i, p.  402,  404,  412.  §  Vancouver's  Vo>age,  vol.  i.  p.  62  and  77. 

Vol.  II 3  A 


King  George's 
Sound. 


Kdel's  Lnnd. 
Swan  River. 


370  BOOK  FIFTY-SIXTH. 

Mount  Gardner,  near  Port  George,  has  the  appearance  of  a  volcanic  cone.* 
Lcwin'i  Land.  |  That  part  of  New  Holland  which  projects  more  in  a  south-west  direc- 
tion, has  the  name  of'Lewin's  Land,  from  the  Dutch  word  for  "the  Lioness,"  which 
was  the  name  of  the  first  vessel  that  touched  at  it.  Its  boundaries  are  arbitrary. 
We  shall  first  take  notice  of  the  promontory,  which  forms  three  capes,  Hamelin, 
Mentclle,  and  Naturaliste.  Near  the  last  of  these,  Depuch,  the  naturalist,  found  a 
beautiful  granite,  in  regular  and  very  numerous  layers,  which  elucidated  a  contested 
Geographer's  point  in  mineralogy.  Geographer's  Bay,  which  was  discovered  in  Bau- 
Bay.  din's  expedition,  has  marshy  coasts,  with  salt  pools,  tantalizing  the  eye 

with  the  counterfeited  appearance  of  a  river.  Hero  some  feeble,  wild,  and  stupid 
savages  lead  wandering  lives.  Yet  they  had  formed  plantations  of  trees,  which  had 
the  appearance  of  being  intended  for  devotional  meetings ;  and  they  had  drawn  some 
regular  figures,  to  which  a  mysterious  meaning  seemed  to  have  been  attached.  The 
ground,  though  covered  with  beautiful  trees,  particularly  the  JMelaleuca,  the  Xanthor- 
rhea,  and  a  fine  close  sod,  seemed  to  be  impregnated  only  with  brackish  water."}' 
Here  were  seen  the  phenomena  of  the  mirage,  with  its  varying  illusions. 

Edcl's  Land  comprehends  the  middle  part  of  the  west  coast.  Swan 
River,  explored  for  fifty-six  miles  of  its  course  by  M.  Bailly,  waters  a 
low  country,  which  is  pervaded  by  limestone  strata,  and  covered  with  beautiful  Euca- 
lypti, on  the  branches  of  which  were  seen  countless  flocks  of  beautiful  parrots.J 
The  shallows  prevented  this  navigator's  boat  from  proceeding  farther.  He  pei'- 
ceived  a  lofty  chain  of  mountains  at  a  distance.  He  heard  a  bellowing  much  louder 
than  that  of  an  ox  from  among  the  reeds  on  the  river  side,  which  made  him  suspect 
that  a  large  quadruped  lay  somewhere  near  him.  This  circumstance  is  the  more 
remarkable,  as  we  are  told  by  the  learned  and  faithful  Dampier,  that  he  found,  near 
Shark's  Bay,  the  head  and  skeleton  of  a  hippopotamus,  and  gathered  some  teeth  of 
the  lower  jaw  of  the  same  animal,  which  were  a  little  bent.§ 

The  country  in  which  Swan  River  is  situated  is  called,  in  some  maps,  Dinning's 
Land. 

To  the  north  of  this  river  the  land  seems  to  have  a  moderate  elevation.  It  is 
skirted  with  sandy  islands,  breakers,  and  coral  reefs.  The  isle  of  Rottnest  and 
Houtman's  Abrolhos,  where  Pelsart  was  shipwrecked,  are  the  best  known  points. 
Pelsart  found  the  coast  of  the  main  land  destitute  of  plants  and  trees,  and  covered 
with  large  ant-hills  like  huts ;  the  air  was  full  of  flies,  and  fresh  water  was  exceed- 
ingly scarce.  II 

D'Endraciit's  D'Eudracht's  Land,  or  the  land  of  harmony,  has  a  very  low  coast. 

Land.  The   mountains   are  seen  in   the  interior  at  a  distance  of  25  miles. 

The  sandy  country  round  the  large  bay,  called  "Shark's  Bay,"  produces  sea-fennel, 
brambles,  and  a  long  grass,  growing  in  detached  tufts. 

I'roduetions.  |  The  Plerocarfus  draco,  the  mango,  and  some  other  trees,  also  grow 
here;  the  trunks  are  very  thick,  but  not  more  than  ten  feet  high.  Dampier  says 
that  he  saw  rabbits  with  extremely  short  fore  legs.  These  were  kangaroos.  The 
guana  lizards  here  are  very  large,  and  their  appearance  made  this  intelligent 
navigator  shudder.  IT  The  trees  and  shrubs  had  generally  blue  flowers.  According 
Petrifactions.  |  to  M.  Peron  this  whole  coast  is  covered  with  petrified  shell-fish,  and  the 
plants  are  very  often  encrusted  with  petrified  matter.  The  unfortunate  naturalist 
Riche  remarked,  that  a  new  Perseus  seemed  to  have  carried  ofl*  a  second  head  of 
Medusa  on  these  wonderful  shores.  The  incrustations  are  formed  with  extraor- 
dinary rapidity.  They  were  found  covering  the  shrubs,  the  remains  of  animals,  and 
even  portions  of  their  excrements.** 

Shark's  Bay.  |  The  peninsula  of  Peron  divides  the  inner  part  of  Shark's  Bay  into 
two  gulfs,  called  by  the  French  Havre  Freycinet  and  Havre  Hamelin,  both  of  which 

*  Atlas  du  Voyage  aux  Terres  Australes,  pi.  vi.  fig.  1. 

t  P^ron,  i.  p.  77.    Leschenault's  Journal,  MS, 

^  Bailly,  quoted  by  Peron,  i.  178,  Sic.  §  Dampler's  Voyage,  iv.  p.  113, 

II  Debrosses,  t.  i.  p.  454. 

1  Dampier,  vol.  iv.  p.  101 — 104.     Edition  iu  12mo.  ArnsterJam. 

**  Peron,  Memoirc  sur  quelques  faits,  8;c. 


Soil  and  cli- 
mate. 

Wiiuls  and 
tidi'S. 

:  which  re- 


\EW  HOLLAND.  371 

afford  good  anchorage.  Fresh  water  seems  to  be  every  where  wanting  ;  vegetation 
languislios  ;  but  the  seals,  the  whales,  and  lish  of  all  kinds,  including  the  large  sea- 
serpents,  render  the  sea  as  populous  as  the  land  is  desolate.  The  islands  called 
Dorre  and  Dirk-Hartog,  though  very  sandy,  support  shrubs  of  mimoscv,  and  a  great 
number  of  kangaroos.* 

De  Witt's  Land  comprehends  all  the  north-west  coast  of  New  Hoi-  I  ncwiti's 
land,  part  of  which  is,  in  some  maps,  denominated  "  Dampier's  Land.'*  (  *" 
It  is  the  least  known  of  the  whole.  Jiauchn's  expedition  has  not  cleared  up  any  one 
of  the  doubts  to  which  the  researches  and  conjectures  of  Dampicr  had  given  origin. 
This  English  navigator  had  examined  four  or  five  points  of  the  coast,  and  was  per- 
suaded that  they  belonged  to  a  long  chain  of  islands,  beyond  which,  as  beyond  the 
Sunda  islands,  vast  gulfs,  and  perhaps  an  inland  sea  would  be  found.  All 
this  coast,  says  Dampicr,  is  covered  with  a  succession  of  sandy  downs. 
For  half  the  year  the  nortli-west  winds  urge  the  waves  with  violence 
agauist  the  coasts,  and  render  tlie  tides  extvo.mely  irregular.  The  sur- 
rounding sea  is  covered  with  marine  plants,  crabs,  and  a  sort  of  sea-wrac 
sembles  fish  spawn.  Very  little  water  or  grass  is  found  on  the  coast.  It  seems  even 
to  be  deserted  by  birds  and  all  sorts  of  animals.  The  only  remarkable  productions 
are,  a  tree  the  wood  of  which  is  red  like  that  of  the  sassafras,  and  another  of  the 
dragon's  blood  kind ;  the  latter  is  of  the  size  of  an  apple  tree,  with  black  leaves  and 
whitish  bark.     The  gum  exudes  from  the  knots  and  fissures  of  the  trunk. 

Some  miserable  tribes  of  savages  wander  on  the  islands  and  coasts  |  inhabitants, 
of  this  country.  Acccording  to  Dampicr  they  are  a  tall,  stright,  and  meagre  race. 
Their  limbs  are  long  and  loose,  their  heads  large,  their  foreheads  round,  the  eye- 
brows tliick,  the  hair  black  and  crisp,  and  the  complexion  completely  that  of  a  negro. 
Two  teeth  of  the  upper  jaw  are  universally  wanting,  either  naturally  or  in  conse- 
quence of  being  artificially  extracted,  as  is  the  practice  among  some  of  the  people 
of  Africa. f  Their  food  consists  of  shell-fish  and  other  fish.  Their  lances  and 
swords  are  made  of  wood.  They  sleep  in  the  open  air,  and  seem  to  live  exactly 
like  the  inferior  animals. 

Baudin's  navigators  fixed  several  detached  points.  But  the  great  question  of  the 
existence  of  aqueous  communications  with  the  ulterior  of  the  continent  has  not  been 
in  any  degree  elucidated,  notwithstanding  all  the  learning  and  patience  which  JMessrs. 
Freycinet  and  BouUanger  bestowed  in  calculating  and  combining  the  observations 
which  have,  at  diifcrent  periods,  been  made. 

The  Cape"  Murat  of  M.  Freycinet's  atlas  seems  the  same  with  the  j  Cape  wiiiem. 
Cape  Willem  of  the  old  Dutch  charts,  and  of  the  atlas  of  d'Entrecasteaux.  Willeni 
River,  on  the  south  side  of  the  promontory,  can  furnish  no  fixcilities  for  exploring  the 
interior ;  but  to  the  north-east  a  gult',  sixty  miles  wide  at  the  mouth,  and  containing 
several  islands,  has  a  circumference  not  yet  ascertained,  and  perhaps  a  connection 
with  some  inland  sea.  Capes  Poivre,  Malouet,  and  Dupuy,  which  form  one  large 
promontory,  may  as  well  belong  to  a  separate  island  as  to  the  continent  of  New  Hol- 
land. From  this  part  to  Dampier's  Archipelago,  the  coast  of  the  m.iin 
land  is  unknown.  But  from  the  116th  to  the  120th  degree  of  longitude, 
it  seems  to  form  an  uninterrupted  and  straight  lino  of  low  land.  Opposite  to  this 
part  of  the  coast  the  Archipelago  of  Forrester  is  situated,  one  of  the 
islands  of  which  is  composed  of  large  pentagonal  prisms  of  basalt,  in 
some  places  rising  into  walls,  in  others  forming  an  extended  tesselatet 
like  the  Giant's  Causeway.  In  several  places  insulated  columns  shoot  up  from  the 
bosom  of  the  deep.ij^  The  Geographer's  Shallows,  and  those  of  the  Planar'm,  oc- 
cupy a  large  space.     The  island  of  Bcdout  is  fifty-six  miles  from  the  continent. 

Arriviiig  at  the  12lHt  degree  of  longitude,  we  find  a  gap  in  the  coast     imiicaiions of 
of  thirty  or  forty  miles,  and  pt^rhaps  an  opening  into  the  continent.     Its     "" oi"'""'k- 
line  of  direction  then  turns  rapidly  to  the  north-west  and  north,  a  change  vaguely 
expressed  in  old  charts,  which  merely  carry  the  whole  coast  too  far  to  the  west. 
Cape  Missiessy,  and  Cape  Bossut,  preceded  by  Casuarina  Reef  and  Cape  Villaret, 

•  Leschenault's  Journal,  MS.  f  Danipier,  vol.  ii.  p.  14L  t  Pcron,  i,  p.  130. 


Dampier's 
Arckiptilago. 


Forrester's 
Arcliipelagu. 

pavement 


372  BOOK  FIFTY-SIXTH. 

belong  to  the  continent,  or  else  to  a  large  island ;  but  between  the  last  mentioned 
promontory  and  Cape  Huygens,  we  find,  in  Freycinet's  atlas,  the  same  large  and 
deep  opening  formerly  pointed  out  by  Dampier  in  the  same  situation.     An  island  of 
considerable  size,  near  to  Cape  Huygens,  has  received  the  name  of  Gantheaume. 
If  an  attempt  had  been  made  to  enter  this  opening,  an  ampler  field  would  have  been 
undoubtedly  furnished  for  doing  a  similar  honour  to  the  names  of  other  celebrated 
men.     From  Cape  Huygens  the  coast  runs  north,  with  a  slight  westerly  inclination, 
as  far  as  Cape  BerthoUet.     Here  we  find  another  gap,  and  very  probably  a  passage 
which  may  communicate  with  that  on  the  south  of  Cape  Huygens.     The  islands 
Lacepede  and  Carnot,  and  the  "  Whale  Bank,"  front  the  entrance  of  this  channel 
or  gulf.  From  Cape  Borda  to  Cape  Rhuliere,  for  five  degrees  of  longitude,  the  coast 
runs  north-east ;  and,  though  not  completely  examined,  it  presents  no  indications  of 
any  passage.     Old  charts  mark,  in  this  part,  several  deep  bays,  and  a  tunnel-shaped 
gulf,  on  which  the  French  expedition  has  thrown  no  additional  light. 
Island  Adeie.    |       Opposite  to  this  coast  we  have  the  important  and  detached  island  of 
Adele,  with  the  remarkable  Cape  Mollien,  which,  in  the  earliest  sketches  of  charts, 
Archipelago  of    was  represented  as  apart  of  the  continent.     Then  follows  the  large 
Buonaparte.       archipelan^o,  called  by  the  French  navigators  the  Archipelago  of  Buona- 
parte, and  formerly  marked  on  the  old  charts  as  "  certain  islands  seen  by  Saint  A^ 
louarn."     These  countries  present  every  where  the  most  steril  and  forlorn  aspect. 
Whitish  rocks  shoot  up  in  square,  or  pointed,  or  curiously  projecting  forms.     Some 
of  them  have  the  appearance  of  mountains  fallen  on  other  mountains.  No  residence  is 
furnished  for  man  in  a  country  from  which  vegetation  is  banished,  and  which  the 
sky,  always  dry  and  scorching,  never  visits  with  a  genial  dew.*  The  leading  islands 
go  under  the  names  of  Keraudren,  Fontaines,  Cassini,  and  Bougainville.  To  the  north 
of  this  last,  which  is  the  largest,  is  the  large  "  Bank  of  Holothurias,"  peopled  with 
myriads  of  molluscEe.     From  the  mast-head  a  large  island  is  seen  lying  north  and 
south,  which  is  perhaps  the  commencement  of  some  chain  of  islands. 

From  Cape  Rhuliere  to  Cape  Fourcroy,  the  coast  forms  a  large  concavity,  with  a 
south-easterly  direction.  Between  the  bank  of  Holothurias  and  the  Barthelemi 
islands,  M.  Freycinet's  inquiries  present  a  wide  gap,  but  the  old  charts  give  no  indi- 
cations of  any  passage. 

De  Witt's  Land  ends  at  Cape  Van  Diemen,  which  we  think  ought  to 
preserve  its  original  name,  though  the  atlas  of  the  "  Voyage  aux  Terrea 
Australes"  gives  it  the  name  of  Leoben.  It  is  a  frivolous  procedure  to  change  the 
names  of  old  discovered  countries,  merely  because  a  more  recent  navigator  may 
have  corrected  their  position  by  a  few  minutes  of  longitude. 

Amiidm'sf'*  From  the  preceding  view  of  the  north-west  coast,  we  find  it  presenting 

Land,  a  scrics  of  gaps,  which  afford  much  scope  for  future  discoveries.     The 

north  coast  appears  at  first  view  to  have  been  more  completely  explored.  From 
Cape  Van  Diemen  to  the  Gulf  of  Carpentaria,  a  Dutch  chart  lays  down  the  coast  in 
a  positive  manner.!  It  marks  Van  Diemen's  Bay,  the  waters  of  which 
were  found  to  be  white  and  luminous,  in  the  same  way  as  we  have  al- 
ready observed  to  be  the  case  with  the  Molucca  sea.  J  This  bay  seems  to  be  bordered 
by  a  chain  of  mountains.  Farther  east,  the  same  chart  lays  down  a  bay  under  the 
name  of  the  "Bay  of  Difficulty,"§  surrounded  with  low  lands;  and  the  river  Speult, 
at  the  mouth  of  which  are  the  islands  of  Crocodiles.  The  east  part  of  this  coast 
has  got  the  name  of  Arnheim's  Land,  a  name  which  some  think  should  comprehend 
the  whole  coast  from  Cape  Van  Diemen  eastward,  in  order  that  the  name  of  Van 
Diemen's  Land,  as  applied  to  the  westernmost  portion  of  it,  may  be  abolished,  and 
become  exclusively  appropriated  to  the  island  now  so  famous  on  the  south  of  Bass's 
Strait.  All  ambiguity  in  this  particular  may,  however,  be  prevented,  by  the  easy 
expedient  of  assigning  to  the  latter,  as'we  have  done  in  the  preceding  pages,  the 
name  of  "  Fan  Diemen's  Island.'" 

•  r^ron,  i.p.  137.  f  See  Valentyii's  Description  of  Baiida. 

+  See  page  526.  4  Moeyelike  15ocht. 


Cape  Van 
Diemen. 


Van  Dieaien'* 
Bay. 


NEW  HOLLAND.  373 

The  Gulf  of  Carpentaria,  surrounded  by  a  country  called  Carpenta-     ouifof 
ria's  Land,  presents  in  the  Dutch  chart  so  many  mouths  of  rivers,  as     Carpentaria, 
might  tempt  us  to  regard  it  as  one  of  the  chief  recipients  for  the  waters  which  pro- 
ceed from  the  interior  of  New  Holland.     The  leading  ones  seem  to  be  |  RWers. 
Tasman's  River  in  the  west,  and  Caron  River  in  the  south.     But  we  are  told  that 
Captain  Flinders,  on  exploring  these  shores  with  the  utmost  care,  found  all  the  rirer 
beds  either  dry  or  filled  with  sea  water.     A  large  island,  situated  in  the  west  part  of 
this  gulf,  to  which  the  Dutch  navigators  gave  no  name,  has  received  from  the  Ger- 
mans that  of  Busching  Island. 

Ou  the  east  side  of  the  Gulf  of  Carpentaria  is  Cape  York,  which  is  the  |  cape  York, 
northern  extremity  of  this  continent,  projecting  in  such  a  manner  as  to  form  the  strait 
called  Endeavour  strait,  which  separates  it  from  the  island  of  New  Guinea,  and  con- 
nects tho  Molucca  sea  with  the  the  Great  Ocean  on  the  south  and  east.     The  coast, 
now  skirted  with  a  line  of  reefs,  runs  first  south-east  to  Cape  Flattery,  then  turning 
nearly  due  south,  it  presents  us  with  the  small  river  called  Endeavour  I  Endeavour 
River,  where  Captain  Cook  saw  some  caimans,  (a  kind  of  crocodiles,)  j  Wver. 
and  oysters  of  extraordinary  size.     Here  the  savages,  like  the  Otaheitans,  baked 
their  bread  in  furnaces  dug  in  the  ground.     Their  canoes  were  similar  to  those  of 
tho  Phenicians.*     Cape  Tribulation  nearly  proved  fatal  to  this  unwearied  navigator. 
Magnetic  island,  near  Halifax  bay,  is  so  called  from  the  influence  which  it  exerts  on 
the  mariner's  compass  in  the  ships  which  approach  to  it.     Here  the  coast  turns  again 
to  the  south-east,  as  far  as  the  Great  Bay  of  Inlets,  remarkable  for  a  |  Bayofinieu. 
number  of  indentations  which  seem  to  indicate  either  channels  or  rivers.     The  east- 
erly direction  of  the  coast  ends  with  Harvey's  Bay,  which  has  Sandy  Cape  for  its 
eastern  extremity.     At  this  bay  the  huts  of  the  savages  are  built  with  some  degree  of 
solidity,  and  roofed  with  the  bark  of  a  kind  of  tea  tree,  the  JVlelaleuca  trinervis  of 
White.     Proceeding  almost  duo  south,  we  find  Pumice  River,  where  Captain  Flin- 
ders thought  he  found  some  evidences  of  the  existence  of  a  volcano  in  the  neighbour- 
hood-t     Several  large  rivers  discharge  themselves  into  Glasshouse  Bay,  where  stones 
of  volcanic  appearance  are  also  found.     After  passing  Cape  Byron  and  Shoal  Bay 
we  arrive  at  Port  Macquarrie,  the  mouth  of  a  navigable  river  lately  discovered  by  Mr. 
Oxley  in  his  second  exploratory  tour. 

We  have  now  made  the  circuit  of  the  shores  of  this  vast  and  singular  I  ^°"''''^''|'"'f 
country,  but  have  been  unable  to  follow  it  without  several  interruptions,  j  tiie  interior. 
The  interior  completely  escapes  our  inquiries.  No  gulf  or  large  river  has  put  it  in 
our  power  to  pass  within  the  mystic  circle  of  its  general  outline.  Here  research 
gives  place  to  reasoning  and  conjecture.  Does  the  territory  consist  of  an  immense 
sandy  desert,  by  which  the  rain  from  the  heavens  is  absorbed?  This  supposition  is 
favoured  by  the  burning  winds  which,  on  all  sides,  proceed  from  the  interior.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  inequalities  which  must  exist  in  a  territory  so  extensive,  the  heights 
of  such  mountains  as  have  been  seen,  and  the  general  copiousness  of  the  rains  of  the 
torrid  zone,  have  been  supposed  to  favour  the  probability  of  its  giving  birth  to  large 
rivers.  Several  streams  undoubtedly  exist  which  have  not  been  perceived,  even  by 
those  navigators  who  were  within  sight  of  their  mouths,  in  the  same  manner  as  the 
river  at  Port  Macquarrie,  passed  unol)served  by  Captain  Flinders,  when  he  sailed 
along  the  coast,  at  a  moderate  distance,  and  described  the  rocky  prominences  which 
it  presents.  But  if  there  had  been  any  river  of  uncommon  magnitude,  it  is  not  pro- 
bable that  the  freshness  which  it  would  have  imparted  to  the  sea  water  in  its  vicinity 
would  have  escaped  observation,  and  not  led  to  more  minute  investigations.  The 
only  inland  parts  yet  examined  are  near  the  southern  extremity,  where  the  whole 
breadth  of  the  continent  is  only  about  a  fourth  part  of  that  of  its  northern  and  central 
portions.  If  that  which  was  explored  by  Mr.  Oxley,  is  to  be  considered  as  a  faithful 
specimen  of  the  whole,  we  must  conclude  it  to  consist  of  an  unvaried  level  surface, 
part  of  which  is  rendered  habitually  marshy,  and  is  frequently  laid  under  water,  by 
becoming  the  termination  of  large  or  numerous  rivers;  part  consists  of  a  real  lake, 

•  Cook  in  Hawkesbury's  Collection,  iii.  p.  570 — 67?,  8tc. 
t  Flinders,  quoted  by  Collins,  ii.  242,  235. 


Methods  of 
exploring. 


374  BOOK  FIFTY-SIXTH. 

and  part  probably  is  permanently  arid,  like  the  African  sands  on  the  east  and  west 
of  the  Nile.  But  there  may  still  be  chains  of  mountains,  or  detached  oases,  which 
are  fertilized  by  benignant  rains,  and  rendered  more  moderate  in  temperature  by  their 
comparative  elevation.  Some  have  supposed  that  this  whole  land  may  be  nothing 
more  than  the  border  of  an  immense  lagoon,  resembling,  on  a  larger  scale,  some  of 
the  small  islands  of  Polynesia.  Some  one  of  these  hypotheses  must  be  adopted, 
\mless  we  still  believe  that  large  or  numerous  rivers  are  concealed  in  channels  con- 
nected with  the  openings  which  navigators  have  so  imperfectly  described.  These 
channels  may  make  the  supposed  shores  of  the  continent  turn  out  to  be  mere  islands 
or  peninsulas.  Or  we  may  suppose  rivers  of  this  kind  to  be  like  those  of  Madagas- 
car, hid  behind  the  marshes  by  which  Edel's  Land  is  encircled. 

In  order  to  determine  these  questions,  it  has  been  proposed  to  send 
an  expedition  to  penetrate  the  country  from  Spencer's  Gulf.  For  such 
an  expedition,  men  of  science  and  of  courage  ought  to  be  selected.  They  ought  to 
be  provided  with  all  sorts  of  implements  and  stores,  and  with  different  animals,  from 
the  powers  and  instincts  of  which  they  may  derive  assistance.  They  should  have 
oxen  from  Buenos  Ayres,  or  the  English  settlements,  mules  from  Senegal,  and  dro- 
medaries from  Africa  or  Arabia.  The  oxen  would  traverse  the  woods  and  the  thick- 
ets ;  the  mules  would  walk  securely  among  rugged  rocks  and  hilly  countries ;  the 
dromedaries  would  cross  the  sandy  deserts.  Thus  the  expedition  would  be  prepared 
for  any  kind  of  territory  that  the  interior  might  present.  Dogs  also  should  be  taken 
to  raise  game,  and  to  discover  springs  of  water;  and  it  has  even  been  proposed  to 
take  pigs,  for  the  sake  of  finding  out  esculent  roots  in  the  soil.  When  no  kangaroos 
and  game  are  to  be  found,  the  party  would  subsist  on  the  flesh  of  their  own  flocks. 
They  should  be  provided  with  a  balloon,  for  spying  at  a  distance  any  serious  obsta- 
cles to  their  progress  in  particular  directions,  and  for  extending  the  range  of  observa- 
tion which  the  eye  would  take  of  such  level  lands  as  are  too  wide  to  allow  any  heights 
beyond  them  to  come  within  the  compass  of  their  view.  It  has  been  proposed  that 
the  vessels  which  take  the  persons  and  stores  belonging  to  the  land  expedition,  should 
leave  that  part  of  the  coast  where  they  have  been  disembarked,  and  after  going  to 
such  countries  as  could  furnish  them  with  fresh  stores,  should  repair  to  different  sta- 
tions on  the  coast.  This  land  expedition  is  recommended,  in  the  first  instance,  to 
direct  its  course  for  the  Gulf  of  Carpentaria.  It  will  probably  find  in  this  passage, 
chains  of  mountains  lying  north  and  south,  like  the  peninsulas  situated  on  the  coast, 
and  will  consequently  pass  along  the  intermediate  valleys.  If,  contrary  to  all  expec- 
tation, their  progress  should  be  arrested  by  chains  in  a  transverse  direction,  they 
might  turn  east  to  the  Bay  of  Inlets,  or  north-west  to  Dampier's  Gulf,  or  south-west 
to  Swan  River.  It  seems  inconceivable  that  all  these  routes  should  bo  equally  in- 
tercepted by  deserts,  or  impracticable  mountains.  The  journey  might  be  allowed  a 
year  or  eighteen  months,  which  would  be  only  at  the  rate  of  four  or  five  miles  per 
day.  On  the  most  unfavourable  supposition,  the  party  could  return  to  Spencer's 
Gulf.  The  author  of  the  present  work  has  discussed  this  project  in  conversation 
with  the  enlightened  and  indefatigable  traveller  M.  Peron,  who  saw  no  insuperable 
obstacle  to  its  practicability,  except  the  existence  of  an  immense  ocean  of  sand  oc- 
cupying the  whole  interior  of  the  continent,  which  to  him  appeared  extremely  proba- 
ble. Yet,  as  the  central  deserts  of  Asia  and  of  Southern  Africa  maintain  flocks  and 
tribes  of  shepherds  in  their  oases,  our  scientific  nomades  might  in  like  manner  find 
some  strips  of  verdure,  and  some  fresh-water  springs  and  lakes,  especially  after  the 
close  of  the  rainy  season.  The  health  of  the  travellers  in  this  unkown  soil,  perhaps 
exhaling  noxious  vapours,  might  be  protected  by  the  constant  habit  of  lying  in  ham- 
mocks suspended  from  the  branches  of  trees.  On  the  modifications  of  procedure 
that  would  occur  in  executing  such  an  interesting  plan,  it  is  needless  to  speculate. 
Since  these  ideas  were  suggested,  however,  the  two  journeys  of  Mr.  Oxley  from  the 
British  colony  have  afforded,  as  we  have  seen,  a  specimen  of  part  of  the  interior,  and 
perhaps  of  a  large  proportion  of  it.  Yet  it  is  unquestionably  desirable  that  similar 
expeditions,  with  additional  improvements,  should  be  undertaken  from  various  other 
parts  of  the  extensive  coast  of  New  Holland. 


NKW  HOLLAND. 


375 


Table  of  Geogra'phical  Positions  in  JVew  IloUand,  and  the  adjoining  Islands. 


Places. 

South 
Latitude. 

Long.  East 
from  Lend. 

Authorities. 

Van  Diemen's  Island. 

(leg.  m  in.    s 

ee. 

deg.  min.    see. 

Cape  Pillar 

43   14 

0 

147  21     4 

Boullanger  and  Freycinet. 

Cape  Peron  (Maria  Island) 

42  46 

30 

148   14  45 

Idem. 

St.  Helen's  Pomt      .     .     . 

41   20 

30 

148  37  45 

Idem. 

Cape  Portland     .     .     .     • 

40  42 

25 

148     5   15 

Flinder's  Chart. 

Entrance  of  Port  Dalryraple 

41     3 

30 

147  11     0 

Flinders  and  Freycinet. 

Cape  Lenoir  (Hunter's  islands) 

40  29 

30 

144  52  26 

Freycinet. 

South-west  Capo      .     .     . 

43  33 

40 

146     4   15 

D'Entrecastcaux. 

South  Cape 

43  39 

0 

146  54  25 

Idem. 

New  South  Wales. 

Wilson's  Promontory     .     . 

39   10 

30 

146  40  25 

Freycinet. 

Cape  Howe 

37  27 

0 

150     5  15  Flinders. 

Sydney  Cove  (Port  Jackson) 

33  55 

0 

151  25     OWentworth. 

Cape  Danger       .... 

28     8 

0 

153  52   15 

Flinders. 

Sandy  Cape    

24  40 

0 

153  15  15 

Idem. 

Cape  Capricorn   .... 

23  28 

0 

152   10  15 

Cook. 

Broad  Sound  (Bay  of  Inlets) 

22  25 

0 

149     0   15 

Idem. 

Edgecombe  Bay       .     .     . 

20     0 

0 

148     0  15 

Idem. 

Cape  Flattery      .... 

14  56 

0 

145  20  15 

Idem. 

Cape  York 

10  40 

0 

142  20  15 

Idem. 

De  Witt's  Land. 

Cape  Diemen  (or  Leoben) 

11     9 

0 

130   14  15 

Freycinet,  Boullanger, 

&c. 

Cape  Fourcroy    .... 

11   58 

0 

130     0  15 

Idem. 

Barthelemi  islands    .     .     . 

13  48 

0 

129  35   15 

Idem. 

Lacrosse  islands       .     .     . 

14  44 

0 

128  20  15 

Idem. 

Cape  Rhuliere     .... 

13  52 

0 

127  17  16 

Idem. 

Bougainville  Island  .     .     . 

14     0 

0 

126     1   15 

Idem. 

Cape  Voltaire      .... 

14  15 

0 

125  33   15 

Idem. 

Degerando  Island     .     .     . 

15  22 

0 

124     8  15 

Idem. 

Cape  Mollien  (Adel  Island) 

15  27 

0 

123     4   15 

Idem. 

CafFareUi  Island  .... 

16     5 

0 

123   12  15 

Idem. 

Cape  BerthoUet  .... 

17  10 

0 

122     5   15 

Idem. 

Cape  Huygens    .... 

17  58 

0 

122  11   15 

Idem. 

CapeVillaret 

18  19 

0 

121   66   15 

Idem. 

Cape  Missiessy  .... 

19   12 

0 

121    15  15 

Idem. 

Cape  Larrey 

19  47 

0 

119     9   15 

Idem. 

Depuch  island     .... 

20  36 

0 

117  33  15 

Idem. 

Romarin  island    .... 

20  28 

0 

116  30  16 

Idem. 

Cape  Malouet     .... 

20  45 

0 

115  25   15 

Idem. 

Cape  Murat 

21  37 

0 

114   18   16 

Idem. 

D'Endracht's  and  Leu- 

win's  Land. 

Cape  Cuvier 

24  14 

0 

113  24  15 

Idem. 

Dirk-IIartog's  Road      .     . 

25  30 

0 

113     2   16 

Idem. 

Red  Point 

27  42 

0 

114     0  16 

Idem. 

Houtman's  Abrolhos,  (south- 

most  point)       .... 

29  13 

0 

114  20  15 

Van  Kenlen. 

Swan  river  (mouth)        .     . 

32     4 

30 

115  46  35 

Idem. 

Cape  Naturalists      .     .     . 

33  27 

30 

114  59  45 

Freycinet,  Boullanger, 

&c. 

Cape  HamcHn     .... 

34  14 

0 

115     0  15 

Idem. 

376 


BOOK  FIFTY-SIXTH. 


Table  of  Geographical  Positions,  ^c. — coniinued. 


Places. 


Flinder's  Land,  Baudin's 
Land,  (tbure  Napoleon,) 
AND  Grant's  Land. 

Cape  Farewell     .     . 

Cape  Malouet 

Talleyrand  Island  (Islands  of 
St.  Francis)     .     .     . 

Murat  Bay      .     .     .     . 

Cape  Lavoisier    .     .     . 

Cape  Ambrose  Par6 

Cape  Correa  .... 

Cape  Brune    .... 

Cape  Turenne      .     . 

Marengo  Island  (middle) 

Port  Champagny  (Lagrange 
Island)  .     .     . 

Cape  Condillac    . 

Cape  Lafontaine 

Cape  Berthier 

Cape  Eliza 

Gulf  St.  Vincent  (bottom) 

Cape  d'Alembert 

Cape  BedoLit  (Isle  Decres,  or 
Kangaroo  Island) 

Cape  Gantheaume  (Idem) 

Cape  Sane  (Idem) 

Cape  Fermat 

Cape  Bernouilli  . 

Cape  Lannes 

Cape  Bolidor 

Cape  Montaigne 

Cape  Volney  .     . 

Cape  Marengo     . 

Mouth  of  Port  Philip 

Western  Port       •     . 


South 
Latitude. 


■leg.  ni]n.  sec, 

31  55  0 

32  10  20 


32  35 
32  6 
32  31 

32  43 

33  36 

34  48 
38  8 


85  9  20 


34  44 
33  42 


32  58 
35  15  30 
35  13  0 
12  0 


34 


38  31  30 


35  56 

36  4 
35  53 


36 
37 


37  38 

38  1 
38  27 
38  49 
38  54 
38  24 
38  39 


0 

15 
0 
0 
0 

30 
0 

30 
0 
0 
0 

34 


Long.  East 
from  Lond. 


deg.  min.  see, 

131   55  15 
133     5  15 


133 
133 
133 
134 
134 
134 
136 
136 


9  15 
37  15 


50 
4 


5 
15 


48  15 

11  15 

5  45 

26  45 


136  5 

137  17 
137  48 

136  52 

137  41 

138  5 
137  59 


15 
15 
16 
15 
15 
15 
45 


136 
137 
138 
139 
139 
140 
140 
141 
143 
143 
144 
145 


34  55 
30  15 
10  45 
28  45 
42  25 
13  15 
52  15 
42  15 
20  15 
60  16 
48  15 
27  32 


Authorities. 


Freycinet,  BouUanger,  &c.'. 
Idem. 

Idem. 
Idem. 
Idem. 
Idem. 
Idem. 
Idem. 
Idem. 
Idem. 

Idem. 
Idem. 
Idem. 
Idem. 
Idem. 
Idem. 
Idem. 

Idem. 

Idem. 

Idem. 

Idem. 

Freycinet  and  Bernier, 

Idem. 

Idem. 

Idem. 

BouUanger,  &c. 

Idem. 

Idem. 

Faure. 


NEW  ZEALAND.  377 

BOOK  LVII. 
OCEANICA. 


Progress  of 
(liiiCUTery. 


PART  V. 

JVeio  Zealand,  JYew  Guinea,  and  the  intervening  Islands. 

If  we  could  venture  on  so  great  an  innovation  as  to  give  New  Holland  the  classir 
cal,  and  agreeable  name  of  the  Great  Oceanida,  those  countries  of  intermediate  size 
which  lie  between  that  continent  and  Polynesia  would  be  very  conveniently  desig- 
nated under  the  appellation  of  the  Secondary  central  Oceanida.  The  uncouth  jumble 
of  ancient  and  modern  names  introduced  by  navigators,  is  adverse  to  any  regular 
classification.  The  countries  now  to  be  described  probably  present,  by  their  readi- 
ness of  access,  and  their  excellent  climate,  the  most  favourable  situations  for  Euro- 
pean colonies.  But  the  most  central  of  them,  and  particularly  New  Guinea,  are 
inhabited  by  a  warlike  and  inhospitable  race.  We  shall  begin  at  the  south  end  of 
the  chain,  and  proceed  in  a  northerly  course. 

New  Zealand  is  a  country  which  rises  rapidly  into  importance,  in  pro-  |  New  Zealand, 
portion  as  it  becomes  more  known.  Its  west  coast  was  dicovered  in  1642  by  Tas- 
nian,  who  describes  the  inhabitants  as  of  a  brownish  yellow  complexion,  with  long 
black  hair,  and  resembling  the  Japanese.* 

It  was  a  long  time  before  any  thing  was  added  to  Tasman's  discovery. 
A  French  navigator,  M.  de  Surville,  doubled  the  North  Cape,  discovered 
Lauriston's  Bay,  and  might  have  anticipatad  Cook  in  the  honour  of  completing  the 
discovery.  The  unfortunate  Marion  determined  the  position  of  Mascarin  Peak 
more  precisely  than  the  great  English  navigator.  The  celebrated  Captain  Cook 
visited  these  regions  in  1779,  and  found  that  the  strait  discovered  by  Tasman,  and 
thought  to  separate  an  island  on  the  north  from  a  great  Southern  Continent,  only 
separated  two  islands  from  each  other.  The  southern  island  was  called  by  the  na- 
tives Tavi  Po'e'iiammoo,  and  the  northern  Eaheino-mawe,  names  of  which  Cook  dis- 
putes the  authenticity.  Tavi  seems  to  be  the  name  of  a  lake,  and  Poenammoo  the 
word  for  the  stone  called  green  jade.  Yet  this  island  appears  to  be  called  Poenammoo 
in  the  map  drawn  by  a  native,  and  published  by  Mr.  Collins. 

D'Entrecasteaux  fixed  the  position  of  Cape  Maria  de  Diemen;  but  it  was  reserved 
for  Vancouver,  a  pupil  of  the  celebrated  Cook,  to  complete  the  examination  of  the 
southern  island,  which  was  placed  forty  miles  too  far  east  in  the  first  chart.  Cook, 
not  able  to  reach  the  termination  of  one  of  the  arms  of  Dusky  Bay,  called  it  "No- 
body knows  what."  His  pupil  reached  it,  and  changed  its  name  to  "  Somebody 
knows  what."  This  seamen-like  pleasantry,  however,  will  not  answer  the  purposes 
of  geographical  nomenclature. 

The  length  of  the  northern  island  is  436  miles,  and  its  medium  breadth  |  Kxtent. 
probably  sixty  miles.  Its  extent,  therefore,  is  about  26,160  sqnare  miles,  or  16,742,400 
acres.     The  Southern  island,  being  360  miles  long,  and  at  an  average  100  broad, 
contains  36,000  square  miles,  or  23,040,000  acres. 

The  northern  island,  being  the  farthest  from  the  pole,  seems  to  possess 
greater  natural  advantages  than  the  other.  Its  climate  is  temperate  and 
moist,  and  the  whole,  except  a  few  spots  on  the  western,  side  appears  well  adapted 
to  cultivation.  The  southern  island  is  represented  by  Cook  as  mountainous,  and 
apparently  barren.     But  this  report,  founded  on  a  general  and  distant  view,  cannot 

•  Dalrymple's  Miatorical  Collection,  ii.  20.  Sec.     Valentyn's  Description  of  Banda. 
Vol.  II.— 3  B 


Soil  ami 
climate. 


378  BOOK  FirTY-SKYENTlI. 

be  admitted  as  finally  conclusive,  especially  as  the  country  contains  abundance  of 
trees,  and  some  of  prodigious  size.  In  the  excursions  which  the  English  settlers 
have  made  into  the  interior  of  the  northern  island,  the  soil,  though  various,  was 
found  in  general  fertile.  The  landscape  on  every  side  displayed  the  richest  verdure, 
a  circumstance  which  led  to  the  most  flattering  conclusions,  both  respecting  the  soil 
and  the  climate.*  In  this  particular  it  is  much  superior  to  the  territory  round  Port 
Jackson  in  New  Holland,  although  in  the  same  parallel  of  latitude.  The  latter  is 
quite  parched  in  summer,  while  every  thing  is  green  and  flourishing  in  New  Zealand, 
an  advantage  which  it  owes  partly  to  its  insular  situation  and  comparatively  small 
extent,  and  partly  to  the  greater  elevation  of  its  mountains,  which  attract  the  dense, 
clouds,  and  invite  frequent  refreshing  showers.  The  observations  made  on  the 
northern  part  of  Eaheino-mawe,  apply  also  to  the  north  end  of  Poenamoo ;  for  the 
vegetables  which  were  sown  in  Charlotte  Sound  by  Captain  Cook,  were  found  on 
his  return  remarkably  vigorous,  having  been  rather  strengthened  than  injured  by  the 
temperature  of  winter,  though  the  species  were  such  as  would  have  perished  if  ex- 
posed to  an  English  winter.  No  frost  was  seen  here  by  Captain  Cook,  though  he 
visited  it  in  the  beginning  of  June,  which  was  near  the  depth  of  winter.  The 
southern  extremity  has  of  course  a  colder  climate.  It  is  also  remarkable  for  the 
prevalence  of  cloudy  and  stormy  weather.  Violent  gales  are  frequent  and  conti- 
nually change  their  direction,  a  circumstance  ascribed  to  the  great  height  of  the 
mountains. f  Yet  the  climate  was  found  quite  genial  in  its  influence  on  the  health  of 
the  Enghsh  visiters.  In  Cook's  Strait,  the  north-west  are  the  prevailing  winds. 
Moimtsins.  I  The  general  face  of  the  country,  so  far  as  it  has  hitherto  been  explored, 
is  undulating  :  the  hills  rising  with  a  varied  ascent  from  inconsiderable  eminences  to 
lofty  mountains.  A  continued  chain  of  hills  runs  from  the  North  Cape  southward 
through  the  whole  country,  gradually  swelling  into  mountains,  the  highest  of  which, 
according  to  Dr.  Forster,  is  Mount  Egmont,  lying  in  latitude  39°  16',  and  said  to  be 
the  same  in  elevation,  as  weU  as  in  general  appearance,  as  the  Peak  of  Tenerific. 
It  is  covered  with  perpetual  snow  a  great  way  down,  and  from  calculation  and  com- 
parisons respecting  the  snow  line,  he  concluded  its  height  to  be  14,760  feet.  Others 
are  led  by  various  considerations  to  assign  to  it  an  elevation  of  10,000  feet. 
Rocks  and  The  sidcs  of  the  numerous  coves  about  the  Bay  of  Islands,  in  the 

minerals.  north-east  coast  of  Eaheino-mawe,  where  the  English  settlement  is 

fixed,  are  for  the  most  part  composed  of  soft  lameHated  stones,  probably  steatite.  In 
some  of  them  hard  or  dark  brown  veins,  with  traces  of  iron,  are  perceived.  From 
the  softness  of  these  rocks  they  are  found  to  exhibit  frequent  curious  perforations, 
which  form  picturesque  arches,  delighting  the  view  of  the  mariner  as  he  coasts  the 
country.  Huge  masses  of  quartz  rock  are  found  in  the  interior,  and  the  rocks  have 
frequent  cavities,  lined  with  crystallizations.  At  North  Cape  there  are  hard  nodules 
imbedded  in  clay.  These  are  most  probably  iron-stone.  Pieces  of  pumice-stone 
were  found  ;  and  this  substance  is  used  by  the  natives  for  polishing  their  spears  and 
other  instruments  of  war.  Obsidian,  a  volcanic  glassy  substance,  was  also  met 
with.  The  axes  of  the  natives  are  generally  of  green  jade.  Some  are  of  porphyry. 
The  ochry  appearance  of  some  of  the  rivulets  indicates  the  existence  of  iron-ore. 
A  powdery  ore  of  manganese  is  found,  and  employed  by  the  natives  in  the  barbarous 
practice  of  tattooing  their  faces.  About  Cook's  Strait  Mr.  Anderson  found  the  rocks 
to  consist  of  horizontal  strata  of  yellow  sandstone,  crossed  by  veins  of  quartz.  The 
soil  was  a  yellowish  marl.  Forster  says  that  the  southern  island  has  a  thin  layer 
of  black  earth,  under  which  lies  a  rock  of  pale  yellow  nephritic  jade,  intersected  by 
quartz  veins.  J  There  were  also  argillaceous  basalt,  marble,  jasper,  granite  com- 
posed of  black  mica  and  white  quartz, §  and  various  volcanic  matters.  [|  These  evi- 
dences of  subterraneous  fire  are  confirmed  by  the  frequency  of  earthquakes. U 

•  Narrative  of  a  Voya,c:e  to  New  Zealand,  performed  hi  1814  and  1815,  by  John  Liddiard 
Nicholas,  Esq.  vol.  ii.  p.  231. 

f  Cook's  Thu'd  Voyage,  book  i.  chap.  viii.       ^  Forster's  Observations,  p.  10,  (in  German.) 
4  Voyage  de  Marion  et  Cvozet.  1|   Parkinson's  Journal,  p.  89. 

\  Forster's  Voyage,  i.  p.  150,  (German.)     Coliins's  Account,  i.  p.  '^'22. 


NKW  ZEALAND.  379 

The  moutitains  abound  in  springs.    Each  rock  seems  to  be  furnished  |  Riven. 
with  its  provision  of  fresh  water.  The" rivers,  though  tliey  have  short  courses,  are  broad 
and  deep,  and  sometimes  descend  in  the  form  of  magnificent  cascades.*     One  of 
these,  in  Dusky  Bay,  is  thirty  feet  in  diameter,  and  has  a  fall  of  900. 

This  abundance  of  water,  so  favourably  contrasted  with  the  aridity  of  |  Vegetation. 
New  Holland,  is  propitious  to  vegetation,  and  some  of  the  productions  of  the  coun- 
try are  extremely  valuable.  The  mountains  which  give  origin  to  the  river  Thames, 
on  the  east  side  of  the  northern  island,  produce  abundance  of  timber  fit  for  ship- 
building. The  size  of  the  trees  strikes  every  traveller  with  admiration.  Various 
pines,  quite  difl'ercnt  from  those  known  in  Europe,  soar  to  a  height  far  exceeding 
those  of  Norway.  There  are  also  various  trees  of  inferior  growth,  of  a  fine  grain, 
susceptible  of  a  high  polish,  and  admirably  adapted  for  ornamental  cabinet  work. 
There  is  a  tree  called  henoic,  from  which  the  natives  obtain  a  black  dye  ;  a  species 
of  cork-tree  ;  and  many  others,  both  beautiful  and  useful,  which  have  not  yet  been 
classified  by  scientific  botanists.  The  supple-jack  is  met  with  in  all  the  woods,  often 
fifty  feet  long,  obstructing  the  progress  of  the  passenger.  The  tea  myrtle  also  grows 
here,  resembling  that  of  New  Holland,  which  is  a  sort  oT  Philadelphus  or  J\Telaletica 
scoparia.  A  different  species  grows  about  Dusky  Bay,  which  was  used  by  the  crew 
of  the  ship  Endeavour  as  a  substitute  for  tea.  From  the  leaves  of  a  tree  resembling 
the  American  spruce  fir  a  very  wholesome  liquor  was  brewed.  This  seems  to  have 
been  the  Dacryditim  cwprcssinum,  the  leaves  of  which  are  a  good  antidote  to  scurvy. 
There  are  no  native  acido-dulces  fruits  which  a  European  can  eat,  though  some 
coarse  kinds  which  are  relished  by  the  natives.  The  root  of  a  low  common  looking 
fern,  called  Acrostichum  fiircafum,  supplies  the  natives  with  their  ordinary  food. 
Tlicro  is  likewise  an  arborescent  fern,  the  root  of  which  is  dressed  like  potatoes  and 
eaten,  and  the  trunk  of  tiiis  same  tree  contains  a  tender  esculent  pulp,  which  yields 
a  juice  of  a  red  colour.  Herbaceous  species  are  prevented  from  springing  by  the  exu- 
berance and  closeness  of  the  forests.  The  following,  however,  among  others,  are 
found :  wild  celery,  canary-grass,  wild  j)arslcy,  plantain-grass,  a  species  of  rye- 
grass, some  flags,  and  the  Phormium  tenax.  This  last  is  a  most  valuable 
flax  ;  it  has  excited  a  great  interest  in  Europe  ;  has  been  transplanted 
by  the  curious  ;  is  found  to  succeed  in  the  climate  of  France ;  and  considered  as 
most  probably  an  important  accession  to  the  riches  of  this  part  of  the  world.  Nei- 
ther palms  nor  bread-fruit  trees  exist  in  this  country ;  the  chmate  probably  does  not 
suit  them.  From  Europeans  the  New  Zealanders  have  got  potatoes,  coomerU'S  or 
sweet  potatoes,  cabbage,  turnips,  and  a  species  of  yam  called  tacca.  Their  only 
grain  is  maize,  which  they  have  also  obtained  from  European  navigators.  From  the 
same  source  they  have  got  the  pumpkin,  or  gourd,  which  they  cultivate  for  the  sake 
of  the  drinking  vessels  into  which  they  convert  it. 

The  zoology  of  New  Zealand  is  extremely  limited  in  quadrupeds.  The  most 
conspicuous  species  is  the  dog.  There  is  a  large  variety  which  runs  |  Animals, 
about  in  a  wild  state,  and  a  smaller  one  domesticated.  The  former  howls  when  it 
comes  in  sight  of  men.  It  offers  no  injury  to  the  inhabitants,  who  prize  it  highly  for 
its  flesh,  which  they  reckon  a  delicious  food,  and  for  the  hide  and  bones,  which  they 
convert  to  various  purposes  of  ornamental  device.  In  the  class  of  mammalia  they 
have  also  the  rat;  a  small  bat  resembling  the  New  York  bat  of  Pennant ;|  the  sea- 
bear,  or  Phoca  nrsina;  and  the  Phoca  Iconina,  or  leonine  seal,  called  by  Lord  Anson 
the  sea  lion.  There  seems  to  be  a  large  animal  of  the  lizard  kind,  which,  according 
to  the  reports  of  the  natives,  sometimes  destroys  children  in  the  interior.  New  Zea- 
land is  the  native  place  of  some  birds  which  are  singular  for  the  melody  of  their  song 
as  well  as  for  the  gaiety  of  their  plumage.  One  called  the  poe  has  beautiful  tufts  of 
white  feathers,  and  a  song  more  charming  than  that  of  the  finest  European  species. 
There  are  a  few  species  of  the  parrot  kind,  wild  ducks,  and  a  large  black  duck  pecu- 
liar to  the  country.  From  the  feathers  found  lining  some  of  the  garments  of  the 
chiefs,  somewhat  smaller  than  the  emu,  it  is  probable  that  there  is  also  a  species  of 

•  Forster's  Observations,  p.  42.     Voyage  i.  p.  153. 
f  Synopsis  of  Uundrupctls,  No.  2^3. 


New  Zealand 
Jlax. 


Political  and 
civil  itate. 


380  BOOK  FIFTY-SEVKNTU. 

the  cassowary,  though  not  hitherto  seen  by  Europeans.*  Several  aquatic  birds,  and 
in  general  the  same  species  of  sea  fowl  which  frequent  other  parts  of  the  South  Sea, 
such  as  the  albatross  and  penguin,  abound  on  the  shores  of  New  Zealand.  Butter- 
flies, beetles,  common  flies,  and  a  few  musquitoes,  are  among  the  insects,  a  class  of 
animals  which  does  not  appear  to  be  very  abundant.  There  is  a  small  sand-fly  which 
proves  troublesome  by  settling  about  the  instep  and  ankles,  and  biting  people  while 
warm  in  bed.  No  poisonous  serpents  have  been  found.  The  coasts  are  visited  by 
immense  shoals  of  fish,  and  in  great  variety,  making  ample  amends  for  the  paucity  of 
land  animals.  Those  in  common  use  among  the  natives  are  snappers,  bream,  the 
benicooto,  the  parrot-fish,  herrings,  flounders,  and  an  inferior  sort  of  salmon.  Macka- 
rel  is  also  found,  and  lobsters ;  and  there  are  beds  of  cockles,  muscles,  and  other 
shell  fish  in  some  of  the  flats  about  the  coves.  The  muscles  are  of  immense  size, 
and  much  relished  by  the  natives. 

Inhabitants.  |  The  native  inhabitants  of  New  Zealand  belong  to  the  same  race  with 
the  Otaheitans,  the  people  of  the  Friendly  Islands,  and  the  other  Polynesians.  They 
have  tawny  complexions,  somewhat  darker  than  the  Spaniards ;  a  few  among  them 
are  fair.  In  their  persons  they  are  generally  above  the  middle  stature.  Some  are 
six  feet  or  upwards,  and  their  limbs  are  remarkable  for  perfect  symmetry  and  great 
muscular  strength.  Their  countenances  are,  with  few  exceptions,  pleasing  and  intel- 
ligent, without  those  indications  of  ferocity  which  some  of  their  actions  would  lead  us 
to  anticipate.  We  know  but  httle  of  their  diseases,  except  that  they  are  liable  to 
leprosy  and  visceral  inflammations,  and  that  ophthalmia  is  very  common  among  them. 
The  northern  island  is  said  to  be  divided  into  eight  districts,  governed 
by  their  respective  chiefs,  called  areekees  or  kings,  and  other  inferior  chiefs, 
who,  under  the  areekees,  rule  over  smaller  subdivisions.  The  power  of  the  areekee 
is  not  absolute,  and  the  inferior  chiefs  make  frequent  wars  on  one  another  without  con- 
sulting him.  In  their  political  condition  as  well  as  in  some  of  their  usages,  these 
people  bear  a  remarkable  resemblance  to  the  Battas  in  the  island  of  Sumatra.  So- 
ciety is  divided  into  two  distinct  ranks,  the  one  consisting  of  the  chiefs  and  all  their 
kin,  who  are  called  y-un^ateedas,  and  the  common  people,  who  are  called  cookies. 
The  former  are  extremely  tenacious  of  their  dignity.  They  disdain  several  kinds 
of  work,  yet  one  of  them  was  not  ashamed  to  supplicate  an  English  visiter  with 
continued  importunity  to  "  give  him  a  nail,"  after  his  i-equest  had  been  repeatedly 
complied  with.!  A  chief,  on  board  a  British  ship,  will  work  like  a  common  sailor,  or 
will  serve  at  table,  or  sweep  the  cabin,  if  he  is  assured  that  these  labours  are  not 
derogatory  to  his  dignity ;  because  he  has  not  yet  learned  the  European  feelings, 
and  perhaps  still  more,  because  he  is  acute  enough  to  see  the  superiority  of  the  Eu- 
ropean character,  and  reasonable  enough  to  recognize  it  in  his  actions,  reserving  his 
claims  of  rank  for  the  society  of  his  compatriots.  It  is  a  common  thing  for  a  chief 
to  display  his  dignity  in  his  village  by  sitting  on  the  top  of  a  house.  J  The  cookies, 
however,  though  considered  as  far  beneath  the  rungateedas,  are  treated  with  gentle- 
ness and  attention. 

Ingenuity.  |  The  Ncw  Zcalandcrs  have  some  good  domestic  habits,  and  are  not 
without  ingenuity  in  a  few  arts.  Having  no  metallic  pots  for  boiling  their  food,  they 
contrive  to  cook  their  fern  root,  and  their  potatoes,  by  means  of  two  hollow  stones, 
in  which  they  first  put  their  roots,  surrounded  by  a  few  moist  leaves  of  some  well- 
flavoured  plant,  and  then  applying  the  hollow  sides  of  the  stones  to  one  another, 
heat  them  thoroughly  for  a  due  length  of  time,  at  the  end  of  which  they  are  well 
stewed  and  palatable  food.  Of  the  fibres  of  the  Phormium  tenax  they  make  a  kind 
of  cloth  or  matting,  which  they  dye  black  with  the  bark  of  a  tree  called  Enou.  They 
make  wooden  vessels  and  spears,  which  last  are  neatly  tipped  with  bone.  They  cul- 
tivate their  fields  with  great  neatness.  Their  canoes  are  made  of  boards,  well 
joined  and  held  together  by  strong  osiers  ;  some  of  them  are  fifty  feet  long.  The 
large  ones  carry  thirty  men  or  more.  They  are  often  ornamented  with  a  head,  well 
carved  and  expressive  of  warlike  ferocity.  They  are  expert  rowers,  keeping  time 
with  beautiful  exactness,  not  only  in  the  same  canoe,  but  through  the  whole  of  a 

•  Nicholas,  vol.  11.  p.  255.  f  Nicholas.  i  Idem. 


NEW  ZEALAND.  381 

small  squadron.     Their  garments  are  made  of  matting  and  feathers.    Sonie  of  thein 
are  worked  with  the  utniiost  nicety.     One  of  their  finest  cloaks  requires  more  than  a 
year  to  complete  it.     Their  huts  are  constructed  of  sticks  and  reeds  interwoven  with 
each  other,  but  in  a  manner  so  imperfect  and  insufficient  as  to  have  a  wretched  ap- 
pearance ;  forming  a  great  contrast  to  the  neatness  of  the  gardens.     They  have  no 
windows,  and  the  door  is  so  low  and  narrow  that  they  are  obliged  to  squeeze  them- 
selves in  and  out  in  a  crawling  posture.     The  interior  is  sufficiently  roomy,  being 
fourteen  feet  long  and  eight  broad.*     From  motives  of  superstition  they  make  a 
point  of  eating  only  in  the  open  air,  or  under  a  shed  adjoining  their  habitation.  Some 
of  their  villages  are  agreeably  situated,  and  have  a  pleasing  exterior.     The  hut  of 
the  chief  is  often  larger  than  the  rest,  without  being  more  convenient,  or  having  a 
larger  door.     In  some  cases  it  is  distinguished  by  posts  with  rude  ornamental  carv- 
ings.    There  is  also  a  seat  or  throne  for  the  chief  or  king.     The  villages  are  pro- 
tected by  strong  pallisades,  walls  of  wicker-work,  embankments,  and  ditches.     The 
store-houses,  in  which  their  provisions  and  arms  are  contained,  are  built  with  greater 
regard  to  method  and  neatness  than  their  dwellings,  having  spacious  doors,  verandas, 
and  orifices  for  admitting  free  air.'f     The  natives  of  this  country  who  have  visited 
New  Holland  in   the  English  ships,  have  beheld  the  natives  of  that  continent  with 
pity  and  contempt,  for  the  abject  lives  which  they  lead, — their  idleness,  improvidence, 
and  misery.     Their  dress  consists  of  mats  made  from  the  Phormium  tenax,  often 
fancifully  worked  round  with  variegated  borders,  and  decorated  otherwise  with  curi- 
ous  art.     These  are  fixed  round  the  middle  like  the  Scotch  kilt.     The  chiefs  are 
distinguished  by  wearing,  over  their  shoulders,  a  cloak  made  of  various  furs,  and 
shaped  not  unlike  the  Spanish  cloak.    The  chiefs  disfigure  their  whole  countenances 
by  tattooing  them  in  a  most  hideous  manner,  of  which  no  conception  can  be  formed 
without  the  aid  of  such  figures  as  are  given  in  the  works  of  Mr.  Savage  and  Mr. 
Nicholas.     They  also  besmear  them  with  red  ochre.     They  sometimes  wear,  as 
appendages  to  the  ears,  the  teeth  of  the  enemies  whom  they  have  slain  in  battle. 
Sometimes  they  hang  from  their  breasts  pieces  of  green  jade,  carved  into  rude  repre- 
sentations of  the  human  form.     In  their  personal  habits,  however,  they  are  dirty  in 
the  extreme,  and  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest  allow  their  bodies  to  swarm  with 


vermm.;|; 


General  cha- 
racter. 


In  conversation  the  New  Zealanders  are  animated,  humorous,  and 
witty.  Towards  their  relations  and  children  they  are  tenderly  affection- 
ate. '\^^len  they  see  a  relation  after  a  long  absence,  for  example,  one  who  has  been 
beyond  seas,  or  even  hear  accounts  of  one  still  at  a  distance,  they  howl  aloud  with 
the  keenest  sensibility.  Naturally  spirited  and  ingenious,  they  are  curious  and  am- 
bitiously docile  in  matters  of  art.  A  chief  who  beheld  the  ropernaking,  and  other 
manufactures  of  the  English  at  Port  Jackson,  wept  with  mortification  at  the  rude 
state  of  the  arts  in  his  own  country.  The  labours  of  the  field  are  chiefiy  devolved 
on  the  women.  The  fathers  take  the  charge  of  the  children  ;  they  make  excellent 
nurses,  and  fondle  their  infants  with  the  liveliest  tenderness  and  delight.  Polygamy 
is  practised.  One  wife  is  at  the  head  of  the  establishment,  the  others  rank  as  her 
inferiors  and  servants. 

In  religion  the  New  Zealanders  are  moderate  polytheists,  their  cata-  |  Religion, 
logue  of  divinities  being  less  extravagant  than  that  of  many  other  barbarians.  They 
believe  in  a  supreme  Deity — in  a  god  of  anger  and  death — a  deity  who  makes  land 
under  the  sea,  and  fastens  it  by  a  hook  to  a  large  rock  ready  to  be  hauled  up — a 
god  to  haul  up  the  land  :  this  last,  at  the  same  time,  superintends  human  diseases, 
and  gives  lite.  They  have  also  a  god  of  tears  and  sorrow  ;  but  their  1113  tliology  is 
imperfectly  known.  They  believe  in  the  creation  of  man,  and  have  a  tradition  of 
the  first  woman  being  formed  of  a  rib  taken  from  the  man.  They  have  a  story  of 
the  moon  having  descended  to  the  earth,  and  carried  off"  a  man  who  conlintu's  fixed 
on  its  surface.  Their  children,  when  born,  are  sprinkled  with  water  by  the  Tohunga 

•  Nicholas,  vol.  i.  p.  109. 

t  Sec  Mr.  Nicliol  is's  Deficriplion  of  tlie  Town  of  Wycmatlce,  vol.  i.  p.  333 — 3 12. 

i  Nicholas's  Narrative,  voi.  ii.  p.  223,  224. 


Warlike 
Iialiits. 


382  BOOK  fiFTY-SEVENTH. 

or  priest ;  a  ceremony,  without  which  they  believe  it  would  either  be  doomed  to 
death,  or  grow  up  with  a  most  perverse  disposition.  They  are  much  in  the  habit  of 
consecrating  persons,  places,  and  things,  and  call  the  spell  thus  imposed  taboo. 
When  a  person  labours  under  a  severe  malady,  as  soon  as  they  believe  that  it  is  the 
intention  of  the  god  to  deprive  him  of  life,  they  place  him  under  the  taboo,  deny  him 
all  food,  and  leave  him  to  a  necessary  death,  in  compliance  with  the  divine  mandate. 
They  inter  the  bodies  of  the  dead  with  ceremonies  which  they  do  not  allow  Euro- 
peans to  see.  They  believe  that,  on  the  third  day  after  the  bmial,  the  heart  is  sepa- 
rated from  the  body,  and  that  the  separation  is  announced  by  a  gentle  breeze  to  an 
Etooa,  or  inferior  deity,  who  bends  over  the  grave,  and  carries  off  the  heart  to  the 
clouds. 

Suicide.  I      Women  often  commit  suicide  by  hanging  themselves  when  their  hus- 

bands die.  The  keen  feelings  of  this  people  make  them  prone  to  suicide  on  various 
occasions  of  disappointment.  A  woman  will  hang  herself  immediately  after  receiving 
a  beating  from  her  husband.*  The  inhabitants  of  the  Bay  of  Islands  are  said  to  bo 
exempt  from  this  malady.|  The  manners,  no  doubt,  differ  considerably  in  different 
tribes  and  places. 

No  other  mode  of  reckoning  periods  of  time  has  been  observed  among  them, 
than  by  the  changes  of  the  moon,  which  they  count  up  to  100,  and  by  these  epochs 
they  calculate  their  age  and  the  events  that  occur  among  them. 

The  New  Zealanders  live  in  a  state  of  habitual  warfare.  The  chiefs 
and  tribes  are  respectively  jealous  of  their  riglits,  and  go  to  war  when 
these  are  slightly  invaded.  Sometimes,  when  the  two  hostile  armies  meet,  a  parley 
takes  place,  and  peace  is  concluded.  On  such  occasions  a  spirit  of  fairness  and 
reason  is  manifested.  It  is  not,  in  general,  so  much  from  predatory  principles,  as 
from  high  spirit  and  irritability,  that  their  violent  quarrels  originate.  Each  tribe 
entreated  Captain  Cook  to  destroy  its  antagonists.  Even  when  at  peace  they  dis- 
cover, in  their  intercourse  with  the  English,  a  deep  jealousy  of  each  other;  envying 
any  one  whom  they  suppose  more  highly  favoured  than  themselves,  and  continually 
labouring  to  excite  prejudices  against  one  another's  characters  and  intentions.  Their 
wars  are  conducted  with  the  utmost  ferocity.  They  have  short  spears,  which  they 
throw,  hke  javehns,  from  a  distance;  long  ones,  which  they  use  as  lances;  and 
broad,  thick,  sharp-edged  tools,  called  patoo  patoo,  made  of  stone,  about  fourteen 
inches  long,  with  which  they  strike  in  close  combat,  being  able  to  cleave  the  skull 
by  a  single  blow.  Like  the  Battas,  they  devour  the  bodies  of  their  enemies,  and 
entertain  the  extravagant  belief  that  the  soul  of  a  man  thus  devoured  is  doomed  to 
eternal  fire.  It  is  purely  from  vengeance,  and  not  at  all  from  an  appetite  for  human 
Massacres  flcsh,  that  they  indulge  in  this  shocking  practice.    They  have  committed 

Europeans.  some  frightful  massacrcs  on  their  European  visiters,  but  these  do  not 
appear  to  have  been  so  much  instigated  by  cupidity,  as  by  revenge  for  some  affront 
or  injury  received.  The  unfortunate  Marion  had  lived  on  terms  of  intimacy  with 
the  chief  Tacoory,  when  the  latter,  under  the  pretext  of  giving  him  an  entertainment, 
massacred  him  with  all  his  attendants ;  and  the  French  who  came  to  revenge  the 
outrage,  saw  the  disgusting  proofs  of  the  savages  having  eaten  and  gnawed  the  pal- 
pitating limbs  of  those  whom  a  few  hours  before  they  embraced  with  every  demon- 
stration of  attachment.  The  English  have  suffered  from  similar  acts  of  perfidy. 
The  last  was  in  the  case  of  the  ship  Boyd,  in  1809,  the  crew  of  which,  to  the  num- 
ber of  seventy,  was  massacred  by  the  chief  named  George,  in  revenge  for  some  ill 
treatment  received  from  the  commander,  Captain  Thompson,  who  had  brought  him 
back  as  a  passenger  from  Port  Jackson,  on  condition  of  working  his  passage.  The 
chief  being  taken  sick,  and  unable  to  work  to  the  Captain's  satisfaction,  was  flogged 
and  taunted  by  the  latter,  and,  before  being  put  on  shore,  was  stripped  of  every 
thing  English  he  had  about  him.  Totally  insensible  to  his  own  infamous  conduct, 
the  Captain  went  on  shore,  and  left  his  ship  unprotected,  when  the  determined  ven- 
geance of  the  savages  made  a  short  and  dreadful  catastrophe  in  the  annihilation  of 
the  whole  crew,  with  the  exception  of  four,  one  of  whom  was  tiie  cabin  boy,  who 

•  Collms,  vol.  i.  p.  524.  (in  English.)  f  Savage's  Account,  &,c. 


'1  heir  good 
qualities. 


NKW  ZEALAND.  383 

had  paid  some  kind  attention  to  the  chief  during  the  passage.     The  captain  of  a 
vessel  who  afterwards  came  to  the  coast,  left  a  written  warning  with  one  of  \l\e  na- 
tives, to  be  shown  to  the  commander  of  every  ship  which  he  might  afterwards  meet 
witli,  and  in  this  document  it  was  stated,  from  some  mistake  or  misinformation,  that 
a  chief  called  Tippahee,  who  had  formerly  been  well  treated  at  Port  Jackson,  Avas 
the  perpetrator.     The  crew  of  a  whale  ship  who  found  this  paper,  inflicted  a  barba- 
rous and  misplaced  vengeance,  by  murdering  the  whole  people  of  Tippahee,  who 
inhabited  a  small  island,  this  chief  himself  and  a  few  others  having  narrowly  escaped 
in  a  boat. — We  are  not  altogether  certain  what  affronts  may,  on  other     causes  and  re- 
occasions,  have  mcited  these  high  minded  and  irritable  peojjle  to  acts  of    atrocities. 
atrocious  and  perfidious  cruelty.     In  their  conduct  they  often  evince  sentiments  of 
honourable  integrity  and  fidelity,  where  reliance  is  placed  on  them  by  persons  who 
have  treated  them  well.     The  English  sailors  have  been  too  much  in  the  practice  of 
teazing  and  insulting  them,  from  a  wantonness  more  degrading  than  their  own  ex- 
cessive resentments,  and  they  have  invaded  their  property,  and  carried  off  their  crops 
without  scruple,  as  if  no  laws  of  honesty  and  dehcacy  were  binding  towards  beings 
so  strange  and  so  different  from  themselves.    The  governor  of  New  South  Wales  has 
very  laudably  taken  the  natives  under  his  protection  against  all  such  lawless  acts;  the 
people  begin  to  learn  to  make  distinctions  in  the  characters  of  Europeans,  as  well 
as  among  themselves,  and  to  cultivate  a  good  understanding,  and  to  seek  redress  of 
occasional  grievances,  through  the  medium  of  the  small  missionary  settlement  which 
has  been  formed  in  their  country.     They  certainly  possess  qualities 
which  may  prove  a  good  foundation  for  the  formation  of  a  respectable 
character  by  instruction.     A  New  Zealand  mother  will  risk  her  own  life  for  the  sake 
of  her  child.     Their  songs  and  music  are  superior  to  those  of  the  Otaheitans.     Their 
songs  are  sung  in  parts,  and  the  companies  join  in  fidl  chorus.     Their  airs  resemble 
the  chantings  of  an  English  church.     The  inhabitants  of  East  Cape  are  the  bards 
of  the  country,  by  whom  all  their  songs  are  composed.     The  subjects  of  them  are 
generally  taken  from  those  scenes  of  violence  with  which  the  natives  are  so  familiar, 
sometimes  from  the  phenomena  of  storms,  the  business  of  rural  cultivation,  or  other 
common  exercises  and  enjoyments. 

Snares  Island,  Lord  Aukland's  Group,  and  Macquarrie  Island,  to  the 
south  of  New  Zealand,  show  the  continuation  of  the  same  chain  of 
mountains  under  water,  by  which  that  country  is  pervaded. 

There  is  another  well  marked  chain  to  the  east  of  New  Zealand,  and  nearly  pa- 
rallel to  it,  formed  of  the  Bristol,  Penantipodes,  Bounty,  and  Chatham  Islands, 
Chatham  Island,  which  is  the  largest,  was  discovered  by  Broughton. 
It  is  about  thirty-three  miles  long.  The  surface  has  a  gradual  rise,  so 
as  to  form  pleasant  looking  hills  in  the  interior.  It  seems  to  contain  one  of  those 
lagoons  which  occur  so  frequently  in  the  low  islands  of  this  ocean. 

Vegetation,  according  to  Broughton,  is  powerful  in  this  island,  but  the 
trees  are  only  of  middling  height.  For  a  certain  way  up  the  trunk  they 
are  naked,  and  no  brushwood  grows  among  them.  There  is  one  tree  similar  to  the 
bay,  and  another  jointed  like  the  vine.  The  inhabitants  were  observed  to  use  much 
thread  and  cord  made  of  a  fine  hemp,  which  undoubtedly  is  of  the  growth  of  the 
island. 

The  inhabitants  are  of  middling  stature,  stout  and  well  proportioned.  |  inhabitantj. 
They  have  dark-brown  complexions  and  expressive  features.  The  hair  of  their  heads 
and  beards  is  black ;  no  tattooing  was  observed  about  any  part  of  their  l)odies.  Their 
dress  consisted  of  a  seal  skin,  and  a  curiously  wrought  mat.  The  birds  arc  of  the 
same  species  which  are  seen  at  Dusky  Bay  in  New  Zealand,  and  were  remarked  to 
be,  like  them,  wonderfully  familiar,  and  not  the  least  afraid  of  men,  an  evidence  that 
they  sufier  no  molestation. 

Norfolk  Island  is  situated  to  the  north-west  of  New  Zealand,  nearly     Norfolk  w- 
half-way  between  it  and  New  Caledonia.     Here  the  English  had  at  one  |  ^"''' 
time  a  flourisliing  colony,  but  it  has  been  removed  to  Van  Diemen's  Island.     Nor- 
folk Island  labours  under  the  disadvantage  of  having  no  good  harbour.      It  is  about 
fourteen  miles  in  circumference.     The  coral  reefs  extend  nearly  twenty  miles  in  a 


Adjoining  isl- 
ands. 


Chatham  Isl- 
and. 


Its  produc- 
tions. 


384  BOOK  FIFTY-SEVENTH. 

southerly  direction.  The  basis  of  this  island  consists  of  a  yellowish  chalk  common 
to  it  with  New  Zealand.  This  is  covered  with  a  great  thickness  of  black  earth. 
Vegetation  is  vigorous  and  productive.  New  Zealand  flax  grows  better  than  in  its 
native  country.  The  pine  wood  is  heavier  than  that  of  New  Caledonia,  but  softer 
than  that  of  New  Zealand.  Cabbage  palms,  wild  sorrel,  and  sea  fennel,  are  in  great 
abundance.  The  English  settlers  introduced  the  grains  and  domestic  animals  of 
Europe. 

NewCaie-  Saihug  farther  north  we  find  New  Caledonia,  a  pretty  large  island, 

donia.  being  220  or  250  miles  long,  and  fifty  broad.   But  on  the  south  and  the 

west  it  is  rendered  dangerous  of  approach,  by  a  formidable  chain  of  reefs,  extending 
270  miles  beyond  the  island  to  the  south  and  to  the  north-west.* 
Monntainj.  Ncw  Caledonia  seems  to  have  a  mountain  chain  extending  over  its 

Roekj.  whole  length,  becoming  gradually  higher  towards  the  south-east,  till  it 

reaches  an  elevation  of  3200  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  The  principal  rocks 
are  quartz,  mica,  steatite  of  different  degrees  of  hardness,  green  schorl,  and  granite, 
and  they  contain  a  mine  of  specular  iron  ore.  Basaltic  pillars  have  been  observed 
in  some  places.  Its  mountains  contain,  in  all  probability,  rich  metallic  veins. 
Vegetation.  |  The  brcad-fruit  tree  of  this  island  is  very  similar  to  that  of  the  Polyne- 
sian islands.  Beautiful  avenues  are  formed  of  the  cultivated  banana."f  Sugar  cane  and 
arum  are  also  cultivated  here.  The  sides  of  some  of  the  valleys  are  covered  with 
cocoa.  Among  the  other  vegetable  species'are  the  tree  called  Commersonia  echinatn, 
which  grows  in  great  abundance  in  the  Moluccas  ;  the  Hibiscus  tiliaceus,  the  young 
pods  of  which  are  eaten  by  the  inhabitants  ;  the  Dolichos  tuberosus,  the  roots  of 
which  are  roasted  and  eaten  ;  the  Diacophyllum  verticillatum,  a  new  genus,  allied  to 
the  dracontia,  and  which  grows  on  the  tops  of  the  mountains  ;J  the  fujpoxis,  the 
roots  of  which  are  eaten  by  the  New  Caledonians,  springs  up  spontaneously  in  the 
forests.  The  antholoma,  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  shrubs,  forming  a  new  genus, 
grows  on  the  high  grounds. § 

Animals.  |  Even  dogs  and  pigs  were  unknown  in  this  island  before  the  arrival  of 
Europeans.  The  most  common  birds  are  a  pecuhar  sort  of  magpie,  large  pigeons, 
and  Caledonian  ravens.  A  spider  called  nokee  forms  threads  so  strong  as  to  offer  a 
sensible  resistance  before  breaking  when  pulled.  The  animal  constitutes  part  of 
the  people's  food. 

Harbours.  ]  Amoug  the  mooriugs  of  the  island  we  may  mention  Balada  Haven 
and  Deceitful  Haven,  where  d'Entrecasteaux  says  he  could  not  enter,  but  which  the 
English  navigator,  Kent,  has  described  as  a  spacious  and  excellent  port,  situated  be- 
hind the  frightful  chain  of  reefs  which  lines  the  west  coast. 

Inhabitants.  |  A  travelling  naturahst  has  lately  found  a  singular  correspondence  in 
figure  between  the  aborigines  of  Van  Diemen's  Island  and  those  of  New  Caledonia, 
Their  hair  is  nearly  woolly,  and  the  surface  of  their  bodies  greasy.  Some  have  the 
thick  hps  of  the  African  negro.  |j  Light  and  nimble,  they  chmb  trees  with  as  much 
facihty  as  they  walk  along  level  ground.  Cook  praises  the  mildness  of  their  cha- 
racter, and  the  chastity  of  their  females.TT  D'Entrecasteaux  and  Labillardiere  de- 
scribe them  as  equally  cruel,  perfidious,  and  thievish,  with  the  other  islanders  of  the 
Great  Ocean.**  The  women  were  hired  for  a  nail,  and  the  size  of  the  nail  was  in 
proportion  to  the  beauty  of  the  person.  Ignorant  of  the  use  of  the  bow,  they  are 
armed  with  darts  and  clubs,  which  they  manufacture  with  much  pains  ;  they  also 
Cannibals.  [  make  usc  of  sliugs.  It  turns  out  on  recent  and  attentive  observation 
that  they  are  cannibals  from  taste.  They  tasted  with  an  air  of  luxurious  pleasure 
the  muscular  parts  of  the  human  body,  and  ate  a  slice  of  the  flesh  of  a  child-tt 
Their  common  food  consists  of  shell-fish,  and  other  fish,  with  roots.  They  also 
eat   the   spider  already  mentioned,   and  the   greenish  mealy   soap-stone.      The 

•  Labillardiere,  Voyage  a  la  Recherche  de  La  Perouse,  i.  199,  &c. 

t  Idem,  vol.  ii,  p.  36.     Atlas,  pi.  41.  *  Forster,  Voyage,  t.  ii.  p.  327. 

§  Idem,  ibid.  p.  240,  and  Atlas,  pi.  12. 

II  Labillardiere,  Voyage,  ii.  p.  186,  Forster,  Voyage,  ii.  p.  802. 

\  Cook's  Second  Voyage.  *•  Kossel,  Voyage  de  d'Entrecasteaux,  il  p.  "51.  &c. 

tt  Labillardiere,  Voyage  ii.  p.  193—201,  &c. 


Isle  of  Pines, 


NEW  HEBRIDES.  385 

only  dress  of  the  females  is  a  girdle  of  fibrous  bark  ;  several  of  the  men  encircle 
their  heads  with  a  fillet  of  sewed  net-work,  or  a  head  dress  made  of  leaves  and  the 
hair  of  the  vampire  bat.  They  build  walls  on  the  mountains,  to  confine  the  soil,  in 
the  same  manner  as  is  done  in  so  many  countries,  forming  the  arable  surface  into  a 
succession  of  terraces.  Yet  the  soil  is  generally  poor.  Their  houses  are  in  the 
form  of  bee-hives,  and  the  door-posts  are  of  carved  planks.  Their  harsh  and  croak- 
ing language  seems  to  be  totally  different  from  that  of  Polynesia. 

The  Isle  of  Pines,  on  the  south  of  New  Caledonia,  produces  stately 
cedars,  the  trunks  of  which  furnish  columns  exceeding  one  hundred  feet 
in  height.  The  Loyalty  and  Beaupres  Islands  form  a  little  archipelago  to  the  east. 
The  great  reefs  by  which  New  Caledonia  is  skirted  on  the  west,  and  which  extend 
250  miles  in  a  northerly  direction,  present  the  navigator  with  the  prospect  of  inevit- 
able ruin,  in  case  the  winds  and  currents  should  carry  him  among  them.  All  the  way 
between  this  island  and  New  Holland,  the  sea  abounds  with  coral  banks,  some  of 
which  are  larger  and  more  dangerous  than  others.*  Captain  Flinders,  who  was 
shipwrecked  on  one  of  them,  is  of  opinion  that  the  two  frigates  of  La  Perouse  met 
their  fate  on  one  of  these  banks. 

To  the  north  and  east  of  New  Caledonia  we  have  an  important  archi-  |  New  Hebrides, 
pelago,  for  the  extent  and  fertility  of  the  islands  of  which  it  is  composed.  Fernan- 
dez de  Quiros,  who  discovered  the  mainland  in  1606,  gave  it  the  name  of  Australia 
del  Espirito  Santo.  A  hundred  and  sixty-two  years  after  this,  M.  de  Bougainville 
added  to  it  some  islands,  to  which  he  gave  the  elegant  name  of  the  Great  Cyclades. 
After  an  interval  of  six  years,  came  Captain  Cook,  and  completed  the  discovery  of 
the  leading  islands.  Following  the  principle  of  a  submarine  chain  of  mountains,  he 
seems  to  have  reached  its  southern  extremity.  Captain  Bligh  found  a  continuation 
to  the  north,  consisting  of  islands  which  were  probably  seen  by  Quiros.  Captain 
Cook  proposed  to  give  that  archipelago,  as  a  whole,  the  name  of  the  New  Hebrides, 
a  proposal  strongly  objected  to  by  Fleurieu,  who  wished  to  retain  a  memorial  of  the 
first  discovery  in  the  original  name  of  the  Archipelago,  that  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  f" 

The  most  southerly  group  of  this  archipelago  is  detached  from  the  rest  of  the  chain, 
and  consists  of  five  islands,  which,  with  the  exception  of  Immer,  are  high  and  have 
no  coral  reefs.  Tanna,  the  only  one  which  has  been  minutely  examin- 
ed, contains  a  very  active  volcano.  Messrs.  Forster  and  Sparrmann 
made  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  reach  that  burning  mountain,  which  is  not  one  of 
the  highest  on  the  island.  The  volcano  itself  shook,  and  the  ashes  which  it  spouted 
forth  darkened  the  atmosphere.  The  rain,  which  fell  at  the  time,  was  a  heteroge- 
neous mixture  of  water,  sand,  and  earth,  and  might  be  called  a  shower  of  shme.t 
These  subterranean  fires  seem  to  contribute  much  to  that  exuberance  of  vegetation 
by  which  the  island  is  distinguished.  Several  plants  attain  here  twice  the  height 
tliat  they  have  in  other  countries,  broader  leaves  and  a  stronger  perfume.  In  seve- 
ral places,  sulphureous  vapours  are  exhaled.  In  others  the  springs  are  tepid.  Tanna 
has  also  strata  of  clay  and  aluminous  earth,  with  blocks  of  chalk  and  of  tripoli.  It 
abounds  in  sulphur,  and  affords  traces  of  copper.  The  scenery  of  Tanna  is  plea- 
santer  and  more  elegant  than  that  of  Otahoite,  as  the  mountains  do  not  shoot  up 
abruptly  from  the  middle  of  a  narrow  plain,  but  are  preceded  by  several  ranges  of 
hills  separated  from  one  anotlier  by  wide  valleys.  Ilere  are  found  ba-  |  Production*, 
nanas,  sugar  canes,  potatoes,  and  several  sorts  of  fruit  trees.  The  English  found 
here  the  pigeon  which  transports  the  seeds  of  the  nutmeg  in  the  Molucca  Islands. 
In  the  crop  of  one  of  them,  an  oblong  nutmeg  was  found.  The  natives  showed  them 
specimens  of  that  fruit  still  surrounded  by  the  mace.  It  cannot,  therefore,  be  doubted 
that  a  variety  of  the  nutmeg  grows  on  these  islands,  thougl^  none  were  found  within 
the  narrow  limits  which  the  English  were  allowed  to  traverse.  § 

The  natives  resemble  the  people  of  New  Holland  more  tlian  those  of  |  inhabitants, 
the  Friendly  Islands.     They  are  of  a  brownish-black  colour,  of  moderate  stature, 

*  Flinders,  Annales  des  Voyages,  vol.  x.  p.  88. 

f  YoyngQ  de  Marchand,  torn.  v.  i  Forster's  Voyage,  ii.  p.  212, 

§  Cook's  Second  Voyage,  Hook  iii.  ch.  4 — 6.     Forster,  ii.  262. 

Vol.  II.— 3  C 


Island  of 
Tauna. 


386  BOOK  FIFTY-SEVENTH. 

but  muscular  and  vigorous.  Their  beards  are  strong,  black,  and  curled.  The  hair 
of  their  heads  is  thick  and  bristly ;  their  features  are  expressive  and  open  ;  and  every 
thing  about  them  has  a  masculine  and  warrior-like  air.  The  singularity  of  their 
ornaments,  the  little  peg  with  which  the  tip  of  the  nose  is  pierced,  the  cloth  which 
they  wear  around  their  loins,  in  such  a  style  as  rather  to  outrage  decency  than  to 
preserve  it,  and  the  use  of  a  coarse  pigment  made  of  ochre  and  chalk,  are  so  many 
marks  of  an  affinity  to  the  natives  of  New  Caledonia,  New  Guinea,  and  Solomon's 
Archipelago.  On  the  other  hand,  these  islanders  seem  to  have  derived  their  arts 
from  the  same  origin  with  the  Polynesians.  Their  bows,  made  of  the  best  elastic 
wood,  their  slings,  their  clubs,  and  their  darts,  ^^■ith  which  they  can  pierce  a  plank 
four  inches  thick,  often  remind  one  of  the  arms  used  in  the  Friendly  Islands.  The 
language  of  Tanna,  and  that  of  Erromango,  to  the  north  of  it,  are  different ;  and 
neither  of  them  has  any  resemblance  to  the  general  language  of  Polynesia.* 
Women.  |  The  womcn  of  the  New  Hebrides,  being  treated  as  slaves,  soon  lose 
the  few  attractions  which  nature  has  conferred  upon  them.  They  are  weak  and  puny. 
Several  of  the  young  girls,  according  to  Dr.  Forster,had  pleasant  features,  and  a  smile 
which  became  more  pleasing  in  proportion  as  their  timidity  was  dissipated.  They 
had  handsome  forms,  delicately  turned  arms,  and  full  and  round  bosoms ;  their 
clothing  reached  to  the  knees.  Their  curled  hair  waved  loosely  on  their  heads,  or 
was  fastened  in  a  tress ;  and  the  green  banana  leaf,  which  they  generally  wore  in 
their  hair,  formed  a  handsome  contrast  with  its  blackness.  They  repelled  with  mo- 
desty the  advances  of  the  seamen. 

Sandwich  Cook  also  discovered  Sandwich  Island,  which  is  about  seventy  miles 

^'*°'^'  in  circumference,  and  has  an  aspect  equally  fertile  as  the  preceding  two. 

The  woods  were  adorned  with  tints  of  lively  verdure,  and  contained  a  profusion  of 
cocoas.  The  mountains  have  a  considerable  elevation  in  the  interior,  and  exhibit,  at 
their  feet,  many  lower  districts  covered  with  wood,  intermingled  with  cultivated  fields 
arrayed  in  the  same  golden  tints  with  the  corn  fields  of  Europe.  It  was  considered 
as  a  very  promising  island  for  colonization. 

Api,  Paoom,  The  islands  of  Apiand  Paoom  were  not  minutely  examined.     Am- 

^'^^  brym  attracted  attention  by  a  volcano  in  it,  which  impetuously  emitted 

columns  of  whitish  smoke.     It  seemed  to  be  fruitful  and  well  cultivated. f 

In  Whitsuntide  Island  several  plantations  were  seen,  and  many  fires. 
The  more  majestic  island  of  Aurora  is  adorned  with  picturesque  forests, 
diversified  by  fine  water  falls.  The  unpleasant  name  of  Leper  Island,  given  by  Bou- 
gainville to  a  small  one  in  this  neighbourhood,  is  not  founded  on  any  peculiarity 
attached  to  it.     A  white  leprosy  exists  in  every  part  of  Oceanica. 

The  two  large  islands  of  Mallicolo  and  Spirito  Santo  form  a  separate  chain,  lying- 
more  westerly  than  that  which  we  have  now  traced. 

Maiiicaio.  |  The  natives  described  Mallicolo  to  Quiros  as  a  great  country,  although 
it  does  not  exceed  fifty  miles  in  length.  The  Spaniards  called  it  Manicola.  It  is 
well  wooded  and  well  watered,  and  appears  to  possess  a  fertile  soil.  Pigs  and  poul- 
try were  the  only  domestic  animals.  Cook  enriched  it  with  the  addition  of  the  dog, 
inhabitantj.  |  The  people  of  Mallicolo  minht,  from  their  looks,  almost  be  regarded 
as  a  kind  of  apes.  Their  appearance  is  hideous,  and  altogether  different  from  that 
of  the  neighbouring  nations.  The  men  are  brown-coloured :  their  general  height 
does  not  exceed  five  feet  four  inches  :  their  limbs  are,  in  many  instances,  ill  propor- 
tioned :  their  arms  and  legs  are  long  and  lean,  the  head  lengthened,  and  the  coun- 
tenance flattened.  To  these  characters  are  to  be  added  a  broad  flat  nose,  project- 
ing cheek-bones,  the  forehead  narrow  and  compressed  backwards,  as  it  is  in  the 
lower  animals.  Their  hair  is  curled,  but  not  woolly  like  that  of  the  African  negro.J 
Language.  |  This  race  exactly  coincides  in  character  with  the  monkey-looking  tribe 
which  Capt.  Flinders  found  at  Glass-house  Bay.  Their  dialect  contains  those  hissing 
and  clucking  sounds,  and  those  strange  combinations  of  consonants  which  occur  in 

•  Forster's  Voyage,  ii.  p.  225. 

t  Cook's  Second  Voyage,  iii.  p.  241.     Forster's  Voyage,  ii.  p.  180. 

i  Forster's  Observations,  p.  240.     Ditto,  Voyage,  ii.  p.  182. 


Wliinuntide 
Island,  Aurora 
Island,  &c. 


Terra  del  Spi- 
rilo  Santo. 


NEW  HEBIUDES.  387 

the  African  idioms,  setting  the  organs  of  Europeans  at  complete  defiance.  Russian 
and  German  words  they  pronounce  easily.  The  girdle  which  they  wear  round  the  body, 
being  tight  drawn,  gives  them  the  appearance  of  gigantic  ants,  while  the  cloth 
wrapped  close  under  for  the  sake  of  decency,  produces  an  opposite  effect.  They 
use  poisoned  arrows,  by  which  speedy  death  is  inflicted  on  the  wounded.  It  is  the 
mark  of  weakness  to  have  recourse  to  treachery. 

Terra  del  Spirito  Santo,  the  large  and  most  westerly  of  the  whole 
archipelago,  is  sixty  miles  long,  thirty-three  broad,  and  more  than  a  hun- 
dred and  sixty  in  circumference.  The  shores,  especially  on  the  west  side,  are  un- 
commonly high,  forming  a  continued  chain  of  mountains,  which,  in  some  places, 
rise  directly  from  the  margin  of  the  sea.  But  in  general  the  island  is  bordered  by 
beautiful  wooded  hills,  open  valleys,  and  varied  plantations.  The  islands  Bays  and 
which  lie  along  the  southern  and  eastern  coasts  probably  form  bays  and  ''"'■''°""- 
harbours  equally  well  sheltered  with  the  great  Bay  of  St.  James  and  St.  Philip,  which 
is  on  the  east  side.  Here  Quiros  and  Cook  anchored,  in  the  harbour  of  Vera  Cruz, 
near  the  River  Jordan.  The  worthy  Spaniard  wished  to  found,  in  this  place,  the 
city  of  New  Jerusalem  ;  but,  before  the  first  hut  was  finished,  a  bloody  contest  with 
the  natives,  and  a  failure  of  provisions,  obliged  him  to  return  to  America.* 

The  inhabitants,  more  handsome  and  more  vigorous  than  those  of  |  inhaUitantj. 
Mallicolo,  are  black,  and  their  hair  either  woolly  or  much  curled.  Some  of  their 
words  are  the  same  that  are  spoken  in  the  Friendly  and  Society  Islands.  Quiros  saw 
here  men  of  different  colours ;  some  mulattos,  some  blacks,  some  white,  with  red  hair. 
These  last  were  probably  inhabitants  of  the  island  of  Erromano.f  Forster  justly 
laments  the  hurry  with  which  this  country  has  been  surveyed.  This  was  increased 
by  an  unlucky  occurrence.  In  leaving  IMallicolo  a  fish  had  been  taken  |  Poisonous  fish, 
which  seems  to  have  been  a  Spmms  eryihrinus.  All  who  ate  of  it  were  seized  with 
gripes,  acute  pains,  and  vertigo.  Their  bodies  were  covered  with  phlegmons,  and 
they  were  affected  with  a  deadly  languor.  A  dog  and  a  pig,  however,  were  the  only 
individuals  to  whom  it  proved  fatal.  Quiros  met  with  the  same  accident.  Some 
future  navigator  examining  this  island  with  greater  leisure,  will  perhaps  find  in  it  the 
orange-tree,  the  aloe,  the  nutmeg,  the  pepper-plant,  the  ebony,  the 
citron,  the  pearl,  and  other  valued  productions :  perhaps  even  tlie  mines 
of  the  precious  metals  mentioned  by  Quiros. 

This  navigator,  however,  writes  with  much  candour;  he  only  extols  the  rich  and 
varied  vegetation,  the  beautiful  forests,  free  from  the  incumbrance  of  traihng  shrubs, 
and  the  fresh  and  salubrious  waters,  j  If,  in  his  Fifty  Memoirs  presented  to  the 
court  of  Spain,  the  silver  mines  figured  as  a  conspicuous  article,  this  was  a  harmless 
artifice,  intended  to  produce,  in  the  gross  minds  of  the  great,  an  interest  in  their 
noble  acquisitions. 

Ten  or  twelve  islands  remain  to  be  found  again  which  were  discover- 
ed by  Quiros,  after  quitting  the  island  of  Taumaco,  and  before  arriving 
at  Terra  del  Spirito  Santo.  But  it  is  not  easy  to  convert  his  vague  calculations  of 
longitude  into  actual  degrees.  The  discussion  of  the  different  explanations  of  them 
which  have  been  given,  and  which  might  be  given,  would  require  a  long  memoir,  or 
rather  a  monographic  treatise.  If  Rotumah  island  is  Taumaco,  the  islands  of  Tu- 
copia,  San  Marcos,  Vergel,  and  others,  will  correspond  tolerably  well  to  Pandora, 
Cherry,  and  Barvel  islands,  and  Banks's  Group,  lately  discovered  by  Captain  Ed- 
wards, on  the  north-east  of  Terra  del  Spirito  Santo.§  The  description  of  Pitt's  Isl- 
and, which  is  high  and  wooded,  corresponds  to  that  of  the  "  Gate  of  Bclen."  Com- 
ing south  to  14°  30'  of  latitude,  Quiros  discovered  an  island  which  he  called  Nuestra 
Sennora  do  Luz;  and,  immediately  after,  he  saw  to  the  south,  the  south-east,  and 
the  west,  several  high  and  extensive  lands,  in  one  of  which  he  discovered  the  Bay 
of  St.  Philip  and  St.  James.  ||     We  can  easily  sec  the  position  in  which  every  navi- 

•  Quiros's  Account,  written  by  himself,  in  the  Viajero  Universal,  t.  xvii.  p.  197. 

f  Forster,  Voyage,  ii.  p.  201. 

i  Quiros,  in  the  Viajero  Universal,  t.  xxvii.  p.  203. 

§  Bumey's  History  of  Discoveries,  ii.  p.  326. 

I  Account  of  Quirus,  according  to  Figuerva,  in  Dalrymplc,  i.  p.  131. 


Vegetable  pro- 
(luctiona. 


Islands  teen 
by  Quiros. 


Solomon's  Isl- 
ands, and  the 
Islands  of 
Santa  Cruz. 


Mendana's  dis* 
coveries. 


388  ■       BOOK  FIFTY-SEVENTH. 

gator  must  find  himself,  who,  after  having  passed  the  Pic  d'Etoile,  enters  the  chan- 
nel surrounded  on  the  one  hand  by  the  islands  of  Terra  del  Spirito  Santo  and  Malli- 
colo,  and  on  the  other,  by  Aurora  and  Whitsuntide  islands.  Another  account,  which 
says  nothing  of  Nuestra  Sennora,  or  Pic  d'Etoile,  makes  up  for  the  defect  by  an 
express  proof  that  the  Great  Cyclades  of  Bougainville  had  been  seen  and  named  by 
this  navigator;  for  he  found  at  seventeen  degrees  of  latitude,  and  only  seven  leagues 
from  Terra  del  Spirito  Santo,  the  two  islands  of  Cordova  and  Clementina,  which 
seem  to  be  the  same  as  Aurora  and  Whitsuntide  islands.*  In  short,  the  island  of 
Belen,  and  that  which  is  called  the  Pillar  of  Saragossa,  towards  which  the  north-east 
wind  drove  the  fleet,  after  leaving  the  Bay  of  St.  Philip,  must  belong  to  a  chain  which 
connects  the  New  Hebrides  with  Solomon's  Islands. 

We  now  come  to  a  country  the  discovery  of  which,  in  its  different  parts, 

has  afforded  much  exercise  to  the  patience  of  navigators.     The  only 

description  that  can  be  given  of  Solomon's  Islands,  and  the  archipelago 
of  Santa  Cruz,  is  a  history  of  the  attempts  made  to  recognize  and  examine  them. 

The  Spanish  navigator  Mendana,  who  was  sent  out  to  discover  Terra 

Australis,  found,  in  1568,  a  series  of  islands  which  he  called  Ylas  de 
Solomon,  which  he  placed  between  the  fifth  and  the  ninth  degrees  of  south  latitude ; 
but  his  observations  of  the  longitude  were  so  vague  and  inaccurate,  that  neither  he 
himself  nor  any  other  navigator,  for  a  long  time  after,  could  succeed  in  finding  the 
islands.  He  seems  to  have  believed,  from  the  estimates  which  he  made,  that  he  was 
1450  marine  leagues  from  Lima.  But  the  Spaniards  wished  to  conceal  the  disco- 
very, for  fear  of  inducing  other  nations  to  form  settlements  in  these  countries ;  and 
their  authors,  either  in  obedience  to  orders  or  from  ignorance,  placed  these  islands 
sometimes  800  and  sometimes  1500  leagues  west  from  Peru.|  Mendana  gave  the 
name  of  Isabella  to  the  largest  island,  lying  south-east  and  north-west.  Guadalca- 
nal is  a  long  island,  situated  to  the  south  of  the  preceding,  and  behind  some  small 
islands,  among  which  is  Sesarga,  which  contains  a  volcano.  The  most  southerly 
land  found  here  was  called  the  island  of  Christeval.  The  whole  of  this  archipelago 
was  peopled  by  negroes,  armed  with  arrows  and  lances ;  they  dyed  their  hair  red,  and 
ate,  with  high  relish,  the  flesh  of  their  own  species.  J  No  evidence  is  given  of  Men- 
dana having  found  any  indications  of  the  precious  metals.  Solomon's  name  was 
placed  in  the  foreground  merely  to  tempt  the  avarice  of  the  Spanish  government. 

In  a  second  voyage,  Mendana,  after  searching  in  vain  for  Solomon's  Islands,  dis- 
covered the  Island  of  Santa  Cruz  and  a  few  others.  These  were  Egmont  Island, 
and  sonib  others  belonging  to  Queen  Charlotte's  group,  which  were  again  found  by 
Captain  Carteret. 

The  attempt  of  the  Spaniards  to  form  a  settlement  did  not  succeed.  Mendana's 
widow  brought  back  to  the  Philippine  Islands  the  remains  of  the  colony  which  had 
escaped  the  ravages  of  disease  and  the  hostile  attacks  of  the  natives. 

Carteret  landed  on  the  Island  of  Santa  Cruz,  where  he  was  obliged 

to  maintain  a  bloody  contest  with  the  inhabitants.  Here  the  English 
had  been  received  and  entertained  in  a  house  of  assembly  similar  in  its  form  and 
accommodations  to  those  used  in  Otaheite.§  The  natives  were  black,  though  not 
of  the  very  deepest  tint.  One  of  them,  who  was  taken  prisoner,  had  woolly  hair, 
but  regular  features.  These  people,  brave  and  vigorous,  resolutely  defended  their 
island,  which  is  fertile,  well  wooded,  and  lined  with  large  villages.  Carteret  acknow- 
ledged the  priority  of  discovery  by  the  Spaniards,  yet  presumed  to  name  the  group 
Queen  Charlotte's  Island.  Even  Swallow  Island,  which  has  not  been  found  by  any 
subsequent  navigator  in  the  situation  pointed  out  by  this  Englishman,  must  be  that 
of  San  Francisco,  which  was  seen  by  Mendana.  It  corresponds  to  it,  at  least,  in 
latitude  and  in  physical  features.  || 

*  Quiros,  in  the  Viajero  Universal,  xxvi.  190. 
f  Dalrymple's  Historical  Collection,  i.  p.  43. 
i  Figuerva,  in  the  Viajero  Universal,  vol.  xxvii.  No.  273. 
§  Voyag'e  de  Carteret,  chap.  iv.  et.  v. 

II  Viajero  Univ.  p.  62.    Compare  Decouvertes  des  Francais  au  sud-est  de  la  Nouv.  Guin^e, 
en  ires  et  1769 ;  Fleurieu,  i.  233. 


Carteret's 
Observations 


Solomon's  islands.  389 


Observations 
of  d'Entrecaj- 
teaux  anil 
Labillardiere. 


D'Entrecasteaux  and  Labillaidiere  have  given  us  an  excellent  descrip- 
tion of  the  archipelago  of  Santa  Cruz.  Trevannion  Bay  is  the  most 
remarkable  harbour  of  the  large  island.  The  mountains,  which  are  not 
hio^h,  seem  to  be  calcareous.  The  inhabitants  are  olive-coloured,  and  in  features 
resemble  those  of  the  Moluccas;  but  some  of  them  are  black,  and  seem  to  belong 
to  a  totally  distinct  race.  The  latter  have  thick  lips,  and  broad  flat  noses ;  but  all  of 
them  have  crisp  hair,  and  broad  foreheads.*  They  pluck  the  hair  off  every  part  of 
the  body,  and  delight  in  wearing  white  hair,  which  they  produce  by  means  of  lime, 
in  the  same  way  as  is  done  in  the  Friendly  Islands.  This  colour  forms  a  strange 
contrast  with  the  darkness  of  their  skin,  which  is  increased  by  tatooing. 

Solomon's  Islands  were  first  re-discovered  by  Surville,  a  French  navi-     Discoveries  of 
gator,  who  called  them  the  Arsacides  Islands. f  ^"'"'^  ^' 

He  followed  the  chain  from  north-west  to  south-east.  He  discovered,  on  the 
north  side.  Port  Praslin,  Contrariety  Islands,  Deliverance.  Islands,  and  the  eastern 
extremity  of  all  these  countries  called  Surville  Cape,  or  Surville  Islands.  I  Manners  of  the 
The  inhabitants  manifested  a  perfidious  and  bloody  disposition,  on  which  \  ">''=*''"ant». 
account  he  compared  them  to  the  famous  Assassins  (erroneously  called  by  him  Ar- 
sacides) of  Persia  and  Syria.  They  had  black  complexions,  woolly  hair,  flattened 
noses,  and  thick  lips.  They  powdered  themselves  with  chalk,  wore  bracelets  of  shells, 
and  girdles  of  human  teeth.  Nosegays  were  hung  from  their  perforated  noses. 
Their  light  boats  were  pitched  with  mastic.  Surville  noticed  a  diversity  of  tribes 
which  spoke  different  languages.  The  government  appears  to  be  despotic  in  the 
extreme.  The  fishermen  and  cultivators  are  obliged  to  offer  the  king  the  whole 
produce  of  their  labour,  and  he  retains  as  much  of  it  as  he  chooses.  A  subject 
who  presumes  to  walk  in  the  shadow  of  the  king  is  punished  with  death.  The 
sculptures  with  which  they  adorn  their  war  boats  are  master-pieces  of  elegance. 
Some  of  these  are  fifty  or  sixty  feet  long.  Their  arms  are  far  from  being  contempti- 
ble, especially  their  powerful  elastic  bows.  J 

A  year  after  Surville's  voyage,  another  French  navigator,  M.  de  Bou- 
gainville, leaving  successively  the  New  Hebrides  or  Great  Cyclades,  and 
the  island  of  Louisiade,  found  a  passage  by  the  north  of  Solomon's  Archipelago. 
He  discovered  Bougainville  and  Booka  islands.     The  strait  by  which  these  are 
divided  from  the  islands  visited  by  Mendana  and  SurviUe,  received  the  name  of 
"  Bougainville's  Strait."     This  navigator  was  here  in  great  want  of  provisions;  he 
observed  among  the  inhabitants  of  Choiseul  Bay  evident  traces  of  cannibalism. "§ 
The  south-west  coast  of  this  archipelago  remained  to  be  examined,     shortiand's 
It  was  visited  in  1783  by  an  English  navigator,  Mr.  Shortland,  who  took     ''iscoveries. 
this  series  of  islands  for  one  continued  country,  which  he  thought  proper  to  calf 
New  Georgia.     From  what  he  saw  and  heard  he  inferred  that  the  natives  called  it 
Simbu.     The  great  mountain,  which  he  called  Mount  Lammas,  is  situated  in  Men- 
dana's  Island  of  Guadalcanal.     The  strait  to  which  he  gave  his  own  name  is  the 
same  through  which  Bougainville  had  passed.     But  he  observed  the  "  Treasury 
Islands,"  which  had  escaped  the  rapid  researches  of  the  French  navigator.  || 

D'Entrecasteaux  has  thrown  considerable  light  on  the  geography  of 
this  archipelago.  He  examined  the  southern  coasts  of  San  Christoval 
and  Guadalcanal ;  verified  the  points  seen  by  Shortland  ;  and  determined  with 
greater  accuracy  the  position  of  the  islands  discovered  by  Bougainville.  The  atlas 
accompanying  his  account  points  out  discoveries  the  authors  of  which  are  not  cien- 
tioned,  but  which  appear  from  their  names  to  belong  to  the  English. 

To  sum  up  the  detached  notions  obtained  by  these  navigators,  Solo-  [  Hecapituia- 
men's  Archipelago  consists  of  the  following  islands  from  south  to  north  :  |  "°"* 
San  Christoval,  near  to  which  are  the  Santa  Anna,  and  Santa  Catalina  of  Mendana, 
and  the  Island  of  Contrarieties  of  Surville  ;  Guadalcanal,  separated  by  a  strait  from 

•  Labillardiere,  vol.  ii.  p.  255. 

t  Fleurieu,  Decourvertes  des  Frangais,  p.  120.  p.  287,  Sec.  t  Ibid.  p.  136.  145,  &c. 

§  Bougainville,  "Voyage  Autour  du  Monde,  p.  269. 

g  Bratring,  Memoire  on  the  Discovery  of  New  Georgia,  the  Arsacides  Islands,  &c.  &c.  in  the 
Ephemerides  Geographicse  of  Pertush. 


Discoveries  of 
M.  de  Bou- 
gainville. 


Observations 

ofd'Entreeas- 

teaux. 


Nature  of  the 
country. 


390  BOOK  FIFTY- SEVENTH. 

Santa  Isabella,  the  largest  of  the  whole  archipelago ;  to  the  east  of  the  strait  are 
Carteret  and  Simpson's  Islands,  which  must  correspond  to  the  Buenavista  and  Flo- 
rida of  Mendana.  To  the  south  of  these,  according  to  the  Spanish  navigator,  are 
San  Dimas,  San  German,  Guadeloop,  and  Sesarga.  The  large  island  of  Isabella 
is  separated  by  a  long  channel,  to  which  no  name  is  given,  from  the  islands  seen  by 
Shortland,  and  which  form  a  chain  to  the  west  of  it.  Marsh  Island  is  small ;  but  that 
which  Shortland  thought  he  heard  the  natives  calling  Simboo  appears  to  be  large, 
and  is  probably  (he  Malayta  of  Mendana.  To  the  north  of  it  is  an  island  which  has 
no  name,  and  which  contains  Choiseul  Bay.  Crossing  Bougainville's  Strait  we 
come  to  the  Treasury  Islands,  and  those  of  Bougainville  and  Booka. 

According  to  Labillardiere,  the  naturahst  belonging  to  d'Entrecas- 
teaux's  expedition,  the  Solomon  Islands  are  surrounded  by  reefs  and 
coral  banks,  which,  like  those  of  New  Caledonia,  render  the  navigation  very  dan- 
gerous. They  have  a  fertile  aspect,  and  present  delicious  landscapes.  The  whole 
surface  to  the  very  tops  of  the  mountains  is  shaded  by  trees.* 

Inhabitants.  |  The  island  of  Booka  is  very  populous.  The  inhabitants  are  of  mid- 
dling stature,  with  black  complexions,  but  not  of  the  deepest  tint.  They  go  entirely 
naked.  Their  muscles  are  well  marked,  indicating  great  strength.  Their  figures 
are  ugly  but  expressive.  Their  heads  are  large  ;  the  forehead  and  whole  face  is  broad 
and  flat,  especially  below  the  nose.  The  chin  is  thick,  the  cheeks  rather  prominent, 
the  nose  flattened,  the  mouth  large,  but  the  lips  thin.  They  pluck  out  the  hair  from 
every  part  of  the  body.  They  bestow  industrious  pains  on  the  making  of  their 
bows ;  their  arrows  are  tipped  with  the  sharp  bones  of  the  stickle-back,  and  they 
are  skilful  in  the  use  of  their  weapons.  Their  boats  are  elegantly  formed  and 
adorned  with  carved  work.  In  the  Island  of  Contrarieties  some  of  the  words  used 
by  the  natives  belong  to  the  Maylay  or  Polynesian  language. 

Productions,  j  Solomon's  Islands  seem  to  be  very  fertile.  Among  their  vegetable 
productions  the  old  navigators  mention  cloves,  coffee,  ginger,  a  kind  of  citron,  and 
many  resinous  trees,  which  afford  an  odorous  aromatic  exudation.  The  bread-fruit 
tree  and  the  fan-leaved  palm  abound  in  them.  Plenty  of  poultry  were  seen  ;  the 
dog  and  pig  seem  to  be  known ;  the  forests  are  peopled  by  elegant  paroquets. 
They  harbour  serpents,  toads  which  have  a  crest  on  the  back,  long  spiders,  and  large 
ants."j"  A  little  gold  and  some  pearls  were  found  by  Mendana,  which  seem  to  have 
given  origin  to  the  extravagant  ideas  which  several  Spanish  writers  have  formed  of 
the  treasures  of  this  modern  Ophir.| 

Hunter,  Pitt,  and  Bellona  Islands,  situated  to  the  south-west  of  San  Christoval, 
form  a  separate  archipelago. 

To  the  north-east  of  Solomon's  Islands  there  seems  to  be  a  chain  of 
low  islets,  surrounded  by  reefs,  which  is  probably  not  fully  known.  Cap- 
tain Hunter  has  lately  determined  Stewart's  Islands,  Bradley's  Shallows,  and  Lord 
Howe's  Group.  Bradley's  Shallows  are  thought  to  be  the  same  to  which  Mendana 
gave  the  name  of  "  Baxos  de  la  Candelaria ;"  perhaps  they  are  only  a  continuation 
of  them.  This  chain  of  low  islands  probably  joins  the  group  to  which  Abel  Tas- 
man  gave  the  name  of  Ontong-Java,  and  which  the  Spanish  navigator,  Maurelle, 
believed  he  re-discovered.  These  lands  have  the  appearance  of  groves  of  palms 
joined  to  shallows.  The  Great  Ocean  has  several  groups  of  this  kind,  the  extent 
and  precise  number  of  which  it  will  long  be  diflicult  to  ascertain.  We  proceed, 
therefore,  to  more  important  objects. 

Between  Solomon's  Islands  and  New  Guinea  we  find  important  archi- 
pelagos. That  of  Louisiade,  to  the  south-west  of  New  Guinea,  was 
discovered  by  Bougainville,  who  visited  in  a  particular  manner  the  bay  called 
"  Orangery  Harbour."  M.  d'Entrecasteaux,  who  visited  these  countries  on  the 
north-side,  gave  names  to  the  islands  of  Rossel,  Saint- Aignan,  d'Entrecasteaux,  and 
Trobriand.  The  whole  of  Louisiade  is  a  chain  of  islands  surrounded  by  rocks  and 
inhabitantt.     |  rcefs.     It  appears  to  be  very  populous.     The  inhabitants  go  naked,  and 

•  Labillardiere,  i.  p.  229.  f  Surville,  chcz  Fleurieu. 

*  Burney,  Hist,  des  Decouv.  p.  283—287. 


Low  islands 
adjoining. 


Archipelago  of 
Louisiade, 


NEW  BRITAIN.  391 

are  almost  black.  Their  woolly  hair  is  decked  with  tufts  of  feathers.  Some  among 
them  are  as  black  as  the  negroes  of  Mozambique.  Like  them  they  have  the  upper 
lip  greatly  projecting  beyond  the  lower.  These  must  be  distinct  races.  The  inha- 
bitants of  Louisiade  do  not  understand  the  Malay  language  ;  their  huts  are  built 
like  those  of  the  Papuas.  They  wear  a  buckler  on  the  left  arm,  a  piece  of  armour 
not  common  among  the  savages  of  this  part  of  the  world.  Their  axes  are  made  of 
serpentine  stone.  They  are  wonderfully  expert  at  sailing  near  the  wind.*  They 
manufacture  fishing  lines.  They  are  very  fond  of  sweet  smells,  and  perfume  the 
greater  part  of  the  objects  which  they  make  use  of. 

The  perfumes  which  were  exhaled  along  the  coasff  created  a  belief  that  aromatic 
trees,  particularly  the  culiban  bay,  grew  in  this  country.  The  cocoa,  the  banana,  and 
the  betel  tree  were  seen. 

We  must  take  notice  of  the  hypothesis  of  M.  de  Fleurieu,  according  to  which, 
the  northern  coasts  of  Louisiade  are  the  same  that  were  discovered  by  the  Dutch 
vessel  Geelvink,  in  1705,  though  neither  their  longitude  nor  latitude  were  deter- 
mined. J  But  this  hypothesis  is  superseded  since  we  have  become  acquainted  with 
a  large  bay  in  the  north  of  New  Guinea,  which  seems  to  suit  the  description  of  that 
which  was  visited  by  the  Geelvink. 

The  Archipelago  of  New  Britain,  long  confounded  with  New  Guinea,  [  Archipeiagoof 
is  separated  from  that  country  by  Dampier's  Strait.  Before  this  sepa-  [  ^^^  Biitain. 
ration  was  known,  Lemaire  and  Abel  Tasman  had  coasted  a  part  of  the  archipelago, 
and  particularly  New  Ireland.  Even  before  their  time,  the  Spaniards,  in  their  first 
voyages  to  New  Guinea,  had  found  the  large  island  called  Dagoa,  the  figure  of  which, 
in  Debry's  Chart,  published  at  Frankfort  in  1596,  resembles  that  which  was  given 
to  New  Britain§  before  Carteret's  voyage;  but  these  old  discoveries  remain  envelop- 
ed in  deep  obscurity.  Dampier  was  the  first  who  informed  us  that  this  mass  of  land 
was  separate  from  New  Guinea.  Carteret,  soon  after  this,  discovered  St.  George's 
Channel,  and  separated  from  New  Britain  the  island  which  he  named  New  Ireland. 
He  also  examined  New  Hanover  and  the  Admiralty  Islands  to  the  west  of  it.  D'En- 
trecasteaux  contracted  the  circumference  of  these  lands,  which  had  been  too  much 
rounded  off",  especially  by  his  examination  of  the  north  coast  of  New  Britain,  where 
he  discovered  the  French  Islands  and  William's  Islands.  The  supposed  easteiTi 
extremity  of  New  Britain  was  found  to  form  a  separate  island,  and  there  were  strono- 
grounds  of  doubt  whether  the  land  next  adjoining  was  a  continuation  with  the  main 
island.  H 

The  nature  of  the  soil  and  the  character  of  the  inhabitants  resemble 
those  of  the  neighbouring  countries  which  we  have  now  described. 
Dampier,  who  stopped  chiefly  in  a  bay  belonging  to  New  Britain,  called  Port  Mon 
tague,  found  the  country  mountainous  and  M'oody,  containing  fertile  valleys  and  large 
rivers.  It  appeared  to  him  to  be  very  populous.  The  natives  resembled  those  of 
Papua,  and  managed  their  canoes  with  the  nicest  skill.  The  principal  production 
appeared  to  be  the  cocoa  tree.  There  were  also  found  a  number  of  esculent  roots 
particularly  ginger,  several  kinds  of  aloes,  rattans,  and  bamboos. TT  The  birds  and 
the  insects  were  in  great  numbers.  Dogs,  or  some  similar  animals,  were  believed 
to  be  observed.  The  sea  and  the  rivers  swarmed  with  fish.  In  the  main  land,  and 
the  adjoining  islands,  there  are  many  volcanoes.  New  Britain  presented  to  d'En- 
trecasteaux  evidences  of  a  very  crowded  population.  The  huts  of  the  inhabitants 
were  raised  on  posts  like  those  of  the  Papuans.** 

Captain  Carteret  found  the  inhabitants  of  New  Ireland  a  very  warlike  people. 
They  carry  spears  armed  with  sharpened  pebbles.  Their  faces  are  besmeared  with 
white  paint,  and  their  hair  covered  with  white  powder;  a  characteristic  trait  of  all 
these  nations.     They  are  black;  their  hair  is  woolly  and  curled,  but  they  have  neither 

•  Labillardiere,  torn.  i.  p.  275.    Rossel,  d'Entrecasteaux. 

t  Bougaiuville,  Voyage,  p.  258.     Labillardiere,  torn.  ii.  p.  281. 

i  Desbrosses,  Hist,  des  Navigat.  aux  Terres  Australes,  i.  p.  444. 

§  Dalrymple,  Hist.  Coll.  i.  p.  16.  ^  Zimmerman,  Australien,  i.  328. 

1  Labillardiere,  torn.  ii.  p.  285.  ••  Dampier's  Voyages,  t.  v.  p.  120. 


Nature  and 
productions  of 
New  Ijritain. 


Plants  and  ani' 
nials. 

Island  of  Co- 
coas. 


Duke  of 
York's  Island. 


392  BOOK  FIFTY-SEVENTH. 

the  thick  Ups  nor  the  flat  noses  of  negroes.     Some  of  the  canoes  of  New  Ireland  are 
eighty  feet  long,  and  are  made  of  a  single  tree. 

Bougainville  observed  here  the  pepper  vine;  but  it  is  to  Labillardiere  that  we  are 
indebted  for  the  most  extended  accounts. 

Mountains.  |  In  the  neighbourhood  of  Carteret  harbour,  in  New  Ireland,  there  are 
some  steep  mountains,  containing  on  their  sides  remains  of  marine  bodies,  of  which 
they  are  partly  composed.  Some  of  them  in  the  interior  seem  to  be  upwards  of 
8000  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  and  are  covered  with  tall  trees  to  their  summits. 
The  hollows  of  the  rocks  harbour  the  large  bat  called  Vespertilio  vampyrua.    .The 

bread-fruit  tree  is  found  here,  and  the  cubeb  pepper,  which  grows  amidst 

the  shade  of  the  forests.*     There  are  many  scorpions  and  Scolopendra. 
The  little  island  of  Cocoas,  in  this  vicinity,  is  entirely  calcareous.    It 

contains  a  much  greater  number  of  fig  trees  than  of  cocoas.  The  Bar- 
ringtotiia  speciosa,  the  Pandanus,  the  Heritiera,  attracted  by  the  humidity,  wave  their 
magnificent  branches  over  the  surface  of  the  sea.^  There  is  also  a  new  species  of 
areca  palm,  which  is  140  feet  in  height.  Its  trunk  is  extremely  tender,  but  the  wood 
is  very  hard.  There  is  a  very  large  tree  belonging  to  the  genus  Solaniim.  Teak 
and  gum-bearing  trees  are  common.  In  the  marshes  is  found  the  useful  sago  palm, 
a  valuable  resource  for  a  future  colony.  In  the  west  part  there  is  a  species  of  nut- 
meg, described  by  Rumphius  under  the  name  of  Myristica  mas. 

The  small  island  called  the  Duke  of  York's,  in  George's  Channel, 

appeared  to  Captain  Hunter  a  large  garden,  its  plantations  were  so  re- 
gular and  so  near  together.  The  inhabitants  brought  fruits,  which  they  piled  up  in 
pyramidal  heaps,  on  the  top  of  which  they  placed  little  dogs  with  their  feet  tied ;  they 
sung  hymns  of  peace  to  the  sound  of  a  large  shell ;  but  amidst  these  demonstrations, 
tending  to  dissipate  every  fear,  the  spirit  of  defiance  and  ferocity  which  they  cherished 
was  sufficiently  apparent.  J 

New  Hauover,  |  To  the  wcst  of  New  Ireland  is  another  pretty  large  island,  though  little 
known,  called  New  Hanover,  separated  from  the  preceding  by  a  channel  much  ob- 
structed with  reefs,  and  shut  up,  at  its  entrance,  by  small  islets. 
Small  Islands.  |  Among  the  small  islands,  which  form  a  chain  to  the  east  of  New  Ire- 
land, we  shall  take  notice  of  Garrit-Denis,  or  rather  Gerard  de  Nys.  The  inhabi- 
tants resemble  those  of  the  main  land ;  they  wear  little  pegs  stuck  through  holes  in 
their  noses. § 

Turning  westward,  in  the  direction  of  New  Guinea,  we  meet  with  a 

series  of  archipelagos;  among  which  are  the  Portland  Islands,  the  Ad- 
miralty Islands,  Hermit's  Islands,  and  Exchequer  Islands.  Each  of  them  has  a  large 
island  in  the  centre  of  the  group,  and  round  which  the  outline  is  formed  by  a  great 
number  of  flat  islets,  connected  together  by  reefs.  In  the  archipelago  of  the  Admi- 
ralty Islands  the  islanders  have  black  complexions,  though  not  of  the  deepest  kind ; 
their  physiognomy  is  agreeable,  and,  in  its  oval  form,  differs  little  from  the  European 
character.  Their  figures  are  excellent,  if  the  plates  published  by  travellers  are 
worthy  of  credit.  The  chiefs  seem  to  be  possessed  of  great  authority;  some  persons 
among  them  were  armed  with  darts  pointed  with  volcanic  glass.  The  only  covering 
which  the  men  wear  is  a  shell  fixed  in  front,  for  the  protection  of  decency.  The 
women  wear  a  girdle  round  the  middle.  Their  hair  is  curled  and  black.  They 
sometimes  paint  themselves  red  with  ochre  mixed  up  with  oil.  || 

The  Hermit's  Archipelago  produces  several  species  of  Eugena,  which 

bear  excellent  fruit.  The  inhabitants  seem  stronger,  yet  gentler  and 
more  peaceful,  than  those  of  the  Admiralty  Islands. 

New  Guinea.  |  A  country  of  greater  importance  now  claims  our  attention.  New 
Guinea  is  the  great  link  by  which  the  Molucca  Islands  are  connected  with  New 
Holland  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  Polynesian  Archipelagos  on  the  other.  It  may, 
probably,  have  served  as  a  medium  of  communication  to  the  inhabitants,  and  even 
to  the  animals  and  plants,  of  different  parts  of  Oceanica.     It  must  participate  in 

*  Labillardiere,  torn.  i.  p.  241.  f  ^bid.  p.  233,  &c. 

+  Hunter's  Journal,  p.  141.  §  Dampier,  v.  p.  101. 

II  Labillardiere,  t.  ii.  p.  251. 


Admiralty 
Islands. 


Hermit's 
Islands. 


NEW  GUINEA.  393 

some  of  the  characters  both  of  New  Holhind  and  the  Malay  Islands ;  but,  unfortu- 
nately, we  know  nothing  of  it  beyond  the  line  of  coast,  and  even  of  this  line  our 
knowledge  is  imperfect. 

The  west  part  is  best  known,  and  there  seems  to  be  now  no  room  for  supposing 
that  there  is  any  strait,  by  which  this  country  is  divided  uito  two.  But  of  the  whole 
south  coast,  especially  from  Cape  Walsh  to  Cape  Rodney,  our  knowledge  is  only 
partial,  or  derived  IVom  old  charts,  which  are  not  to  be  depended  on. 

Maclure's  Gulf,  penetrating  deep  into  the  country  on  the  north  part  of  the  west 
coast,  forms  a  circular  peninsula,  in  which  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  and  Dory  Har- 
bour are  situated.  The  great  Bay  of  Geelvink,  penetrating  from  north  to  south,  to 
a  depth  of  190  miles,  produces  another  isthmus  and  another  peninsula.  Opposite 
to  this  gulf  are  situated  Schooten  Island,  Jobie,  and  some  others,  which  were  long 
taken  for  a  part  of  the  coast  of  New  Guinea.  The  remainder  of  the  north  coast, 
discovered  by  tlie  Spaniards,  Meneze,  and  Saavedra,  visited  by  Lemaire,  Schooten, 
and  Tasman,  and  by  Dampier,  Carteret,  and  Bougainville,  seems  to  be  one  even 
uninterrupted  line,  parallel  to  "which  is  a  long  chain  of  islands.  On  examination  it 
is  also  found  to  have  largo  lagoons.*  From  King  William's  Cape  to  South-cast 
Cape  the  east  coast  was  seen  by  d'Entrecasteaux,  but  only  at  a  distance.  It  is  not 
certain  whether  Cape  Rodney,  discovered  by  Edwards,  forms  part  of  the  continent; 
of  which,  in  that  case,  it  will  be  the  southern  extremity. 

In  fine,  the  delineations  of  the  great  gulf  between  Cape  Walsh  and  the  Arroo 
Islands  are  various  and  inconsistent.  At  the  bottom  of  this  gulf,  the  Dutch  place 
the  river  of  Assassins,  and  another  which  they  call  Kecrveer,  or  "  the  Return." 

Supposing  that  New  Guinea  extends,  without  interruption,  from  Cape  Blanc, 
(also  called  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  and  Cape  Rodney,)  its  length  must  be  about 
1200  miles,  and  its  breadth  will  vary  from  15  to  360. 

Torres  Strait,  on  the  south,  separates  New  Guinea  from  New  Holland,  and  Dam- 
pier's  Strait  from  New  Britain. 

This  country  is  often  called  Papua,  or  the  country  of  the  Papoos,  from  the  name 
by  which  the  inhabitants  are  known  among  the  Malays. 

The  coasts  of  New  Guinea  are  generally  high.  In  the  interior,  moun-     Coasu. 
tains  are  seen  towering  over  one  another.     There  are  cataracts,  the     Mountains, 
foaming  waters  of  which  are  visible  at  a  distance  of  many  leagues.     In  the  western 
peninsula,  the  mountain  Arfook  seems  to  reach  higher  than  the  clouds.    The  Dutch 
charts  lay  down  to  the  north-east  of  the  Arroo  islands  a  mountain  covered  with  snow, 
which  must  be  nearly  20,000  feet  high.     The  mountains  on  the  coast  are  richly 
clothed  with  trees.     The  shores  are  covered  with  cocoas.     Navigators  have  been 
universally  struck  with  astonishment  at  the  sight  of  so  fine  a  country,  which  deserves 
to  possess  a  more  industrious  and  civihzed  race  of  inhabitants.     Captain  Forrest, 
who  only  visited  Dory  harbour,  found  many  nutmeg  trees  in  some  small     Vegetable  pro- 
islands  ;  and  we  have  reason  to  think  that  the  main  land  is  not  destitute     ''"<-""•""'• 
of  the  same  productions.     An  aromatic  bark,  called  massoy,  is  exported  in  large 
quantity.|     It  seems  to  be  the  produce  of  a  sort  of  laurel.     The  Dutch  found  m 
this  country  iron-wood,  ebony,  canary- wood,  lingoa,  and  the  grape-formed  nutmeg.^ 
The  sea  throws  out  large  lumps  of  ambergris.     Beautiful  pearls  are  found  in  it. 

Pigs  abound  on  the  sea-coast,  and  wild  boars  in  the  forests  ;  but  per-  |  Animals, 
haps  the  animal  called  the  wild  boar  is  the  barbyrossa  of  the  Moluccas- 

The  ornithology  of  this  country  is  curious  and  even  romantic.  It  is  the  favourite 
residence  of  the  superb  and  singular  birds  of  Paradise,  of  which  there  Birds  of  Van- 
are  ten  or  twelve  kinds.  That  kind  which  is  called  "  The  King," 
has  two  detached  feathers,  parallel  to  the  tail,  which  end  in  an  elegant  curl,  with  a 
tuft.  The  species  called  "  The  Magnificent,"  has  also  two  detached  feathers  of  the 
same  length  with  the  body,  very  slender,  and  ending  in  a  tuft.  The  species  called 
"  Golden  Throat,"  has  three  long  and  straight  feathers  proceeding  from  each  side  of 

•  Sec  the  Comparative  Cliart  of  the  Spanish  and  other  discoveries  in  Dalryraple. 
t  Valentyn,  Amboyna,  p.  208—289. 

i  Ibid.    Description  de  Banda.  64  et  67.  (AccouRt  of  the  Expedition  of  Kcyts.) 
YoL.  II.— 3  D 


394  BOOK  FIFTY-SEVENTH. 

the  head.  All  the  birds  of  Paradise  arc  arrayed  in  brilliant  colours.  They  are 
chiefly  caught  in  the  Arroo  Islands.  They  are  shot  with  blunted  arrows,  or  caught 
with  bird-lime,  or  with  guns.  After  being  dried  by  means  of  smoke  and  sulphur, 
they  are  sold  for  nuts  or  pieces  of  iron,  and  carried  to  Banda.  This  country  also 
contains  beautiful  paroquets  and  loris.  The  goora  carries  a  sort  of  crown,  or  rather 
a  crest  of  long  plumes,  arranged  over  the  head.  White  pigeons  and  pepper-coloured 
ring-doves  live  here  on  the  nutmegs  of  the  country. 

Inhabitants.  Ncw  Guinea  seems  to  be  peopled  with  a  diversity  of  human  tribes. 

Bajoos.  The  Bajoos  of  Borneo,  and  the  Malays  of  the  Moluccas,  lead  the  lives 

of  hunters  on  the  whole  of  the  v/est  coast.  Several  of  them  have  naturally  settled 
Haraforas.  |  in  that  quarter.  In  the  interior  there  is  a  race  of  Haraforas,  who  live  in 
the  hollows  of  old  trees,  on  which  they  chmb,  by  means  of  a  notched  piece  of  wood, 
which  they  drag  behind  them,  for  fear  of  any  surprise. 

Oceanian  ne-  I  The  great  mass  of  the  inhabitants  seem  to  consist  of  real  Oceanian 
groes,  j  negroes.    Their  bodies  are  stout,  tall,  jet  black,  and  rough  to  the  touch, 

the  eyes  large,  the  mouth  extremely  wide,  the  nose  flattened,  the  hair  curled,  but 
hard,  and  of  a  shining  black.*  The  women  have  enormously  large  hanging  breasts. 
Their  dwellings  are  built  in  the  water,  on  a  scaffolding.  In  this  particular  they  re- 
semble the  Borneans,  and  some  other  Asiatic  islanders.  The  women  appear  to  be 
industrious.  They  make  mats  and  earthen  pots,  which  they  bake  with  dried  grass, 
or  brushwood.  They  even  handle  the  axe,  while  their  indolent  husbands  look  on, 
or  occupy  themselves  with  preparations  for  hunting  the  wild  boar."]' 
Clothing.  The  aspect  of  these  people  is  frightful  and  hideous.     Their  skin  is 

Dress.  often  disfigured  v/ith  marks  of  a  leprous  appearance.     They  form  the 

hair  of  the  head  into  enormous  bunches,  sometimes  three  feet  long.  Sometimes 
they  adorn  this  with  the  feathers  of  the  bird  of  paradise,  while  a  number  of  boar's 
tusks  are  hung  from  the  neck  as  objects  of  luxury.  The  religious  creed  of  the  Pa- 
puas  is  little  known.  They  build  tombs  of  hard  coral  rock,  which  they  sometimes 
Trade  with  adom  with  sculpturc.  Their  principal  trade  is  Avith  the  Chinese,  from 
the  Chinese.  vvhom  they  purchase  their  tools  and  utensils,  and  the  coarse  Indian  stuffs 
which  are  used  as  clothing  for  the  women.  They  give  in  exchange,  massoy,  amber- 
gris, sea  snails,  tortoise  shell,  small  pearls,  birds  of  paradise,  loris,  and  other  birds, 
which  they  dry  with  great  skill.  Some  slaves  are  also  exported,  who  are  no  doubt 
prisoners  of  war.  Armed  with  bows  and  arrows,  and  even  with  copper  swords,  the 
inhabitants  of  the  west  coast  have  repelled  detachments  of  Dutch  soldiers  who  were 
Firearms.  |  sent  into  their  country.  Captain  Cook  saw,  near  Cape  Walsh,  savages 
armed  with  a  tube  from  which  smoke  and  flame  issued,  but  accompanied  with  no 
Boats.  I  report.;];  The  precise  nature  of  this  weapon  is  not  known.  The  learned 

navigator,  Dampier,  admires  the  lightness  of  the  boats,  or  proas,  which  these  people 
manage  with  much  dexterity,  and  adorn  with  elegant  carvings. § 

Some  of  the  small  adjoining  islands  are  better  known.  Among  the  Schooten 
Islands,  four  had  flaming  volcanoes,  when  the  Dutch  passed  them  ;  their  soil  was 
very  fertile.  The  islands  of  Moa,  Arimoa,  and  others,  have  the  appearance  of  gar- 
dens of  cocoa  trees  and  other  palms. 

To  the  north-west  is  seen  Waijoo,  an  island  of  considerable  size, 
which  is  said  to  contain  100,000  inhabitants.  The  land  is  elevated,  and 
contains  some  very  high  mountains.  In  the  north  part  of  it  arc  the  two  excellent 
harbours  of  Piapis,  and  Oifak.  j|  This  island,  called  Ooarido  by  the  natives,  is  co- 
vered with  trees  of  great  size.  The  inhabitants  go  entirely  naked,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  a  piece  of  coarse  cloth,  which  they  wear  about  the  middle.  Their  chiefs 
are  dressed  in  stuffs  which  they  purchase  from  the  Chinese.  They  also,  like  the 
latter,  wear  a  conical  cap  of  palm  leaves,  and  the  greater  part  of  them  speak  Chi- 
nese. Their  hair  is  curled,  very  thick,  and  pretty  long.  Some  of  them  allow  their 
mustaches  to  grow.     They  are  skilful  in  the  use  of  the  bow.   Tiiey  live  on  pigs,  tur- 

*  Sonnerat,  Voyage,  iii.  p.  399. 

•f  Forrest,  Voyag-e  it  la  Nouvelle  Guinee,  torn,  i,  p.  110 — 112  \-  Ilawkesliury,  p.  658. 

i  Figured  by  Abel  Tasman,  (\'alentyn,  iv.)  ||  Forrest,  Voyage,  i.  p.  90. 


Island  of 

"Waijoo. 


NEW  GUINEA. 


395 


Salwatty  Isl- 
and. 


Islands  of  St. 
David  and 
Freewill. 


ties,  poultry,  Siam  oranges,  cocoa  nuts,  papaws,  gourds,  purslain,  citrons,  pimento, 
and  green  ears  of  maize  roasted.  Labiliardiere  found  here  the  beautiful  promerops 
of  New  Guinea,  (a  bird  resembling  the  lapwing,)  large  black  cuckatoos,  and  a  ne\» 
species  of  cacao,  which  he  designates  the  cacao  of  Waijoo.*  Wild  cocks,  and  the 
tufted  pheasants  of  India,  are  very  common  in  the  woods  surrounding  the  excellent 
roadstead  of  Boni-Saini. 

Salwatty  is  also  a  populous  island,  govenied  by  a  raja.  Its  inhabitants 
resemble  those  of  New  Guinea;  their  appearance  is  frightful,  and  their 
character  very  ferocious.     They  live  on  fish,  turtles,  and  sago. 

The  most  suitable  point  of  transition  from  New  Guinea  to  Polynesia, 
or  Eastern  Oceanica,  will  be  found  in  the  islands  of  St.  David  and  Free- 
will. These  are  situated  to  the  north  of  Schooten  Island,  and  peopled  with  a  race 
exactly  similar  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  Marian  and  Sandwich  Islands,  Otaheite  and 
New  Zealand.  "  Here,"  says  Carteret,  "  we  met,  for  the  first  time,  with  copper- 
coloured,  long-haired  Indians."!  They  build  their  villages  in  groves  of  cocoa  trees, 
bananas,  and  bread  fruit.  Their  armour,  made  of  matting,  resists  a  pistol  bullet. 
Their  language  resembles  that  of  the  Sandwich  Islanders, J  a  remarkable  circum- 
stance in  the  history  of  the  Oceanic  nations. 

To  M.  d'Entrecasteaux,  the  group  of  St.  David,  discovered  in  1761,  and  that  of 
Freewill,  discovered  in  176S,  appeared  to  be  the  same  archipelago.  It  is  certain 
that  the  islands  visited  by  Meares  are  the  same  with  those  the  position  of  which  was 
fixed  by  the  French  navigator.  But  as  Meares  and  Carteret  do  not  agree  about  the 
number  of  the  islands,  nor  their  longitude,  and  since  low  lands  easily  escape  the  view 
of  navigators,  it  is  possible  that  a  chain  of  islets,  of  little  elevation,  may  extend  in  the 
direction  pointed  out  by  "  the  low  islands"  of  Bougainville,  and  the  island  Aiow.  An 
English  navigator  has  just  published  a  note,  in  which  he  gives  the  name  of  St.  Da- 
vid's Islands,  to  a  group  situated  in  55  minutes  of  south  latitude,  and  134°  20'  of 
east  longitude.  The  particulars  which  he  gives  respecting  the  inhabitants,  coincide 
with  the  preceding  accounts. §  If  this  opinion  is  admitted,  the  islands  of  St.  David 
will  only  be  the  western  portion  of  the  archipelago  of  the  Schooten  Islands. 


Table  of  the  Geograjjhical  Positions  of  the   Great  Compound  Chain  extending  from 

JYew  Zealand  to  JYeio  Guinea. 


Places. 


New  Zealand. 


Cape  North      -     -     -     - 

Cape  Maria  Van  Diemen 
Idem       ------ 

East  Cape  -     -     -     -     - 

Dusky  Bay       -     -     -     - 

West  Cape        -     -     -     - 

Chatham  Island     -     -     - 


New  Caledonia. 
Queen  Charlotte's  Cape  - 
Prince  of  Wales'  Cape    - 
Balade  Haven  -     -     -     - 
Northern  point  of  the  Reef 


South 
Latitude. 


deg.  min. 

34  22 
34  30 


37  42 
45  47 
45  64 
45  53 


22   15 
22  26 

20   17 
18     3 


30 

25 

0 

0 


0 
30 
11 

0 


Longitude 
East  from 
Greenwich. 


deg.  min.  sec. 

173  20  15 

173   1  30 

172  42  15 

181   0  0 

169  IS  25 

166  41  15 

183  5  0 


167  13  0 

164  24  46 
162  42  16 


Authorities. 


Cook. 

D'Entrecasteaux. 
Cook. 
Idem. 

Cook  and  Wales. 
Idem. 

Broughton,  corrected  by 
Beaupre. 

Wales. 

Cook. 

D'Entrecasteaux. 

Idem. 


•  Labiliardiere,  torn.  ii.  p.  291. 

f  Carteret,  in  Ilawkesbury's  Account,  i.  p.  608. 

i  Meares'  Voyage,  p.  84,  (Forster's  translation.) 

§  Lradlcy  in  the  Annual  Register,  1817.    Miscellan.  Tracts,  p.  916, 


396 


BOOK  FIFTY-SEVENTH. 


Table  of  Geographical  Positions,  ^-c. — coniimied. 


Places. 


Archipelago  del  Spirito  Santo 
St.  James's  Bay  (in  Terra  del  Spirito 
Santo)      -..----■ 

Cape  Quiros  (Idem)   -     -     -     -     . 

Port  Sandwich  (Malicolo)     -     -     ■ 
Sandwich  Island     ------ 

Resohition  Port  (Tanna)       -     -     ■ 

Solomon  Islands,  &c. 
Cape  Byron  (Santa  Cruz  Island)    ■ 
Cape  Boscawen  (Idem)   -     -     -     ■ 
Swallow  Island      ------ 

Baxos  de  Candelaria  -     -     -     -     ■ 

Bradley's  Shallows     -     -     -     -     • 

North  Point  of  Isabella  Island 

Port  Praslin  (Ibid) 

Idem       .--.----■ 


Eddystone  Rock  (Indian  Bay)  -     - 
North  Capo  (Booka  Island)       -     - 
Archipelago  of  New  Britain,  &c. 
Capo  Gloucester  (New  Britain) 
Cape  Anne  (Idem)     -     -     -     -     - 

Port  Montague  (Idem)    -     -     -     - 

Cape  St.  George  (New  Ireland) 
Carteret  Harbour  ------ 

Cape  Salomaswer  (New  Hanover*) 
La  Vendola  (Admiralty  Islands) 
Admiralty  Islands  (north-west  point) 
Hermit  Islands  (north  point)      -     - 
New  Guinea. 

Moa  Island 

Cape  Dory  -------- 

Idem      --------- 

Cape  of  Good  Hope        -     -     -     - 

Mispalu  (Western  Island)     -     -     - 
Cape  Rodney   ------- 

LOUISIADE. 

Cape  Deliverance  (in  Rossel  Island) 


South 
Latitude. 


deg.  itiin.  sec. 


15  20 
14  44 

16  25 

17  45 
19  32 

10  41 

10  51 

10  26 

6  45 


6 

7 
7 


52 
30 
25 


8   12 
5     0 


5 
6 
6 
5 
4 
2 
2 
1 


29 
54 
10 
0 
29 
10 
14 
57 


1  28 

2  7 
0  35 
0  21 
0  19 
0  19 

10  3 


0 
30 

0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 

0 
0 
0 
5 
15 
22 


11   21     0 


Longitude 

East  from 

Greenwich. 


deg.  min.  sec- 


149  15    15 

167  55  37 

128  30   15 

169  45     0 


166 
165 
166 
160 
161 

157 
158 

159 
154 


4  47 
43  30 
20   15 

5  15 

6  15 

52   15 
30   15 

28   15 
35   15 


148  20 
148  24 
152  40 
152  16 
152  40 
150  18 
148  9 
146  35 
148  20 


15 
15 
15 
15 
45 
15 
15 
15 
15 


138  47  15 
133  41    15 

131  0  15 

132  26   15 
132     7 
147  46 


15 
0 


154  26   15 


Authorities. 


Quiros. 

Cook. 

Idem. 

Idem. 

Wales. 

Rossel,  Beaupre. 

Idem. 

Wilson's  Chart. 

Mendana  and  Fleurieu 

Hunter. 

Mendana. 

Surville. 

Rossel   and    Beaupre's 

Chart. 
Shortland. 
Rossel  and  Beaupre. 

Dampier. 

D'Entrecasteaux. 

Idem. 

Dampier,  (Rossel.) 

Idem.     Idem. 

Maurelle. 

D'Entrecasteaux. 

Bougainville,  (Rossel.) 

Dampier  and  Rossel. 

D'Entrecasteaux. 

Idem. 

Forrest,  (incorrect.) 

D'Entrecasteaux. 

Idem. 

Edwards. 

Rossel. 


•  The  true  name  is  "  Solomon  Sweet's  Point."    See  the  Plates  of  Abel  Tasman's  Voyage, 
No.  22,  Sect.  x.  in  Valentyn. 


PELEW  ISLANDS.  397 

BOOK  LVIII. 
OCEANICA. 


PART  VI. 

Eastern  Oceanica,  or  Polynesia. 

We  have  already  made  some  general  observations  on  the  numerous  groups  of 
small  islands  scattered  over  the  surface  of  the  Great  Ocean,  which,  under  the  name 
of  Polynesia,  constitute  the  most  easterly  portion  of  Oceanica.  We  have  taken  notice 
of  the  identity  of  origin  of  many  among  them,  consisting  of  volcanic  depositions  or 
accumulations  of  sand  on  reefs  of  coral.  We  have  also  discussed  the  questions  re- 
lating to  the  still  more  astonishing  identity  which  appears  in  the  physical  character, 
languages,  and  manners,  of  the  tribes  diffused  over  these  countries.  We  shall  now 
give  a  separate  description  of  the  principal  islands.  It  would  be  a  heavy  undertak- 
ing to  enumerate  the  whole,  and  superfluous  to  repeat  under  each,  those  particulars 
which  have  necessarily  a  close  resemblance  to  one  another. 

When  we  leave  the  Molucca  sea,  we  come  first  to  the  Pele  w  Islands.     Peiew  or  Pa- 
These  had  been  first  visited  by  the  Spaniards,  who  called  them  the  Pa-     '""^  ^*'''"''** 
laos  ;  but  were  little  known  previously  to  the  agreeable  and  interesting  account  com- 
posed by  Mr.  Keate,  in  the  Memoirs  of  Captain  Wilson,  who  was  shipwrecked  here 
in  1783.     This  ingenious  writer  has  perhaps  given  some  embelhshment  to  the  pic- 
ture.    The  inhabitants  of  the  Pelew  Islands  are  always  represented  as  |  iniiabitants. 
an  amiable,  gay,  and  innocent  people.     They  are  handsome,  and  of  middling  sta- 
ture.   They  are  darker  than  the  shade  called  copper-colour,  but  not  black,  and  their 
hair  is  long  and  flowing.     The  men  go  naked  ;  the  women  wear  small  aprons,  or 
rather  fringes,  made  of  the  fibrous  covering  of  the  cocoa  nut.     Both  sexes  are  tat- 
tooed, and  their  teeth  are  blackened.     They  do  not  appear  to  have  any  idea  of  reli- 
gion, though  they  conceive  that  the  soul  survives  the  body.     Their  language  seems 
to  be  derived  from  the  Malayan,  so  extensively  diffused  through  the  islands  of  these 
seas. 

The  government  is  vested  in  a  king,  under  whom  are  rupaks,  or  chiefs,  |  Government, 
forming  a  sort  of  nobility.     The  whole  land  is  the  property  of  the  sovereign.     His 
subjects  can  only  be  proprietors  of  moveable  articles,  such  as  canoes,  arms,  and 
some  rude  pieces  of  furniture. 

These  islands  are  generally  of  middHng  elevation,  and  covered  with     soiiandpr©. 
close  woods.  To  the  west  they  are  beset  with  a  long  coral  reef,  extend-     ''"'^'^' 
ing  five  or  six  miles  from  the  shore,  and  in  some  places  more  than  double  that  dis- 
tance.    Ebony  grows  in  the  forests  :  bread-fruit  and  cocoas  seem  to  be  abundant. 

Our  poultry  exist  among  this  people  in  the  woods,  and  in  a  wild  state.  |  Animals. 
The  natives  neglected  them  till  they  were  instructed  by  the  English  in  the  use  which 
might  be  made  of  them  as  articles  of  food.  Fish  form  their  chief  subsistence.  They 
make  a  sort  of  preserves  of  the  sugar  cane,  which  appears  to  be  indigenous  in  these 
islands.  They  rise  at  day-break,  and  take  a  cold  bath.  Their  houses  are  fixed  on 
broad  stones,  raised  about  three  feet  from  the  ground,  and  are  made  of  boards  and 
bamboo.  They  have  large  halls  for  their  public  meetings.  Their  best  knives  are  made 
of  mother-of-pearl.  They  have  also  some  made  of  muscle  shells  and  split  bamboo. 
They  manufacture  a  coarse  earthen  ware.  Their  furniture  and  tools  resemble  those 
of  the  Otaheitans.  Their  arms  are  pikes,  javelins,  and  slings.  Their  canoes  are 
made  of  the  trunks  of  trees,  and  ornamented  with  very  handsome  sculpture. 


Marian  Isl- 
ands. 


Proas  or  ca^ 
noes. 


398  BOOK  FIFTY-EIGHTH. 

To  the  north  of  the  Palaos  Islands  are  those  called  the  Matelottes,  the  Martyr's 
Island,  Sagavedra,  and  some  others.  Some  Spanish  navigators  have  re-discovered 
these  islands,  which  appeared  doubtful. 

sraau  islands.  |  The  groups  of  St.  Andrew,  Pedro,  Warwick,  Evening,  and  some 
others  to  the  south  are  imperfectly  known. 

Turning  to  the  north-east  of  the  Pelew  Islands,  we  find  the  Marians, 
a  chain  of  fifteen  or  sixteen  Islands,  six  only  of  which  are  of  consider- 
able size,  viz.  Guan,  Zarpane,  Tinian,  Saipan,  Anatajan,  Pagoo,  and  Agrigam. 

These  islands  were  discovered  in  1521,  by  the  celebrated  navigator  Magellan, 
who  called  them  the  Ladrones,  on  account  of  the  strong  propensity  of  the  inhabit- 
ants to  thieving,  and  the  skill  with  which  they  carried  on  their  depredations.  But 
under  Philip  IV.  the  name  of  the  Marians  was  given  to  them  in  honour  of  Mary- 
Ann  of  Austria.* 

miiabiiants.  |  The  natives  have  been  almost  exterminated  by  the  Spaniards.  In 
complexion,  language,  manners,  and  government,  they  seem  to  have  borne  much 
resemblance  to  the  Tagals  of  the  Philippine  Islands.  Though  subject  to  a  heredi- 
tary nobility,  they  lived  in  peace  and  happiness. t  Their  small  vessels, 
called  jjroas,  have  been  considered  as  models  of  naval  architecture. 
Pigafetta  and  Anson,  at  very  distant  periods,  remarked  their  excellent  construction. 
They  have  canoes  which  are  convex  on  one  side,  and  straight  on  the  other.  These 
have  a  balancing  pole  to  keep  them  in  equilibrium.  They  sail  at  the  rate  of  twenty 
miles  in  an  hour  with  a  side  wind.  By  joining  two  boats  of  the  same  size  by  a  board, 
several  islanders  of  the  Great  Ocean  have  formed  vessels  which  that  masterly  sea- 
man. Sir  Sidney  Smith,  thought  worthy  of  being  imitated,  and  introduced  in  the 
navies  of  Europe.  J  A  missionary  asserted,  that  before  the  arrival  of  the  Spaniards, 
they  were  ignorant  of  the  use  of  fire,  and  took  it  for  an  animated  being.  Their  isl- 
ands are  filled  with  volcanoes,  and  in  that  case  they  must  be  considered  as  worship- 
pers of  fire.  But  their  known  industry,  and  the  whole  aspect  of  the  facts,  declare 
this  story  to  be  void  of  foundation.  The  natural  geography  of  these  islands  is  little 
known.  La  Perouse  found  some  of  these  islands  to  be  volcanic.  Assumption 
Island  contained  formidable  torrents  of  lava  in  all  directions. § 

Animals.  |  The  Spaniards  found  them  without  a  single  quadruped,  and  brought 
them  horses,  cows,  and  pigs,  and,  according  to  some  accounts,  guanacos,  or  lamas.  || 
Vegetables.  |  The  Only  vegetables  known  to  them  were  the  jack,  or  bread-fruit  tree, 
the  cocoa,  the  orange,  and  the  water-melon.  Rice  was  planted  here  by  the  Spa- 
niards. 

The  islands  of  Guan,  almost  depopulated  by  the  tyranny  of  the  successive  go- 
vernors, began  to  breathe  a  little  in  1772,  under  the  wise  administration  of  Don 
Tobias.  He  accustomed  the  Indians  to  difierent  sorts  of  culture.  Since  that  pe- 
riod the  island  produces  maize,  cotton,  indigo,  cocoa  and  sugar  cane. IT  Agana  is 
its  capital,  and  has  a  roadstead  protected  by  a  battery  of  eight  guns. 

The  island  of  Tinian  has  been  rendered  famous  by  the  brilliant  de- 
scription given  of  it  in  the  history  of  Lord  Anson's  voyage.  Navigators 
who,  for  a  long  time,  wandered  over  these  seas,  sometimes  tossed  by 
storms,  and  subjected  to  privations  and  diseases,  were  quite  charmed  when  they  met 
with  a  country  clothed  with  a  little  green  sod.  They  enlarge  on  the  superior  beau- 
ties of  places  which  are  far  from  being  extraordinary.  Hence,  all  the  navigators, 
who,  on  the  faith  of  such  accounts,  have  landed  on  the  island  of  Tinian,  have  been 
disappointed  in  their  expectations  ;  and  some,  among  whom  was  Byron,  have  la- 
boured to  depreciate  the  island  of  Tinian,  as  much  as  it  had  been  formerly  extolled. 
Anson  found  here  a  prodigious  quantity  of  cattle,  which  were  white-coloured,  ex- 
cepting the  ears,  which  were  generally  brown  or  black.  They  had  probably  been 
brought  for  the  use  of  the  Spanish  garrison.     He  found  also  orange,  cocoa,  and 

•  Bratrlng,  Mem.  sur  les  lies  Marianes,  translated  into  French,  in  the  Annates  des  Voyages. 
t  Father  Gobien,  in  Desbrosses,  ii.  p.  495. 

%  Boswell's  notice  of  the  experiments  of  Sir  Sidney  Smith,  in  the  Annual  Register,  1805. 
Miscellaneous  Tracts,  p.  855.  §  La  Perouse,  Voyage,  ii.  p.  346. 

U  Byron,  Voyage,  p.  121.  If  La  Perouse,  t.  ii.  p.  350. 


Island  ofTi. 
nian. 

Contradiction 
of  navigators. 


Remarkable 
rock. 


CAROLINE   ISLANDS.  399 

bread-fruit  trees.  It  certainly  appears  to  contain  all  these  different  sorts  of  provi- 
sions ;  to  which  modern  travellers  add  the  lemon,  the  mango,  the  pine-apple,  and  the 
guava.*  But  very  simple  causes,  political  or  physical,  would  be  sufficient  sud- 
denly to  strip  so  small  an  island  of  these  advantages.  A  hurricane,  an  earthquake, 
a  disease  among  the  cattle,  a  bad  governor,  the  arrival  of  a  certain  number  of  ships, 
migiit  transform  Tinian  from  a  paradise  into  a  desert. 

To  the  north  of  the  Marians,  are  different  groups  of  small  islands,  |  voieanic  islets, 
almost  all  of  them  volcanic.  Several  of  them  have  no  other  name  than  that  of 
Volcano  Island;  and  others  have  names  of  similar  import,  such  as  Sulphur  Island. 
There  are  two  collections  of  reefs  surrounding  two  small  islands,  to  which  the  im- 
posing name  of  "  The  Gardens,"  has  been  given.  "  Gold"  and  "Silver"  islands, 
probably  owe  their  names  to  Japanese  fables. 

In  these  seas  is  situated  the  famous  pyramidal  rock,  called  Lot's  Wife. 
A  sea  neither  broken  nor  interrupted  for  an  immense  space  in  all  direc- 
tions, here  dashes  with  sublime  violence  on  the  solid  mass  which  rises  almost  per- 
pendicularly to  a  height  of  350  feet.  On  the  south-east  side  is  a  deep  cavern  where 
the  waves  resound  with  a  prodigious  noise. 

No  question  in  geography  is  more  obscure  than  that  of  the  position     Caroline 
of  the  Caroline  Islands.     All  that  we  know  is,  that  this  archipelago     ^''^n^s. 
lies  between  the  Pescadores  on  the  east,  the  Marians  on  the  north,  and  the  Pelew 
Islands  on  the  west. 

It  is  probable  that  the  little  chains  composing  the  great  chain  of  the  Caroline 
Islands  run  nearly  south  and  north,  like  most  of  those  of  the  Great  Ocean. 

Waiting  till  some  accurate  navigator  shall  remove  the  veil  by  which  this  country  is 
at  present  covered,  we  shall  adhere  to  the  interesting  account  of  those  generous 
missionaries,  who  at  the  peril  of  their  lives  have  carried  even  into  this  corner,  un- 
known to  geography,  the  doctrines  of  virtue  and  of  peace. | 

The  first  idea  of  these  islands  appears  to  have  been  conveyed  to  the  Philippines 
in  1686,  by  a  family  of  savages,  who,  intending  to  sail  from  one  island  to  another, 
had  been  carried  ofi'by  the  winds  and  the  currents.  The  Spaniards  first  called  them 
the  New  Philippines,  and  afterwards  the  Carolines,  from  the  name  of  their  king, 
Charles  II.  They  are  about  eighty  in  number,  and  very  fertile.  They  enjoy  an 
agreeable  climate,  but  are  subject  to  dreadful  hurricanes. 

The  inhabitants,  who  are  very  numerous,  resemble  those  of  the  Philip-  |  inhabitants, 
pine  islands;  their  complexion  is  a  deep  copper  colour.     According  to  the  letters  of 
the  Jesuits,  each  island  has  its  own  chiefs  but  the  whole  acknowledged  the  authority 
of  one  king,  whose  residence  was  at  Lamurca.     The  nobility  are  haughty,  and  the 
people  enslaved.     These  islanders  believe  in  celestial  spirits,  which  come  to  bathe 
in  a  sacred  lake  in  the  island  of  Fallalo,  but  they  have  neither  temples  nor  idols,  nor 
the  least  appearance  of  religious  worship.     The  inhabitants  of  Yap  are     Mnnners  and 
said  to  worship  a  species  of  crocodile,  and  to  have  among  them  a  set  of    '**'* 
magicians.     Polygamy  is  allowed.     Criminals  are  sentenced  to  banishment  from  one 
island  to  another.     They  arc  fond  of  dancing,  which  they  accompany  with  singing, 
being  unacquainted  with  musical  instruments.     Their  only  arms  are  a  bow,  and  a 
lance  pointed  with  bone.     Their  proas  are  similar  to  those  of  the  Marian  islands. 
According  to  the  missionaries,  they  are  acquainted  with  the  magnetic 
needle,  a  circumstance  which  would  lead  us  to  infer  some  ancient  inter- 
course with  the  Chinese,  or  with  the  Arabians.     The  language  probably  varies  from 
one  group  to  another.     The  missionaries  found  in  it  a  considerable  resemblance  to 
the  Tagal,  and  consequently  the  Malay  language,  but  they  give  some  words,  in  which 
we  perceive  an  affinity  to  the  Arabic;  such  as  eli  for  spirit.     Even  in  this  remote 
corner  of  the  world,  the  practice  of  negro  slavery  is  known.     It  is  said  that  twenty- 
five  Spanish  negroes  left  in  one  of  the  islands  have  produced  a  mixed  breed,  which 
has  subsequently  spread  to  another.     We  are  informed  that  the  inhabitants  of  Ulea 

*   Shortland  and  Marshall,  translated  In  Forster's  Magashi  des  A'oyagcs,  i.  191 — 199. 
f  Father  Cantova,  in  the  Lettrcs  Ediliantes,  ii.  p.  4  ;  and  Desbrosses,  Histoh'e  des  Naviga- 
teurs,  supplement,  torn.  ii.  p.  43. 


Use  or  the 
compass'. 


Islands  seen  by 
Capt.  Wilson. 


Mulgrave 
Islands. 


Islands  little 
known. 

islands  of 


400  BOOK  FIFTY-EIGHTH. 

are  the  most  civilized.  Hogoloo,  the  largest  of  the  Carolines,  must  be  about  eighty 
miles  long,  and  forty  broad.  Yap  ranks  next  to  it,  occupying  the  western  extremity 
of  the  chain. 

Captain  Wilson  returning  from  the  South  Sea,  after  leaving  the  Eng- 
lish missionaries,  sailed  by  the  south  of  the  Caroline  archipelago,  in  the 
7th  degree  of  North  latitude.  Here  he  visited  some  islands,  and  among  others,  a 
large  group  which  he  called  "  the  Thirteen  Islands;"  the  most  southerly  of  which 
is  in  7°  16'  of  north  latitude,  and  144°  30'  of  east  longitude.  The  inhabitants  arc 
copper  coloured,  the  women  of  a  pale  olive;  their  lips  rather  large,  their  faces  broad, 
and  their  hair  black  and  long.  Their  idiom  differs  from  that  of  the  Pelew  islands, 
which  are  near  them.*  They  sell  cords  of  great  strength,  made  of  a  kind  of  rush  ; 
they  wear  a  sort  of  girdle  resembling  a  Spanish  scarf,  and  conical  hats  like  those  of 
the  Chinese,  which  are  also  known  in  the  Philippine  islands.  A  hundred  and  fifty 
canoes  were  seen,  each  containing  seven  men. 

From  this  we  pass  on  to  the  long  chain  of  the  Mulgrave  Islands,  dis- 
covered by  Marshall  and  Gilbert  in  1788.  We  only  know  their  positions, 
and  their  English  names.  They  are  mostly  low,  and  produce  cocoas,  oranges,  and 
cabbage  palms.  Their  copper  coloured  inhabitants  seem  to  be  of  a  hospitable  cha- 
racter, and  able  seamen,  t  This  chain  is  connected  with  the  Carolines,  by  the  Pes- 
cadores, or  Fishers'  Islands,  and  probably  with  the  other  archipelagos 
of  Polynesia  by  chains  still  unknown,  where  we  must  search  for  the 
esus,  the  Solitary,  and  some  others  seen  by  Quiros  and  Mendana.  We 
know  exactly  the  position  of  the  two  islands,  St.  Augustine,  and  Cecal,  which  have 
been  lately  visited.  They  indicate  a  chain  in  the  south.  The  island  "  de  la  Gente 
Hermosa,"  i.  e.  of  the  Fair  Nation,  will  be  one  day  re-discovered.  It  was  seen  by 
Quiros,  at  a  distance  of  4432  miles  from  Lima,  and  in  10°  20'  of  latitude.  The 
inhabitants,  remarkable  for  their  whiteness,  sail  in  double  canoes,  and  build  elegant 
huts  of  the  trunks  of  palm  trees.  J 

All  the  seas  west  from  the  Navigators'  Islands,  towards  Solomon's  group,  seem  to 
contain  a  number  of  detached  islands.  The  most  remarkable  of  them 
is  that  of  Rotuma,  the  Taumaco  of  Quiros.  Captain  Wilson,  returning 
from  his  missionary  voyage,  landed  here,  and  tells  us  that  the  fertility  and  population 
of  that  detached  island  were  amazing.  In  a  space  less  than  an  English  mile  long, 
200  houses  were  counted,  besides  others  which  must  have  been  concealed  by  the 
trees.  Pigs,  poultry,  and  fruits  were  in  great  abundance,  and  it  formed  an  excellent 
place  of  refreshment.  According  to  Quiros,  it  is  138  miles  from  Terra  del  Spirito 
Santo.  The  language  of  the  New  Hebrides,  and  that  of  the  Friendly  Islands,  seem 
to  be  known  here,  for  the  chief  took  the  name  of  Taurik,  evidently  the  title  Terik, 
given  to  the  chiefs  of  the  Friendly  Islands,  and  likewise  that  of  Toomai,  which  was 
probably  the  word  Tomar,  signifying  "  Friend"  in  the  language  of  the  isle  of  Tanna.§ 
The  adjoining  islands  to  the  west  were  called  Temelfica,  Indeni,  and  Manci ;  the 
last  contained  a  volcano.  Quiros  saw  several,  but  gave  their  position  vaguely.  The 
inhabitants  of  Tomaco  were  acquainted  with  Mallicolo,  and  drew  by  means  of  peb- 
bles, a  cliart  of  the  neighboring  archipelagos. 

More  to  the  south  is  the  large  group  called  the  Feyjees,  or  Prince 
William's  Islands.  The  Feyjeans  have  the  reputation  of  being  canni- 
"bals.  They  are  more  industrious  than  the  people  of  Tongataboo,  according  to  the 
acknowledgment  of  the  latter,  who,  notwithstanding,  have  subjugated  them.  Such 
of  these  islands  as  Captain  Wilson  saw  in  1796,  were  of  ordinary  elevation,  covered 
with  cocoa  trees  to  tlic  summit,  and  surrounded  by  extensive  and  dangerous  reefs. 
The  missionary  ship  was  nearly  lost  in  broad  day  light  and  calm  weather,  by  coming 
in  contact  with  a  reef  of  which  no  previous  warning  was  presented. 

Sailing  eastward,  we  fall  in  with  the  hills  and  plains  which  compose 
the  archipelago  of  the  Friendly  Islands.     This  division  might  be  ex- 

•  Missionary  Voyapein  the  DufT,  p.  304. 

t  Gilbert,  in  Forster's  Magazine,  I.  200—206. 

4  Quiros,  Viajero  universal,  xviii.  p.  177. 

§  Forster,  Voyage  H.  331,  Uuirus,  I.  c.  ITi. 


Toumaco  or 

Kotuma 

Island. 


Feyjee  Isl 
auds. 


Friendly 
Islands. 


Particulars  of 
Tonga  taboo. 


Climate. 
Seasons. 


Rocky  founda- 
tion. 


FRIENDLY  ISLANDS.  401 

tended  to  Feyjee  in  the  west,  to  the  Cocoa,  and  Traitor's  Islands  in  the  north,  to 
Savage  Islands  in  the  east,  and  to  Pylstaert  in  the  south.  Within  these  boundaries 
the  Friendly  Archipelago  is  very  extensive,  as  it  includes  more  than  a  hundred  isl- 
ands and  islets.  It  ranks  nearly  the  first  archipelago  in  Polynesia,  for  the  industry 
of  its  inhabitants,  and  the  degree  of  political  order  which  prevails  in  it. 

The  leading  island  is  that  which  is  called  Tongataboo,  or  "  The  Con- 
secrated Island."  It  is  one  of  the  most  southerly.  Navigators  have  de- 
scribed it  in  the  minutest  manner.  Yet  were  it  not  for  the  account  of  Labillardi^re, 
and  the  English  missionaries,  we  should  know  very  little  about  it.  The  country  does 
not  in  general  aflbrd  that  magnificent  sort  of  landscape  which  arises  from  a  multi- 
tude of  mountains,  valleys,  plains,  rivulets,  and  cascades  ;  but  it  displays  a  specta- 
cle of  the  most  abundant  fertility. 

The  most  frequent  winds  are  those  between  the  south  and  the  east ; 
and,  when  they  are  moderate,  the  sky  is  generally  clear.  When  they 
become  stronger,  the  atmosphere  is  loaded  with  clouds,  but  it  is  not  foggy,  and  it 
frequently  rains.  According  to  the  account  of  the  missionaries,  earthquakes  are 
very  frequent.  The  foliage  is  subject  to  little  or  no  sensible  change  in  the  course  of 
the  seasons,  each  falling  leaf  being  replaced  by  another,  so  that  there  is  a  universal 
and  continual  spring.  The  missionaries  found  the  air  very  healthy,  but  colder  than 
they  had  been  led  to  expect. 

A  coral  rock,  the  only  kind  which  is  seen  on  the  coast,  is  the  basis  of 
the  island.  There  is  scarcely  any  other  stone  to  be  found,  except  a  spe- 
cies of  lapis  Lydius,  of  which  the  natives  make  their  hatchets.  Though  in  several 
places  the  coral  shoots  above  the  surface  of  the  country,  the  soil  is  generally  thick. 
Under  the  vegetable  mould  lies  a  stratum  of  clay.  M.  Labillardiere  has  given  a  view 
of  the  botany  of  this  island.  Under  the  shade  of  the  forest  grow  the  Tacca  pinna- 
tijida,  the  JVIussccnda  frondosa,  the  Jlbrus  precatorius,  and  the  pepper-plant,  which 
the  inhabitants  use  for  making  the  pungent  beverage  called  Kava.  They  make  mats 
of  the  Pandanus  ordoratissimus.  The  Hibiscus  tiliaceus  springs  spontaneously  on 
the  borders  of  the  cultivated  grounds,  and  close  by  the  sea-side.  Of  its  bark,  stuffs 
are  made,  which  are  much  inferior  in  beauty  to  those  of  the  paper  mulberry.  The 
species  of  cotton  called  Gossypium  religiosum  grows  in  the  marshy  grounds,  but  is 
not  applied  to  any  use  by  the  inhabitants.  Sandal-wood  is  also  found  here,  and  a 
strong  kind  of  nutmeg  destitute  of  any  aromatic  quality.*  The  birds  and  insects  are 
great  in  mmiber.     Multitudes  of  the  rarest  shells  are  found  among  the  reefs. 

The  island  of  Tongataboo  is  divided  into  three  sovereignties  ;  Ahifo  in  j  Government, 
the  north,  Mooa  in  the  centre,  and  Ahodshi  in  the  south-east. f  Each  of  these 
districts  has  its  sovereign.  The  reigning  family  of  Mooa  has  the  name  of  Footta- 
faihi,  the  name  also  of  one  of  the  national  gods;  the  Footta-faihis  seem  to  have 
been  once  absolute  sovereigns  of  the  island,  and  still  preside  in  the  sacrifices.  But 
the  Deugona-gabula,  or  prince  of  the  northern  canton,  has  latterly  assumed  the  po- 
litical ascendency.  All  the  chiefs  of  the  adjoining  islands  enjoy  a  despotic  authority, 
but  they  do  homage,  and  pay  tribute  to  the  state  of  Tongataboo.  Even  the  islanders 
of  Feyjee,  so  formidable  in  Captain  Cook's  time,  have  submitted  to  tlie  yoke  of 
Tongataboo.  The  power  of  this  state  extends  in  the  opposite  direction  to  the  con- 
fines of  the  Navigators'  Archipelago.  Their  fleet  of  war-boats  is  more  respectable 
than  tliat  of  the  Otaheitans,  and  probably  their  navigation  extends  as  far  as  Terra 
del  Spirito  Santo.  They  gave  Captain  Cook  a  long  list  of  the  islands  which  they 
knew. 

The  people  of  Tongataboo  sacrifice  many  human  victims ;  and,  notwithstanding 
their  ideas  of  property,  they  make  no  scruple  in  stealing  from  strangers,  character  and 
M.  Labillardiere  gives  these  islanders  in  general  a  much  more  depraved  '"^"nerj. 
and  barbarous  character  than  would  liavc  been  supposed  due,  from  the  accounts  of 
Cook  and  Forster.  He  saw  assassinations  committed  among  them,  accompanied  by 
circumstances  of  the  grossest  perfidy.J     Yet  the  more  modern  picture  given  by  the 

•  Labillardiere,  Voyage,  t.  ii.  101.  p.  105.  &c. 

f  Missionary  Voyage,  chap.  xvi.  t  Labillardierejitom.  ii.  p.  109, 

Vol.  II.— 3  E 


402  imOK   FIFTY-EIGHTIT. 

missionaries  rloes  not  altogether  corroapond  with  that  of  Lahillardicre.  "  The  in- 
habitants of  the  Friendly  Isiands,"  accordinf];  to  them,  "are  deserving  of  the  nam© 
which  Cook  liaa  given  them.  Since  the  meaning  of  it  has  been  explained  to  them, 
they  seem  to  be  greatly  pleased  with  it.  They  exercise  among  themselves  an  asto- 
nishing degree  of  liberality.  For  a  space  of  four  months,  we  neither  saw  nor  heard 
of  the  shghtest  quarrel  occurring  among  them."  Infanticide  and  several  other  Ota- 
heitan  institutions  are  unknown  among  them,  conjugal  infidelity  among  tlie  upper 
classes  is  severely  punished,  at  least  in  the  person  of  the  seducer.  The  women  are 
almost  in  a  state  of  slavery.  Polygamy  is  a  prerogative  of  the  chiefs.  One  of  the 
missionaries  here  was  lately  converted  into  a  pagan  and  a  savage  ;  but  four  years 
were  sufficient  to  deprive  him  of  all  relish  for  the  happiness  which  charmed  him  so 
much  when  contemplated  in  prospective.* 

Religion.  [  The  missionaries  believe  that  these  islanders  have  no  separate  order 
of  priests,  though  they  have  a  multitude  of  deities,  and  a  public  form  of  worship. 
Mythoioin'.  I  They  have  two  great  mtiches,  or  religious  festivals ;  one  to  implore  the 
protection  of  Footta-faihi,  for  the  newly  planted  fruits;  the  other  at  the  end  of  har- 
vest, to  testify  their  gratitude  tc»  the  same  deity.  Each  person  kills  and  brings  the 
animal  which  he  ofiers  in  sacrifice.  Calla-Feilatonga  is  sovereign  of  the  waves  and 
(he  winds.  The  god  Mauwi  bears  the  island  on  his  back;  and  the  earthquakes  take 
place  when  he  tires  of  his  load,  and  makes  attempts  to  throw  it  off.  The  god  of 
pleasure,  Higgolayo,  collects  round  him  the  souls  of  his  worshippers  in  a  paradise 
much  resembling  that  of  Mahomet. 

Dwellings.  Tlio  private  and  public  buildings  are  much  inferior  to  those  of  Otaheite, 

Boats.  both  for  convenience  and  elegance.     But  they  make  up  for  this  by  the 

superior  construction  of  their  boats.  Their  mats  are  so  much  better  than  those  of 
Otaheite,  that  the  sailors  export  them  to  the  latter  island,  as  an  article  of  commerce. 
They  also  manufacture  glossy  stuffs,  some  of  which  are  striped,  some  in  squares, 
and  various  other  figures.  Baskets,  combs,  and  other  little  productions  of  female 
industry,  are  made  with  taste  and  elegance.  The  fishing  lines  and  hooks  of  these 
islanders  are  as  good  as  those  of  Europe.  Tongataboo  has  a  large  and  excellent 
harbour,  which  admits  of  being  well  fortified. 

The  island  of  Eooa  is  called  Middleburg  by  Tasman.  It  is  a  high 
land  of  a  delightful  appearance,  well  wooded,  fertile,  and  well  provided 
with  fresh  water.  Though  the  soil  is  generally  clayey,  the  coral  rock  is  seen  shoot- 
ing up  to  a  height  of  300  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea. 

Anamooka,  or  Rotterdam,  is  the  largest  island  of  a  group  situated  to 
the  north  of  Tongataboo.  Anamooka  is,  like  Tongataboo,  composed 
of  a  coral  rock,  covered  with  a  good  soil.  It  contains  a  greater  quantity  of  bread 
fruit  and  Siam  oranges  than  Tongataboo,  and  vegetables  of  all  kinds  grow  here  with 
greater  vigour.  The  fields  are  not  enclosed  by  so  many  hedges,  nor  so  regular  and 
well  made;  but  the  roads  are  covered  with  tufted  bowers,  which  display  beautiful 
flowers,  and  give  out  delicious  perfumes.  The  numerous  points  of  view  afforded  by 
the  little  elevations,  and  difl^erent  groups  of  trees  contribute  also  to  adorn  and  diver- 
sify the  appearance  of  this  country. 

oihei-  isiandi.  [  Tafooa  Contains  a  volcano  which  the  natives  consider  as  the  abode  of 
a  divinity. 

Vavao  is  the  Mayorga  of  Maurelle,  a  Spanish  navigator.  Latte  is  another  island 
to  which  he  has  given  its  native  name.  That  which  he  calls  Amargura,  is  most  pro- 
bably Hamooa.  These  islands  are  very  fertile,  populous,  and  at  least  as  far  ad- 
vanced in  civilization  as  Tongataboo. 

To  the  south  of  the  Friendly  Islands,  Vasquez  and  Kermadec  islands  mark  the 
continuation  of  the  submarine  chain  to  the  east  side  of  New  Zealand. 

To  the  north  of  the  Friendly  Islands,  we  distinguish  among  some  small  insular 
Home  island.  |  countries,  the  picturesque  island  of  Home,  the  fertility  of  which  is  extol- 
led by  Lemaire  and  Schooten.  Its  chief  wore  a  crown  of  feathers.  It  is  probably 
the  Enfant  perdu  of  Bougainville."!" 

•  Narrative  of  a  Four  Years'  Residence  at  Tongataboo.     London,  1811. 
t  Voyag*  Autour  du  Monde,  p.  24. 


Middleburg 
Island. 


Rotterdam 
Island. 


navigators'  islands.  403 


Navigators' 
Islands. 


Soil. 
Mountains. 


Productions  of 
Maoona. 


As  we  continue  our  voyage  to  the  east,  the  first  large  archipelago 
that  claims  our  attention  is  that  of  the  Navigators,  discovered  by  Bou- 
gainville, and  examined  by  La  Perouse.  Those  which  have  been  visited  are 
seven  in  number,  viz.  Polu  at  the  west  end,  then  Galinassa,  Oyolava,  Maoona,  Fan- 
Ibo,  Leone,  and  Opoon.  The  inhabitants  are  acquainted  with  three  others  situated 
to  the  southwest.  In  Arrowsmith's  learned  chart  of  the  Great  Ocean,  Pola  is  called 
Otawhce;  Oyolava,  Oatooah;  Maoona,  Toolooillah;  and  Opoon,  Toomalooah.  Too- 
tooilla  is  found  in  the  list  of  islands  given  to  Captain  Cook  by  the  inhabitants  of 
Tongataboo,*  a  circumstance  which  adds  some  weight  to  the  English  nomenclature. 
But  the  islands  have  probably  dift'erent  names  in  different  native  dialects.  This  ar- 
chipelago has  received  the  name  of  the  Navigators'  Islands,  because  the  inhabitants 
had  a  great  many  boats,  and  displayed  an  admirable  degree  of  skill  in  the  manage- 
ment of  them,  a  circumstance  common  to  the  whole  of  Polynesia,  and  only  applied 
particularly  to  this  archipelago,  because  the  inhabitants  seemed  to  spend  a  greater 
part  of  their  time  in  their  canoes  than  others,  and  to  have  a  greater  number. 

Tlie  Navigators'  Islands  consist  of  high  land.  Their  central  moun- 
tains, the  beautiful  plains  on  the  sea  side,  and  the  encircling  coral  reefs, 
give  these  islands  a  character  of  resemblance  to  the  Society  Islands.  Maoona  is  a 
very  fertile  island.|  The  French  frigates  which  visited  it  were  sur- 
rounded by  200  boats,  filled  with  a  variety  of  provisions,  consisting  of 
birds,  pigs,  pigeons,  and  fruit.  In  twenty  hours  Maoona  furnished  500  pigs,  and  an 
immense  quantity  of  fruit.  The  island  is  covered  with  cocoa,  bread  fruit,  and 
orange  trees.  The  groves  are  enlivened  by  the  murmurs  of  numerous  cascades,  and 
peopled  with  wood  pigeons  and  turtle  doves.  Various  pebbles  are  found  among  the 
coral  rocks. 

The  women  were  very  handsome,  their  forms  were  regular  and  highly  |  inhabitants, 
pleasing,  and  their  manners  were  free.  A  scarf,  made  of  leaves,  serves  them  for  a 
girdle.  Their  hair  is  adorned  with  flowers,  and  entwined  with  green  ribbon.  They 
might  pass  for  nymphs  or  dryads  :  even  their  colour  is  not  far  removed  from  tints 
that  are  often  admired.  The  men  are  above  the  ordinary  stature,  uncommonly  strong, 
and  very  fierce.  They  despised  the  diminutive  size  of  the  French.  They  treat 
their  women  like  slaves.  La  Perouse  describes  them  as  exceedingly  dissolute  in 
the  intercourse  of  the  sexes. |  The  situation  of  their  villages  is  as  delightful  as 
fancy  can  picture.  They  are  partially  seen  half  buried  in  the  bosom  of  rich  natu- 
ral orchards.  The  huts,  supported  on  rows  of  strong  pillars,  are  covered  with  cocoa 
leaves.  The  inhabitants  live  on  pork,  dog's  flesh,  birds,  bread-fruit,  cocoa-nuts, 
bananas,  guavas,  and  oranges.  They  set  little  value  on  iron  and  cloths,  being  fonder 
of  glass  beads  than  any  thing  else  that  the  Europeans  offer  them.§ 

It  was  at  Maoona  that  Captain  Langle,  Lamanon  the  naturalist,  and 
nine  sailors,  were  massacred  by  the  inhabitants,  probably  because  the 
Captain  gave  glass  ornaments  to  some  chiefs,  and  neglected  others.  La 
Perouse,  cruelly  undeceived  in  the  favourable  ideas  which  had  been  given  him  of  the 
character  of  the  savages,  says  on  this  occasion,  "  I  am  a  thousand  times  more  angry 
with  the  philosophers  who  praise  the  savages,  than  with  the  savages  themselves. 
The  unfortunate  Lamanon,  whom  they  massacred,  told  me  the  day  before  his  death, 
that  the  Indians  were  better  people  than  ourselves."  ||  Both  views  are  equally  super- 
ficial. Savage  and  civilized  people  differ  little  in  their  conduct  when  placed  in  similar 
circumstances.  At  Oyolava  M.  de  la  Perouse  saw  the  largest  village  in 
all  Polynesia.  From  the  appearance  of  its  smoke,  it  might  have  been 
taken  for  a  city.  The  sea  was  covered  with  boats,  manned  with  peop 
those  of  Maoona. 

Though  the  islanders  of  this  group  are  distinguished  by  a  ferocity  not  observed  in 
any  other  part  of  Polynesia,  they  are  very  industrious,  and  display  much  skill  and 

•  Cook's  Third  Voyage.  f  Voyage  de  la  Perouse,  t.  iii.  p.  264. 

\  Les  vieillards,  retenant  par  force  les  jeunes  filles,  servaiertt  de  prdtres  et  d'autel  au  culte 
de  V^nus,  pendant  que  des  matrones  cil^braieut  par  des  chants  ces  noces  brutales.  Voyage 
de  M.  de  la  Perou3C,  t.  iii.  p.  275. 

§  Idem.    Ibid.  p.  282.  J  Idem,  t.  iv.  p.  439. 


Disaster  of 
Mj'ssrs.  Lan- 
gle and  Laroa- 
non. 


Oyolava 
island. 

e  as  tall  as 


On  Eastern 
Polynesia. 


Society 
Islands. 


404  .  BOOK  FIFTY-EIGHTH. 

ingenuity.  With  simple  tools  of  basalt,  they  succeed  in  giving  an  equisite  pohsh  to 
their  works  in  wood.  They  not  only  make  cloth  of  bark,  but  form  from  it  a  good 
yarn,  which  they  undoubtedly  procure  from  a  flax  resembling  that  of  New  Zealand. 
A  native  of  the  Philippines,  on  board  the  French  vessel,  understood  their  dialect, 
which  must  therefore  be  of  Malayan  derivation. 

Population.  |  According  to  the  same  navigator,  Oyolava  is  at  least  equal  to  Ota- 
heite  in  beauty,  extent,  fertility,  and  population.  He  supposes  that  the  whole  archi- 
pelago contains  100,000  inhabitants,  which  we  may  reduce  to  one-tenth,  and  proba- 
bly come  nearer  the  truth. 

If  it  should  some  time  hence  be  thought  eligible  to  divide  Polynesia 

into  natural  regions,  the  Pelew,  Marian,  Caroline,  and  Mulgrave  Islands, 
would  be  included  in  Western  Polynesia,  the  centre  of  which  would  be  Hogoloo. 
The  Navigators',  the  Friendly,  and  the  Feyjee,  with  all  those  lying  between  St.  Au- 
gustine and  the  Kermadecs,  might  be  called  Central  Polynesia.  This  region  is  sepa- 
rated by  an  open  sea  from  Eastern  Polynesia,  of  which  Otaheite  is  the  centre.  We 
proceed  to  make  this  celebrated  island  a  station  from  which  we  shall  obtain  a  view 
of  Eastern  Polynesia,  of  which  it  also  furnishes  a  specimen  of  extensive  applica- 
tion. 

The  Society  Islands  have  formed  the  subject  of  more  writings  than 

many  a  kingdom  of  Europe.  Every  reader  has  admired  the  charms  of 
Queen  Oberea,  and  viewed  in  imagination  the  festivals  of  Pomarre.  The  Otahei- 
tans  are  better  known  to  us  than  the  inhabitants  of  Sardinia  or  of  Corsica. 

Though  the  name  of  the  Society  Islands  was  originally  given  by  Captain  Cook 
only  to  the  group  of  Ulietea  and  Huaheine,  it  has  since  received  a  more  extensive 
application  on  Cook's  own' authority.  It  comprehends  Otaheite  with  its  dependen- 
cies, and,  with  some,  though  improperly,  several  remote  and  detached  islands,  as  far 
as  Toobooai  in  the  south,  and  Palmerston  Island  in  the  west. 

Otaheite  has  merited  the  title  of  Queen  of  the  Pacific  Ocean.     It  is 

composed  of  two  conical  mountains,  united  by  a  marshy  isthmus.  The 
large  peninsula  is  of  a  circular  form;  its  diameter  is  twenty-four  miles.  The  small 
peninsula,  in  the  south-west,  is  an  oval,  sixteen  miles  long,  and  eight  or  ten  broad. 
The  whole  circumference  of  the  island  is  108  miles,  according  to  the  chart  given  by 
the  English  missionaries. 

Soil.  I       Between  the  mountains  and  the  sea,  a  low  strip  intervenes,  varying  in 

breadth.  In  some  places,  especially  in  the  north-east,  the  rocks  project  over  the  sea. 
In  the  plains  and  in  the  valleys  by  which  the  mountain  is  intersected,  the  ground  is 
covered  with  a  thick  blackish  slime,  and  extremely  fertile.  As  we  ascend  the  hills, 
the  rich  earth  of  the  valleys  is  exchanged  for  veins  of  clay  and  marl  of  different  co- 
lours, lying  over  strata  of  a  soft  brownish  sandstone.  Basalt  seems  to  pi'edominate 
in  the  higher  mountains.     On  the  side  of  the  great  mountain  is  a  very  deep  fresh 

lake.     Matavia,  on  the  north  side  of  the  island,  is  considered  as  the 

principal  harbour.  On  the  south-east  side  is  another,  called  Langola, 
which  is  equally  good  and  safe.  On  all  sides  of  the  island,  rivers  are  seen  descend- 
ing in  beautiful  cascades. 

The  situation  of  this  island,  in  the  midst  of  an  immense  ocean,  far 

from  all  extended  lands,  renders  its  heat  far  from  insupportable.  The 
missionaries  say  that  the  dry  and  rainy  seasons  vary  even  in  the  different  districts  of 
this  small  country.  In  the  north,  the  bread-fruit  harvest  begins  in  November  and 
ends  in  January;  but,  on  the  other  side,  it  begins  in  January  and  continues  till  No- 
vember. 

Vegetable  pro  I  All  the  Vegetable  species  peculiar  to  Oceanica  grow  in  Otaheite  in 
ductioMs.  I  fibundance,  and  of  the  best  quality.  There  are  reckoned  eight  varieties 
of  the  bread-fruit,*  and  fifteen  of  banana. |  The  very  great  perfection  of  the  fruit 
shows  that  the  trees  have  been  cultivated  here  for  several  ages.  The  Spondias  did- 
cis,  called  Evi  in  Otaheite,  no  where  produces  apples  of  a  richer  yellow,  or  more  dc~ 

•  Bligh's  Voyage  to  the  South  Sea,  p.  109. 
t  Wilson,  Missionary  Voyage,  p.  378. 


Description  of 
Otaheite. 


Ports  and  hat- 
hours. 


Climate. 
Seasons. 


SOCIETY  ISLANDS.  405 

licious  taste.  The  sugar  cane,  which  is  called  To,  is  of  a  superior  sort  to  that  of  the 
East  Indies,  and  now  receives  the  preference  in  all  the  colonics.  The  bark  of  the 
JVlorus  papyrifera  furnishes  the  material  of  a  fine  and  soft  cloth.  The  inhabitants 
have  treated  lightly  all  European  cultures  offered  to  thcin,  with  the  exception  of  the 
tobacco  plant,  which  is  valued  for  its  flowers.*  There  are  several  kinds  of  wood  fit 
for  carpentry  and  cabinet  work.  The  missionaries  give  the  native  names  of  some 
species,  which  equal  acajoo  in  beauty  and  ebony  in  hardness.  There  is  some  san- 
dal-wood, both  white  and  black.  It  grows  only  on  the  mountains,  and  is  in  no  great 
quantity.  The  air  is  animated  with  birds,  and  the  sea  with  fish,  without  number. 
The  pig,  of  the  same  variety  which  is  known  in  Siam  ;|  and  the  dog,  |  Animals. 
which  is  delicately  fed,  furnish  good  animal  food. 

The  complexion  of  the  Otaheitans  is  olive,  inclining  to  a  copper  co-  |  inhabitants, 
lour.  The  men,  constantly  exposed  to  the  sun,  are  very  dark;  but  the  women  arc 
only  a  shade  darker  than  the  brunettes  of  Andalusia  and  Sicily.  They  have  fine 
black  eyes,  regular  and  white  teeth,  a  soft  skin,  and  limbs  of  graceful  proportions. 
Their  jet  black  hair  is  perfumed  and  ornamented  with  flowers.  But  the  habit  which 
they  contract  from  their  infancy  of  widening  the  face,  expanding  the  mouth,  and  flat- 
tening the  nose,  gives  them  a  masculine  air  which  mars  their  natural  charms.  The 
chiefs  are  taller  than  the  common  people,  few  of  them  under  six  feet.  The  dress  of 
the  two  sexes  is  nearly  the  same,  except  that  the  men  wear  the  maro,  a  |  cioti.es. 
piece  of  cloth  which  covers  the  waist,  and  passes  between  the  hmbs.  Another  ob- 
long piece,  with  a  hole  to  let  through  the  head,  hangs  before  and  behind ;  a  third  is 
wrapped  about  the  middle,  and  a  sort  of  square  mantle  covers  the  whole. 

The  Otaheitans  practise  circumcision.  They  tattoo  their  bodies  not  circumcision, 
merely  for  the  sake  of  ornament,  and  to  please  their  vanity,  but  as  con-  Tatioomf. 
iiected  with  the  political  and  religious  institutions  of  the  nation.  Individuals  of  both 
sexes  are  not  considered  as  independent  of  parental  authority,  or  capable  of  forming 
civil  connections,  till  they  have  received  the  last  of  a  series  of  tattooings.  The 
different  acts  of  this  operation  are  regarded  as  sacrifices  agreeable  to  the  gods ;  and 
the  instrument  with  which  a  prince  has  been  tattooed,  is  deposited  in  the  moi-a'i  of 
his  ancestors.  The  society  of  the  arreoy  has,  hke  that  of  free  masons,  several  de- 
grees, which  are  distinguislied  by  different  forms  of  the  tattoo.  J  Their  |  Houses, 
houses  are  only  used  as  places  of  rest  during  the  night,  and  of  retreat  during  ex- 
treme solar  heat.  They  are  very  elegantly  shaped  huts,  consisting  of  small  wooden 
pillars,  arranged  in  an  oval  form,  and  supporting  a  roof  of  palm  leaves.  The  sides 
are  sometimes  covered  with  mats,  sometimes  open.  The  floor  is  strewed  with  hay, 
over  which  arc  laid  mats,  often  very  beautiful.  These  rustic  mansions  are  scattered 
over  all  the  plain,  and  in  the  valleys,  in  a  manner  the  most  agreeable  and  picturesque, 
in  the  midst  of  smiling  plantations.  The  large  palms  tower  above  the  |  Plantations, 
rest  of  the  trees.  The  banana  displays  its  broad  leaves,  and  here  and  there  are  seen 
specimens  of  its  fruit  ready  for  eating.  Other  trees,  surmounted  by  dark  green 
boughs,  bear  golden  apples,  which,  in  flavour  and  juiciness,  resemble  pine-apples. 
The  intermediate  spaces  are  filled  with  mulberry  trees,  yams,  and  sugar  canes.  The 
huts  are  also  surrounded  with  odoriferous  shrubs,  such  as  the  gardenia,  the  guellarda, 
and  the  calophyUum. 

In  Otaheite  the  nobility  who  possess  hereditary  rights  arc  distinguish-  |  Castes. 
ed  from  the  people  who  arc  their  dependents,  without  being  ui  any  degree  their 
slaves. 

The  Eri-Rahei,  or  sacred  chief,  is  the  hereditary  monarch  of  the  state,  which  in 
1797  comprehended  the  island  of  Otaheite,  and  those  of  Eimeo,  Tethuroa,  and  Mai- 
tea,  with  claims  on  Ulietea  and  Otaha.  As  soon  as  the  eri-rahei  be- 
comes the  father  of  a  male  child,  the  child  succeeds  to  the  crown,  and 
the  father  is  then  only  regent. 

An  apron  or  maro  of  red  feathers  is  the  badge  of  the  royal  dignity.    With  this  the 
young  sovereign  is  invested  in  the  midst  of  a  solemn  ceremony,  in  which  the  most 

•  Voyage  des  Missioiialres  Anglais,  p  502,  trad,  allem. 

j-Forster,  Observations,  &c.  p.  167,  (in  German.)  I  Missionary  Voyage. 


Succession  to 
Uie  tlironc 


Nobles,  Inrds, 
farmers,  &c. 


106  BOOK  FII-^TV-EIGIITH. 

ireinaikcible  thing  is  a  ronnul  harangue  delivered  to  the  people  by  the  state  orator,  an 
office  generally  tilled  by  one  ot^tlie  chiet' priests.  Unhappily,  human  sacrifices  make 
an  essential  part  ot"  this  ceremony.  One  of  the  eyes  of  the  victim  is  offered  to  the 
king,  by  a  priest,  M'ho  addresses  him  in  a  long  discourse,  probably  on  a  religious 
subject. 

The  eris  are  the  hereditary  proprietors  of  large  estates.  They  go- 
vern the  districts ;  and  they  seem  to  be  a  sort  of  sovereigns  in  their 
own  territory,  though  dependent  on  the  eri-rahei.  The  toiuhas  are  generally  kins- 
men of  the  eris.  They  govern  some  subdivisions  of  the  great  districts,  or  live  at 
the  courts  of  the  eris.  The  rattiras  are  the  possessors  of  estates.  Their  authority 
.seems  confined  to  the  rights  conferred  by  simple  free  property.  The  manahoonis  are 
larmers  without  property  in  the  soil,  but  enjoying  personal  freedom  and  complete 
power  over  the  property  which  they  acquire.  They  have  it  in  their  power  to  move 
i'rom  one  landlord  to  another.  The  domestics  are  called  totvtows,  and  those  who  are 
in  the  service  of  females  are  called  toutis.  These  last,  like  their  mistresses,  are  ex- 
cluded from  all  religious  ceremonies.  None  of  the  commoners  can  rise  to  a  higher 
rank  than  that  of  towha  at  most.  The  nobles,  or  eris,  preserve  all  the  dignity  of 
their  hereditary  rank,  though  the  monarch  should  see  proper  to  deprive  them  of  the 
management  of  their  districts. 

The  missionaries  say  that  property  is  held  sacred;  that  the  last  will  of 
the  possessor  is  scrupulously  executed,  and  that  his  goods  are  given  up, 
either  to  his  children,  or  to  his  taijo,  (an  adopted  kinsman;)  that  estates  are  bounded 
by  land-marks  of  stones,  and  that  theft,  violence,  and  even  verbal  injuries  are  se- 
verely punished.* 

The  Otahcitans  believe  in  a  sort  of  trinity,  called  Tani,  te  m4clooa,  the 
Father;     Oromafioio,  ioua  ti  te  meidi,  God  in  the  Son;  and    Turoa-man- 
nau,  te  hooa,  the  Bird,  or  Spirit. 

This  great  divinity  resides  in  the  palace  of  heaven,  in  the  Torova,  with 
a  number  of  other  divinities  or  Etooas,  who  are  all  designated  under  the 
name  oi  Fhanawpo,  or  the  children  of  night.  Their  genealogy,  like  all  the  theogo- 
nies  in  the  world,  is  a  system  of  cosmography  in  an  allegorical  dress.  The  islands 
of  the  ocean  are  the  remains  of  one  great  continent  or  island,  which  the  gods  in  their 
anger  broke  iu  pieces.  These  great  divinities  have  one  common  temple  in  the  dis- 
trict of  Oparre,  but  they  are  only  to  be  invoked  in  times  of  public  calamity.  The 
daily  prayers  are  addressed  to  the  inferior  etooas.  Every  family  has  its  thi,  or  pro- 
tecting genius,  from  whom  it  expects  all  the  blessings  and  all  the  evils  of  this  life. 
The  souls  of  the  dead,  devoured  by  sacred  birds,  undergo  a  purification,  and  become 
divinities  which  exert  a  powerful  influence  on  the  lot  of  the  living.  The  Otaheitans 
A  future  state.  |  firmly  believe  that  the  soul  is  immortal,  and  that  according  to  its  degree 
of  virtue  and  of  piety,  each  will  enjoy  different  degrees  of  honour  and  happiness. 
So  very  religious  are  they,  that  they  never  approach  the  sacred  places  but  with  pro- 
found respect.  In  the  eyes  of  this  susceptible  people  all  nature  is  animated;  the  air, 
the  mountains,  the  rivers,  the  sea,  are  peopled  with  spirits.  The  iahooras,  or  priests, 
are  very  numerous  and  powerful.  There  are  certain  occasions  on  which  all  the 
chiefs  officiate.  The  selection  of  human  victims  to  be  offered  to  the  gods  always 
falls  on  criminals,  who  are  only  put  to  death  while  asleep ;  a  refined  specimen  of 
considerate  humanity,  modifying  the  dictates  of  a  barbarous  superstition. 

The  highest  ambition  of  an  Otaheitan  is,  to  have  a  splendid  mora'i,  or 
family  tomb.  The  funerals,  especially  those  of  the  chiefs,  have  a 
solemn  and  affecting  character.  Songs  are  sung.  The  mourners,  with  sharks' 
teeth,  draw  blood  from  their  bodies,  which,  as  it  flows,  mingles  with  their  tears;  of- 
ferings placed  on  the  bier,  mock  fights,  religious  abstinences,  or  days  of  fasting  and 
of  rest,  are  all  employed  to  give  a  sensible  expression  of  the  public  grief.  The  tap- 
apoiv,  or  sheds,  under  which  the  dead  bodies  remain  exposed  till  they  dry,  and  the 
walled  and  paved  morai's,  or  cemeteries,  in  which  the  bones  are  deposited,  are  placed 

*  Missionary  Voyage,  Appendix,  ch.  ii. 


Rights  of  pro. 
perty. 


Religion. 
A  'rrinity. 


Inferior  del 
lies. 


Mora  IS. 
Funerals. 


Societ)'  of 
Arreoys. 


SOCIETY  ISLANDS.  407 

in  romantic  situations,  where  the  .shadows  of  funereal  trees,  the  frowning  faces  of  the 
rocks,  and  the  murmurs  of  rivulets,  invite  to  retirement  and  melancholy. 

Those  who  have  represented  the  women  of  Otaheite  as  venal  wan-  |  Behaviour  of 
tons  have  done  them  injustice.  We  are  now  informed  that  "  it  is  difficult  [  iJ^e^o""'- 
in  this  country  to  have  private  meetings,  either  with  the  married  or  unmarried  wojnen, 
excepting  the  girls  among  the  lowest  orders,  and  that  many  among  these  also  are 
chaste  and  modest.  There  is  indeed  a  class  of  prostitutes,  as  in  all  other  countries : 
perhaps  the  proportion  of  them  here  is  larger  than  ordinary.  Of  this  class  were  the 
women  who  went  on  hoard  the  European  vessels,  or  frequented  the  camps  which 
their  crews  pitched  on  shore."* 

The  English  missionaries,  who  are  members  of  the  most  austere  sect  |  Lascivioiisness, 
of  Metliodists,  say  that  they  never  witnessed  any  public  indecency.  They  say  that 
the  lascivious  dances  are  performed  by  none  but  giddy  young  persons,  and  that  even 
these,  beyond  the  circle  of  tho  theatre,  do  not  indulge  in  any  gestures  in  the  least 
degree  offensive. 

The  general  conduct  of  the  Otaheitan  women,  as  mothers  and  wives,  is  sufficiently 
creditable  to  human  nature.  They  bear  their  children  with  extreme  ease,  |  chiw  births. 
and  make  tender  and  assiduous  nurses.  The  ornament  which  they  esteem  most 
valuable  is  a  wig  made  of  the  hair  of  their  deceased  relations. — Polygamy  is  not 
allowed  among  this  people.  But  a  detestable  political  institution  form- 
ed, till  very  lately,  a  dark  shade  in  the  moral  picture.  Under  the  name 
of  Arreoys,  a  great  number  of  the  Otaheitan  nobles  of  both  sexes  had  formed  them- 
selves into  singular  communities,  in  which  all  the  women  were  common  to  all  the 
men,  and  all  the  children  born  were  destroyed. 

From  this  it  is  not  surprising  to  find,  that,  according  to  a  calculation  |  Population, 
made  by  the  missionaries,  the  population  of  the  island  had  of  late  years  decreased, 
and  does  not  now  exceed  16,000  souls,  making  an  average  of  250  to  the  square 
league.     The  only  inhabited  places  are  the  plain  and  the  low  valleys. 

The  Otaheitans  manufacture  handsome  cloths  and  mats.  They  seem  |  industry. 
to  have  once  navigated  a  great  part  of  the  ocean ;  but  their  navigation  has  declined, 
and  the  island  has  been  miserably  reduced  by  the  devastating  effects  of  civil  wars. 

The  moral  character  of  this  and  the  adjoining  islands  is  now,  how-  ^o^i^ievo'iu- 
ever,  undergoing  a  remarkable  change.  The  steady  exertions  of  the  tion. 
missionaries  have  been  followed  by  decided  impressions'  in  favour  of  the  Christian 
religion,  and  the  manners,  and  even  the  dress,  of  civilized  Europe.  Pomarre,  the 
late  king,  abandoned  his  idols,  and  shipped  them  off  for  London,  where  they  now 
figure  in  the  Missionary  Museum.  For  the  Missionaries  they  express  a  uniform  and 
high  respect.  Those  of  them  who  have  heard  their  doctrines  have  ranked  themselves 
as  converts,  and  those  who  know  them  only  by  report  express  an  eagerness  to  profit 
by  their  instructions.  The  latter  have  indeed  suffered  a  serious  loss  in  the  death  of 
Pomarre,  their  powerful  protector ;  and  some  anxiety  is  felt  for  the  peaceful  continu- 
ation of  their  labours  under  the  succeeding  government,  which  is  administered  in  the 
name  of  a  minor.  But  they  enjoy  the  advantage  of  a  strong  popular  tide  in  their 
favour. 

The  other  Society  Islands  greatly  resemble  Otaheite,  though  smaller. 
At  Huaheine  the  fruits  ripen  some  weeks  sooner  than  at  Otaheite.  This 
island  has  two  excellent  harbours. f — Ulietea  is  larger  ;  its  inhabitants  have  darker 
complexions,  and  a  more  ferocious  character.  This  island,  and  that  of  Otaha,  are 
surrounded  by  one  common  reef. — The  inhabitants  of  Borabora,  fifteen  or  twenty 
years  ago,  were  formidable  to  all  the  neighbouring  islands.  They  had  conquered 
Ulietea  and  Huaheine  ;  but  their  power  is  now  at  an  end. — Maitea,  the  most  easterly, 
is  the  entrep6t  for  the  tribute  of  pearls  which  the  Otaheitans  raise  in  the  archipelago 
of  low  islands.  J — Eimeo  possesses  two  of  the  best  harbours  in  the  whole  ocean. — 
The  inaccessible  Tethuroa  serves  as  a  citadel  to  the  king  of  Otaheite,  for  the  pre 

•  Wilson's  Missionary  Voyage. 

I  Spanish  Voyages  to  Otaheite,  in  Viajero  Universal,  xvii.  p.  324. 

t  Ibid.  p.  323.     See  also  Wilson's  Missionary  Voyage,  Introduction,  p.  27. 


Account  of  the 
other  islands. 


408  BOOK  FIFTY-EIGHTH. 

servation  of  his  treasure. — Mapija,  or  Lord  Howe's  Island,  and  Genuavra,  or  Scilly, 

are  only  inhabited  by  penguins,  and  other  sea  fowl.* 

Scattered  isi-  ^q  ^^e  souUi-west  and  south-east  of  the  Society  Archipelago,  a  long 

andstothe  ,      .  „        .  ,    ,  i   •    i        i  i       i         •        •  -it?!  ^ 

south.  chain  of  widely  separated  islands  extends,  beginning  with   Palmerston 

and  ending  with  Easter  Island.  They  might  be  called  the  "  Austral  Sporades."  The 
most  westerly  group  comprehends  Palmerston,  Wateoo,  Mangea,  and  some  islets. 
In  the  second  group  we  find  Toobooai,  which  contains  robust  and  savage  inhabitants ; 
Ohiteroa,  which  is  rich  in  casuarina  trees,  and  a  place  which  shows  much  human 
industry  ;  and,  lastly,  the  "  High  Island"  of  Captain  Broughton.  To  the  north-east 
and  east  are  Gloucester  Island,  St.  Paul's  Conversion,  Michael,  and  many  others 
little  known.  In  the  south  we  distinguish  Oparo,  the  inhabitants  of  which  speak  the 
Polynesian  language,  but  do  not  tattoo  their  bodies. — Pitcairn  Island  is  now  peopled 
by  the  children  of  the  mutinous  sailors  of  Captain  Bligh,  whose  fathers  had  escaped 
the  search  of  the  English.  The  fate  of  these  sailors  themselves  was  sufficiently 
dismal.  They  had  married  Otaheitan  women,  whose  brothers  in  one  night  murdered 
them,  only  one  escaping,  whose  name  by  his  own  account  was  Adams.  On  the  fol- 
lowing night,  the  Otaheitan  widows  of  the  English  inflicted  dreadful  vengeance,  by 
murdering  all  their  brothers,  who  had  committed  the  first  bloody  deed.  Their  chil- 
dren grew  up  under  the  fostering  care  of  Adams,  who,  officiating  as  their  patriarch, 
has  made  them  an  orderly  and  simple  tribe,  speaking  the  English  language,  and  im- 
bued with  the  sober  principles  of  the  more  respectable  portion  of  the  low  orders  of 
the  EngUsh.  Their  number,  when  visited  by  the  Briton,  was  forty-eight,  all  of  mixed 
English  and  Otaheitan  blood,  except  young  Christian,  the  son  of  Captain  Bligh's 
lieutenant,  whose  mother  appears  to  have  been  English.  They  have  a  great  anti- 
pathy to  the  natives  of  the  other  islands,  whom  they  call  the  "  Black  Fellows," 
which  has  been  generated  by  the  accounts  which  they  have  received  of  the  murder 
of  their  fathers. "f 

Easter  Islands.  [      The  last  of  the  Spoiades  are  Ducie,  and  the  celebrated  Easter  Island, 
the  identity  of  which  with  Davis's  land  is  not  yet  fully  decided.     In  this  arid  volcanic 
isle,  we  find  a  sort  of  platforms  on  which  shapeless  columns  are  erected,  sometimes  ' 
fifteen  feet  high,  with  a  rudely  carved  bust  at  top,  the  face  of  which  is  five  feet  long. 
It  is  made  of  a  very  porous  light  and  red  lava.     These  statues  seem  to  have  a  degree 
of  resemblance  with  the  sculptures  of  the  island  of  Ulietea.     The  heads  have  the 
character  of  the  Polynesian  race  of  men.     The  language,  manners,  and  dress  of 
the  inhabitants  of  this  island  also  resemble  those  of  the  other  islands.     There  is  no- 
thing about  them  of  Peruvian  aspect.     As  the  islands  lying  nearer  to  the  American 
continent  have  been  found  altogether  uninhabited,  it  is  evident  that  the  nations  of 
America  never  contributed  to  the  peopling  of  Polynesia. 

Low  islands.  |  In  passing  from  Easter  Island  to  the  Marquesas,  we  must  go  through 
a  singular  region,  sprinkled  with  small  islands,  which  are  low,  sandy,  and  encircled 
Dangerous  with  coral  rcefs.     The  islands  composing  this  truly  "Dangerous  Archi- 

Archipeiago.  pelago,"  present  strange  forms;  the  names  of  the  Harp,  the  Bow,  and 
the  Chain,  express  with  precision  the  figure  of  those  to  which  they  are  applied. 
Tiookea  is  a  large  low  island.  All  of  them  abound  with  cocoa  trees.  They  produce 
scurvy-grass,  purslain,  and  various  other  plants.  Dogs  which  live  on  fish,  and  pigs, 
are  found  here  as  in  the  high  islands.  The  race  of  men  which  they  contain  is  the 
same,  but  darker  in  colour.  Pearl  island  is  somewhat  remarkable  in  its  physical 
structure.  There  are  several  banks  of  coral  rock,  placed  one  behind  another,  be- 
tween the  lagoon  and  the  sea.  These  banks  run  regularly  from  south  to  north.  They 
sometimes  rise  fifty  or  sixty  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  It  appears  as  if  violent 
storms  had  driven  blocks  of  coral  over  the  outermost  banks,  and  piled  them  above 
the  innermost.  The  furrowed  cavities  which  separate  these  successive  banks,  are 
generally  sixty  feet  in  breadth,  and  ten  or  twelve  feet  deep.| 

To  the  north  of  the  low  islands,  we  find  the  lofty  chain  of  the  Mar- 
quesas Islands,  the  chief  of  which  are  Ohitoa,  or  St.  Magdalena; 


Marquesas 
Islands. 


*  Viajero  Universal,  p.  327. 

f  See  Shillibeer's  Narrative  of  the  Briton's  Voyage  to  Pitcairn's  Island,  p.  77 — 97. 

t  Missionary  Voyage,  p.  285. 


Mendana'i  ac- 
count of  them. 


Nature  of  the 
land. 


MARQUESAS  ISLANDS.  409 

Onateyo,  or  San  Pedro;  Ohitahoo,  or  Santa  Christina,  and  the  island  of  Baux,  or 
Nooaheeva. 

The  leading  islands  in  this  archipelago  were  discovered  by  Mendana, 
who  gave  them  the  name  of  Gardias  de  MendoQa,  Marquis  of  Canete, 
viceroy  of  Peru.  Hence  they  are  sometimes  called  Mendoga's  Islands.  If  we  be- 
lieve the  account  of  Mendana^s  discovery,  this  small  archipelago  was  inhabited  by  a 
very  fine  race  of  men.  The  women  were  remarkable  for  the  beauty  of  their  features ; 
and  their  colour,  though  brown,  was  very  agreeable ;  so  that  in  personal  appearance 
they  rivalled  the  finest  women  of  Lima.*  These  islanders  were  clothed  in  elegant 
stufts,  made  of  bark,  which  reached  from  the  breast  to  the  calf  of  the  leg.  They 
had  wooden  idols,  and  boats  which  held  forty  people.  The  air  was  so  dry  that  linen 
hung  out  during  the  night  collected  no  humidity.  The  "white  fruit"  of  Mendana 
seems  to  have  been  the  bread  fruit. 

The  Marquesas  do  not  difler  from  the  Society  Islands,  except  that  they 
have  not  the  beautiful  fertile  plains  which  encircle  the  latter,  the  hills 
extending  to  the  margin  of  the  sea.  The  coral  reefs  are  less  extensive,  and  the  har- 
bours which  they  form  are  less  safe.  The  soil  about  tlie  bay  of  Madre  de  Dios,  or 
Revolution  Islands,  consists  of  an  ochry  clay,  and  terra  puzzolana.  The  centres  of  the 
islands  are  occupied  by  piles  of  rocks  resembling  ruinous  towers.  The  climate  is  a 
little  warmer  than  that  of  Otaheite.  The  plants  and  fruit  are  nearly  the  Fruits  and 
same.  The  younger  Forster  says,  that  he  nowhere  found  the  bread  ^'^°'^' 
fruit  so  large  and  so  delicious  ;  that  it  was  tender  as  custard,  but  a  little  too  sweet ; 
that  cocoa  nuts  however  were  iarcf  The  English  missionaries,  on  the  contrary, 
found  nothing  to  eat  but  cocoa  nuts  ;  poultry  and  pigs  were  rare  ;  the  prepared  ma- 
hei,  or  bread  fruit  was  indhferent ;  but  the  scarcity  seemed  to  them  to  be  only  tem- 
porary.J  It  is  their  opinion  that,  even  in  the  fertile  islands,  such  scarcities  are  ren- 
dered frequent  by  the  improvidence  of  the  people.  "  When  they  have  pork,"  says 
Mr.  Crook,  the  missionary,  "  they  eat  five  or  six  meals  per  day ;  and  after  it  is 
finished,  content  themselves  with  vegetables  and  fish." 

The  forests  are  filled  with  birds  of  splendid  plumage,  resembling  those  of  Ota- 
heite. 

The  Marquesans  excel  all  the  other  tribes  in  the  fine  proportions  of  |  inhabitants, 
their  forms,  and  the  regularity  of  their  features  ;  and,  if  they  were  free  from  the  tattoo- 
ino-  process,  in  which  the  skin  is  blackened  by  numerous  black  punctures,  their  com- 
plexion would  be  nothing  more  than  tawny.  The  tattooing  of  the  Marquesans,  how- 
ever, is  remarkable  for  its  regularity  and  comparative  good  taste.  §  Their  hair  is  of 
various  colours,  but  never  red.  Some  of  the  women  are  almost  as  white  and  fair  as 
our  European  brunettes,  and  they  are  less  generally  tattooed  than  the  men.||  Their 
waists  are  bound  round  with  a  long  piece  of  tight  stuff",  the  ends  of  which  passing 
between  the  thighs,  fold  back  again,  and  hang  to  the  middle  of  the  leg.  But  as  their 
stuffs  do  not  bear  moisture,  they  came  on  board  the  Missionary  ship  in  a  state  which 
reminded  the  company  of  mother  Eve.  The  appetite  of  the  goats  in  the  ship  was 
excited  at  the  sight  of  the  green  leaves  which  they  wore,  so  that  they  were  obliged 
to  make  an  unsuccessful  struggle  to  prevent  their  bodies  from  being  completely 

stripped. Tf  ' 

The  religious  ceremonies  are  the  same  as  those  of  Otaheite.  Each  dis- 
trict has  its  JVI())-«i',  where  the  dead  are  buried  under  large  stones.   They 
have  numerous  divinities,  some  of  whose  names  resemble  those  of  the  gods  of  Ota- 
heite.    The  women  are  less  subjected  to  the  men  than  among  the  Otahcitans.   The 
chiefs  indulge  in  polygamy;  they  have  no  great  authority  among  the  peo-     Manners  and 
pie.     These  islanders  appear  in  fad  to  be  without  laws,  and  regulated     *"*""^*- 
solely  by  their  customs.     The  English  methodists  have  undertaken  the  task  of  eon- 
verting  these  children  of  nature,  by  preaching  protestantism  to  them  in  its  austerest 

•  Derbrosses,  Hist,  de  Navig.  torn.  i.  p.  251.     Mendana,  in  the  Viajero  Universal,  xvii.  p,  65. 
f  Cook's  Second  Voyage.  +  Missionary  Voyage,  p.  24-4.  p.  260, 

§  Langsdorf,  Voyage  Autour  du  Monde.     See  the  Annales  des  Vt)yages,  xiv.  257. 
i  Missionary  Voyage.  1'  Missionary  Voyage. 

Vol.  II.— 3  F 


Religions  ce- 
re niuiiies. 


410  BOOK  FIFTY-EIGHTH. 

form.     But  they  do  not  appear  as  yet  to  have  succeeded  to  the  same  extent  as  at 
Otaheo.* 

•  Captain  Porter  of  the  United  States'  Navy,  on  a  voyage  made  by  him  in  public  service, 
in  the  years  1812,  1813,  and  1814,  landed  and  remained  a  considerable  lime  at  one  of  a 
group  of  Islands,  which  he  calls  Washington's  Islands,  and  of  which  he  took  possession  in  the 
name  of  the  United  States.  He  states  them  to  have  been  discovered  by  Captain  Roberts  of 
Boston,  in  1792,  but  that  they  were  seen  the  preceduig  year,  (1791)  by  Captain  Ingraham  of 
the  same  place.  The  20th  June,  1791,  some  of  them  were  seen,  and  their  position  determined 
by  a  Captain  Marchand,  in  the  French  ship  Sollde.  Lieutenant  Hergert  of  the  British  Navy, 
saw  them  on  the  30th  March,  1792,  examined  their  coasts,  projected  a  chart,  and  described 
tJiem.  The  French  Navigator  called  them  the  Jievolution  Islands.  They  had  been,  however, 
some  months  before  fallen  in  with,  discovered  and  named  by  the  Americans,  and  Captain  Mar- 
chand had  obtained  a  knowledge  of  this  fact  at  Canton.  One  of  them  called  by  the  natives  llooa- 
liooga,  was  named  by  Captain  Koberts,  Adams'  Island,  another  Nooalieevah,  named  by  Captain 
Porter,  Madison's  Island.  Captain  Porter  describes  very  particularly  the  productions  of  the  isl- 
ands, and  the  customs  and  manners  of  the  people.  His  account  chiefly  relates  to  Nooaheevah, 
or  Madison's  Island.  He  found  a  bay  which  lie  says  Is  one  of  the  finest  in  the  world,  and  which 
he  named  Massachusetts  Bay.  It  affords  safe  anchorage,  good  shelter  and  landing,  and  conve- 
nient watering  places.  You  may  choose  your  depth  of  water  from  four  to  thirty  fathoms,  clear, 
sandv  bottom.  The  people  are  very  brave  and  Intellig-ent,  seemed  to  be  little  frightened  by 
fire-.arms,  and  resisted  in  the  battles  which  took  place  with  the  marines,  to  the  last  extremity, 
'ihe  men  were  described  to  be  of  larger  stature  than  those  of  Europe,  and  of  fine  manly  forms, 
and  the  women  very  handsome.  Notwithstanding  a  white  man  who  was  found  among  them, 
insisted  they  were  cannibals.  Captain  P.  after  the  strictest  Inquiry  and  observation,  did  not  be- 
lieve they  were,  and  thinks  the  charge  against  them  was  founded  In  mistake.  The  object  of 
greatest  value  with  them  was  whales-teeth.  Captain  P. -says  that  a  ship  of  300  tons  may  be 
loaded  at  these  islands  with  sandal  wood  for  ten  whales-teeth  of  a  large  size.  For  these  the 
natives  will  cut  it,  bring  It  from  the  distant  mountains,  and  take  it  on  board  the  ship  ;  and  this 
cargo  In  Ciiina  would  be  worth  one  million  of  dollars.  The  whales-teeth  are  used  as  ornaments. 
They  were  prizcfl  by  the  natives  beyond  every  thing  they  had  seen  In  the  ship.  The  number 
of  warrlurs  wliich  can  be  sent  Into  the  field  inchidlng  all  the  tribes,  which  are  eight,  amounts 
to  19,200  men.  Tliey  eat  raw  fish.  Tiielr  religion  appeared  to  be  a  mere  ridiculous  amusement ; 
ihey  played  with  their  gods,  as  children  with  their  dolls ;  but  their  priest  being  asked,  whether 
according  to  their  belief,  the  body  was  translated  to  the  other  world,  or  only  the  spirit  ?  after 
a  considerable  pause,  replied,  that  the  flesh  and  bones  went  to  the  earth,  but  all  within  went 
to  the  sky. 

The  country  abounds  in  hogs,  cocoa  nuts,  bananas,  bread-fruit,  tarra,  and  sugar  cane.  The 
natives  are  in  the  practice  of  castrating  the  boars.  Hogs  are  called  bonarka,  or  rather  povarka, 
a  name  which  Ca))tain  I*,  rationally  concludes  they  must  have  derived  from  some  intercourse 
with  the  Spaniards,  they  calling  the  animal  purca.  The  bread-fruit  is  eaten  baked,  boiled  or 
roasted,  and  was  greatly  preferred  by  many  of  the  crew  to  their  soft  bread,  which  it  somewhat 
resembled  in  taste,  but  was  much  sweeter. 

Captain  P.  speaks  in  the  highest  terms  of  the  honesty  of  these  people.  The  utmost  harmony 
prevails  among-  them  ;  they  live  like  affectionate  brethren  of  one  family,  and  in  the  scramble 
for  the  articles  thrown  among  them,  the  contention  seemed  to  be,  not  who  should  get  the  most 
for  himself,  but  who  should  get  the  most  that  they  might  afterwards  have  the  pleasure  of 
<Hvlding  the  acquisition  among  the  others.  The  natives  having  determined  to  build  a  village 
for  Captain  P.  upwards  of  4000  from  the  different  tribes  assembled  on  the  3d  Nov.  with  mate- 
rials for  building,  and  before  night  they  had  completed  a  dwelling  house  for  Captain  P.  another 
for  the  officers,  a  sail-loft,  a  cooper's  shop,  a  place  for  the  sick,  a  bake-house,  a  guard-house, 
and  a  shed  for  the  sentinel  to  walk  under,  and  the  whole  was  connected  by  walls.  Nothing 
could  exceed  the  regularity  with  which  the  natives  carried  on  their  work,  without  any  chief 
to  guide  them,  without  confusion,  and  without  much  noise  ;  they  performed  their  labour  with 
expedition  and  neatness,  and  every  man  appeared  to  be  master  of  his  business.  "It  seems 
strange,  (says  Captain  P.)  how  a  people  living  under  no  form  of  government  that  we  could 
perceive,  having  no  chiefs,  who  appear  to  possess  any  authority,  having  neither  rewards  to 
stimulate,  nor  dread  of  punishment,  should  be  capable  of  conceiving  and  executing  with  the 
rapidity  of  lightning,  works  which  astonished  us." 

When  a  person  dies,  the  body  is  deposited  in  a  coffin,  dug  cut  of  a  solid  piece  of  white 
wood,  which  is  placed  on  a  stage  erected  in  a  house  for  the  purpose.  When  the  flesh  is  moul- 
dered from  the  bones,  they  are  carefully  cleansed  :  some  are  kept  for  relics,  and  some  deposited 
in  the  morais. 

Captain  P.  in  speaking  of  Fleurieu's  narrative  of  Marchand's  voyage,  where  he  describes  the 
stilts  used  by  the  natives  of  St.  Christiana,  says  it  is  absurd  to  suppose  with  Fleurieu,  that  the 
stilts  are  used  for  fording  streams.  They  are  mei'ely  used  for  amusement.  It  cannot  be  sup- 
posed for  a  moment  that  people  who  are  amphibious,  and  half  their  time  in  the  water,  and  des- 
titute of  clothing,  should  fall  on  so  ridiculous  an  expedient.  l"he  stilts  are  used  in  gynmastic 
exercises,  they  run  with  them,  and  endeavour  to  trip  each  other. 

This  island  produces  a  fruit  resembling  a  large  bean,  which  grows  on  a  tree  of  moderate 


SANDWICH  ISLANDS.  411 


Roggewyn'j 
Arcliipeago. 


Sandwich 
Islands. 


By  sailing  due  east  from  the  Marquesas  Islands,  it  is  probable  that  some  impor- 
tant discoveries  might  be  made.  Perhaps  Roggewyn's  Archipelago 
would  be  re-discovered,  consisting  of  the  Baumann  Islands,  five  or  six 
in  number ;  the  Roggcwyn  Islands,  which  are  small ;  and  Tienhoven  and  Gronin- 
gen,  which  are  probably  as  large  as  Otaheite.  These  islands,  seen  in  1772  by  Rog- 
gewyn,  must  lie  somewhere  between  the  12th  and  the  9th  parallel  of  south  latitude  ; 
but  their  longitude  was  very  vaguely  given.  No  complete  and  authentic  account  of 
Roggewyn's  voyage  has  been  published.  This  navigator's  journals  arc  probably  to  be 
found  in  the  archives  of  the  Dutch  East  India  Company.  Tupia  the  Otaheitan  said 
there  were  several  large  islands  in  that  direction. 

But  the  track  of  Captain  Cook  takes  us  off  in  a  different  direction. 
Turning  northward,  we  follow  this  celebrated  navigator  to  the  Sand- 
wich Islands.  It  is  the  most  isolated  group  of  all  Polynesia,  and  the  north-cast 
extremity  of  this  wide  region.  The  island  of  OwaYhee,  is  the  largest,  being  415 
miles  in  circumference.  It  obtained  a  fatal  celebrity  as  the  scene  of  Captain  Cook's 
death,  who  was  killed  by  the  natives  on  the  14th  of  February,  1779.  A  celebrity 
of  a  different  kind  now  awaits  it  as  the  focus  of  civilization  in  Polynesia.  The  in- 
habitants have,  with  the  assistance  of  the  English  and  Americans,  built  twenty  mer- 
chant ships,  with  which  they  already  perform  voyages  to  the  north-west  coast  of 
America,  and  even  propose  to  visit  Canton. 

These  people  sometimes  wear  their  hair  straight,  sometimes  curled  as  |  inhabitants. 
in  Europe.  They  arc  darker  in  complexion  than  the  Otaheitans.  Captain  King 
describes  them  as  a  gentle  and  benevolent  race,  less  frivolous  than  the  Otaheitans, 
and  not  so  proud  as  the  inhabitants  of  the  Friendly  Islands.  They  have  made  some 
progress  in  agriculture  and  manufactiu-es.  Yet  they  sacrifice  human  victims,  though 
they  arc  not  known  to  be  cannibals  like  the  New  Zealanders.  They  go  unshaved. 
Both  men  and  women  wear  a  fan  made  of  cocoa  fibres  or  long  feathers  to  keep  off 
the  flies.  They  are  tattooed  like  the  other  Polynesians.  The  women  even  tattoo 
the  tip  of  the  tongue.  They  use  for  clothing  a  piece  of  coarse  stuff  call-  |  Dress, 
cd  a  Maro,  prepared  in  the  same  manner  as  at  Otaheite.  They  tie  it  round  the 
middle,  and  let  it  hang  down.  In  battle  they  wear  for  armour  a  closely  woven  mat 
tlirown  over  the  shoulder.  On  occasions  of  great  ceremony,  the  chiefs  wear  a  dress 
of  brilliant  feathers  manufactured  with  great  art.  They  live  on  fish,  yams,  banana, 
and  the  sugar  cane.  The  great  make  use  of  boar's  and  dog's  flesh.  The  women 
wear  nothing  but  a  light  scarf.     Their  hair  is  cut  short  behind,  and  put  u  >  in  front. 

The  art  of  swimming  is  quite  familiar  to  them.  They  glide  tlirougli 
the  water  with  uncommon  vigour,  nimbleness,  and  dexterity.  On  the 
slightest  occasion  they  quit  their  boats,  plunge  under  water,  and  emerge  along  side 
of  another  boat  at  a  distance.  Women  carrying  children  on  the  breast  have  been 
seen  to  commit  themselves  to  the  waves,  when  the  strength  of  the  surf  would  not 
suffer  them  to  land  in  their  boats.  They  will  make  a  long  stretch  in  swimming  with- 
out hurting  their  tender  charge.  Here,  as  at  Otaheite,  there  is  a  su-  (  Government, 
preme  chief  at  the  head  of  the  government,  called  Eri-Taboo,  whose  funeral,  when 
he  dies,  is  honoured  by  the  sacrifi.ce  of  two  of  his  subjects,  and  sometimes  of  a  great 

size,  and  when  roasted,  tastes  like  a  cliesnut.  Also  an  apple,  in  shape  and  colour  resembling 
a  red  pepper.  It  is  aqueous,  and  cooling',  but  ratiier  insipid,  though  the  natives  are  very  fond 
of  it.  It  has  a  hard  round  stone  in  tlic  centre.  There  is  also  a  fruit  resembling'  a  wahiut,  and 
producing  much  oil.  They  are  used  as  candles,  and  give  a  brilliant  light,  but  one  will  not 
burn  more  tlian  two  minutes.  There  is  also  a  hard  black  wood  called  toa,  wliich  receives  a 
jiolish  etiual  to  ivory. 

The  language  of  tiic  natives  is  not  copious  :  a  few  words  serve  to  express  all  they  wish  to 
say.  Captain  P.  gives  a  few  words  which  have  so  great  a  variety  of  meaning,  that  they  must 
be  constantly  liable  to  misappreliension. 

Captain  Porter,  13th  Nov.  1813,  made  a  formal  declaration  of  his  taking  possession  of 
tliese  islands  on  the  part  of  the  United  States,  and  received  the  submission  o(  the  natives  as 
founded  on  priority  of  discovery,  conquest,  and  possession,  which  could  not  be  disputed.  lie 
complains  greatly  of  Marchand's  pretensions  on  the  part  of  the  French,  as  being  wholly  un- 
founded. 

Nooaheeva,  lat.       8°  54'  S.     Long.  140°  25'  45"  W. 

Kooahooga,  9°    5'  139°  10'  15". 

Or  by  Vancouver,  8°  SO',  [Pful.  Ed. 


Art  of  swim- 
ming. 


412  BOOK  FIFTY-EIGHTH. 

number.     The  subjects  are  divided  into  three  classes,  the  Eris,  or  district  chiefs; 
the  proprietors,  who  have  no  pohtical  power;  and  the  Tootoos,  who  have  neither  rank 
nor  property.     These  degrees  of  rank  are  hereditary.     Captain  Vancouver  says, 
that  the  king  of  OwaVhee  declared  himself  vassal  to  the  king  of  Great  Britain. 
Climate.  |       The  climate  of  these  islands  seems  to  be  more  temperate  than  that  of 

the  American  islands  in  the  same  latitude.  The  clouds  are  attracted  by  the  moun- 
tains of  Owaihee,  and  the  rain  refreshes  the  interior,  while  the  sun  shines  on  the  sea- 
shore. The  wind  generally  blows  from  the  east,  and  there  are  regular  refreshing- 
sea  and  land  breezes. 

Mountains.  |  Moonakoa  mountain,  rises  to  a  prodigious  height.  Anderson  esti- 
mates it  at  18,000  feet,  but  his  calculation  is  vague  and  exaggerated.*  La  Perouse 
found  the  soil  of  the  island  of  Mowee  composed  of  the  powder  of  lava,  and  other 
volcanic  substances."]"  Vancouvre  gives  a  representation  of  a  pretended  volcanic 
crater  at  Owa'ihee. 

Animals.  |  Here  as  in  all  similarly  situated  countries,  the  quadrupeds  are  very 
few  in  number,  consisting  only  of  pigs,  dogs,  and  rats.  The  dogs  are  of  the  same 
species  with  those  of  Otaheite.  They  have  short  bent  legs,  long  backs,  and  straight 
ears.  The  birds  seem  very  numerous,  but  the  species  not  greatly  diversified. 
There  are  large  white  pigeons,  owls,  the  common  water  fowl,  and  a  species  of  whis* 
tling  plover.  These  islands  produce  sugar  canes  of  extraordinary  size,  potatoes, 
bread-fruit  trees,  bananas,  cocoas,  and  sandal  wood.  All  these  productions  how- 
ever, are  less  abundant  than  in  the  southern  islands.  The  plantations  are  kept  in 
admirable  order.  The  waters  used  for  irrigating  the  fields  are  managed  by  means  of 
ditches  and  aqueducts.  T 

Particular  The  first  view  of  the  island  of  Mowu  appeared  quite  enchanting  to  M. 

islands.  ^^  ^^  Porouse.     The  water  fell  in  cascades  from  the  sides  of  the  moun- 

tains, and  a  thousand  rivulets  watered  a  coast  which  was  so  covered  with  houses,  that 
a  space  of  eight  or  ten  miles  seemed  to  be  one  continued  village.  But  the  habitable 
part  was  only  about  three  miles  broad,  and  the  south  and  west  presented  nothing  to 
the  eye  but  steep  and  barren  rocks. §  Morotoi,  to  the  west-north-west  of  Mowu,  is 
destitute  of  wood,  and  its  chief  produce  is  yams.  It  has  neither  freshwater  nor  good 
anchorage.  II  Ranai  contains  some  fertile  districts.  Woahoo  seems  to  be  one  of  the 
most  fertile  and  most  beautiful  islands  of  this  archipelago.  The  inhabitants  of  the 
island  of  Atowi  excel  their  neighbours  in  the  skill  with  which  they  manage  their  plan- 
tations. In  the  low  districts,  these  plantations  are  intersected  by  deep  and  regular 
ditches.  The  hedges  are  exceedingly  neat,  and  almost  elegant.  The  roads  across 
them  would,  for  completeness,  do  honour  to  European  engineers. IT  But  the  fine 
plantations  which  Cook  admired  have  been  horribly  devastated.  Beautiful  pines  are 
carried  hither  by  the  Ocean,  and  formed  into  canoes  by  the  inhabitants.** 

*  Cook's  Third  Voyage.  f  Voyage  de  La  Perouse,  t.  ii.  p.  125. 

+  Vancouver.  Manuel  Quimper,  in  the  Mercurio  Peruano,  vi.  p.  2,  &c. 

§  Cook's  Third  Voyage,     La  Perouse,  t.  ii.  p.  3.     Vancouver. 

II  Vancouver.  '^  Cook.  •»  Vancouver. 


OCEANICA — POLYNESIA. 


413 


Table  of  the  Geographical  Positions  of  Eastern  Oceanica,  or  Polynesia. 


Places. 


Marian  Islands. 
Assumption  Island  - 
Tini^  (island)  -  - 
Guam  harbour      -     - 


Sulphur  Island      -     -     -     - 

Caroline  Archipelago. 
Palaos,  or  Pelew  Islands.     < 

The  Thirteen  Islands,    (the 
most  southerly)      -     -     - 

The  Twenty-nine  Islands  dis- 
covered by  the  Pala  frigate 

Yap        

Lamurca     ------ 

Hogoloo      ------ 

The  Mulgraves. 
Hooper's  Island  -     -     -     - 
Maslar  Islands     -     -     -     - 
South  Point  of  the  Mulgraves 
Calvert  Islands      -     -     -     . 


St.  Augustine       -     -     -     - 
Rotumahoo  or  Taumaco     - 

Feyjee  Archipelago,  &c. 

Duff's  Reef 

Hemskerk  Shallows       -     - 

Turtle  Island        -     -     -     - 

Archipelago  of  the 
Friendly  Islands. 
Tongataboo,    (French  obser- 
(vatory    ------ 

Eooa  or  Middleburg  Island 

Pylstaert 

Anamoka  or  Rotterdam  -     - 

Tofoa 

Latt6 

Vavao  or  Mayorca     -     -     - 
Amargura    ------ 


Latitude. 


deg.  rain,  lec, 

19  45  ON 

14  55  0 

13  26  0 

24  48  0 


6  0  0 

8  20  0 

7  16  0 

3  30  0 

10     0  0 

8  25  0 

9  0  0 


0  3  OS. 

1  42  ON 
5  58  0 

8  58  0 


5  30 
12  29 


OS, 
0 


16  30     0 

17  19     0 

19  48     0 


Long.   E.  or  W 
from  London. 


deg.  min.   sec. 

145  35  30  E, 

146  0     0 
0     0     0 

141  12     0 


134  0     0 

135  36 


1} 


144  30  0 

156  20  0 

138  30  0 

149     0  0 

158     5  0 


173  43  0 

175     1  0 

170  3  0 

171  41  0 


177  50 
176  57 


0 
0 


180  41     0 
179  45     OW. 


Home  Island  -     -     -     - 
Enfant  Perdu,  (the  same?) 
VVallis'o  Island       -     -     - 
Isle  of  Cocoas       -     -     - 


Authorities. 


La  Perouse. 

Wallis. 

Crozet. 


Gore  and  King. 


Wilson's  Chart. 

Wilson. 

Spanish  Journals. 
Arrowsmith's  Map. 

Idem. 

Idem. 


Gilbert  and  Marshall. 

Idem. 

Idem. 

Idem. 

Maurelli,  (doubtful.) 
Edwards. 


Wilson. 

Tasman,    (longitude  too 

far  east.) 
Cook. 


21     7 

35 

175 

19 

11 

Rossel. 

21   16 

30 

174 

50 

0 

Cook. 

22  26 

0 

175 

58 

45 

Idem. 

20   15 

0 

174 

47 

47 

Idem.     Tasman. 

19  45 

0 

175 

5 

45 

La  Perouse. 

18   14 

0 

174 

54 

45 

Idem. 

18  34 

0 

173 

54 

45 

Idem.     Maurelli. 

18     0 

0 

175 

9 

45 

Idem.     Idem. 

14  18 

0 

178 

IS 

45 

Wilson  and  Burney. 

14  22 

0 

176 

42 

45 

Bougainville. 

13  22 

0 

176 

15 

30 

Edwards. 

15  50 

0 

176 

21 

45 

Burney  and  Schooten 

414 


BOOK  FIFTY- EIGHTH. 

Table  of  Geographical  Positions,  <^c. — conliimed. 


Navigator's  Archipelago. 

Opoon  (east  point)     -     .  - 

Leone  (south  point)  -     -  - 

Fanfoofe  (east  point)  -     -  - 

Maoona  (idem)     -     -     -  - 

Oyolava  (NNE.  point)  -  - 

Calinasse  (N.  point)  -     -  - 

Pola  (west  point)  -     -     -  - 

Palmerston  Island      -     -     - 
Mangiea 


Places. 


Austral  Islands. 
Tobooai  -  -  -  - 
Oparo  -  -  -  -  - 
Pitcairn  Island  -  - 
Ducie  -  -  -  -  - 
Easter  Island  -     -     - 


Society  Islands. 
Otaheite  (Venus  point)   -     - 
Idem,  Port  Oaitepiha 
Maitea  ------- 

Eimeo   ------- 

Idem      ------- 

Huaheine    ------ 

Ulitea 

Borabora     ------ 

Lord  Howe's  Island  -  -  - 
Scilly  Island 

Low  Isalnds,  or  The  Dan 

GERous  Archipelago. 
Whitsunday  Island     -     -     - 
Quatre  Facardins       -     -     - 
Idem      ------- 

The  Harp  or  Bow      -     -     - 
The  Chain       -     -     -     -     - 

Isle  of  Dogs    -     -     -     -     - 

Sondergrond  or  Sansfond*  - 

Waterland  - 

Isle  of  Fhes 

St.  Simon's  Island  -  -  - 
St.  Quintin's  Island  -  -  - 
King  George's  Island  -  - 
Carlshof 


14 
14 
14 


Latitude. 


in.     sec. 

9  lOS. 

53 

23 


7 

5 

14  16  40 
13  51  5 
13  45 
13  32 


0 
0 


18  4  0 
21  57  0 


23  25  0 
27  36  0 
25  2  0 

24  40  30 
27  S  13 


17  29  17 
17  46  28 
17  53 
17  30 
0 


0 

16  43 
16  46 
16  27 
16  46 
16  28 


19  26 

18  47 
0  0 
18  23 
17  23 
15  12 

14  46 

15  20 
17  25 

17  30 

18  18 


0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 

14  27  30 

15  45  0 


Long-.  E,  or  W, 
from  London. 


deg.  min.  sec. 

169  0  35  W, 
169  16  7 

169  18  12 

170  1  17 

171  41  48 

171  48  18 

172  34  15 

162  9  45 
157  22  45 


148 
144 


16  45 
0  17 
132  25  45 
124  39  15 
109  43  16 


149  33 
149  15 
148  9 
147  0 


15 
9 

45 
0 


149  29  45 
151  6  45 
38  45 
52  45 

154  12  45 

155  24  45 


151 
151 


138 
138 

138  39  45 

141  11  45 

145  53  45 

136  49  45 
3 


0  45 
10  0 


144 
147  32 

135  22 

136  40 

137  16 

144  56 

145  15 


0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 


Authorities. 


La  Perouse. 

Idem. 

Idem. 

Idem. 

Idem. 

Idem. 

Idem. 

Cook. 
Idem. 


Idem. 
Idem. 
Carteret. 
Edwards. 

Cook.      La  Perouse. 
Fleurieu. 

Wales. 

Idem. 

Idem. 

Cook. 

Wilson. 

Cook's  Chart. 

Idem. 

Idem. 

Walhs. 

Idem. 


Idem. 

Bougainville. 

Fleurieu. 

Cook. 

Idem. 

Burney. 

Idem. 

Idem. 

Bocnechea.| 

Idem. 

Wilson.;}; 

Byron  and  Cook. 

Fleurieu. 


•  The  loni^itude  of  all  these  islands,  discovered  by  Lemaire  and  Schooten,  is  uncertain. 
But  the  results  of  Burney's  learned  calculations,  in  his  History  of  Discoveries  deserve  a  place 
here. 

t  A  Spanish  navigator,  not  much  to  he  depended  on. 

+  The  learned  M.  Zinimermann,  in  liis  Australia,  thinks  that  the  Isle  de  Serle  is  probably  the 
same  with  St.  Uuintin. 


OCEANICA POLYNESIA. 

Table  of  Gcop;rapliical  Positions,  ^c. — continued. 


415 


Places. 


Palliscr's  or  Destructive  Isl- 
ands ------- 

Oanna,  or  the  Labyrinth 
Prince  of  Wales's  Islands    - 
Idem.     ------- 

Marquesas  Islands. 
Chanal  Island  -     -     -     -     - 
Isle  of  Masse  -     -     -     -     - 
The  Two  Brothers,  (or  Her- 

gest's  rocks)  -  -  -  - 
IVooaheeva,    (or    Sir    Henry 

Martin's  Island)     -     -     - 
Rioo  (or  Roahooga)  -     -     - 
Idem      ------- 

Marchand  (Trevanian  Island, 

or  Ropoa)  -  -  -  -  - 
Hood's  Island,  or  Tebooa  - 
Hominique  or  Ohivaroa  -  - 
Santa  Christina,  or  Ohitahoo 
San  Pedro,  or  Onatea  -  - 
La  Madalena,  or  Ohitoa     - 

Roggewyn's  Archipelago, 

&c. 
Bauman  Island  (conjectural) 
Tienhoven     and     Groningen 

(do.) ■ 

Penrhyn      ----.. 
St.  Bernard  Island     -     -     ■ 

Idem      ------- 

Islands  of  Danger     -     -     • 

Christmas  or  Noel  Island     • 
Palmyras    ------ 

Barbadoes  ------ 

Sandwich  islands. 
Owa'ihee,  Karakakoabay 
Ibid.  Tyatatoa  bay     -     -     • 
INIorotai  (east  point)  -     -     ■ 
Woahoo,  White-lee  bay  - 
Atooi,  Whymoa  bay  -     - 
Oneehoo,  Yam  bay    -     -     - 
Necker  Island      -     -     -     - 
Shallows    discovered  by   the 
French  frigates      -     -     - 


Longitude. 


ileg.  min.  sec. 

15  26     OS, 
15  38   15 
0     0     0 
0     0     0 


7 

8 


51     0 

0     0 


8  51     0 


8 
9 

8 

9 
9 
9 
9 
9 
10 


54     0 

5     0 

50     0 


21  0 
26  0 
40  37 
55  30 
58  0 
25  30 


12     0  0 

10   10  0 

9  10  0 

10  20  0 


10   10 
10  15 


0 
0 


1  58  ON, 
5  56  ON, 
8  40     ON, 


19   18     0 

19  37  30 
21     4     0 

20  16  47 

21  57  30 
21   50 
23  34 


Long.  E.  or  W. 
from  London 


(leg.  rain,  sec 

146  30  OW. 
149  0  0 
151  47  45 
148  12  5 


140  16  15 

140  29  0 

140  34  15 

140  25  45 

139  10  15 
0  0  0 

140  6  45 

138  48  45 

139  2  15 
139  9  5 
138  50  45 
138  48  45 


154  9  45 

157  0  0 

157  44  45 

161  9  45 

157  41  45 

165  9  45 

157  31  45 

162  24  45 
177  0  0 


Authorities. 


156 
156 


0 
5 


0 
15 


0 
0 


23  45     0 


156  49  45 

158  50     5 

159  50  30 
14  45 
31  45 


160 
164 


165  49  45 


Cook  and  Fleurieu. 
Fleurieu.     TurnbuU. 
Byron.* 
Fleurieu. 


Idem. 
Marchand. 

Idem. 

Idem. 
Idem. 
Vancouver. 

Fleurieu. 

Cook. 

Bailey  and  Wales. 

Cook's  Astronomer. 

Idem. 

Idem. 


Fleurieu, 

Idem. 

Severn  and  Watts. i'" 

Mcndana.  Quiros.  Fleu 

lieu. 
Burney. 
Byron. J 

Cook. 


Idem, 

Vancouver. 

Idem. 

Idem. 

Idem, 

Cook. 

La  Pcrousc. 

Idem. 


•  Cook  found  that  Byron  placed  King  George's  Islands  too  far  west ;  and  that  error  must 
have  influenced  the  position  of  llie  Prince  of  Wales's  Islands,  discovered  on  the  following  day. 

f  This  recent  discovery  iiappily  supports  Fleurieu's  hypothesis  on  Roggewyn's  Archipelago. 

+  According  to  IJurney  this  island  is  identical  with  St.  Bernard.  Others  would  make  it  that 
of  the  Gerito  Jlenmsa  «f  Quiros;  but  this  htst  must  be  nearer  Taumaco  or  Kotuma. 


416  BOOK   FIFTY-NINTH. 

BOOK  LIX. 

AFRICA. 

,3.  General  View  of  this  Division  oj  the  World  and  its  Inhabitants. 

Beginning  with  the  west  of  Asia,  the  ancient  cradle  of  history,  we  have  gone 
over  the  whole  of  that  great  continent  to  its  eastern  limits,  which  were  unknown  to 
tlie  ancients.  We  then  embarked  on  the  Great  Ocean,  and  visited  the  numerous 
and  interesting  islands  of  Oceanica,  a  part  of  the  world  entirely  new,  and  which 
might  be  viewed  as  an  immense  archipelago  annexed  to  Asia.  Fronting  Oceanica 
on  the  west,  a  vast  peninsula^oes  off  from  the  body  of  the  Asiatic  Continent.  This 
peninsula  forms  likewise  one  of  the  great  divisions  of  the  world,  and  one  which  is 
particularly  well  characterized.  Africa,  on  the  description  of  which  we  are  now  to 
enter,  will  not  present  to  us  a  new  and  unlocked  for  territory,  where  the  European 
traveller,  falling  in  with  a  numerous  succession  of  feeble  savage  tribes,  gives  to  his 
discoveries  names  borrowed  from  the  recollections  of  his  native  country.  Africa, 
Afiica  little  the  shores  of  which,  our  ships  have  been  for  three  centuries  in  the  habit 
known.  ^^  coasting,  has  been  known  to  history  for  3000  years.     Yet,  notwith- 

standing its  ancient  celebrity,  and  notwithstanding  its  vicinity  to  Europe,  it  still,  in  a 
great  measure,  eludes  the  examination  of  science.  It  was  from  the  African  shores 
that  the  Egyptian  colonies,  in  the  most  remote  times,  brought  to  savage  Europe  the 
first  germs  of  civilization.  At  the  present  day,  Africa  is  the  latest  portion  of  the 
old  world  to  receive  from  the  hands  of  the  Europeans  the  salutary  yoke  of  legisla- 
tion and  of  culture. 

If  Africa  has  remained  so  long  inaccessible  to  the  ambition  of  conquerors,  to 
commercial  enterprise,  and  to  the  curiosity  of  travellers,  we  shall  find,  in  its  physi- 
cal form,  the  principal  cause  of  its  obscurity.  A  vast  peninsula,  5000  miles  in  length, 
and  nearly  4C00  in  breadth,  presents,  in  an  area  of  nearly  13,430,000  square  miles, 
Seas  and  gulfs.  |  few  long  or  easily  navigated  rivers.  Its  harbours  and  roadsteads  seldom 
afford  a  safe  retreat  for  vessels,  and  no  gulf  or  inland  sea  opens  the  way  to  the  inte- 
rior of  this  mass  of  countries.  The  Mediterranean  on  the  north,  by  which  it  is  sepa- 
rated from  Europe,  and  the  Atlantic  and  Ethiopic  Oceans,  which  encompass  it  on  the 
west,  form  inconsiderable  inequalities  in  the  line  of  coast  to  which  the  name  of  gulfs 
is  improperly  given,  viz.  the  Gulf  of  Guinea  in  the  south,  and  that  of  the  Syrtes  in 
the  north,  both  held  in  dread  by  navigators.  The  breadth  of  the  continent,  between 
the  bottoms  of  these  gulfs,  is  still  1800  miles.  The  coasts  of  Senegal  and  Guinea, 
indeed,  present  several  mouths  of  rivers  accompanied  with  islands  ;  and  were  it  not 
for  the  barbarous  character  of  the  people,  these  would  be  the  most  accessible  parts 
of  Africa.  To  the  south,  however,  the  continent  resumes  its  usual  appearance,  and 
terminates  in  a  mass  of  land  without  any  deep  windings.  To  the  east  a  number  of 
islands,  and  some  mouths  of  rivers,  seem  to  promise  a  readier  access.  The  coast 
washed  by  the  Indian  Ocean  lies  low,  like  the  opposite  shores  of  Guinea,  but  we 
find  only  a  sliort  way  in  the  interior  the  formidable  terrace  of  arid  mountains  which 
forms  the  eastern  extremity  of  the  continent.  In  the  north-east  the  Arabian  Gulf 
separates  Africa  from  Asia,  without  breaking  the  gloomy  uniformity  of  the  African 
coast. 

Pioraontories.  |  This  large  continent  has  its  outline  marked  by  four  great  promontories. 
Cape  Serra  in  the  north  projects  into  the  Mediterranean.  Cape  de  Verd  points  due 
west  into  the  American  Sea.  Cape  Guardafui  receives  the  first  rays  of  the  rising 
sun.  The  Cape  of  Good  Hope  makes  a  long  excursion  into  the  southern  hemis- 
phere. On  three  other  remarkable  points  Africa  comes  close  up  to  the  rest  of  the  old 
straits.  1  continent.     In  the  north-west  the  narrow  Strait  of  .Gibraltar  divides  it 


Configuration 
of  the  moun- 
tains. 


AFllICA.  417 

from  Europe.     In  the  east  Arabia  is  separated  from  it  by  the  Strait  of  Babel-mandeb. 
In  the  north-east  the  low  sandy  Isthmus  of  Suez  connects  it  with  Asia.  |  isthmu*. 

In  some  parts  excessively  parched,  in  others  marshy  or  flooded,  the  soil  |  Rivers, 
of  Africa  presents  strange  contrasts.  At  great  mutual  distances  are  some  large  and 
beneficent  rivers,  as  the  Nile  in  the  north-east,  the  Senegal  and  Gambia  in  the  west, 
the  Zaire  in  the  south-west,  the  Cuama  on  the  east  coast  ;  and,  in  the  centre,  the 
mysterious  Niger,  which  conceals  its  termination  as  the  Nile  used  to  conceal  its 
origin.  More  frequently  we  find  small  and  short  streams,  such  as  all  the  rest,  with 
the  exception  of  ten  or  twelve,  almost  all  containing  cataracts  in  their  course,  and 
presenting  bars  or  sand  banks  at  their  mouths.  In  the  interior,  and  even  on  the 
roast,  there  are  great  and  lofty  rocks,  from  which  no  torrents  proceed ;  and  table- 
lands watered  by  no  streams,  as  the  great  desert  of  Zahara,  and  others  of  minor 
extent.  At  a  greater  distance  are  countries  constantly  impregnated  with  moisture, 
as  those  which  contain  the  lake  or  marsh  of  Wangara,  and  the  lake  Maravi,  and 
some  temporary  lakes  occasioned  by  the  rising  of  the  rivers.  These  features  con- 
stitute the  hydrography  of  this  part  of  the  world. 

When  we  attend  to  the  structure  of  the  mountains,  other  singularities 
come  into  view.*  Though  Africa  very  probably  has  mountains  high 
enough  to  be  covered  with  perennial  snow  even  under  the  equator,  that  is,  16,000 
feet  in  elevation,  it  is,  in  general,  to  be  remarked,  that  the  African  chains  are  more 
distinguished  for  their  breadth  than  for  their  height.  If  they  reach  a  great  elevation, 
it  is  by  a  gradual  rise,  and  in  a  succession  of  terraces.  Perhaps,  we  should  not  de- 
viate far  from  truth  if  we  were  to  venture  the  assertion,  that  the  whole  body  of  the 
African  mountains  forms  one  great  plateau,  presenting  toward  each  coast  a  succes- 
,sion  of  terraces.  This  nucleus  of  the  African  continent  seems  to  contain  few  long 
and  high  ranges  in  the  interior,  so  that  if  the  sea  were  to  rise  three  or  four  miles 
above  its  present  level,  vVfrica,  stript  of  all  the  low  lands  which  line  its  shores,  would 
perhaps  appear  almost  a  level  island  in  the  midst  of  the  ocean. 

None  of  the  known  chains  of  Africa  are  adverse  to  this  view  of  its 
surface.  Atlas,  which  lines  nearly  the  whole  of  the  north  coast,  is  a 
series  of  five  or  six  small  chains,  rising  one  behind  another,  and  including  many 
tablelands.  The  "littoral  chain  of  the  Red  Sea,"  or  the  Troglodytic  Chain,  re- 
sembles Atlas  in  its  calcareous  steeps,  so  imposing  to  the  eye  of  the  traveller,  yet 
really  of  very  moderate  height.  The  Lupata  Chain,  "or  the  Spine  of  the  world," 
which  seems  to  reach  from  Cape  Guardafui  to  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  in  a  direction 
not  well  known,  contains  the  plateaus  of  Adel  and  Mocacanga;  it  terminates  in  the 
south  in  high  and  barren  plains,  called  the  Karros,  and  in  steep  mountains  with  flat 
summits,  one  of  which  has  received  the  significant  name  of  the  Tal)le  mountain. 
This  chain  seems  then  to  resemble  the  preceding  two.  The  rivers  of  Guinea  de- 
scend in  a  series  of  cataracts,  not  in  long  and  deep  valleys.  It  is  the  usual  character 
of  calcareous  mountains  to  be  formed  into  terraces,  and  such  seems  to  be  the  nature 
of  the  Kong  mountains. 

There  is  just  one  fact  which  may  be  opposed  to  us  with  some  appear- 
ance of  reason.  We  are  told  that  "a  very  high  central  chain  crosses 
Africa  from  east  to  west,  beginning  at  Cape  Guardafui  and  ending  about  Cape  Sierra 
Leone  :  comprehending  the  Kong  mountains  and  tlie  Mountains  of  tlie  Moon,  which 
lie  to  the  south  of  Abyssinia."  But  the  extension  thus  given  by  Major  Rennel  to 
the  Mountains  of  the  Moon,  would  not  be  inconsistent  with  the  views  now  given. 
Africa  would  still  be  a  plateau  consisting  of  terraces  ;  the  plateau  would  only  be  cut 
in  two  by  a  sort  of  wall.  But  we  do  not,  by  any  jneans,  admit  the  existence  of  that 
high  central  chain.  It  is  true  that  the  nucleus  of  mountains  which  gives  origin  to 
the  rivers  Senegal,  the  Gambia,  the  Mesurada,  and  the  Joliba  or  Niger,  gives  oflT, 
among  other  branches,  one  which  has  an  easterly  direction,  and  which  partly  sepa- 
rates the  basin  of  the  Niger  from  the  coast  of  Guinea.  This  is  the  chain  called  the 
Mountains  of  Kong,  on  the  southern  declivities  of  which  rise  the  Rio-Volta  and 

•  See  the  views  of  thevcelebraled  M.  I.acepede,  in  the  Annales  dti  Miineiim  d'Hi^it.  Nat,  vol. 
vi.  p.  284. 

Vol..  II.— 3  G 


Mountain 
chains. 


On  the  exis- 
tence of  a 
central  chain. 


Reasons 
against  itt 
existence. 


418  nOOK  VIFTY-NIXTII. 

some  other  rivers  of  Guinea.  But  tlic  learned  Rennel  has  stretched  his  conjectures 
too  far,  in  pretending  to  connect  this  chain  to  that  of  the  Mountains  of  the  Moon 
on  the  south  of  Abyssinia.  May  not  these  mountains  be  lost  ia  the  central  plateau 
of  south-eastern  Africa?  or,  if  they  are  extended  to  the  west,  may  they  not  terminate 
about  Cape  Gonsalvo,  opposite  to  St.  Thomas's  Island?  The  following  facts  render 
this  supposition  very  probable. 

At  Darfoor,  the  south  winds  are  the  hottest  and  driest,  and  bring  along 
with  them  clouds  of  dust.  This  shows  that  there  is  no  hich  chain  of 
mountams  immediately  to  the  south,  near  Darfoor.  The  Mountains  of  the  Moon 
must  be  removed  farther  to  the  south  and  to  the  east,  and  the  south  winds  of  Dar- 
foor must  sweep  over  a  sandy,  though,  perhaps,  somewhat  elevated  plain. 

The  passages  of  Ptolemy  and  Leo  Africanus,  which  seem  to  describe  a  central 
chain,  prove  nothing.  The  first  of  these  authors  mentions  several  detached  moun- 
tains without  saying  any  thing  of  their  extent.  Leo  says  that  the  inhabitants  of  Wan- 
gara  cross  very  high  mountains  when  they  go  in  search  of  gold  dust.  But  the  posi- 
tion of  these  mountains  is  not  defined  any  more  than  the  country  of  Zegzeg,  the 
inhabitants  of  which  require  large  artificial  fires  to  protect  them  from  the  cold.* 
Even  Major  Rennel  thinks  that  the  mountains  last  referred  to  must  lie  to  the  north 
of  the  Niger. 

The  prodigious  numbers  of  slaves  which  come  to  Benin  show  that  there  is  an  open 
and  easy  communication  with  the  interior.  The  slaves  of  the  Ibbo  nation  perform 
a  journey  of  seven  months  over  forests  and  morasses. |  It  is  even  probable  that, 
in  the  sixteenth  century,  the  king  of  Benin  was  subject  to  the  king  of  Ghana,  a  city 
situated  on  the  Niger,;]]  a  circumstance  which  implies  easy  inland  communications. 
Is  it  not  also  probable  that  the  Niger,  or  some  other  river  from  the  interior,  flows 
into  the  most  easterly  corner  of  the  Gulf  of  Guinea?  Such  large  gulfs  as  this  have 
generally  some  great  river  falling  into  their  further  extremity.  The  rivers  which 
traverse  Benin  and  Calabar  seem  to  be  arms  of  some  great  river.  We  are  indeed 
told,  that  this  appearance  of  great  size  is  confined  to  the  low  lands  immediately  on 
the  shore,  but  we  have  hitherto  no  accounts  from  any  traveller  who  has  actually  as- 
cended them,  and  the  hypothesis  has  been  advanced  and  plausibly  supported,  that 
the  Niger  terminates  here. 

The  principle  which  we  have  now  defended  is  susceptible  of  some  in- 
teresting applications.  If  Africa  is  one  immense  flat  mountain,  rising 
on  all  its  sides  by  steps  or  terraces,  we  easily  conceive  that  it  will  not  give  origin  to 
such  narrow  pointed  peninsulas,  or  such  long  chains  of  islands,  as  those  by  which 
other  continents  are  terminated.  These  peninsulas  and  chains  of  islands  are  sub- 
marine prolongations  of  the  mountain  chains  extended  across  the  continents.  In 
Africa,  nothing  similar  appears,  excepting  the  Canary  islands.  The  mountains  lying 
parallel  to  the  coast  have  scarcely  any  submarine  continuation.  A  sea,  clear  of  isl- 
ands, washes  a  coast  marked  by  an  even,  unnotched  line.  The  great  island  of  Ma- 
dagascar, on  the  east,  is  not  a  prolongation  of  the  continent,  but  follows  a  direction 
parallel  to  that  of  the  coast. 

Plains  and  ta-  If  WO  tum  our  attention  to  the  interior  of  Africa,  the  same  principle 
bie  lands.  makes  its  appearance  in  the  vast  plains  which  occupy  the  greater  part 

of  its  extent.  Some  covered  with  sand  and  gravel,  with  a  mixture  of  sea  shells,  and 
incrusted  with  crystallizations,  look  like  the  basins  of  evaporated  seas.  Such  is  the 
famous  desert  of  Zahara,  wlierc  the  sands,  moving  like  the  waves  of  the  ocean, 
are  said  to  have  sometimes  swallowed  up  entire  tribes.  Others,  of  a  marshy  nature, 
and  filled  with  stagnant  lakes,  emit  eflluvia  the  most  destructive  to  human  life,  or 
breed  disgusting  jeptiles,  and  formidable  animals  of  huge  size.  Nei- 
ther in  the  one  nor  the  other  do  rivers  find  descent  or  outlet.  They 
either  terminate  in  lakes,  or  lose  themselves  beneath  the  sand.  Many  of  the  slen- 
der rivulets  never  unite  to  form  permanent  currents,  but  disappear  with  the  rainy 
season,  to  which  they  owe  their  origin.     Africa  contains  an  infinite  number  of  these 

*  Leo  Africanus,  p.  329,  da  la  Traduction  de  Jean  Temporal. 
f  Oldemlorp.     See  our  Account  of  (iuinea,  in  the  sequel, 
t  IJarros,  Dec.  i.  liv.  2,  ch.  4. 


Why  has  Af- 
rica few  isl- 
ands ? 


Kivors  with- 
out uutiels. 


AiiacA.  419 

torrents  and  rivers  which  never  reach  the  sea.  Some  of  them  have  a  long  course, 
and  rival  the  greatest  rivers  in  the  world.  Such  is  the  Niger  or  Joliba,  unless  it  has 
tin  outlet,  as  yet  unknown,  in  the  Gulf  of  Guinea.  After  it  come  the  Bornou  and 
the  KuUah ;  the  Misselad  in  Nigritia;  and  the  Djedyd,  in  the  Zab  country,  belong- 
ing to  the  Algerine  States.  Many  of  these  rivers  must  form  lakes  or  small  inland  seas, 
probably  equalling  tiie  sea  of  Aral.  The  heat  which  rapidly  dries  up  the  waters,  the 
bibulous  quality  of  the  soil  which  absorbs  Ihem,  and,  still  more,  the  absence  of  great 
inequalities,  or  extensive  hollows,  prevents  the  African  table  land  from  possessing 
another  Caspian  Sea. 

Lake  Maravi  gives  some  reason  to  suppose  that  there  may  be  a  second  Niger  in 
the  interior  of  Eastern  Africa. 

The  other  rivers  of  this  continent,  such  as  the  Senegal,  the  Gam-  f^v.^^^.'^f^f 
bia,  the  Zaire,  and  the  Orange  river  on  the  western  shores,  the  Zam-  tiie  livers. 
bczi,  or  Cuama,  and  the  Makadshec  on  the  east  coasts,  and  lastly  the  Nile,  which 
surpasses  the  others,  and  which  is  the  only  one  that  runs  north  into  the  Mediterra- 
nean, all  possess  a  character  of  resemblance  depending  partly  on  the  climate  of  the 
torrid  zone,  and  partly  on  the  structure  of  the  plateaus  in  the  heart  of  Africa.  One 
conspicuous  character  consists  in  the  periodic  swells,  by  which  these  rivers  over- 
flow the  countries  through  which  they  pass,  and  particularly  those  by  which  their 
mouths  are  surrounded.  These  risings  dilFer  in  nothing  from  the  floods  of  our  Eu- 
ropean streams,  except  in  their  regular  annual  return,  in  the  large  volume  of  water 
which  they  bring  along  with  them,  and  the  great  quantity  of  mud  which  they  depo- 
sit. It  is  well  known  that  the  rainy  season,  which,  over  the  whole  torrid  zone,  is 
synchronous  with  the  vertical  position  of  the  sun,  brings  on  almost  continual  drench- 
ing rains.  The  heavens,  formerly  binning  like  a  flame,  are  transformed  into  a  great 
atmospheric  ocean.  The  copious  waters  which  they  pour  down  collect  on  the  table 
lands  of  the  interior,  where  they  form  immense  sheets  of  water,  or  temporary  lakes. 
When  these  lakes  have  reached  a  level  high  enough  to  overflow  the  boundaries  of 
their  basins,  they  suddenly  send  down  into  the  rivers,  previously  much  swollen,  an 
enormous  volume  of  water,  impregnated  with  the  soft  earth  over  which  it  has  for 
some  time  stagnated.  Hence  the  momentary  pauses  and  sudden  renewals  in  the 
rise  of  the  Nile.  Hence  the  abundance  of  fertilizing  slime,  which  would  not  be 
found  so  copious  in  the  waters  of  rivers  which  owed  their  rise  solely  to  the  direct 
influence  of  the  rains.  These  phenomena,  simple  in  their  origin,  only  astonish  per- 
sons who  have  observed  the  eflxicts  without  tracing  their  cause. 

The  general  climate  of  Africa  is  that  of  the  torrid  zone;  more  than  |  climate, 
three  fourths  of  this  continent,  (ten  thirteenths  at  least)  being  situated  betwixt  the 
tropics.  The  great  mass  of  heated  air,  incumbent  on  these  hot  regions  |  Temperature, 
has  ready  access  to  its  northern  and  southern  parts,  situated  in  the  zones  called  tem- 
perate, so  that  the  portions  of  them  adjoining  the  tropics  are  equally  torrid  with  the 
regions  actually  intertropical.  Nothing  really  moderates  the  heat  and  dryness  of  the 
African  climate,  except  the  annual  rains,  the  sea  breezes,  and  the  elevation  of  the 
surface.  These  three  circumstances  are  sometimes  united  in  a  greater  degree  under 
the  equator  than  in  the  temperate  zones.  Such  parts  of  the  interior  of  Guinea, 
Nigritia,  or  Abyssinia,  as  fall  under  this  description,  enjoy  a  temperature  much  less 
scorching  and  dry  than  the  sandy  deserts  on  the  south  of  Mount  Atlas,  though  the 
last  are  thirty  degrees  from  the  equator.  It  is  not  impossible  that  in  the  centre  of 
Africa  there  may  be  lofty  table  lands  like  that  of  Quito,  or  valleys  like  the  valley  of 
Cashmere,  where,  as  in  those  two  happy  regions,  spring  holds  an  eternal  reign. 

There  is  another  general  cause  which  influences  the  climate  of  Africa  less  than 
might  be  expected.  The  greatest  cold  of  the  southern  hemisphere  is  only  apparent 
on  the  southern  shores,  and  is  confined  to  a  very  small  portion  of  the  year.  The 
saline  and  arid  character  of  the  lands  of  the  southern  extremity  resembles,  in  some 
measure,  that  of  the  coasts  of  Zaara  and  of  Ajan. 

Nowhere  do  the  empire  of  fertility  and  that  of  barrenness  come  into     contrasts  of 
closer  contact  than  in  Africa.     Some  of  its  lands  owe  their  fertility  to     '«-'"''")■• 
high  wooded  mountains  moderating  the  heat  and  dryness  of  the  atmosj)here.     More 
frequently  the  fertile  countries,  bounded  by  vast  deserts,  form  narrow  stripes  along 


420  BOOK  FIFTY-NINTH. 

the  banks  of  the  rivers,  or  alluvial  plains  situated  at  their  place  of  exit.  These  last 
countries,  generally  contained  between  two  branches  of  the  river  diverging  to  form 
a  triangle,  have,  from  their  figure,  received  a  name  taken  from  Delta,  the  fourth  let- 
ter of  the  Greek  alphabet,  Avhich  is  a  triangle.  The  term  has  been,  by  way  of  emi- 
nence, given  to  the  Hat  island  formed  by  the  Nile  in  Lower  Egypt.  Another  class 
of  fertile  lands  owes  its  existence  to  springs,  which  here  and  there  burst  forth  in  the 
midst  of  deserts.  These  spots  of  verdure  are  called  Oases.  Even  Strabo  men- 
tions them,  when  he  says,  "  To  the  south  of  Atlas  lies  a  vast  desert  of  sand  and 
stones,  which,  hke  the  spotted  skin  of  a  panther,  is  here  and  there  diversified  by 
oases ;  that  is  to  say,  by  fertile  grounds,  rising  like  islands  in  the  midst  of  the 


ocean." 


It  is  to  these  contrasts  that  Africa  owes  her  twofold  reputation.  This  land  of 
perpetual  thirst,  this  arid  nursery  of  lions,*  as  it  was  called  by  the  ancients,  was,  at 
the  same  time,  represented  under  the  emblem  of  a  woman  crowned  with  ears  of  corn, 
General  view  qj.  holding  cars  of  com  in  her  hand-j  Although  the  character  of  high 
don.  ^^^^  *'  fertility  belongs  especially  to  the  Africa  propria  of  the  ancients,  that  is, 
the  present  state  of  Tunis,  it  is  certain  that  in  this  part  of  the  world,  wherever  mois- 
ture is  conjoined  with  heat,  vegetation  displays  great  vigour  and  magnificence.  The 
human  species  find  abundant  aliment  at  a  very  insignificant  expense  of  labour.  The 
corn  stalks  bend  under  their  load  ;  the  vine  attains  a  colossal  size ;  melons  and 
pumpkins  acquire  enormous  volume ;  millet  and  holcus,  the  grain  which  is  most 
common  over  three-fourths  of  this  continent,  though  badly  cultivated,  yield  a  return 
of  two  hundred  fold  ;  and  the  date  tree,  which  is  to  the  African  what  the  cocoa  nut 
and  the  bread  fruit  are  in  Oceanica,  can  withstand  the  fiery  winds  which  assail  it  from 
the  neighbouring  deserts.  The  forests  of  Mount  Atlas  are  equal  to  the  finest  of 
Italy  and  Spain.  Tliose  of  the  Cape  boast  of  the  silver  leaved  Prolea,  and  some 
elegant  trees.  In  the  whole  of  Guinea,  Senegambia,  Congo,  Nigritia,  and  the  east- 
ern coast,  formerly  denominated  India,  are  to  be  found  the  same  thick  forests  as  in 
America.  But  in  parts  which  are  marshy  or  arid,  sandy  or  rocky,  that  is,  in  one 
half  of  Africa,  the  natural  vegetation  presents  a  harsh  and  uncouth  physiognomy. 
Scattered  tufts  of  saline  plants  diversifying  a  plain  which  has  no  green  sod  to  clothe 
its  nakedness, — thorny  shrubs.  Mimosas,  and  Acacias,  present  impenetrable  thickets. 
Euphorbirc,  Cacti,  and  arums,  tire  the  eye  with  their  stifl'  and  pointed  forms.  The 
enormous  baobab,  and  the  shapeless  dragon  tree,  are  void  of  grace  and  majesty. 
The  fruit  of  the  theobroma,  finding  its  way  outward  through  the  bark  of  the  trunk,  a 
bark  of  a  blackened  and  scorched  appearance,  seems  affected  by  the  same  power  of 
solar  heat  which  has  impressed  the  most  sombre  hues  on  the  skin  of  the  negro. 
AnimaU.  |  The  animal  kingdom  presents  still  greater  variety,  and  more  origina- 
lity. Africa  possesses  most  of  the  animals  of  the  old  continent,  and  in  some  species 
possesses  the  most  vigorous  and  the  most  beautiful  varieties.  Such  are  the  horse 
of  Barbary,  the  Cape  buffalo,  the  Senegal  mule,  and  the  zebra,  the  pride  of  the  asi- 
nine race.  The  African  lion  is  the  only  lion  worthy  of  the  name.  The  elephant 
and  the  rhinoceros,  though  of  less  colossal  dimensions  than  those  of  Asia,  have  more 
agiUty,  and  perhaps  more  ferecity ;  yet  the  African  elephant  is  said  to  fly  at  the  sight 
Pecuriarani-  of  that  of  Asia.  Several  very  singular  animal  forms  appear  to  be  pecu- 
mai  forms.  jj^j.  j^  ^j^jg  pg^^j.  ^^  ^\^^  world.     The  unwieldy  hippopotamus  inhabits  the 

south,  from  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  to  Egypt  and  to  Senegal.  The  majestic  girafl^e 
the  prototype  of  the  Seraphim  which  the  Arabian  mythology  yoked  in  the  chariot 
of  the  lord  of  thunder,  roams  from  the  Niger  to  the  Orange  River.  The  gazelle,  or 
antelope  genus,  peoples  Africa  with  numerous  species  and  varieties,  some  lighter 
and  handsomer  than  others,  and  perhaps  all  ditferent  from  those  of  the  table-land  of 
Asia.  Following  the  same  principle,  Africa,  filled  with  monstrous  apes  and  disgust- 
ing baboons,  is  probably  deficient  in  many  species  of  monkeys  which  seem  reserved 
for  Oceanica,  as  the  ourang-outang;  or  for  America,  as  the  sapajoo.  The  winged 
race  of  Africa  is  equally  peculiar.  The  flamingo,  in  his  scarlet  robe,  the  paroquet, 
clad  in  emerald  and  sapphire  hues,  the  aigretta,  of  elegant  plumage,  might  have  irn- 

*  "Sitientes  Afros." — Virgil.    Leonum  arida  nutrix,  f  Bochart,  Canaan,  i.  ch.25. 


AFRICA.  421 

parted  sufficient  interest  to  the  descriptive  pen  of  Vaillant,  though  lie  liad  added  no 
imaginary  birds.  The  ostrich  is  pccuhar  to  Africa,  as  the  cassowary  is  to  Oceanica, 
and  the  rhea,  or  tooyoo,  to  South  America;  but,  among  the  walking  birds,  or  those 
which  have  no  true  wings,  that  of  Africa  is  the  largest  and  most  perfect.  We  re- 
serve for  our  special  delineations  other  researches,  which  will  confirm  the  old  adage, 
"  that  Africa  was  always  furnishing  natural  history  with  some  new  animal ;" — re- 
searches which  will  give  a  probability  to  the  existence  of  some  extraordinary  animals, 
celebrated  in  all  the  writings  of  antiquity,  while  modern  criticism,  perhaps  too  scep- 
tical, has  assigned  them  a  place  among  the  creations  of  fable. 

The  inconveniences  and  calamities  occasioned  by  venomous  or  voracious  reptiles, 
are  not  peculiar  to  Africa;  the  whole  torrid  zone  has  its  serpents,  its  scorpions,  its 
crocodiles,  or  other  equivalent  species.  But  no  where  else,  except  in  New  Holland, 
do  the  termites  build  so  many  destructive  nests.  The  swarms  of  locusts  of  Asia  arc 
much  less  thick  and  extensive  than  those  of  Africa,  where  whole  tribes  of  men  use 
them  as  tood. 

Man. 


Three  African 
races. 

lurope  and 


To  conclude  our  picture,  we  find  the  human  species  in  this  part  of  the 
Avorld  exhibited  in  a  new  li<iht.  The  Africans  seem  to  form  three  races 
which  have  long  been  distinct.  The  Moors  are  a  handsome  race,  re- 
sembling in  stature,  physiognomy,  and  hair,  the  best  formed  nations  of 
Western  Asia,  though  darkened  by  the  influence  of  climate.  To  this  race  belong 
the  Berbers  or  Kabyls,  and  the  other  remains  of  the  ancient  Numidians  and  Getulvc. 
They  bear  a  great  similarity  to  the  Arabians,  from  whom  they  received  in  tlie  seventh 
century  numerous  colonies.  The  Copts,  Nubians,  and  Abyssinians,  cannot  well  be 
considered  as  originally  a  distinct  race,  being  probably  sprung  from  a  mixture  of 
Asiatic  and  African  nations.  The  second  race  is  that  of  the  Negroes,  whose  gene- 
ral characteristics  are  universally  known.  It  occupies  all  the  centre,  and  all  the  west 
from  Senegal  to  Cape  Negros,  and  has  found  its  way  into  Nubia  and  Egypt.  The 
third  race  is  that  of  the  Caftres,  which  occupies  all  the  east  coast,  distinguished  from 
the  negroes  by  a  less  obtuse  facial  angle,  a  convex  forehead,  and  a  high  nose;  but 
approaching  to  it  in  the  thick  lips,  the  curled  and  almost  woolly  hair,  and  a  coAiplex- 
ion  varying  from  a  yellow  brown  to  a  shining  black. 

Besides  these  great  races,  Africa  contains  some  tribes  of  a  character  quite  pecu- 
liar, which  they  derive  either  from  some  unknown  original,  or  from  the  influence  of 
^  climate.     The  Hottentots  are  the  most  conspicuous  example,  but  we  shall  find  some 
others  in  the  course  of  our  particular  details. 

The  languages  of  Africa  must,  according  to  M.  de  Seetzen,  amount 
to  100  or  150.  They  differ  from  one  another  in  a  most  striking  man- 
ner, and  have  so  few  features  of  mutual  resemblance,  that  the  attempts  made  to 
classify  them  have  proved  fruitless.  The  Berber  language  has  indeed  been  found 
to  prevail  from  Morocco  to  Egypt.  The  three  negro  languages  of  Mandingo  on  the 
upper  Senegal,  of  Amina  on  the  Gold  coast,  of  Congo  on  the  Congo  coast,  seem  to 
be  extensively  diffused:  and  the  same  may  be  said  of  the  Caftre  Bejooanas.  But 
the  general  character  of  Africa  in  this  respect  is  still  that  of  a  multitude  of  confined 
idioms  which  seem  to  comprehend  many  sounds  scarcely  articulate,  some  that  are 
very  strange,  sometimes  bowlings,  sometimes  hisses,  contrived  in  imitation  of  the 
cries  of  animals,  or  intended  as  watchwords  to  distinguish  hostile  tribes  from  one 
another.  This  fact  perplexes  those  who  consider  the  unity  of  the  human  race  as  a 
demonstrated  historic  trtith ;  but  it  appears  to  us  that  in  Africa  and  every  where  else, 
true  history,  going  back  to  the  most  remote  times,  finds  the  human  si)ccies,  like  the 
plants  and  animals,  disseminated  over  the  surface  of  the  globe,  and  divided  into 
numberless  small  tribes  or  families,  each  speaking  a  peculiar  idiom,  imperfect  and 
often  singularly  distorted.  The  artificial  combination  of  these  primitive  jargons  has 
given  origin  to  the  regular  languages,  which  probably  began  with  the  formation  of 
cities. 

Civilization,  which  has  furnished  man  with  abstract  and  general  ideas, 
has  followed  in  Africa  a  singular  progress,  dictated  by  the  climate  and 
by  the  character  of  the  most  numerous  indigenous  race.     This  progress  inay  be  dis- 
tributed into  the  following  epochs. 


Languages   of 
Africa. 


Prepress  of 
civilization. 


422  BOOK    FIFTY-NINTH. 


rrimltivc 
state. 


Living  in  abundance,but  separated  from  one    another  by  deserts; 

surrounded  by  copious  and  excellent  food  of  spontaneous  growth,  but 
encountering  prodigious  obstacles  in  all  their  attempts  at  artificial  culture ;  enjoying  a 
climate  which  required  no  clothing  to  protect  them  from  cold,  nor  cover  to  shelter 
them  from  rain,  the  Negro  (called  the  Ethiopian  by  the  ancients,)  and  probably  also 
the  CafTre,  or  Troglodyte,  never  felt  that  stimulus  of  necessity  which  creates  indus- 
try and  reflection.  Enjoying  a  wild  happiness  of  condition,  they  satisfied  the  de- 
mands of  sense,  and  scarcely  possessed  any  notion  of  an  intellectual  world.  But 
they  felt  the  presence  of  an  invisible  power.  They  looked  for  its  residence  in  the 
tree  which  gave  them  food,  in  the  rock  which  shaded  them,  in  the  serpent  which 
they  dreaded,  and  even  in  the  monkeys  and  parrots  which  flitted  around  them. 
Some  believed  that  a  piece  of  wood,  or  a  polished  stone,  was  the  seat  of  a  superna- 
tural power;  they  were  dehgh ted  to  think  that  their  deities  could  be  carried  along 
Fetichism.  |  with  them  in  all  their  motions.  This  system,  which  is  called  fetichtsm, 
and  which  is  the  rudest  form  of  jyantlieism,  seems  common  to  every  climate  and  to 
every  race  :  but  it  prevailed  to  the  exclusion  of  every  other  in  Africa,  and  especially 
among  the  negroes.*  These  superstitions  were  merely  ridiculous.  Yengeance  and 
brutality,  however,  gave  birth  to  others  of  a  horrible  and  atrocious  nature.  The 
prisoner  of  war  from  an  adjoining  tribe  was  sacrificed  on  the  tombs  of  those  against 
whom  he  had  fought.  Believing  in  the  necessary  connection  between  moral  powers 
and  visible  objects,  these  barbarians  were  persuaded  that  by  devouring  the  bodies  of 
their  enemies,  they  became  imbued  with  the  courage  of  the  deceased.  Cannibalism, 
urisintT  iVom  the  rites  of  the  hideous  altus,  and  at  first  limited  to  these  rites,  was  soon 
converted  into  a  capricious  taste — a  demand  of  luxurious  appetite.  Vanquished 
tribes  thought  themselves  fortunate  in  being  reduced  to  slavery,  instead  of  being 
devoured;  but  their  masters  sold  their  persons  like  cattle.  In  the  mean  time,  the 
Berbers  or  Moors,  proud  of  a  little  superiority  over  these  degraded  beings,  hunted 
them  down  like  wild  beasts,  and  wrought  them  like  domestic  animals.  Such  may 
be  considered  as  the  primitive  state  of  the  Africans,  and  it  still  in  some  measure 
subsists. 

Afterwards  came  some  beneficent  impostors,  who  altered  the  face  of 

things.  Several  dynasties  of  royal  high  priests  erected  temples  at  Me- 
3es,  and  at  Memphis,  which  became  the  asyla  of  peace,  the  focus  of  arts, 
and  the  resort  of  trade.  The  savage,  attracted  by  curiosity,  and  enslaved  by  super- 
stition, bowed  down  before  the  statue  of  a  god  with  a  dog's  head,  or  the  beak  of  a 
bird,  emblems  which  formed  improvements  on  his  rude  anaulet.  At  the  command  of 
the  servants  of  the  gods,  a  multitude  which  scarcely  possessed  cabins  of  palm  trunks 
for  themselves,  cut  the  granite  into  columns,  carved  hieroglyphics  on  the  porphyry 
rocks,  and  by  persevering  labour  completed  monuments  which  stood  undecayed  for 
ages.  Nor  were  works  of  utility  neglected.  The  sacred  water  of  the  Nile,  con- 
fined by  dykes,  and  distributed  by  canals,  fertilized  the  plains  which  had  previously 
been  overrun  with  reeds  and  rushes.  Caravans,  protected  by  the  name  of  the  deities, 
ascended  the  Nile,  and  penetrated  to  the  remote  valleys  of  Ethiopia,  collecting  gold 
and  ivory,  spreading  every  where  the  germs  of  new  religions,  new  laws,  and  new 
manners. 

At  Memphis,  Thebes,  and   Mcroe,   the  caste  of  warriors  rebelled 

against  the  pontiffs.  The  gentle  illusions  of  theocracy  were  succeeded 
by  revolutions,  wars,  and  agitations,  at  the  despotic  court  of  the  Pharaohs.  Not- 
withstanding events  of  this  kind,  Egypt  long  continued  a  great  and  flourishing  em- 
pire, but  was  less  fortunate  as  to  any  influence  on  the  civilization  of  the  rest  of 
Africa. 

Carthage  had  founded  another  empire  in  the  west.    Her  hardy  sailors, 

and  her  enterprising  merchants,  reached  as  far  as  Cape  IManco  by  sea, 
and  travellers  reached  the  Niger  by  land  ;  but  the  only  means  MJiich  they 
possessed  for  subjugating  nations  were  their  armed  force,  and  the  attractions  of  cer- 
tain articles   of  commerce.     Intimately   connected  with  the  Barbary,  or  Moorish 

♦  See  afterwards  our  account  of  Nigritia. 


'I'lieocracies  of 
Meroe,Tliebes, 

roc,  at  The 


Internal  revo- 
lutions of 
Egypt. 


The  Cartha- 
ginians. 

and  her  in 


AFUICA.  423 

people,  whose  talents  for  war  they  brought  into  activity  by  raising  among  them  light 
troops  ibr  tlieir  own  service,  they  exercised  only  nn  indirect  influence  on  the  Ethio- 
pians or  the  negroes.  This  race  of  men,  left  to  themselves,  conlined  their  exertions 
to  the  picking  up  of  such  simple  aliments  as  the  earth  afforded  ready  prepared.  The 
government  of  petty  despotic  patriarchs  gave  place  to  more  extended  monarchies. 
In  the  mysterious  associations  of  Guinea,  the  spirit  of  the  priests  of  Meroe  was 
seen  to  revive.  The  most  essential  change  which  the  civil  constitution  of  Africa 
underwent,  was  the  distinction  established  between  free-men  and  slaves.  That  dis- 
tinction existed  among  the  Greeks  and  the  Romans  with  features  ecpially  odious  and 
inhuman  as  in  Africa.  But,  while  Christianity  abolished  it  in  Europe,  in  Africa  it 
has  been  perpetuated. 

Beyond  the  limits  of  their  own  empire,  the  Romans  had  no  direct  |  The  Romans, 
relations  with  any  people  except  the  inhabitants  of  Fezzan  and  of  Nubia,  and,  at  a 
very  late  period,  with  Abyssinia,  or  the  kingdom  of  Axum.  Nor  did  |  Christianity. 
Christianity  succeed  in  shedding  her  light  on  the  west,  the  centre,  and  the  south 
of  Africa.  Her  benefits,  which  Mere  spread  over  the  north,  disappeared  under  the 
effects  of  disastrous  wars.  To  Mahometanism  was  reserved  the  task  of  gn'jf^^a'ho^nie. 
cHcctino;  a  change  in  African  civilization.  The  fanatic  Arab,  mounted  tanism. 
on  the  active  dromedary,  or  embarked  in  light  vessels,  flew  to  plant  the  standard  of 
his  prophet  on  the  banks  of  the  Senegal,  and  on  the  shores  of  Sofala.  Never  did  a 
people  possess  a  union  of  qualities  better  adapted  for  conquering  and  preserving  the 
empire  of  Africa.  Among  tlie  Mauritanians  and  Numidians  they  found  brothers 
and  natural  friends  ;  an  identity  of  manners,  food,  and  a  genial  climate.  The  fa- 
natic mussulman  spirit  astonished  and  subdued  the  ardent  imaginations  of  the  Afri- 
cans ;  the  simplicity  of  the  creed  suited  their  limited  intellect,  and  easily  connected 
itself  with  the  superstition  of  fetichism,  and  the  ideas  which  these  people  entertained 
of  magic  and  enchantments.  Africa,  and  especi  illy  the  oases  of  the  Great  Desert, 
soon  furnished  the  new  religion  with  its  most  zealous  defenders.  Civil  slavery  and 
despotic  government  suffered  no  change,  except  that  the  JMarabools,  or  Mussulman 
priests,  and  the  Skerifs,  or  descendants  of  the  prophet,  formed,  in  some  of  the  states, 
a  species  of  aristocracy.  Cannibalism  alone  was  of  course  abolished,  and  that  was 
a  real  benefit  which  humanity  received  at  the  hand  of  Tslamism.*  One  event  favour- 
ed, for  a  moment,  the  civilization  of  the  Moors.  The  expulsion  of  those  of  their 
number  who  had  ruled  in  Spain  peopled  Barbary,  and  even  the  Oases  of  the  great 
desert,  with  a  more  industrious  and  better  informed  race  than  the  rest  of  the  Maho- 
metans. But,  unhappily  for  Africa,  a  handful  of  Turkish  adventurers,  |  The  Turks, 
vying  with  one  another  in  ferocity  and  ignorance,  established  themselves  on  the  coast 
of  Barbary,  subdued  the  Moors,  and  founded  the  barbarous  governments  of  Algiers, 
Tunis,  and  Tripoli,  forming  a  deadly  barrier,  more  efficient  than  Mahometanism  it- 
self, in  separating  Africa  from  the  civilized  world. 

The  voyages  of  the  Portuguese,  and  the  slave  trade,  have  subse-  |  Modem  state, 
quently  opened  new  communications  between  Africa  and  the  west  of  Europe.  These 
cou:itries  were  found,  as  they  still  are,  distracted  by  perpetual  war,  a  war  so  much 
the  more  deplorable,  because,  being  confined  to  a  system  of  cruel  robbery,  without 
the  spirit  of  territorial  conquest,  it  does  not  give  birth  to  those  great  empires  which 
sometimes  admit  a  species  of  civilization.  A  lengthened  observation  of  the  charac- 
ter of  the  Africans  made  us  acquainted  with  their  virtues,  their  docile  dispositions, 
and  their  versatihty  in  imitating  our  arts.  Suflicient  proof  is  obtained  that  there  is 
nothing  in  their  moral  nature  which  condemns  them  to  perpetual  barbarism. f  Europe, 
unfortunately  occupied  with  the  East  and  West  Indies,  has  paid  comparatively  little 
attention  to  a  country  nearer  home,  and  perhaps  more  wealthy  than  those  others. 
Hence  our  relations  with  the  African  coasts  have  been  long  confined  to  that  traffic 
in  human  beings  which  is  reprobated  both  by  religion  and  philosophy,  and  only  justi- 
fied by  a  fallacious  reference  to  adventitious  circumstances,  from  which  this  traffic 

•  M.  de  Hammer,  Mcmoire  sur  I'inflaencc  du  Mahomctisme,  dans  les  Mines  de  I'Orient,  et 
danslcs  Annales  iles  Voyages. 

t  See  tlie  interesting  work  of  M.  Gr^goire,  Bishop  of  IJlois,  suv  la  Litteraure  des  Negres. 


424  BOOK  SIXTIETH. 

appears  to  operate  as  a  coiTeclive  of  great  disorders  and  inhumanity.  These  cir- 
cumstances are  many  of  them  the  creation  of  this  infamous  traffic  itself,  which  de- 
bases and  brutahzes  the  miserable  natives,  as  has  been  amply  proved  by  a  comparison 
between  the  state  of  the  same  countries  before  and  since  the  late  partial  abolition, 
and  under  the  temporary  revivals  of  the  same  disgraceful  inhumanity  to  which  indi- 
vidual avarice  has,  in  some  places,  given  rise.  That  the  utter  abolition  of  the  slave 
trade  will  ever  be  the  cause  of  the  revival  of  cannibalism  and  human  sacrifices,  as 
some  have  ventured  to  predict,  is  impossible.  Moral  practices,  as  well  as  physical 
population,  do  not,  in  Africa,  depend  on  causes  different  from  those  which  regulate 
them  in  France  or  England.  The  introduction  of  knowledge  and  enlightened  habits 
is  the  great  engine  by  which  we  hope  to  see  Africa  made  to  hold  a  respectable  rank 
in  the  scale  of  human  society.  The  colonies  established  on  its  shores,  and  the  efforts 
made  to  open  a  legitimate  and  beneficial  trade  between  Africa  and  the  civihzed  world, 
will,  it  is  hoped,  excite,  in  the  minds  of  its  inhabitants,  a  due  esteem  for  regular 
laws  and  civilized  manners,  and  induce  them  either  to  emulate  them  by  efforts  of 
their  own,  or  to  submit  to  receive  from  others  these  benefits  in  exchange  for  the 
miseries  of  a  wretched  independence. 


BOOK  LX. 
EGYPT. 


PART  I. 

Jl  Physical  Description  of  this  Country. 

Egypt  is  the  connecting  link  between  Africa  and  the  civilized  world.  This  coun- 
try, unique  in  its  nature  and  in  its  historical  records,  deserves  a  more  minute  descrip- 
tion than  the  other  countries  of  Africa.  Egypt  consists  entirely  of  a  vale,  watered 
by  the  Nile,  by  which  it  is  in  part  formed;  and  confined,  on  the  right  and  left,  by  a 
barren  expanse  of  deserts.  The  physical  picture  of  this  country,  therefore,  will  be 
introduced  with  an  account  of  the  Nile,  whoso  bounties  render  Egypt  independent 
of  all  foreign  supplies,  and  independent  of  the  rains  of  heaven. 
The  Nile;  its  ^[^^  Nile,  the  largest  river  of  the  old  world,  still  conceals  its  true 

sources  ai:U  />i  ir-  «.i  i  i- 

course.  sourcos  iroui  the  research  ot  science.     At  least,  scarcely  any  tlung  more 

of  them  is  known  to  us  now  than  was  known  in  the  time  of  Eratosthenes.  Tliat 
learned  librarian  of  Alexandria  distinguished  tliree  principal  branches  of  the  Nile. 
Tlic  most  easterly  was  the  Tacaze  of  the  moderns,  which  ffowed  down  the  nortli  side 
of  the  table  land  of  Abyssinia.  The  second  known  branch,  or  the  Blue  River,  first 
makes  a  circuit  on  the  table  land  of  Ayssinia,  and  then  flows  down  through  the  plains 
of  Sennaar,  or  of  Fungi.  The  sources  of  this  Blue  River  were  found  and  described 
by  the  Jesuits,  Paez  and  Tellez,  two  centuries  before  the  pretended  di.'^covery  of 
Bruce.  These  two  rivers  are  tributaries  to  the  White  river,  the  Bahr-el-Abiad,  which 
is  the  true  Nde,  and  the  sources  of  which  must  lie  in  the  countries  to  the  south  of 
Darfoor.  These  countries  are,  according  to  the  report  of  a  Negro,  named  Dar-cl- 
Ahiad.  The  mountains  from  which  it  issues  are  called  Dyre  and  Tcgla;  and  pro- 
bably form  part  of  the  Al-Quamar  mountains,  or  tlie  mountains  of  the  Moon.  As  it 
seems  proved  that  travellers  have  passed  by  water  from  Tonibuctoo  to  Cairo,  thp 
Niger  must  fall  into  the  Nile,  and  be  really  the  Nile  itself;  or  there  must  be  inter- 


Cataracts  of 
the  Nile. 


YMef  of  the 
Nile. 


EGYPT.  425 

niediato  rivers,  forming  between  the  Nile  and  Niger  a  communication  ,^^",'"heNiie 
resembling  that  which  was  found  by  Humboldt,  between  the  Orinoco  and  Niger. 
and  the  Amazons.  The  lirst  hypothesis  might  seem  to  be  supported  by  a  vague 
romantic  passage  of  Pliny  the  naturalist,  quoted  in  our  History  of  Geography.*  The 
other  hypothesis  is  the  only  one  which  can  reconcile  the  accounts  of  persons  who 
have  travelled  by  the  way  of  Tombuctoo,  with  the  positive  testimony  of  Mr.  Browne, 
according  to  which  the  rivers  Misselad  and  Bar-Koolla,  run  from  south  to  north. 
This  fact,  which  is  generally  admitted,  does  not  allow  us  to  suppose  any  other  com- 
munication between  the  Nile  and  the  Niger,  than  one  which  may  be  formed  by  ca- 
nals which,  like  those  of  Casiquiari  in  Guiana,  might  wind  along  a  table  land  where 
the  sources  of  the  Misselad  and  Bar-Koolla  are  at  a  short  distance  from  each  other, 
and  from  those  of  the  Nile.  Perhaps  some  of  om*  readers  will  content  themselves 
with  supposing  that  the  sources  of  ail  these  rivers  are  sufficiently  near  to  communi- 
cate by  means  of  temporary  lakes  during  the  rainy  season. 

The  true  Nile,  whatever  may  bo  its  origin,  receives  two  large  rivers 
from  Abyssinia,  and  then  forms  an  extensive  circuit  in  the  country  of 
Dongola  by  turning  to  the  south-west.  At  three  different  places  a  barrier  of  moun- 
tains threatens  to  interrupt  its  course,  and  at  each  place  the  barrier  is  surmounted. 
The  second  cataract  in  Turkish  Nubia,  is  the  most  violent,  and  most  unnavigable. 
The  third  is  at  Syen€,  or  Assooan,  and  introduces  the  Nile  into  Upper  Egypt.  The 
height  of  this  cataract,  singularly  exaggerated  by  some  travellers,  varies  according 
to  the  season,  and  is  generally  about  four  or  five  feet. 

From  Syene  to  Cairo,  the  river  flows  along  a  valley  about  eight  miles 
broad,  between  two  mountain  ridges,  one  of  which  extends  to  the  Red 
Sea,  and  the  other  terminates  in  the  deserts  of  ancient  Libya.  The  river  occupies 
the  middle  of  the  valley,  as  far  as  the  strait  called  Gibbel-Silsili.  This  space,  about 
forty  miles  long,  has  very  little  arable  land  on  its  banks.  It  contains  some  islands 
which  from  their  low  level  easily  admit  of  irrigation. 

At  the  mouth  of  the  Gibbel-Silsili, I  the  Nile  runs  along  the  right  side  of  the 
valley,  which  in  several  places  has  the  appearance  of  a  steep  line  of  rock  cut  into 
peaks,  while  the  ridge  of  the  hills  on  the  left  side  is  always  accessible  by  a  slope  of 
various  acclivity.  These  last  mountains  begin  near  the  town  of  Sioot,  and  go  down 
towards  Faioom,  diverging  gradually  to  the  west,  so  that  between  them  and  the  cul- 
tivated valley  there  is  a  desert  space,  becoming  gradually  wider,  and  which  in  several 
places  is  bordered  on  the  valley  side  by  a  hne  of  sandy  downs  lying  nearly  south' 
and  north. 

The  mountains  which  confine  the  basin  of  the  Nile  in  tipper  Egypt 
are  intersected  by  defiles  which  on  one  side  lead  to  the  shores  of  the 
Red  Sea,  and  on  the  other  to  tho  Oases.  These  narrow  passes  might  be  habitable, 
since  the  winter  rains  maintain  for  a  time  a  degree  of  vegetation,  and  form  springs 
which  the  Arabs  use  for  themselves  and  tlieir  flocks.- 

The  stripe  of  desert  land  which  generally  extends  along  each  side  of  the  valley, 
parallel  to  the  course  of  tho  Nile,  (and  which  must  not  be  confounded  with  the  bar- 
ren ocean  of  sand  which  lies  on  each  side  of  Egypt,)  now  contains  two  very  distinct 
kinds  of  land  ;  tho  one  immediately  at  the  bottom  of  tho  mountain,  consists  of  sand 
and  round  pebbles  ;  the  other,  composed  of  iight  drifting  sand,  covers  an  extent  of 
ground  formerly  arable.  If  a  section  of  the  valley  is  made  by  a  plane  (  heyei. 
perpendicular  to  its  direction,  the  surface  will  be  observed  to  decline  from  the  margins 
of  the  river  to  the  bottom  of  the  hills,  a  circumstance  also  remarked  on  the  banks  of 
the  Mississippi,  the  Po,  part  of  the  Borysthenes,  and  some  other  rivers. 

Near  Beni-sooef,  the  valley  of  the  Nile,  already  much  widened  on 
the  west,  has  on  that  side  an  opening  through  which  a  view  is  obtained 
of  the  fertile  plains  of  Faioom.     These  plains  form  properly  a  sort  of  table  land, 
separated  from  the  surrounding  mountains  on  the  north  and  west  by  a  wide  valley,  of 

•  See  Book  ix.  of  the  History  of  Geograpliy, 
t  Girard,  Mem.  sur  rEgyntc,  t.  iii.  p.  13, 
Vol,  11,-3  H 


Parallel  line 
of  mountaini. 


Basin  of 
Faioom. 


Plains  of  tlio 
Dtlta. 


426  BOOK  SIXTIETH. 

whicli  a  certain  proportion,  always  laid  under  water,  forms  what  the  inhabitants  cbJI 
Birkd-el-Kdroon. 

Near  Cairo,  the  chains  which  limit  the  valley  of  the  Nile  diverge  on 
both  sides.  The  one,  under  the  name  of  Jibbel-al-Nairon,  runs  north- 
west towards  the  Mediterranean;  the  other,  called  Jibbel-al-Attaka,  runs  straight 
east  to  Suez. 

In  front  of  these  chains  a  vast  plain  extends,  composed  of  sands  covered  with  the 
mud  of  the  Nile.  At  the  place  called  Batu-el-Bahara,  the  river  divides  into  two 
branches;  the  one  of  which  flowing  to  Rosetta,  and  the  other  to  Daniietta,  contain 
between  them  the  present  Delta;  but  this  triangular  piece  of  insulated  land  was  in 
former  times  larger,  being  bounded  on  the  east  by  the  Pelusian  branch,  which  is  now 
choked  up  with  sand  or  converted  into  marshy  pools.  On  the  west  it  was  bounded 
by  the  Canopic  branch,  which  is  now  pixi-tly  confounded  with  the  canal  of  Alexandria, 
and  partly  lost  in  lake  Etko.  But  the  correspondence  of  the  level  of  the  surface 
with  that  of  the  present  Delta,  and  its  depression  as  compared  with  that  of  the  ad- 
joining desert,  together  with  its  greater  verdure  and  fertility,  still  mark  the  limits  of 
the  aacient  Delta,  although  irregular  encroachments  are  made  by  shifting  banks  of 
drifting  sand,  which  arc  at  present  on  the  increase. 

Mouths.  I       The  dilFcrent  ho<^az,  or  mouths  of  this  great  river,  have  often  changed 

their  position,  and  are  still  changing  it ;  a  circumstance  which  has  occasioned  long  dis- 
cussions among  geographers.  The  following  are  the  most  established  results.  The 
seven  mouths  of  the  Nile,  known  to  the  ancients,  were,  1.  The  Canopic  mouth,  cor- 
responding to  the  present  mouth  of  lake  Etko  ;  or  according  to  others,  that  of 
the  lake  of  Aboukir,  or  Maadee;  but  it  is  probable,  that  at  one  time,  it  had 
commimicatious  with  the  sea  at  both  of  these  places.  In  that  case  it  is  probable 
that  these  lakes  existed  nearly  in  their  present  state,  except  that  the  Nile  flowed 
through  them,  and  gave  them  a  large  proportion  of  fresh  water,  instead  of  the 
sea  water  with  which  they  are  now  fdled.  We  cannot  believe  that  the  bottoms  of 
these  lakes  were  formerly  higher,  as  wo  know  of  no  natural  process  by  which  surfaces 
of  such  breadth  could  have  been  subsequently  excavated.  2.  The  Bolbiline  mouth 
at  Rosetta.  3.  The  Sebenitic  mouth,  probably  the  opening  into  the  present  lake 
Burlos.  4.  The  Fhalniiic,  or  Bucolic  at  Damietta.  6.  The  J^endesian,  which  is 
lost  in  the  lake  Menzaleh,  the  mouth  of  which  is  represented  by  that  of  Dib6h. 
6.  Tlic  Tanilic,  or  Saitic,  which  seems  to  leave  some  traces  of  its  termination  to 
the  east  of  lake  Menzaleh,  under  the  modern  appellation  of  Omm-Faredje.  The 
branch  of  the  Nile  which  conveyed  its  waters  to  the  sea  corresponds  to  the  canal  of 
Mocz,  which  now  loses  itself  in  the  lake.  7.  The  Pclusiac  mouth  seems  to  be 
represented  by  what  is  now  the  most  easterly  mouth  of  lake  Menzaleh,  where  the 
ruins  of  Pclusium  are  still  visible.* 

The  depth  and  rapidity  of  the  Nile  differ  in  different  places,  and  at  dif- 
ferent seasons  of  the  year.  In  its  ordinary  state,  this  river  carries  no 
vessels  exceeding  sixty  tons  burden,  from  its  mouth  to  the  cataracts.  The  bogaz  of 
Damietta  is  seven  or  eight  feet  deep  when  tlie  waters  are  low.  That  of  Rosetta 
does  not  exceed  four  or  five.  When  the  waters  are  high,  each  of  them  has  forty- 
Navigation.  I  one  feet  more,  and  caravels  of  twenty-four  guns  can  sail  up  to  Cairc.f 
The  navigation  is  facilitated  in  a  singular  degree  during  the  floods :  for,  while  the 
stream  carries  the  vessels  from  the  cataracts  to  the  bogaz  with  great  rapidity,  the 
strong  northerly  winds  allow  them  to  ascend  the  river,  by  means  of  set  sails,  with 
equal  rapidity.  These  winds  are  constant  for  nine  months  in  the  year,  and,  when 
the  river  is  low,  and  the  stream  less  rapid,  vessels  cannot  often  make  their  way  down- 
ward even  with  their  sails  furled,  the  wind  upward  being  more  powerful  than  the 
stream,  even  under  these  circumstances.  The  regular  practice  at  such  times  is,  to 
row  down  with  the  stream  during  the  night  when  the  wind  has  subsided,  and  to  halt 


Depth  and 
rapidity. 


* 


Mem.  sur  I'Egypte,  i.  165.     Compare  Dubois-Ayme,  Mcmoires  sur  les  Eouches-du-Nil. 
Livoiu-ne,  1B12. 

f  Description  de  I'Rgypte,  vol.  i.    Memoire  de  M.  Lepere,  sur  le  canal  des  deux  mcrs,  sect, 
ii.  paragr.  5  et  6. 


EGYPT.  427 

somewhere  during  the  day;  while  the  vessels  tlmt  are  upward  bound  sail  by  day  and 
halt  by  night.  The  passage  from  Cairo  to  the  Mediterranean,  occupies  eight  or  ten 
days.  When  both  voyages  are  practicable,  it  is  an  interesting  sight  to  see  the  nume- 
rous boats  passing  one  another  on  their  way.  The  bogazes  Ere  difficult  to  navigate 
even  during  high  Nile.  The  shifting  sand-banks  create  unforeseen  dangers  over  the 
whole  extent  of  bottom  which  is  liable  to  them.  The  cataracts  are  sometimes  passed 
with,  the  aid  of  a  little  address,  combined  with  courage,  the  lowest  cataract,  in  parti- 
cular, being  rather  a  rapid  than  a  waterfall.* 

The  celebrated  plains  of  Egypt  would  not  bo  the  abode  of  perpetual  I  immciauoiis 
fertility  were  it  not  for  the  swellings  of  the  river,  which  both  impart  to  j  "^  ^'"^  ^'''^• 
them  the  requisite  moisture,  and  cover  them  with  fertilizing  mud.  We  now  know  for 
certain  what  the  ancients  obscurely  concluded,!  and  what  was  asserted  by  Agathar- 
cidcs,  Diodorus,  Abdolatif,  and  the  Abyssinian  envoy,  Hadgi  Michael, J  that  the 
heavy  annual  rains  between  the  tropics  are  the  solo  cause  of  these  floods,  common 
to  all  the  rivers  of  the  toirid  zone,  and  which,  in  low  situations  such  as  Egypt,  occa- 
sion inmidations. 

The  rise  of  the  Nile  commences  with  the  summer  solstice.  The  river  attains  its 
greatest  height  at  the  autumnal  equinox,  continues  stationary  for  some  days,  then 
diminishes  at  a  less  rapid  rate  than  it  rose.  At  the  winter  solstice  it  is  very  low,  but 
some  water  still  remains  in  the  large  canals.  At  this  period,  the  lands  are  put  under 
culture.     The  soil  is  covered  with  a  fresh  layer  of  slime  of  greater  or  less  thickness. 

The  fertility  and  general  prosperity  of  Egypt  depend  much  on  a  certain  medium 
in  the  height  to  which  tho  Nile  rises  in  its  inundations;  too  little  rise  or  too  much  is 
nearly  equally  hurtful.  In  September,  1818,  M.  Belzoni  witnessed  a  deplorable 
scene,  from  tho  Nile  having  risen  three  feet  and  a  half  above  tho  highest  mark  left 
by  the  former  inundation.  §  It  was  productive  of  one  of  the  greatest  calamities  that 
had  occurred  in  tho  memory  of  any  one  living.  Rising  witli  uncommon  rapidity,  it 
carried  off  several  villages,  and  some  hundreds  of  their  inhabitants.  Expecting  an 
unusual  rise,  in  consequence  of  the  scarcity  of  water  during  the  preceding  season, 
the  inhabitants  had  erected,  as  usual,  fences  of  earth  and  reeds  round  their  villages, 
to  keep  the  water  from  their  houses,  but  its  force  baflled  their  ctlbrts,  and  tho  rapid 
stream  carried  before  it  men,  women,  children,  cattle,  and  corn,  in  a  moment.  In 
Upper  Egypt,  the  villages  are  not  raised  above  the  level  even  of  tho  ordinary  inun- 
dations, but  depend  for  their  safety  on  artificial  fences.  When  a  village  is  in  danger, 
tho  boats  are  busily  employed  in  removing  the  corn  and  the  people,  the  former  being 
first  attended  to,  as  more  important  to  the  Pasha;  and,  if  the  water  breaks  in  before 
the  inhabitants  have  been  placed  in  security,  their  only  resource  is  to  climb  the  palm 
trees,  and  there  wait  till  a  boat  comes  to  their  rescue.  Those  who  have  it  in  their 
power  repair  with  their  property  to  a  higher  ground,  others  escape  mounted  on  buf- 
faloes or  cows,  or  keep  themselves  afloat  on  logs  of  wood.  Mr.  Belzoni,  in  the 
course  of  his  travels,  came  to  the  village  of  Agalta,  between  Luxor  and  Cairo,  which 
he  found  four  feet  lower  than  tho  surface  of  tlie  suiToimding  water ;  tho  caimakan,  or 
guard,  deploring  his  imminent  danger  of  being  swept  away  from  a  place  in  which 
honour  and  duty  obliged  him  to  remain.  Some  poor  refugees  were  placed  on  spots 
of  ground  very  little  raised  above  the  river,  which  had  still  twelve  days  to  rise  before 
reaching  its  utmost  height,  at  which  it  remained  stationary  for  other  twelve. 

Tho  analysis  of  the  mud  of  the  Nile  gives  nearly  one-half  of  argilla- 
ceous earth,  about  one-fourth  of  carbonate  of  lime,  the  remainder  con- 
sisting of  water,  oxide  of  iron,  and  carbonate  of  magnesia. ||  On  the  very  banks  of 
the  Nile,  the  mud  is  mixed  with  much  sand,  which  it  loses  in  proportion  as  it  is  car- 
ried farther  from  the  river,  so  that  at  a  certain  distance  it  consists  almost  of  pure 
argil.  This  mud  is  employed  in  several  arts  in  Egypt.  It  is  formed  into  excellent 
bricks,  and  vessels  of  divers  forms.     It  enters  into  the  manufacture  of  tobacco  pipes. 

*  Sicard,  Nordcn.     See  iinrticularly  Delzoni,  vol.  ii.  p.  119.  second  edition, 
t  Meiners,  llistoire  du  Nil,  dans  ses  CKuvrcs  I'hilosopliiques,  p.  80,  ^   - 

t  Quoted  by  Wansleben  In  an  unpublished  account  of  a  journey  hi  Egypt.     Collection  do 
Fatdus,  i.21. 

§  Uelzoni's  Narrative,  vol.  ii.  p.  25—29.  J  Mdm.  sur  I'Egypt,  i.  p.  348,  382. 


Mud  of  (he 

Nile. 


428  BOOK  SIXTIETH. 

Glass  manufacturers  employ  it  in  the  construction  of  their  furnaces,  and  the  country 
people  cover  their  houses  with  it.  This  mud  contains  principles  favourable  to  vege- 
tation, and  the  cultivators  consider  it  as  sufficient  manure. 

Qualities  of  the  The  Salubrity  of  the  water  of  the  Nile,  so  much  extolled  among  the 
KUe  water.  ancients,  is  acknowledged  also  by  the  moderns  under  certain  limitations. 
Being  very  light,  it  may  deserve  in  this  respect  the  character  given  of  it  by  Maillet, 
that  it  is  among  other  waters  what  Champagne  is  among  wines.  If  Mahomet  had 
tasted  it,  the  Egyptians  say,  he  would  have  supplicated  heaven  for  a  terrestrial  im- 
mortality, to  be  enabled  to  enjoy  it  to  eternity.*  It  is  said  to  be  laxative,  owing  to 
certain  neutral  salts  contained  in  it.  But  during  the  three  summer  months  when  it 
is  in  some  places  almost  stagnant,  it  requires  to  be  filtered,  or  otherwise  clarified,  be- 
fore it  can  be  used  with  safety.  During  the  increase  of  the  Nile,  it  first  acquires  a 
green  colour,  sometimes  pretty  deep.  After  thirty  or  forty  days,  this  is  succeeded 
by  a  brownish  red.  These  changes  are  probably  owing  to  the  augmentations  which 
it  receives  from  different  temporary  lakes  in  succession,  or  from  the  waters  formed 
by  a  succession  of  rains  on  the  different  table  lands  of  the  interior  of  Africa. 
Nature  of  die  The  moutitains  on  the  west  side  of  the  Nile  seem  to  consist  of  lime- 
'*"^'*  stone  containing  many  shells.     In  those  of  the  east  side,  serpentine  and 

granite  seem  to  form  the  highest  ridges. 

The  stone  of  which  the  pyramid  of  Cheops,  near  Djizeh  is  built,  is  a  fine  grained 
carbonate  of  lime,  of  a  light  brown  colour,  and  easily  cut.  The  red  granite,  or  rather 
syenite,  of  the  ancient  monuments,  and  which  forms  the  coating  of  the  pyramid 
called  <Myceri7iU3,  is  believed  to  be  the  Pyropcucylon  of  Pliny.  In  the  neighborhood 
of  the  pyramids  are  found  the  Ethiopian  jasper,  the  quartz  rock  with  amphibole,  and 
the  Egyptian  pebble,  which  is  a  quartzose  agate  coarsely  veined.     From  the  old 


specimens 

Specimen  of 
pbeliski. 


^reserved  at  Velletri,  in  Cardinal  Borgia's  museum,  a  Danish  mineralo- 
gist, M.  Wad,  has  published  an  essay  on  the  fossils  of  Egypt.  These 
specimens  are,  red  granite,  white  granite,  mixed  with  hornblende,  (a 
character  which  distinguishes  syenite  from  the  proper  granites)  green  feldspar,  and 
black  hornblende.  The  porphyry  seems  to  be  formed  of  petrosilex,  with  crystals  of 
feldspar.  There  is  likewise  found  among  them  a  small  specimen  of  a  dark  brown 
micaceous  schistus.  The  others  are  limestone,  feldspar,  breccia,  serpentine,  pot- 
etone,  marble  with  veins  of  silvery  mica,  swinestone,  jaspers  of  all  varieties,  the  topaz 
or  chrysolite  of  the  ancients,  amethyst,  rock-crystal,  chalcedony,  onyx,  heliotrope, 
obsidian,  and  lapis  lazuli,  but  no  emeralds.  The  greater  part  of  the  specimens  are 
basalt,  the  Ethiopian  stone  of  Herodotus  and  of  Strabo.f 

Mountains  of  Tho  vallcy  leading  to  Cosseir  is  covered  with  a  sand  partly  calcar- 

Cosseic  eous,  partly  quartzose.     The  mountains  are  of  limestone  and  sandstone. 

As  we  approach  to  Cosseir  we  find  three  sorts  of  Mountains.  The  first  consist  of 
rocks  of  granite,  of  a  small  fine  grain.  The  second  chain  comprehends  rocks  of 
breccia,  or  puddingstone,  of  a  particular  sort,  known  by  the  name  of  breccia  di 
«erde.J  To  the  mountains  of  breccia,  for  a  space  of  thirty  miles,  a  substance  of 
slaty  texture  succeeds,  which  seems  to  be  of  cotemporaneous  formation  with  the 
breccias,  since  they  are  connected  by  gradual  transitions,  and  contain  rounded  mas- 
ses of  the  same  substance. 

At  the  fountains  of  El-Aoosh-Lambageh,  there  is  a  leading  chain  of  schistose 
mountains  presenting  in  their  composition  rock-crystal,  and  steatic  rocks:  but  at  a 
distance  of  eight  miles  from  Cosseir  the  mountains  suddenly  change  their  character; 
a  great  part  of  them  are  limestone,  or  alabaster  in  strata  almost  always  lying  north 
fi,nd  south.  Here  are  found  the  debris  of  the  ostrea  diluviana.  Among  the  moun- 
tains considered  by  cosmogonists  as  of  later  formation,  are  found  schisti,  and  indis- 
tinct porphyries,  with  grains  of  feldspar.  The  bottom  of  the  valley,  covered  with 
immense  rocky  fragments,  presents  a  numberless  variety  of  materials,  sometimes  ser- 
pentines, sometimes  compound  rocks  in  which  the  predominating  ingredients  are  ac- 

•  Maillet,  Description  de  I'Egypte,  i.p.  16.     M4ra.  sur  I'Egypte,  ii.  p.  35. 
t  Wad,  fossil  Egypte,  Musee  Borgiani. 

*  Mem.  sur  I'Egypte,  iii.  p.  240. 


Mountains  of 
Suez. 

Saline  (leposi- 
tiuns. 


Mountains  of 
Upper  Eijypt. 


EGYPT.  429 

tinoto,  schisti,  gnoiss,  porphyries,  granites;  sometimes  it  consists  of  a  particular  kind 
of  steatite  containing  nodules  of  schistose  spar.  There  is  besides  a  new  and  pccu- 
har  substance  in  mineralogy,  which  is  also  found  in  several  spots  of  the  desert  of 
Sinai,  and  which  resembles  thallitc,  or  the  green  schorl  of  Uauphine.  It  is  not 
found  in  a  separate  state,  but  forms  part  of  the  granites,  the  porphyries,  and  other 
rocks.*  Towards  the  valley  of  Suez,  the  mountains  are  calcareous, 
and  in  several  places  composed  of  concreted  shells. 

In  the  valley  of  the  wilderness, "j"  sea  salt  is  found  in  thin  compact 
layers  supported  by  strata  of  gypsum.     In  many  of  the  surrounding  de- 
serts this  salt  is  very  common,  sometimes  crystallized  under  the  sand,  sometimes  on 
the  surface. 

In  Upper  Egypt,  near  Edfoo,  the  mountains  are  composed  of  slate, 
sandstone,  white  and  rose-coloured  quartz,  and  brown  pebbles,  mixed 
with  white  cornelians. J  Near  the  ruins  of  Silsilis,  the  granite  rocks  contain  corne- 
lian, jasper,  and  serpentine.  A  little  higher  in  Upper  Egypt,  the  rocks  are  granite 
alternated  with  decomposed  sandstone,  forming  on  tlie  surface  a  friable  crust,  giving 
the  appearance  of  a  ruin. 

But  the  most  curious  country  undoubtedly,  is  that  which  is  compre-  I  vaiiey  of  the 
hended  in  the  Bahr-bela-Maie  (the  river  without  water)  and  the  basin  of  |  Nation  lakes, 
the  Natron  lakes.     These  two  valleys  are  parallel  to  each  other.     The  mountain  of 
Natron  skirts  the  whole  length  of  the  valley  of  that  name.     That  mountain  con- 
tains none  of  the  rocks  wliich  are  found  scattered  about  in  the  valley,  such  as  quartz, 
jasper,  and  petrosilex.§ 

There  is  a  series  of  sis  lakes  in  the  direction  of  the  valley.  Their  banks  and 
their  waters  are  covered  with  crystallizations,  both  of  muriate  of  soda,  or  sea  salt, 
and  of  natron,  or  carbonate  of  soda.  When  a  volume  of  water  contains  both  of 
these  salts,  the  muriate  of  soda  is  the  first  to  crystallize  ;  and  the  carbonate  of  soda 
is  then  deposited  in  a  separate  layer.  Sometimes  the  two  crystallizations  seem  to 
choose  separate  localities  in  insulated  parts  of  the  same  lake.|| 

This  curious  valley  is  only  inhabited  by  Greek  monks.  Their  four  convents  are 
at  once  their  fortresses  and  their  prisons.  They  subsist  on  a  small  quantity  of  legu- 
minous seeds.  The  vegetation  in  these  valleys  has  a  wild  and  dreary  aspect.  The 
palms  are  mere  bushes,  and  bear  no  fruit. 

Caravans  come  to  this  place  in  quest  of  natron.  According  to  Andreossi,  the 
farming  of  the  tax  on  this  substance,  which  is  in  demand  for  divers  manufactures, 
was  on  the  same  footing  with  the  old  gabelle  on  salt  in  France. 

The  valley  parallel  to  that  of  Natron  is  called  Bahr-bela-Mai6,  or 
"  the  Dry  River."  Separated  from  the  valley  of  Natron  by  a  small  ridge 
of  heights,  it  has  for  the  most  part  a  breadth  of  eight  miles.  In  the  sand  with  which 
the  surface  is  every  where  covered,  trunks  of  trees  have  been  found  in  a  state  of 
complete  petrifaction,  and  a  vertebral  bone  of  a  large  fish.  The  same  stones  are 
met  with  here  as  in  the  valley  of  Natron.  Some  of  the  learned  have  thought  that 
the  stones  have  been  brought  to  the  place  by  a  branch  of  the  Nile  which  once  passed 
in  this  direction.  The  valley  of  Bahr-bela-Maie,  is  said  to  jom  Faioom  on  the  south,, 
and  to  terminate  in  the  Mediterranean  in  the  north. 

These  countries  have  undoubtedly  undergone  violent  revolutions,  of 
a  date  prior  to  the  present  constitution  of  the  globe.  Their  modern 
changes  have,  in  extent  and  importance,  been  much  exaggerated  by  authors  attached 
to  system.  M.  Reynier  judiciously  remarks  that  the  diminution  of  arable  land  must 
have  been  of  older  date  than  any  historical  records  carry  us.  "  Several  spots  which 
the  ancients  have  delineated  on  the  borders  of  the  deserts  are  still  recognized  ;  the 
canal  of  Joseph,  though  neglected  for  ages,  is  not  in  any  part  obstructed."  Reynier 
only  found  one  encroachment  of  the  sands  on  the  cultivated  land,  which  was  well 

•  M^m.  9ur  I'Egypte,  iii.  p.  255.  f  Vallt^e  d'Egarement. 

+  Denon,  t.  ii.  p.  49. 

§  Denon,  p.  150. 195.  208.      Andreossy,  Mem.  sur  la  vallee  dcs  lacs  Natron,  dans  la  Jescrip. 
tie  I'Egypte,  vol.  i. 
!|  Jierthollet,  Journ.  de  Physique  ;  meseidor,  an  viii.  p.  S.  &c. 


Valley  of  the 
dry  river. 


Cbang^  oC 
the  soil. 


430  llOOK  SIXTIETH. 

authenticated,  "  it  is  in  the  province  of  Djizeh,  near  the  village  of  Ooardan,  where 
the  sands  have  advanced  to  the  banks  of  the  Nile,  and  occupy  a  league  of  land."* 

Others  say  that  the  canal  of  Joseph  is  partly  choked  up  with  accumulations  of 
slime.  This  canal  is  eighty-four  miles  long.  It  was  employed  to  conduct  the  water 
Lake  Moeris.  |  into  thc  district  of  Faioom,  and  into  lake  Mceris,  the  modern  Birket-el- 
Karoon.  It  afforded  the  double  advantage  of  watering  completely  the  lands  of  Fai- 
oom, and  of  disposing  of  a  superabundance  of  water  when  the  overflow  of  the  Nile 
was  extraordinary  and  excessive.  It  is  probable  that  thc  canal  dignified  with  the 
name  of  Joseph,  like  many  other  remarkable  works,  was  executed  by  order  of  king 
Moeris.  The  waters  then  filled  the  basin  of  thc  lake  Birket-el-Karoon,  which  re- 
ceived the  name  of  the  prince  who  efFectcd  this  great  change.  We  shall  thus  recon- 
cile thc  different  positions  assigned  to  lalie  Moeris  by  Herodotus,  Diodorus,  and 
Strabo,  and  give  a  reason  why  the  ancients  say  that  the  lake  was  of  artificial  forma- 
tion, while  the  Birket-el-Karoon  gives  no  evidence  of  any  such  operation."}" 
Maritime  The  maritime  districts  of  Egypt  present  several  lakes,  or  rather  la- 

lakes.  goons,  whicli  in  the  lapse  of  ages  sometimes  sufler  diminution,  some- 

times enlargement.  To  the  south  of  Alexandria  is  lake  Mareotis.  For  many  ages 
this  lake  was  dried  up ;  for  though  the  bed  is  lower  than  the  surface  of  the  ocean, 
there  is  not  sufficient  rain  to  keep  up  any  lake  in  that  country  in  opposition  to  the 
force  of  perpetual  evaporation.  But  in  1801,  the  English,  in  order  to  circumscribe 
more  effectually  thc  communications  which  the  French  army  in  the  city  of  Alexan- 
dria maintained  with  the  surrounding  country,  cut  across  the  walls  of  the  old  canal 
which  had  formed  a  dyke,  separating  this  low  ground  from  lake  Maadie,  or  the  lake 
of  Aboukir  on  the  east.  In  consequence  of  this  easy  operation,  the  water  had  a  sud- 
den fall  of  six  feet,  and  the  lake  of  Mareotis  which  had  so  long  disappeared,  and  the 
site  of  which  had  been  occupied  partly  by  salt  marshes,  partly  by  cultivated  lands, 
and  even  villages,  resumed  its  ancient  extent.  The  inhabitants  of  the  villages  were 
obliged  to  fly,  and  bewail,  from  a  distance,  the  annihilation  of  their  gardens  and  their 
dwellings.  This  modern  inundation  from  the  sea,  indeed,  is  much  more  extensive 
than  the  ancient  lake  Mareotis,  occupying,  probably,  four  times  its  extent.  The 
lake  of  Aboukir  has  a  physical  history  somewhat  similar,  having  been  for  two  centu- 
ries in  a  dry  state,  till  in  1778,  an  irruption  of  the  sea  broke  through  the  embank- 
ment by  which  it  had  been  previously  protected.  Lake  Etko,  to  the  south-east,  has 
a  similar  character,  communicating  with  the  sea  by  a  narrow  mouth,  which  would 
admit  of  being  closed  up,  so  as  to  convert  the  lake  into  a  dry  or  a  marshy  salt  plain. 
Lake  Menza-  The  map  of  lake  Menzaleh,  constructed  by  General  Andreossi,  fur- 

^'^^'  nishes  important  corrections  to  the  description  given  of  Egypt  by  M. 

d'Anville.  This  lake  is  formed  by  the  junction  of  large  gulfs,  and  bounded  on  thc 
north  by  a  long  narrow  stripe  of  low  land,  separating  it  from  the  sea.  The  two  gulfs 
are  partially  separated  by  the  peninsula  of  Menzaleh,  at  the  extremity  of  which  are 
found  the  islands  of  Matharyeh,  the  only  ones  in  this  lake  that  are  habitable.  D'An- 
ville has  also  given  too  much  breadth  to  the  northern  coast  of  this  lake;  and  the 
measurements  lately  taken  differ  from  this  by  more  than  25,000  yards.  Lake  Men- 
zaleh communicates  with  the  sea  only  by  two  navigable  mouths,  those  of  Ybeh  and 
of  Omfaredgie,  which  are  the  Mendesian  and  Tanitic  mouths  of  the  ancients.  J  Tho 
breadth  from  the  mouth  of  Ybeh  to  that  of  Pelusium  is  95,920  yards. 
Canals.  |       It  is  impossible  to  fix  the  number  of  canals  appropriated  to  the  dis- 

tribution of  the  waters  of  the  river  to  tho  difierent  parts  of  the  country.  When  wo 
find  that  one  traveller  gives  6000  to  Upper  Egypt  alone, §  while  another  allows  only 
about  ninety  large  canals,  viz.  forty  to  Upper  Egypt,  twenty-eight  for  the  Delta,  ele- 
ven for  the  eastern,  and  thirteen  for  tho  western  provinces,  ||  we  perceive  that  a  dis- 
crepancy so  great  must  arise  from  the  manner  of  reckoning  tho  canals.     One  con- 


* 


Mem.  SUV  I'Egj'pt,  t.  iv.  p.  6. 

j-Desci-iption  de  l'E}^'ypte:  Antiquitcs;  Memoires,  vol.  i.  Memoire  sur  le  lac  Moeris,  par 
M.  Jomai-d,  Compare  t'ocockc,  D'Anville,  Gilbert,  Sec. 

^  Mem.  sur  I'Egyptc,  t.  i.  p.  165,  with  thc  map.  ,  §  Muillet,  Sic. 

R  Tourtccbot,  Voyajje  en  Egypt,  traJ.  AH.  p.  423.  3icard,  Nouv,  MCm.  des  Mission,  vii. 
p.  115. 


EGYPT.  431 

cerns  himself  only  with  largo  ones  which  ho  knows  to  bo  kept  up,  and  the  opening 
of  which  is  fixed  by  the  regulations  of  the  country.  Another  extends  his  views  to 
canals  ramifying  from  these,  which  vary  in  number  from  one  year  to  another.  The 
Mameluke  Beys  applied  to  their  private  use  the  funds  destined  to  the  support  of 
these  pubUc  works,  on  which  the  fertihty  of  Egypt  depends.  Many  canals  were  even 
abandoned  by  these  barbarians,  who  thus  destroyed  the  sources  of  their  own  reve- 
nues. The  most  famous  of  these  artificial  rivers  is  the  canal  of  Joseph,  or  the  Cali- 
deh-Menhi,  v/hich  is  110  miles  long,  with  a  breadth  of  from  50  to  300  feet.  One 
part  of  this  canal  seems  to  correspond  to  the  ancient  canal  of  Oxyrynchus,  which 
Strabo  in  sailing  along  mistook  for  the  Nile  itself.*  . 

Another  canal,  which,  however,  was  intended  solely  for  navigation,  viz.  that  of 
Suez,  has  furnished  matter  for  many  discussions  ;  these  we  slrall  consider  in  the  next 
IJook,  in  which  we  shall  treat  expressly  of  every  thing  relating  to  the  celebrated 
istlnnus  which  connects  Africa  with  Asia. 

The  climate  and  fertility  of  Egypt  have  given  rise  to  an  equal  number  |  climate, 
of  discrepant  opinions  among  authors.  One  French  traveller  finds  in  this  country  a 
terrestrial  paradise  ;|  another  assures  us  it  is  a  most  unpleasant  country  to  reside  in.  J 
Observers  of  a  more  composed  turn  of  mind  show  us  how  to  reduce  to  their  proper 
value  the  descriptions  of  these  two  volatile  writers.  The  aspect  of  |  Varied  aspect. 
Egypt  undergoes  periodical  changes  with  the  seasons.  In  our  winter  months,  when 
nature  is  for  us  dead,  sho  seems  to  carry  life  into  these  climates,  and  the  verdure  of 
Egypt's  enamelled  meadows  is  then  delightful  to  the  eye.  The  air  is  perfumed  with 
the  odours  of  the  flowers  of  orange  and  citron  trees,  and  numerous  shrubs.  The 
flocks  overspreading  the  plain,  add  animation  to  the  landscape. — Egypt  now  forms 
one  delightful  garden,  though  somewhat  monotonous  in  its  character.  On  all  hands 
it  presents  nothing  but  a  plain  bounded  by  whitish  mountains,  and  diversified  here 
and  there  with  clumps  of  palms.  In  the  opposite  season  this  same  country  exhibits 
nothing  but  a  brown  soil,  either  miry,  or  dry,  hard,  and  dusty ;  immense  fields  laid  under 
water,  and  vast  spaces  unoccupied  and  void  of  culture,  plains  in  which  the  only 
olyects  to  be  seen  are  date  trees  ;  camels  and  bufi'aloes  led  by  miserable  peasants, 
naked  and  sun-burnt,  wrinkled  and  lean ;  a  scorching  sun,  a  cloudless  sky,  and  con- 
stant winds  varying  in  force.  It  is  not,  therefore,  surprising,  that  travellers  have  dif- 
fered in  their  physical  delineations  of  this  country. § 

"  A  long  valley,"  says  M.  Reynier,l|  "  encircled  with  hills  and 
mountains,  presents  no  point  in  which  the  surface  has  suflicient  eleva- 
tion to  attract  and  detain  the  clouds.  The  evaporations  from  the  Mediterranean  too, 
during  summer,  carried  off  by  the  north  winds,  which  have  almost  the  constancy  of 
trade  winds  in  Egypt,  finding  nothing  to  stop  their  progress,  pass  over  this  country 
without  interruption,  and  collect  around  the  mountains  of  central  Africa.  There, 
deposited  in  rains,  they  swell  the  torrents  which,  falling  into  the  Nile,  augment  its 
waters,  and,  under  the  form  of  an  inundation,  restore,  with  usury,  to  Egypt,  the 
l)lessings  of  which  the  defect  of  rain  otherwise  deprived  it.  Thus,  excepting  along 
the  sea  shores,  nothing  is  more  rare  in  Egypt  than  rains,  and  this  scarcity  is  the 
more  marked  in  proportion  as  we  go  southward.  The  season  in  which  any  rain  falls 
is  called  winter.  At  Cairo,  there  are,  at  an  average,  four  or  five  showers  in  the 
year ;  in  Upper  Egypt,  one  or  two  at  most.  Near  the  sea,  rains  are  more  frequent." 
This  last  circumstance,  however,  shows  that  the  want  of  rain  does  not  arise  solely 
from  the  flatness  of  the  surface,  but  partly  from  its  previous  aridity ;  nothing  can  be 
more  flat  than  the  sea  shores,  and  the  surface  of  the  sea  itself,  but  the  perpetual  hu- 
midity in  the  latter  has  the  eficct  of  producing  a  deposition  of  rain,  both  on  its  own 
surface,  and  on  the  adjoining  land,  to  which  the  more  remote  sandy  expanse  of  ter- 
ritory is  unfavourable.  If  Egypt  were  in  the  hands  of  a  nation  and  government  that 
cultivated  the  economical  arts  with  spirit,  perhaps  the  extension  of  herbage  from  the 

•  Norden,  p.  259,  (In  German.)     D'Anville,  Mem.  sur  I'Egypt,  p.  166.     Hartmann,  Egyp- 
ten,  p.  1019. 

f  Savary,  Lettrcs  sur  I'Egypte,  passim.  +  Volney,  Voyage,  t.  ii.  p.  219. 

§  Brown.  (I  Keynier,  Traitc  sur  I'Egypte,  ii.  p.  12. 


Causes  of  the 
scarcity  of  raia. 


Progresslofthe 
windi. 

North  winds. 


433  HOOK  SIXTIETH. 

sea  shore  towards  the  interior  would  be  followed  by  an  extension  of  the  domain  of 
animating  showers. 

By  a  great  proportion  of  the  Egyptian  farmers,  however,  the  rains  are  considered 
as  by  no  means  beneficial  occurrences,  but  as  only  occasioning  the  springing  of  a 
multitude  of  weeds  which  prove  hurtful  to  the  corn  crops. 

Temperature.f  |  From  the  nature  of  the  surface,  and  the  universal  aridity  of  the  sur- 
rounding deserts,  Egypt  is  much  hotter  than  most  other  countries  under  the  same 
parallel  of  latitude.  The  heated  and  rarefied  state  of  that  portion  of  air  which  is  in 
immediate  contact  with  the  sand  through  the  day,  is  productive  of  a  refraction  of  the 
The  Mirage.  |  rays  of  light,  giving  origin  to  the  surprising  appearance  called  the  mirage, 
presenting  on  the  dry  surface  an  exact  representation  of  a  lake  of  water,  sometimes 
ruffled  into  waves,  at  other  times  still  and  smooth,  and  appearing  to  reflect  like  a 
mirror  the  images  of  houses  and  other  objects  situated  beyond  it.  Such  is  its  most 
common  appearance  when  seen  from  a  distance.  This  phenomenon  is  the  more 
striking,  as  water  is  generally  much  in  request  with  the  thirsty  traveller,  in  a  country 
where  it  is  so  scanty,  and  so  dependent  on  the  vicinity  of  the  Nile,  and  when  the 
illusion  vanishes  on  his  arriving  at  the  spot,  he  feels  a  cruel  disappointment,  espe- 
cially if  not  much  used  to  the  phenomenon. 

The  winds  are  very  regular  during  the  months  of  June,  July,  August, 
and  September,  blowing  almost  without  interruption  from  the  north,  and 
the  north-east.  In  the  day  the  sky  is  clear,  without  clouds  or  mists.  But  the  cooling 
of  the  atmosphere  consequent  on  the  setting  of  the  sun  condenses  the  vapours. 
These  are  then  observed  to  pass  with  a  hurried  motion  from  north  to  south,  and  this 
motion  continues  till  after  sunrise  on  the  following  day,  when  the  solar  heat  rarefies 
them  anew  and  renders  them  invisible. 

The  epoch  of  the  decrease  of  the  Nile,  which  generally  takes  place  in  October, 
is  accompanied  with  intermitting  winds.  These  winds  blow  from  the  north,  with  in- 
tervals of  calm  weather.  In  winter  the  winds  are  changeable  ;  the  cloudless  atmo- 
sphere opposes  no  obstacle  to  the  action  of  the  solar  rays,  and  vegetation,  then  in 
all  its  strength,  applies,  with  the  best  possible  effect,  the  moisture  contained  in  the 
earth.  The  only  symptoms  of  moisture  in  the  air  are  the  abundant  dews  deposited 
in  the  night,  which  are  always  in  proportion  to  the  clearness  of  the  atmosphere,*  and 
some  mists  which  make  their  appearance  in  the  morning.  The  latter,  however,  are 
comparatively  unfrequent. 

The  south  The  approach  of  the  vernal  equinox  changes  the  face  of  the  country; 

khamse°en.  the  hot  south  wiud  begins  to  blow,  but  seldom  lasts  more  than  three  days 
at  a  time.  When  this  south  wind,  called  the  khamseen  in  Egypt,  samiel  in  Arabia, 
and  samoon  in  the  desert,  begins  to  blow,  the  atmosphere  becomes  troubled,  some- 
times acquiring  a  purple  tinge ;  the  air  seems  to  lose  its  power  of  supporting  life  and 
vigour ;  a  dry  burning  heat  reigns  universally,  and  the  whirlwinds  resembling  the 
blasts  of  a  heated  furnace,  sweep  along  the  country  in  frequent  succession.  They 
often  raise  the  sand  and  even  small  stones  to  a  considerable  height,  so  as  to  form  a 
black  cloud ;  and  deposit  it  in  large  heaps  on  particular  spots  of  ground.  The  fine 
sand  is  forced  into  the  houses  through  every  cranny,  and  every  thing  is  filled  with  it. 
The  season  of  the  khamseen  is  the  only  one  in  which  the  atmosphere 
of  Egypt  is  generally  unhealthy.^  It  is  then  that  the  plague  makes  its , 
appearance  in  all  its  dreadful  power,  a  disease  the  nature  and  origin  of  which  stilt 
escape  the  researches  of  medical  science.  To  us  it  seems  proved  that  the  plague 
is  indigenous  in  Egypt,  and  not  brought  to  it  from  other  countries.  J  Ancient  Egypt 
was  not  exempt  from  this  scourge.  It  is  without  reason  that  some  modern  writers 
have  accused  the  ancients  of  exaggerating  the  salubrity  of  Egypt.  Certain  passages 
in  the  works  of  Aretaeus  of  Cappadocia  show  that  a  disease  nearly  allied  to  the  plague 
was  in  his  time  considered  as  endemic  in  Egypt  and  Syria. 

•  See  a  scientific  and  satisfactory  account  of  this  subject  in  Dr.  Well's  Essay  on  Dew,  and 
in  the  article  Dew  in  the  Supplement  to  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica,  by  Professor  Leslie. 
t  Larrey,  Relation  historique  et  chirurgicale  de  I'armee  d'Orient,  p.  419. 
i  M^moirea  de  Gaetan  Sotira  et  de  Pugnet, 


Endemic  dis 
eases. 


Crops  of  the 

inundated 

luiids. 


EGYPT «  433 

The  ophthalmia  makes  greatest  ravages  during  the  inundations,  a  cir-  ]  ophthalmia, 
cumstance  which  shows  that  it  is  not  entirely  owing  to  the  glare  of  the  sun  and  the 
heat  of  the  scorching  winds.  As  it  attacks  principally  persons  who  sleep  in  the  open 
air,  it  is  natural  to  look  for  one  cause  of  it  in  the  copious  night  dews.*  Sorne  have 
ascribed  it  to  the  natron  with  which  the  soil  is  impregnated,  communicating  pungent 
qualities  to  the  air,!  a  cause  altogether  fanciful.  It  is  now  well  substantiated  that 
this  disease  is  cherished  by  a  specific  contagion  existing  in  the  country,  and  singu- 
larly favoured  by  different  causes  which  bring  it  into  frequent  activity.  Some  of  these 
causes  are  apparently  opposite  to  one  another,  such  as  the  solar  glare  and  the  noc- 
turnal cold,  both  of  which  are  known  with  certainty  to  be  frequent  immediate  causes 
of  it  in  individuals. 

To  an  atmosphere  thus  singularly  constituted,  and  to  the  regular  in-  |  vegetables, 
undations  of  the  Nile,  Egypt  is  indebted  for  the  advantage  which  it  enjoys  of  uniting 
almost  all  the  cultivated  vegetable  species  of  the  old  continent.  The  culture  of 
Egypt  may  be  divided  into  two  great  classes.  The  one  class  belongs  to  the  lands 
watered  by  the  natural  overflowings  of  the  Nile,  and  the  other  to  those  which  the  in- 
undation does  not  reach,  and  which  are  supplied  by  artificial  irrigations. 

Among  the  first  we  include  wheat,  barley,  spelt,  beans,  lentils,  sesa- 
mum,  mustard,  flax,  anise,  carthamum,  or  saffron  wood,  tobacco,  lupins, 
vetches,  bmsimy  or  Egyptian  trefoil,  fenugreek,  pumpkins,  melons,  cucumbei-s  of 
different  kinds,  and  lettuce.  The  best  wheat  grows  at  Maraga,  in  Upper  Egypt. f 
The  district  of  Akmhi  produces  the  largest  crops.  Barley  with  six  rows  |  com  craps, 
of  grains  in  the  ear,  (Hordeiim  hexastichon,)  forms  a  large  proportion  of  the  food 
given  to  cattle  and  horses.  The  cucurbitaceous  vegetables,  and  also  tobacco,  and 
lupins,  generally  cover  the  banks  of  the  river  in  proportion  as  the  water  subsides,  and 
the  islands  which  it  leaves  uncovered.  The  melons  and  cucumbers  grow  almost 
visibly.  In  twenty-four  hours  they  gain  twenty-four  inches  of  volume, §  but  are  ge- 
nerally watery  and  insipid, ||  the  tobacco  is  weak,  but  reckoned  much  pleasanter  to 
smoke  than  that  of  America.  The  wood  is  almost  always  cultivated  in  the  canals 
when  the  water  has  retired.  The  flax  in  most  districts  is  also  cultivated  on  lands 
artificially  irrigated.  Tiiesc  cultures  are  not  laborious.  After  a  shglit  preparatory 
working,  the  seed  is  committed  to  the  earth,  still  moist  and  slimy:  it  sinks  by  its  own 
weight  to  a  due  depth,  needing  no  harrowing  to  cover  it;  but,  if  the  working  and 
sowing  are  delayed,  the  soil  cracks  and  hardens  to  such  a  degree  as  not  to  admit  of 
being  cultivated  without  great  toil. IT  In  Upper  Egypt,  the  grain  is  pulled  when  ripe; 
and  in  some  parts  of  Lower  Egypt  it  is  cut  with  a  sickle.  The  plough  used  here  is 
simple  and  better  contrived  than  that  of  the  Arabians.** 

The  second  kind  of  culture  requires  more  attention  and  labour.  It  is 
that  of  lands  which,  from  their  elevation  or  from  the  means  which  loca- 
lities afford  for  protecting  them  from  the  inundations  of  the  river,  arc  appropriated 
,  to  plants  that  require  repeated  waterings  during  their  growth.  These  cultures  are 
chiefly  on  the  very  banks  of  the  Nile,  in  Upper  Egypt,  in  Faioom,  and  in  the  lowest 
part  of  Egypt  where  tlie  waters  already  exhausted  are  not  in  suflicient  abundance  to 
cover  all  the  lands.  In  Upper  Egypt,  these  lands  are  chiefly  sown  with  the  Holcus 
douroy  which  forms  the  prevailing  food  of  the  people.  That  grain  is  sometimes  eaten 
like  maize  in  a  green  state,  being  previously  roasted  on  the  fire.  Its  stalk  is  eaten 
green  like  sugar  cane  :  the  dried  pith  is  used  as  starch  ;  the  leaf  is  the  food  of  cattle. 
The  stalk  is  used  as  fuel  for  heating  ovens.  The  grain  is  ground  into  meal,  of  which 
thin  cakes  are  made  in  the  manner  of  muffins,  or  crumpets,  which  eat  tolerably  well 
when  newly  made,  but  are  extremely  stale  in  a  short  time  after.  None  of  the  pre- 
parations of  this  grain,  in  short,  are  agreeable  to  a  European  taste.^t  Upper  Egypt 
produces  also  in  this  sort  of  lands  the  sugar  cane,  the  growth  of  which  is  completed 
there  in  a  single  season,  as  in  Mazanderan  on  the  shores  of  the  Caspian  Sea.     In- 

•  Tott,  iv.  p.  46.  -J-  Olivier,  Magasin  Encyclopedique  Ve  annee,  t,  i,  p.  290. 

±  Norden,  Voyage,  p.  274.  §  Volney,  Voyage,  Forskal,  Flora  ^gyptiaca, 

H  Abdollatif,  lielat.  de  I'Egypte,  chap,  ii.     Sonnini,  Voyage  d'Egypte,  iii.  p.  145  et  251. 
•J  Norden,  Voyage,  p.  335.  •♦  Niebuhr's  Arabia,  p.  151,  (in  Gerinan,) 

-f-j-  Sicard,  Nouv.  Mem.  ii,  p.  143, 
\oi.  II.— 3  I 


Culture  of  dry 
lands. 


434  BOOK  SIXTIETH. 

digo,  and  cotton  are  cultivated  in  the  same  situation,  and  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
the  towns  some  pot-herbs.  Faioom  is  distinguished  for  the  cultivation  of  rose  bushes, 
from  which  is  obtained  the  rose-water,  which  is  in  so  great  request  over  the  East. 
Pot-herbs  are  also  produced  here,  and  a  little  rice  in  the  immense  ravines  which  go 
off  from  Illahoon,  to  the  north  of  that  province.  The  lowest  part  of  the  Egyptian 
territory  abounds  in  rice  and  pot-herbs.  The  best  rice  grows  in  the  province  of  Da- 
mietta.  The  rice  culture  was  introduced  under  the  Caliphs,  and  was  probably  bor- 
rowed from  the  Hindoos.*  Doura  and  maize  are  still  cultivated  in  the  Sharkieh,  or 
the  ancient  Delta  of  the  east,  where  now  a  little  sugar-cane,  indigo,  and  cotton  are 
produced. 

Artificial  irri-  All  lands  Under  the  second  sort  of  culture  are  laid  out  in  artificial 

gallons.  squares  separated  by  low  dykes  on  the  tops  of  which  a  small  channel  is 

formed.  These  channels  communicate  with  one  another.  The  water  is  raised  by 
means  of  a  long  lever  provided  with  a  weight  behind,  which  assists  the  ascent  of  the 
bucket  hung  to  the  extremity  of  the  longest  arm,  and  which  a  man  depresses  by  a 
slight  exertion  :  at  the  moment  of  its  ascent  the  water  is  emptied  into  a  reservoir  from  . 
which  it  flows  by  the  channels  to  the  spot  to  which  the  person  who  manages  the 
irrigation  chooses  to  direct  it.  The  motion  of  the  lever  not  being  capable  of  raising 
the  water  more  than  six  feet,  the  cultivators  are  obliged  to  provide  themselves  with 
a  succession  of  basins  and  levers,  in  proportion  to  the  height  of  their  land  above  the 
level  of  the  river.  Various  other  machines  are  used  for  raising  water,  j  particularly 
the  Persian  wheel,  driven  by  an  ox.  In  Faioom,  a  method  of  watering  the  land  is 
in  use  similar  to  that  which  prevails  in  certain  districts  of  China  and  Japan.  The 
waters  intended  for  irrigating  lands  situated  on  the  sides  of  the  hills  and  at  the  bot- 
tom of  a  valley,  are  first  raised  to  the  top  by  a  balance  called  deloo,  or  shadoof. 
They  are  received  into  horizontal  rills,  and  then  descend  from  one  rill  to  another  to 
the  lower  terraces,  which  are  arranged  like  the  seats  of  an  amphitheatre  on  the  sides 
of  the  hills.  It  must  be  acknowledged,  however,  that  an  injudicious  waste  of  labour 
is  incurred  by  raising  any  portion  of  the  water  higher  than  is  requisite  for  diffusing  it 
over  that  terrace  for  which  it  is  ultimately  designed. 

yruit  trees.  |  Some  European  species  of  fruit  trees  do  not  grow  in  Egypt.  This  is 
the  case  with  the  almond,  the  walnut,  and  the  cherry.J  The  pear,  the  apple,  the 
peach,  and  the  plum,  are  neither  so  plenty  nor  so  good  ;§  but  the  citrons,  lemons, 
oranges,  pomegranates,  and  apricots,  prosper,  along  with  the  banana,  a  single  tree 
of  which  sometimes  produces  500.  ||  The  sycamore,  or  fig  of  Pharaoh,  less  valued 
for  its  fruit  than  for  its  deep  and  broad  shade,  the  carob,  the  jujube,  the  tamarind, 
and  other  trees,  are  cultivated,  but  none  of  them  are  equal  in  number  and  useful- 
ness to  the  date  palm,  which  is  cultivated  both  in  lands  of  natural  and  those  of  arti- 
ficial irrigation.  Groves  are  to  be  seen  consisting  of  300  or  400,  sometimes  of 
several  thousands  ;  each  is  valued  at  one  piastre. IT  The  olive  tree  is  only  met  with 
in  gardens,  but  there  are  some  olive  plantations  in  Faioom,  where  the  inhabitants 
Vines.  |  preserve  the  fruits  in  oil,  and  sell  them  all  over  Egypt.     The  vine,  in 

ancient  times,  formed  an  interesting  branch  of  culture.  Antony  and  Cleopatra 
inflamed  their  voluptuous  imaginations  by  drinking  the  juice  of  the  Mareotic  grapes. 
In  the  days  of  Pliny,  Sebennytus  furniscd  the  Roman  tables  with  their  choicest 
wines.  At  present  the  vine  is  not  cultivated  in  Egypt  except  for  its  shade  and  its 
grapes.  Some  Christians,  who  manufacture  an  indiflcrent  wine  in  Faioom,  form  a 
very  insignificant  exception.  The  vines  of  Foua,  mentioned  by  travellers  of  the 
last  century,  are  no  longer  in  existence. 

The  persea.  |  A  large  and  beautiful  fruit  tree,  celebrated  among  the  ancients,  the 
persea  of  the  Greeks,  and  the  lehakh  of  the  Arabians,  seems  to  have  disappeared 
from  the  Egyptian  soil,**  at  least,  naturalists  cannot  recognise  it  in  any  of  the  species 

*  Hasselquiat,  Travels  in  Palestine,  p.  130.  (German.) 

+  Niebuhr,  tab.  xv.  fig.  1,  2,  3,  4.  i:  Maillet,  Descript.  de  I'Egypte,  ii.  285. 

§  See  Wansleb,  Relat.  dell.  stat.  present,  p.  59. 

B  Abdollatif,  trad,  de  M.  Silvestre  de  Sacy,  p.  27  et  106, 

1  Haaselquist,  128— 133,  &c.  &c.  *»  Silvestre  de  Sacy,  Notes  sur  Abdollatif,  47— 72. 


The  lotQs. 
Different 
ineaningi  of 
this  term. 


EGYPT.  435 

now  existing  in  that  country.  It  has  been  supposed  to  be  the  aguacatc  or  avocatier 
of  St.  Domingo,  to  which,  in  consequence  of  this  conjecture,  botanists  have  given 
the  name  of  Laurus  persea.^  Others  have  attempted  to  prove  the  identity  of  it 
with  the  sebesten,!  but  the  differences  are  too  glaring  to  allow  this  hypothesis  to  be 
tenable.  We  are  only  assured  by  positive  testimony  that  this  tree  had  become  rare, 
and  at  last  disappeared  before  the  year  700 ;  and  that  having  come  from  Persia, 
where  its  fruit  was  crude  and  bitter,  it  acquired  by  culture  those  excellent  qualities 
lor  which  it  was  so  celebrated  ;  these  circumstances  ought  to  have  led  naturalists  to 
look  for  this  tree  in  the  East  Indies. 

Another  production  of  Egypt,  which  makes  a  great  figure  in  the  writ- 
ings of  antiquity,  is  the  lotus.  This  word  was  taken  in  different  accep- 
tations. J  The  plant  properly  called  the  lotus  is  a  species  of  nymphoia, 
or  water  lily,  which,  on  the  disappearance  of  the  inundation,  covers  all  the  canals 
and  pools  with  its  broad  round  leaves,  among  which  the  flowers,  in  the  form  of  cups 
of  bright  white  or  azure  blue,  rest  with  inimitable  grace  on  the  surface  of  the  water. 
There  are  two  species  of  the  lotus,  the  white  and  the  blue,  both  known  to  the  an- 
cients, though  the  blue  kind  is  seldom  mentioned.  The  rose-lily  of  the  Nile,  or  the 
Egyptian  bean,  which  is  frequently  carved  on  the  ancient  monuments  of  Egypt,  is 
not  at  present  found  in  that  country.  The  plant  would  have  been  unknown  to  natu- 
ralists if  they  had  not  found  it  in  India.  It  is  the  JVymphcca  nclumbo  of  Linnaeus- 
It  was  on  this  plant  that  the  lotus-eating  Egyptians  lived.  But  the  fruits  of  the  lotus, 
praised  by  Homer,  and  which  so  much  delighted  the  companions  of  Ulysses,  were 
those  of  the  modern  jujube,  or  Rhamnus  lotus.  This  same  tree  is  described  by 
Theophrastus  under  the  name  of  the  lotus,  and  is  perhaps  the  dudai'ne  of  the  He- 
brew writings.  Lastly,  the  plant  called  by  Pliny  Faba  grccca,  or  lotus,  is  the  Dios- 
pyros  lolus,  a  sort  of  guayacana  or  ebony. — The  papyrus,  equally  celebrated  in 
ancient  times,  and  which  is  believed  to  have  disappeared  from  the  banks  of  the  Nile, 
has  been  re-discovered  in  the  Cyperus  papyrus  of  Linnseus.  The  colocasium,  so 
renowed  in  antiquity,  is  still  cultivated  in  Egypt  for  the  sake  of  its  large  esculent 
roots. 

Egypt,  so  rich  in  cultivated  plants,  is  destitute  of  forests.  The  banks  |  Forest  trees; 
of  the  river  and  of  the  canals  sometimes  present  us  with  coppices  of  acacias  and 
mimosas.  They  are  adorned  with  groves  of  rose  laurel,  of  willows,  (the  Salix  ban* 
of  Forskal,)  saulcs-kalef,  cassias,  and  other  shrubs.  Faioom  contains  impenetrable 
hedges  of  cacti.  This  illusory  appearance  of  forests  furnishes  the  Egyptians  with 
no  firewood,  and  all  that  they  make  use  of  is  brought  from  Caramania.§  The  pea- 
sants burn  cow-dung,  which  they  collect  with  an  almost  ludicrous  solicitude.  Scarcely 
does  one  of  these  animals  show  a  disposition  to  part  with  any  refuse,  when  the  pea- 
sant stretches  out  his  hand  to  receive  it.  || 

The  economical  year  of  Egypt  presents  a  perpetual  circle  of  labours 
and  enjoyments. — In  January,  lupins,  the  dolichos,  and  cummin,  are 
sown  in  Upper  Egypt,  while  the  wheat  shoots  into  ear;  and  in  Lower 
Egypt  the  beans  and  flax  are  in  flower.  The  vine,  the  apricot,  and  the  palm  tree 
arc  pruned.  Towards  the  end  of  the  month,  the  orange,  the  citron,  and  pomegranate 
trees  begin  to  be  covered  with  blossoms.  Sugar  cane,  senna  leaves,  and  various 
kinds  of  pulse  and  trefoil  are  cut  down.  In  February  all  the  fields  are  verdant;  the 
sowing  of  rice  begins ;  the  first  barley  crop  is  harvested ;  cabbages,  cucumbers,  and 
melons  ripen. — The  month  of  March  is  the  blossoming  season  for  the  greater  part  of 
plants  and  shrubs.  The  corn  sown  in  October  and  November  is  now  gathered.  The 
trees  which  are  not  yet  in  leaf  are  the  mulberry  and  the  beech. — The  first  half  of 
April  is  the  time  for  gathering  roses.  Almost  every  sort  of  corn  is  cut  down  and 
sown  at  the  same  time.  Spelt  and  wheat  are  ripe,  as  well  as  the  greater  part  of 
leguminous  crops.     The  Alexandrian  trefoil  yields  a  second  crop. — The  harvest  of 

•  Clusius,  Ravier,  plant,  histor.  lib.  i.  cap.  2.  f  Schrebev,  de  Persea  Comment,  iii. 

+  Desfontalnes,  Mem.  de  I'Academic  des  Sciences,  1788.     Sprengel,  Specimen  Antiq.  Bo- 
tan.    Delllle,  Annales  du  Mus(;um,  t.  i.  p.  372.     Sayigny,  dans  les  Mem.  sur  I'Egypte,  i.  p.  105. 
§  Forskal,  Flora  iEgypt.  Arab.  Ivi.  ||  Niebuhr,  Voyage,  p.  151- 


Tnble  of  the 
succession  of 
cultures 
through  U»c 
year. 


436  BOOK  STXTtETIIo 

the  winter  grain  confinues  during  the  month  of  May;  Cassia  fLstula  and  henne  are 
in  flower;  the  early  fruits  are  gathered,  such  as  grapes,  Pharaoh's  figs,  carobs,  and 
dates. — Upper  Egypt  has  its  sugarcane  harvest  in  June;  the  plants  of  the  sandy 
grounds  now  begin  to  wither  and  die. — In  the  month  of  July,  rice,  maize,  and  canes 
are  planted,  flax  and  cotton  are  pulled:  ripe  grapes  are  abundant  in  the  environs  of 
Cairo.  There  is  now  a  third  crop  of  trefoil.  The  nenuphar  and  jessamine  flower 
in  August,  while  the  palm  trees  and  vines  are  loaded  with  ripe  fruits,  and  the  melons 
by  this  time  have  become  too  watery. — Towards  the  end  of  September,  oranges, 
citrons,  tamarinds,  and  ohves,  are  gathered,  and  a  second  crop  of  rice  is  cut  down. — 
At  this  time,  and  still  more  in  October,  all  sorts  of  grain  and  leguminous  seeds  are 
sown ;  the  grass  grows  tall  enough  to  hide  the  cattle  from  the  observer's  view ;  the 
acacias  and  other  thorny  shrubs  are  covered  with  odoriferous  flowers. — The  sowing 
continues  more  or  less  late  in  November,  according  to  the  degree  in  M'hich  the 
waters  of  the  Nile  have  retired.  The  corn  begins  to  spring  before  the  end  of  the 
rnonth.  The  narcissuses,  the  violets,  and  the  colocasias,  flower  on  the  dried  lands; 
the  nenuphar  disappears  from  the  surface  of  the  waters ;  dates  and  the  sebesten 
fruit  are  gathered. — In  December,  the  trees  gradually  lose  their  foilage;  but  this 
symptom  of  autumn  is  compensated  by  other  appearances  :  the  corn,  the  long  grass, 
and  the  flowers,  every  where  display  the  spectacle  of  a  new  spring.  Thus  in  Egypt 
the  land  is  never  at  rest.  Every  month  has  its  flowers,  and  all  the  seasons  their 
fruits.* 

Animals.  |  The  animal  kingdom  of  Egypt  will  not  detain  us  long.  The  want  of 
meadows  prevents  the  multiplication  of  cattle.  They  must  be  kept  in  stables  during 
the  inundation.  The  Mamelukes  used  to  keep  a  beautiful  race  of  saddle  horses. 
Asses,  mules,  and  camels,  appear  here  in  all  their  vigour.  The  numerous  buffaloes 
often  attack  the  Franks  on  account  of  their  strange  dress,  and  frequently  bright  co- 
lours, particularly  when  they  happen,  as  in  the  instance  of  the  British  soldiers,  to  be 
dressed  in  scarlet.  In  Lower  Egypt  there  are  sheep  of  the  Barbary  breed.  The 
large  beasts  of  prey  find,  in  this  country,  neither  prey  nor  cover.  Hence,  though 
the  jackal  and  hyena  are  common,  the  Hon  is  but  rarely  seen  in  pursuit  of  the  gazellea 
Crocodile.  |  which  travcrsc  the  deserts  of  the  Thebaid.  The  crocodile  and  the  hip- 
popotamus, these  primeval  inhabitants  of  the  Nile,  seem  to  be  banished  from  the 
Delta,  but  are  still  seen  in  Upper  Egypt.  The  islands  adjoining  the  cataracts  are 
sometimes  found  covered  with  flocks  of  crocodiles,  which  choose  these  places  for 
Hippopota.  depositing  their  eggs.  The  voracity  of  the  hippopotamus  has,  by  anni- 
""'•  hilating  his  means  of  support,  greatly  reduced  the  number  of  his  race. 

Abdollatif,  with  some  justice,  denominates  this  ugly  animal  an  enormous  water-pig. 
It  has  been  long  known  that  the  ichneumon  is  not  tamed  in  Upper  Egypt  as  Buffbn 
had  believed.  The  ichneumon  is  the  same  animal  which  the  ancients  mention  under 
that  name,  and  which  has  never  been  found  except  in  this  country.  Zoology  has 
lately  been  enriched  with  several  animals  brought  from  Egypt,  among  which  are  the 
jerboa,  the  Dipus  meridianus,  a  new  species  of  hare,  a  new  fox,  a  hedgehog,  a  bat, 
and  four  species  of  rats,  two  of  which  are  bristly.  The  Coluber  haje  has  also  been 
found,  an  animal  figured  in  all  the  hieroglyphical  tables  as  the  emblem  of  providence ; 
and  the  Coluber  vipera,  the  true  viper  of  the  ancients. 

Fish.  I      The  Nile  seems  to  contain  some  singular  fishes  hitherto  unknown  to 

systematic  naturalists.  Of  this  the  Polyptcra  bichir,  described  by  Geoffroy-Saint- 
Hilaire,!  is  a  very  remarkable  example.  That  able  naturalist  observes,  in  general. 
Bird..  I  that  the  birds  of  Egypt  do  not  much  difier  from  those  of  Europe.     He 

saw  the  Egyptian  swan  represented  in  all  the  temples  of  Upper  Egypt,  both  in  sculp- 
tures and  in  coloured  paintings,  and  entertains  no  doubt  that  this  bird  was  the  Che- 
nalopex  of  Herodotus,  to  which  the  ancient  Egyptians  paid  divine  honours,  and  had 
even  dedicated  a  town  in  Upper  Egypt  called  chenoboscion.  It  is  not  pecuhar  to 
Egypt,  but  is  found  all  over  Africa,  and  almost  all  over  Europe.     The  Ibis,  which 

*  Nordmeier,  Calendar.  JEgy^pt.  Oeconomic.  Getting.  1792.  Forskal,  Hasselquist,  Pocoke, 
Norden,  Niebuhr,  &c.  quoted  by  Nordmeier. 
f  AnnaleB  du  Museum,  i.  p.  ST. 


EGYPT.  437 

was  believed  to  be  a  destroyer  of  serpents,  is,  according  to  the  observations  of  Cu- 
vier,  a  sort  of  Curlew,  called  at  present  Moohamm.  Messieurs  Grobert  and  Geoff- 
roy-Saint-Hilaire  have  brought  home  mummies  of  this  animal,  which  had  been  pre- 
pared and  entombed  with  much  superstitious  care.* 

The  Egyptians  keep  a  great  quantity  of  bees,  and  transport  them  up  and  down  the 
Nile,  to  give  them  the  advantage  of  the  different  climates,  and  the  different  produc- 
tions of  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt.  The  hives  are  kept  in  the  boats.  The  bees  spread 
themselves  over  both  banks  of  the  river,  in  quest  of  food,  and  return  regularly  on 
board  in  the  evening. 


BOOK  LXI. 

EGYPT. 


PART  II. 

Inquiries  relative  to  the  IstJwms  of  Suez  and  the  extremity  of  the  Arabian  Gulf. 

In  taking  a  view  of  the  outUne  of  Africa,  and  tracing  the  physical  geography  of 
Egypt,  an  interesting  and  curious  subject  must  have  suggested  itself  to  the  minds  of 
our  well  informed  readers.  We  have  deferred  the  examination  of  it  till  now,  that  we 
might  render  it  more  complete  by  making  it  the  subject  of  a  separate  book. 

Has  the  isthmus  of  Suez  always  existed?  Has  Africa  never  been  an     Questions 
island?  Or  has  the  neck  of  land  which  connects  it  with  Asia  been  at  any     Proposed. 
time  much  narrower  than  now  ?  These  questions  have,  since  the  publication  of  the 
labours  of  the  Egyptian  Institute,  even  divided  intelligent  men  who  have  visited  the 
country. 

Let  us  begin  with  an  account  of  the  facts.  The  isthmus  in  its  present  state  is  a 
low  lying  land,  composed  of  shell  limestone  rocks,  mixed  with  strata  of  siliceous 
limestone,  and  partly  covered  with  sands,  or  with  saline  marshes.  In  several  places 
the  solid  strata  are  with  difficulty  perceived  by  their  slight  undulations  ;  in  the  northern 
part,  in  particular,  there  is  a  vast  plain,  varied  only  by  the  inequalities  created  by 
sand  hills.  In  the  middle  of  its  breadth,  the  ridges  of  the  hills  show  their  bare 
heads  at  certain  distances,  like  a  series  of  large  steps.  To  the  east,  the  south-east, 
and  the  south-west,  the  mountain  chains  of  Arabia  Petrsea  and  of  Egypt  skirts  at  a 
distance  the  table  land  of  the  isthmus,  which  is  terminated  at  the  Red  Sea.f  The 
lake  Birket-el-Ballah  adjoining  lake  Menzaleh,  Temsah  or  Crocodile  Lake,  and  the 
almost  dry  basin  of  the  Bitter  Lakes,  form,  from  north  to  south,  a  series  of  depres- 
sions, interrupted  only  by  stripes  of  low  land.  The  line  prolonged  on  one  side  to 
the  mouth  of  Tineh,  and  on  the  other  to  the  point  of  the  Gulf  of  Suez,  marks  the 
natural  boundary  of  Africa.  The  breadth  of  the  isthmus,  in  a  straight  line,  is  378,844 
feet,  or  nearly  seventy-two  miles. 

The  surface  of  this  isthmus  generally  declines  from  the  shores  of  the 
Red  Sea  towards  those  of  the  Mediterranean.  The  level  of  the  latter 
sea  is  thirty  feet  lower  than  that  of  the  Gulf  of  Suez.  J     There  is  a  similar  descent 


Level  and  iij. 
clinatious  of 
the  surface. 


•  Memolre  sur  I'Ibis,  par  M.  Cuvler. 

t  Rozieres,  dans  la  description  de  I'Egypte,  Antiquites ;  Memoires,  i.  p.  136.  et  la  carte 
hydrographique  de  la  Basse-Egypte,  de  M.  I.epere. 

\  Description  de  I'Egypte,  etat  nioderne,  i.  p.  54— 57 — 160 — \76.  Memoires  snr  le  canal 
des  deux  mers,  par  M.  Lepere,  et  le  Tableau  des  Nivellemens  dans  I'Atlas. 


Consequences 
of  its  level. 


Hypothesis  on 
the  waters  of 
the  Mediterra- 
nean. 


438  BOOK   SIXTY-FIHST. 

towards  the  Delta  aiid  the  bed  of  the  river  Nile.  The  level  of  the  water  of  the  Nile 
at  Cairo  at  its  lowest,  in  1798,  1799,  and  1800,  was  nine  feet  lower  than  the  surface 
of  the  gulf  at  low  water.  But  the  Nile  rising  sixteen  cubits  by  the  Nilometer,  is 
nine  feet  higher  than  the  Red  Sea  at  high  water,  and  fourteen  higher  than  the  same 
sea  at  low  water.  Besides  these  leading  inclinations  of  the  surface,  there  is  a  par- 
ticular .one  in  the  middle  of  the  isthmus.  The  deep  basin  called  the  Bitter  Lakes  is 
more  than  fifty-four  feet  lower  than  the  level  of  the  Red  Sea,  the  waters  of  wliich 
would  enter  and  fill  it,  if  they  were  not  prevented  by  a  little  sandy  isthmus  about 
three  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  In  another  part  the  valley  of  Sababhyar,  and 
that  of  Ooady-Toomylat  open  to  the  waters  of  the  Nile,  during  its  rise,  an  entrance 
into  the  Bitter  Lakes. 

From  this  account,  it  follows  that  the  Red  Sea  never  could  have  oc- 
cupied the  basin  of  the  Bitter  Lakes  in  a  constant  manner,  because  its 
waters,  if  raised  sufliiciently  high  to  form  such  a  communication,  would  have  found 
no  barrier  to  the  north  of  that  basin  :  they  would  have  flowed  all  the  way  to  the  Nile 
by  the  Ras-el-Ooadi,  and  to  the  Mediterranean  by  the  Ras-el-Mayah.  The  two 
seas  thus  brought  into  mutual  contact  would  have  reached  a  common  level,  and  the 
strait  would  have  become  permanent.  We  do  not  deny  the  possibility  of  a  sudden 
violent  irruption,  but  only  that  of  a  permanent  communication. 

But  it  will  be  said,  the  Mediterranean  may  have  been  formerly  thirty 
or  forty  feet  higher  than  now ;  in  that  case  it  must  have  covered,  in  a 
great  measure,  the  Delta  and  the  isthmus  ;  it  must  have  penetrated  into 
the  basin  of  the  Bitter  Lakes,  from  which  it  is  now  only  separated  by  a  tongue  of 
low  land,  which  perhaps  has  not  always  existed.  This  is  the  only  rational  hypothe- 
sis that  can  be  advanced  in  favour  of  the  existence  of  an  ancient  strait  in  this  situa- 
tion. But  it  is  evidently  a  hypothesis  which  goes  back  to  an  epoch  anterior  to  his- 
tory, for  no  authentic  testimony  of  such  a  state  of  things  is  now  in  existence.  The 
vague  traditions  mentioned  by  Homer  and  Strabo  on  the  separation  of  the  isle  of 
Pharos  from  the  continent,  would  not  even  on  the  system  of  those  who  believe  thern,* 
afford  proof  of  so  great  a  change.  But  these  traditions  when  duly  weighed,  prove, 
in  fact,  nothing  at  all ;  for  the  removal  of  Pharos  from  the  river  of  Egypt  to  a  dis- 
tance of  seven  days  sail,  may  be  found,  perhaps,  along  the  present  coast,  taking  the 
Sebennitic  mouth  for  that  by  which  Menelaus  entered.  It  is  also  possible  that  the 
Delta,  inhabited  by  savage  shepherds,  was  not  yet  separated  from  the  kingdom  of 
Thebes,  or  Egypt  properly  so  called.  At  all  events,  an  account  so  vague  cannot  be 
received  as  a  historical  proof. 

Shells,  crystals  of  sea  salt,  and  brackish  waters  are  found  every  where,  even  to 
the  centre  of  Africa.  These  remains  of  ancient  catastrophes,  have  nothing  in  com- 
mon with  events  belonging  to  historical  epochs. 

One  plausible  geographical  proof  has  been  brought  forward  to  show  that  the  limits 
of  the  Red  Sea  have  been  contracted.  This  is  the  position  of  Heroopo- 
lis.'\  We  shall  discuss  anew  this  important  question,  defending,  with 
certain  modifications,  and  by  some  new  arguments,  the  hypothesis  of  M.  d'Anvillc, 
against  the  opinions  of  Messrs.  Gosselin  and  Roziere  ;  we  shall  show  that  this  hy- 
pothesis does  not  lead  to  the  consequences  which  Messrs.  Lepere  and  Dubois- Ayme 
have  drawn  from  it  with  regard  to  the  contraction  of  the  gulf. 

Some  insurmountable  arguments  concur  to  place  the  city  of  HeroopoUs,  mentioned 
liy  Strabo,  Eratosthenes,  and  the  Itineraries,  at  Abookesheyd,  in  the  valley  of  Sabab- 
hyar, to  the  north-west  of  the  Bitter  Lakes.  We  do  not  indeed  believe 
this  city  to  be  identical  with  the  Paiumos  of  Herodotus,  J  and  the  Pilhom 
^f  the  Sacred  Scriptures. §  The  Seventy  interpreters,  and  the  Coptic  translator,  not 
only  agree  indeed  in  considering  Pithom  and  HeroopoUs  as  identical,  but  in  confound- 

•  Dolomicu,  Journal  de  Physique,  t.  xlii. 

t  Dubois-Aymc,  sur  les  anciennes  limites  de  la  Mer  Rouge.  Descript.  de  I'Egyptc,  ctat 
moderne,  i.  187,  &c.  Lepere,  Mem.  sur  le  canal  des  deux  mers.  Ibid.   Append,  ii.  w.  147,  &c. 

*  Herodot.  ii.  158.     Steph.  TJyz.  in  voce. 

§  Exod.  i.  11.  compare  d'Anvillc,  M^m.  sur  I'Egypte,  p.  123 — 124, 


Position  of 
Heroopolis. 


Herflopolis  is 
not  Pithom. 


EGYPT. 


439 


uig  them  with  Ramses,  the  capital  of  the  land  of  Goshen,  the  abode  of  the  Israel- 
ites. But,  as  Herodotus  makes  Patumos  the  site  of  the  beginning,  and  not  of  the 
termination  of  the  canal  of  the  two  seas,*  it  is  evident  that  this  place  cannot  be  at  a 
great  distance  from  the  Nile.  We  think  that  Pithom  corresponds  to  the  fortified 
place  called  Thou  in  the  Itinerary  of  Antoninus,  and  Tohum  in  the  Account  of  the 
Empire,  a  place  situated  at  the  very  point  at  which  the  canal  enters  the  desert,  and 
where  the  inundations  generally  terminate.  Herodotus  having  seen  these  places 
while  the  waters  were  at  their  height,  may  have  believed  that  the  canal  began  here ; 
but  Heroopolis  is  certainly  the  same  city  with  that  called  Hero'f  in  Antoninus's  Iti- 
nerary, and  in  Stephen  of  Byzantium.  This  last  lexicographer  gives  us  a  formal 
assurance  of  it.  The  measurements  of  the  itinerary  in  the  most  authentic  manu- 
scripts, correspond  well  with  the  situation  of  the  very  remarkable  ruins  discovered  at 
Abookesheyd,  among  which  is  recognized  a  caravansera,  an  evidence  of  the  busy 
trade  which  must  have  been  carried  on  at  that  place. 

In  order  to  assist  our  readers  in  forming  a  proper  idea  of  the  argu-  1  Distances  a»- 
ment,  we  have  reduced  the  distances  of  the  ancient  and  modern  places  |  itf^erariel'^ 
to  the  form  of  a  table. 


The  places,  according  to  the  ancient  and 
modern  names. 


Babylonia  (Old  Cairo) 

Heliou  (Ruins  of  Heliopolis)  -  -  - 
Scenee  Veteranorum  (Menair)  -  - 
Vicus  Judseorum  (Belbeis)  -  -  -  - 
Thou  or  Tohum  (Pithom.  Abbasah)  - 
Hero  or  Heroopolis  (Cherosh.  Abou- 

kesheyd)      -------- 

Serapeum  (Ruins  to  the  north  of  the 

Bitter  Lakes)   ------- 

Clysma  (Ruins  of  Kolzoom  to  the  north 
of  Suez)      ....---. 


Distances  by  the 
Itineraries. 

Measured  distances  on 

the  hydrographic  chart 

of  Lower  Egypt. 

In  Roman 
miles. 

In  English 
feet. 

XH 

57,994 

53,136 

XVIII 

86,992 

68,880 

XII 
XII 

57,994 
57,994 

54,120 
65,600 

XXIV 

115,988 

108,080 

XVII 
L 

96,832 
241,647 

75,440 
r  229,600  by  the  west 
1       side  of  the  lakes. 
]  239,440  by  the  east 
L     of  the  lakes. 

CXLVI 

715,431 

904,296 

If  it  is  considered  that  we  do  not  know  the  windings  of  the  road,  and  can  only  form 
an  imperfect  estimate  of  them,  the  coincidence  between  the  sums  total  of  the  mea- 
surements will  appear  very  striking.  But  it  is  farther  possible  to  remove  the  dis- 
agreement of  some  of  the  partial  numbers;  for  the  Itinerary  in  another  passage  gives 
the  distances  from  Ilehopolis  to  Thou  in  the  following  manner: 


Names  of  Places. 

Distances  in  the  Itinerary. 

Distances 
by  the 
Chart. 

From  Heliou  to  Scenas  Veteranorum 
From  Scense  to  Thou      -     .     -     - 

XIV  m.  p. 
XXVI 

67,659 
125,719 

68,880 
119,7-20 

XL 

193,378 

188,600 

*   See  the  text,  Hktou  Ji  diri  toD  Ke/a.^  to  jJiLg  uc  olutAv  (riiv  JiJi^u^*).  xktcu  J'l  KXTuTri^d^  oKiycv 
BsuCdr/if  voKioi  TTUga  T\a.rou/ji.ov  tmv  ApuGixv  'or'oKtv. 

I  The  name  has  been  written  Hero  like  Ileliu,  the  terminalluu  JjoUs  being  understood. 


440  BOOK  sixTY-Fiusr. 

The  testimony  of  Sirabo,  or  of  the  authors  whom  he  has  followed,  is  perfectly  re- 
conciled with  that  of  Stephanus  and  of  the  Itinerary.  This  geographer  adopts  ex- 
pressly a  passage  of  Eratosthenes  which  runs  thus:  "  After  the  city  of  Heroopolis, 
which  is  on  the  JVile,  we  find  the  extremity  of  the  Arabian  Gulf."*  Thus  Heroopolis 
must  be  situated  in  a  place  where  the  waters  of  the  Nile  can  pass,  consequently  on 
a  canal  connected  with  that  river.  How  could  Messrs.  Gosselin  and  Roziere  over- 
look an  authority  so  formal  and  so  worthy  of  confidence? 

Objections.  |  The  Other  passages  of  Strabo  and  of  Pliny  do  not  contradict  one  an- 
other. Sometimes  it  is  asserted  that  Heroopolis  is  near  Arsinoe,  or  Cleopatris,  which 
is  on  the  gulf,t  but  we  are  not  to  conclude  with  confidence  that  these  authors  place 
Heroopolis  itself  immediately  on  the  gulf.  Sometimes  we  are  told  that  the  llero- 
opolitan  gulf  derives  its  name  from  this  city,  which  is  in  its  neighbourhood.  But  we 
must  not  give  these  words  a  meaning  in  contradiction  with  other  more  positive  ex- 
pressions. The  example  of  the  gulf  of  Lyons  shows  that  it  is  not  necessary  that  a 
city  should  be  on  the  very  shores  of  a  gulf  to  which  it  gives  its  name. 
Mythological  Somc  mythological  traditions  brought  forward  in  this  discussion  may 

traditions.  fumish  a  subjcct  for  fresh  local  research.     "  Hero  or  Heros,  is  a  city  of 

Egypt  called  also  Haimos,  (blood)  because  Typhon  being  there  struck  with  a  thun- 
derbolt, J  stained  the  ground  with  his  blood."  But  Herodotus  tells  us  of  a  place  called 
Erythre-Bolos,  that  is  "  Red  clay."§  Now  Typhon  was  called  by  the  Egyptians 
Rash,  or  the  red,  and  the  Avords  "  red  earth,"  or  "  earth  of  Typhon"  were  in  their 
language  translated  into  Cherosh.\\  Is  it  not  probable  that  Herodotus  has  given  a 
simple,  and  Stephanus  a  poetical  translation  of  the  Egyptian  name  of  the  city  of  Ty- 
phon 1  The  true  name  of  this  city,  Cherosh,  preserved  in  the  Itineraries,  has  thus 
been  transformed  by  the  Greeks  into  Heroopolis,  or  *'  the  city  of  heroes."  To  give 
these  connections  of  circumstances  the  force  of  an  argument,  it  would  be  sufficient 
to  find  near  the  locality  which  we  assign  to  Heroopolis,  a  soil  composed  of  red  clay. 
Conclusions,  j  The  position  of  Heroopolis,  or  rather  Heros,  or  Cherosh,  being  fixed 
by  the  Itinerary  to  the  north-west  of  the  Bitter  Lakes,  it  is  evident  that  this  city  never 
could,  at  least  not  in  the  time  of  Strabo,  be  found  on  the  shores  of  the  Red  Sea. 
For,  as  tlie  levels  of  the  ground  demonstrate,  if  the  waters  of  that  sea  had  filled  the 
basin  of  the  lakes  and  the  valley  Sababhyar,  they  would  also  have  come  in  contact 
with  those  of  the  Nile.  There  would  have  been  a  real  strait,  and  the  execution  of  a 
canal  would  have  been  superfluous.  But  as  the  basin  in  Strabo's  time  communicated 
with  the  Red  Sea  by  a  canal,  and  could  at  pleasure  be  filled  with  the  waters  of  that 
sea,  the  basin  might  with  some  reason  be  considered  as  a  prolongation  of  the  gulf, 
and  Heroopolis  spoken  of  as  the  place  where  the  navigation  of  small  boats  com- 
menced,— as  the  seat  of  a  great  trade  both  maritime  and  inland,  and  a  city  worthy 
of  giving  its  name  to  the  gulf. 

Having  hitherto  intentionally  kept  Ptolemy  out  of  view,  we  now  proceed  to  com- 
vnent  on  his  evidence,  which  appears  to  be  at  utter  variance  with  all  the  attempts  at 
conciliation  in  which  we  have  been  engaged. 

The  Heroopo-  When  the  canal,  neglected  and  deserted,  no  longer  supported  the 
lis  of  Ptolemy,  commeice  of  Heroopolis,  it  is  probable  that  the  inhabitants  transferred 
their  abode  to  a  place  nearer  the  gulf  itself,  or  rather  were  removed  to  another  city 
which  may  have  taken  the  name  of  Heroopolis,  on  becoming  the  capital  of  the  dis- 
trict or  prefecture. 

This  new  Heroopolis,  the  only  one  known  to  Ptolemy,  may  have  been  properly 
placed  by  that  geographer  in  a  latitude  a  little  north  of  Suez.  We  think  that  this 
second  Heroopolis,  marked  in  Ptolemy's  tables,ir  occupied  a  place  marked  by  some 
ruins,  t-o  the  north-east  of  the  end  of  the  gulf:  which  agrees  sufficiently  well  with  M. 

•  Atari  SiTra  Hgii&iv  mKiie;,  iV/f  sr/  (Tgof  tIJ  i^iiiKui  fJ'.ix''^  ' hgaSia  koX'TTis.  Geogr.  lib.  xvi.  p.  767,  Al- 
melov. 

I  UXMO-iov  S\  Tn  Agi7-/vo«f  )c«<  «  T-iv  'HgiCoif  ■Tt'oKKf  KU  «  KX605r*T|)c  it  wij  iMXio  Tflu  'Agaf«t/  iciMou.  G^og. 
lib.  xvii.  p.  804. 

*  Stephanus  de  Urb.  §  Euterpe,  Cap.  3. 

a  Hennicke,  Gcograph.  llerodot.  p.  72.  'i  PtolcmCe,  Georg.  lib.  iv.cap.  5,  7, 


Position  of 
C"lysma. 


EGYPT.  441 

Gosselin's  opinion,  in  the  other  parts  of  which  we  do  not  acquiesce.*  These  ruins 
cannot  belong  to  Ar»inoc,  surnamcd  Cleopatris,  as  the  engineers  of  the  French  army 
of  Kgypt  beUeved  ;  for  that  city  was,  according  to  one  who  was  probably  an  actual 
observer,  situated  at  the  end  of  the  canal  of  the  two  seas  ;t  and  it  was  in  this  har- 
bour that  ^lius  Gallus  collected  the  war  galleys  intended  to  act  against  the  Arabians. 
This  passage,  overlooked  in  recent  discussions,  seems  to  fix  the  position  of  Jlrsin'de 
Cleopatris  to  the  north  of  Kolzoom.  The  small  creek  which  forms  the  inner  har- 
bour of  Suez,  corresponds  to  the  Charanda  Gulf"};  of  Pliny,  where  this  Roman  geo- 
grapher seems  to  place  also  the  small  place  Aennus,§  probably  Bir-Suez,  and  the 
Damon,  or  lower  harbour, ||  which  may  represent  the  town  of  Suez  itself. 

The  whole  of  the  obscurity  attached  to  the  Ileroopolis  of  Ptolemy 
will  not  be  removed  unless  we  can  also  fix  the  position  of  Clysma,  which 
was  at  first  only  a  strong  hold. IT  The  hypothesis  of  the  learned  M.  Gossehn,  of 
there  being  two  places  called  Clysma,  falls  to  the  ground  with  tlie  false  version  of 
M.  De  Guignes,  on  which  it  was  founded  :  it  is  proved  that  no  Arabian  author  has 
said  what  this  orientalist  has  ascribed  to  Ibn-al-Vardi.**  All  the  oriental  writers 
acquiescing  in  a  tradition  universal  among  the  inhabitants  of  the  country,  place  Kol- 
zoom, or  Clysma,  a  little  to  the  north  of  Suez,  where  Niebuhr  saw  its  ruins.  The 
meaning  of  the  Greek  name  also  shows  that  this  fortress||'  must  have  been  situated 
near  the  sluice  which  dammed  up  the  canal.  The  same  position  is  assigned  to  it 
by  the  measurements  of  the  Itinerary,  if  from  Serapeum  we  follow  the  sinuosities  of 
the  west  bank  of  the  Bitter  Lakes.  The  table  seems,  indeed,  to  place  Clysma  on 
the  other  side  of  the  canal,  and  also  of  the  gulf;  but,  as  the  distance  given  in  the 
tables  would  remove  its  situation  to  Arabia  Petraea,  and  farther  south  than  the  foun- 
tains of  Moses,  this  obscure  passage  can  neither  support  the  one  nor  the  other  side 
of  the  questions  now  under  discussion. 

The  name  of  the  fortress  seems  to  have  been  afterwards  given  to  the  town  which 
it  commanded.  But  was  this  town  still,  after  the  Arabian  conquest,  the  ancient  Ar- 
sinoe,  to  the  north  of  Clysuut,  or  the  modern  city  of  Suez,  to  the  south  of  it  1  The 
passages  quoted  from  the  Arabian  authors  furnish  no  data  on  the  question.  At  all 
events,  in  the  fifth  century,  the  name  of  Clysma  was,  from  the  city,  given  also  to 
the  gulf.JJ  It  is  in  imitation  of  the  Greeks,  that  the  Arabians  said,  the  sea  of  Kol- 
zoom, an  observation  which  escaped  the  learned  commentator  of  Edrisi.  The 
name,  then,  might  naturally  be  given  to  the  chain  of  mountains  bounding  the  west 
side  of  the  Gulf  of  Suez ;  though  we  must  not  look  there  for  a  city  of  the  same 
name. 

This  discussion  leaving  no  doubt  respecfing  the  position  of  the  city 
of  Clysma,  we  ask,  why  Ptolemy  has  removed  it  so  far  to  the  south,  by 
placing  it  at  least  forty  minutes  (miles)  from  his  Hcroopolis? — The  answer  is  easy. 
He  only  knew  the  position  of  Clysma  by  its  distance  from  tlie  ancient  Ileroopolis, 
which  is  not  much  less  than  forty  minutes,  and  he  transferred  this  same  distance  to 
the  south  of  the  new  Ileroopolis. 

Ptolemy's  text,  thus  explained,  furnishes  no  argument  for  or  against  |  Conclusion, 
tlie  contraction  of  the  sea  :  It  does  not  oppose  it,  for  the  position  of  the  old  Hero- 
opolis,  the  principal  proof  of  the  hypothesis  ot"  the  contraction  is  independent  of  that 
which  Ptolemy  gives  to  the  new  city  of  that  name.  Nor  docs  it  favour  the  hypo- 
thesis ;  for  New  Ileroopolis  and  Arsiuoe  were  of  contemporaneous  existence  with 
the  fortress  of  Clysma ;  the  one  was  the  capital  of  the  name  or  district,  the  other, 

•  R^cherches  sur  la  Geogr.  de  Grecs,  ii.  p.  166.  183.  278. 

f  K-j-ra  KKta:rxTgiJ'i.  ryiv  tt^o;  t«  ■rfiXrtl^  TrShl^uv  T>t  ^tto  toZ  tiUKnv,  Geogr.  lib.  xvi.  p.  537,  ed. 
Causab.  "  Amnem  qui  Arsinoen  pi-;e(luit,  Ptolemxiim  api)ellavit."     Plin.  iv.  p.  29. 

i  This  word  seems  to  be  Arabic,  or  from  the  Hebrew  verb  n^D,  perfodit. 

§  From  Aiin,  a  fountain.  11  Erom  jn  lower.  1    Kaj-gov,  ^gss-zsv. 

••  Quatremere,  Mem.  Histor.  et  Gcograph.  i.  p.  179. 

ft  KxJj-^ft,  irrigation,  inundation,  sometimes  signifies  the  same,  as  kku^h^,  a  gutter,  a  syringe. 
Lucian,  in  the  Pseudomantis,  speaking  of  this  place,  couples  with  it  the  article,  tw  KhCcfAXTo;, 
i.  e.  the  dam  or  floodgate.     Strabn  speaks  of  a  x/.i/roc  hu^nroi. 

-ft  Philostorg,  Hist.  Ecclesiast  iii.  chap.  6. 
Vol.  II.— 3  K 


Cause  of  Pto« 
lemy'f  error. 


Ancient  mea- 
sures of  the 
breadth  of  the 
isthmus. 


442  BOOK  SIXTY-FIRST. 

like  the  port  of  Suez  now,  was  the  point  of  departure  for  ships.  We  have  no  evi- 
dence that  the  new  HeroopoHs  was  on  the  very  shore  of  the  gulf,  and  that  the  latter 
must,  therefore,  have  retired  5790  yards,  as  Gosselin  maintains.* 

Having  shown  that  the  topography  of  Heroopolis,  agreeable  to  the 
system  of  d'Anville,  does  not  lead  necessarily  to  the  inference  of  a  change 
in  the  shores  of  the  Red  Sea,  we  should  now  discuss  the  actual  measures 
which  the  ancients  have  left  us  of  the  breadth  of  the  isthmus.  But  our  uncertainty 
respecting  the  value  of  the  stadium  renders  the  discussion  fruitless.  If  the  thousand 
stadia  assigned  by  Herodotus  were  Egyptian  stadia  of  108  yards,  they  would  bring 
the  extremity  of  the  gulf  only  to  the  south  end  of  the  Bitter  Lakes.  But  these  lakes 
bemg  considerably  lower  than  the  surface  of  the  water,  the  latter  could  not  have 
stopped  at  this  point,  where  no  barrier  was  presented  to  it.  The  900  stadia  of  Strabo, 
and  the  817  of  Marlnus  Tyrius,  considered  as  Egyptian  stadia,  favour  somewhat 
more  the  contraction  of  the  isthmus,  but  without  being  quite  decisive.  If  we  reckon 
them  as  stadia  of  700  to  the  degree,  these  measures  support  the  opinion  that  the 
state  of  the  isthmus  has  not  altered. "f" 

Examination  ^g  ^g  must  take  every  fact  into  view,  we  acknowledge  that  the  march 

in  Motes.  of  the  Isrcalites  m  leavmg  Egypt,  has  furnished  an  argument  for  a  con- 

traction of  the  gulf.|  This  line  of  march  would  appear  more  probable,  if  we  shoidd 
suppose  that  the  Red  Sea  extended  as  high  as  Saba-Hbyar  ;  we  should  then  conceive 
that  this  fugitive  tribe,  coming  from  the  neighbourhood  of  Abbaseh  and  of  Belbeis, 
and  bending  their  course  to  the  desert,  fell  in  with  the  sea  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Heroopolis,  and  had,  in  consequence  of  an  extraordinary  tide,  or  a  violent  wind, 
found  the  isthmus  dry,  which  at  present  separates  the  Gulf  of  Suez  from  the  l>asin 
of  the  Bitter  Lakes. 

This  view  of  the  matter  would  be  very  favourable  to  an  improved  interpretation  of 
a  passage§  in  which  the  translators  have  made  the  author  of  the  Books  of  Moses 
say,  (Exodus,  chap.  xiv.  verse  22d  and  29th)  that  the  waters  stood  up  on  the  left 
and  on  the  right  of  the  Israelites  like  a  wall,  but  where  the  text  only  says  that  the 
waters  were  like  a  wall,  or  a  rampart,  on  their  left  and  on  their  right.  An  army,  in 
fact,  passing  between  the  Gulf  and  the  Bitter  Lakes  would  have  both  flanks  covered 
in  this  manner. 

An  argument  is  furnished  by  the  pretended  identity  of  Heroopolis  with 
the  Baal-Zephon  of  the  Hebrew  text,  [j  Sephon,  or  Sophon,  we  are 
told,  is  one  of  the  names  of  Typhon ;  and  the  city  of  Cherosh,  Heros, 
or  Heroopolis,  is  the  city  of  Typhon.  The  Israelites,  before  passing  the  sea,  en- 
camped opposite  to  Baal-Zephon:  that  town  must,  therefore,  have  been  only  a  short 
way  from  the  shores  of  the  gulf. 

This  argument,  drawn  from  etymology,  however,  admits  of  a  corresponding  reply. 
Baal-ZephonlT  literally  signifies  "the  Lord  of  the  North;"  and  may  be  applied  to 
any  city  to  the  north  of  the  termination  of  the  gulf  opposite  to  Ajerood,  or  Hagirood, 
which  to  us  appears  identical  with  the  Hachiroth  of  Moses. 

The  narrative  of  the  Hebrew  legislator,  though  simple,  and  carrying  conviction 
along  with  it,  is  not  sufficiently  circumstantial  to  allow  us  to  entertain  a  hope  of  ex- 
plaining it.  The  poetic  hymn  with  which  it  is  accompanied,  and  which  contains  the 
most  important  details,  does  not  admit  of  a  precise  interpretation.  All  the  informa- 
tion that  these  records  give  us  in  physical  geography  is,  that  in  former  times,  as  in 
our  own,  the  level  of  the  gulf  was  liable  to  considerable  variation  from  the  influence 
of  the  tides  and  the  winds. 

•  Ilecliercbes  sur  la  Geographie,  ii.  p.  184. 

f  Kozlere,  M^moh-e  sur  la  geographic  comparee  de  I'isthme  de  Suez. — Description  de 
I'Egypte,  vol.  i. 

^  Baron  Gastaz,  an  unpublished  report  on  the  Memou'e  of  Dubois-Aym^. 

§  Exod.  xiv.  22—29. 

8  Numbers,  chap,  xxxiii.  v.  7.  Exod.  chap.  xiv.  v.  2.  J.  J.  H.  Forster,  Epist.  28,29.  Hennicke, 
Geogr.  Herodoti,  p.  72. 

IT  j2i;S;'3. 


Heroopolis  _ 
is  not  identical 
with  Baal-Ze- 
phon. 


EGYPT.  443 


Canal  of  the 
two  leas. 


If  the  isthmus  of  Suez  has  not  undergone  any  change  within  the  Kmits 
of  history,  particularly  no  remarkable  contraction,  if  a  natural  communi- 
cation between  the  two  seas  has  never  existed  within  the  periods  of  human  record, 
we  know  that  industry  has  attempted  to  open  by  art,  a  passage  which  nature  ha|l  de- 
nied. The  forming  of  a  canal  between  the  two  seas  has  been  the  subject  of  many 
projects  and  many  discussions.  The  engineers  of  the  French  army  of  the  east  as- 
certained the  traces  and  remains  of  a  canal,  with  a  most  satisfactory  precision.  The 
canal  goes  from  Balbeis  (Viciis  Judmorum)  on  the  old  Pelusiac  branch  of  the  Nile, 
now  the  canal  of  Menedji,  to  Abbaseh,  the  ancient  Thou.  There  it  enters  the  narrow 
valley  of  Arabes-Tonmylat,  the  level  of  which  is  thirty-two  or  thirty-three  feet  lower 
than  that  of  the  Red  Sea.  Several  portions  of  the  bed  of  the  canal  are  still  in  such  a 
state  as  to  require  nothing  except  cleaning.  It  passes  on  to  Abookesheyd,  which  is 
considered  as  identical  with  the  old  Heroopolis.  The  basin  of  the  Bitter  Lakes  might 
have  been  filled  at  pleasure  from  the  waters  of  the  Nile:  beyond  this  basin,  the 
traces  of  the  canal  re-appear  in  the  isthmus  which  separates  the  lakes  from  the  Red 
Sea,  and  show  that  the  canal  was  continued  the  whole  way.*  But  to  Antiquity 
what  ago  and  to  what  potentate  is  this  great  work  to  be  referred?  Without  °^  *''''  *'°''^' 
noticing  tho  fabulous  times  of  Sesostris  and  Menelaus,  there  are  two  kings  better 
known  in  history,  Necho  and  Psammetichus,  neitheir  of  whom  aj^pears  to  us  to  have 
been  its  author.  They,  like  Darius,  were  prevented  by  the  dread  of  seeing  Egypt 
inundated  by  the  waters  of  the  Red  Sea,  which  were  known  to  have  a  higher  level 
than  the  Nile.  It  would  have  been  a  sacrilegious  act  to  have  thus  admitted  tho  ma- 
lignant Typhon  into  the  happy  empire  of  Osiris.  The  use  of  locks  and  floodgates 
was  unknown,  which  would  have  protected  the  Egyptian  fields  from  this  imaginary 
danger.  The  Ptolemies,  according  to  Strabo|  who  had  travelled  in  Egypt,  completed 
the  canal.  According  to  Pliny,  they  only  brouglit  it  as  far  as  the  basin  of  the  Bitter 
Lakes.  J  The  former  of  these  authors  makes  Phacusa  the  point  at  which  the  canal 
communicated  with  the  Nile,  which  would  suppose  this  canal  to  be  a  different  one 
from  that  which  has  been  recently  traced.  The  latter  gives,  in  Roman  paces,  the 
exact  measures  of  the  length  of  the  canal  from  Balbeis  to  the  Bitter  Lakes,  as  well 
as  that  of  the  total  distance  of  the  Gulf  of  Suez  from  the  Nile,  both  of  which  mea- 
surements are  found  correct.  If  so  well-informed  a  writer  believed  that  the  canal  did 
not  extend  to  the  Red  Sea,  which  its  vestiges  show  it  to  have  done,  we  here  find  a 
proof  tliat  the  navigation  of  it  had  been  relinguished.  Perhaps  the  sluices  had  not 
been  well  constructed,  or  it  had  been  found  more  convenient  and  profitable  to  convey 
merchandise  by  the  harbours  of  J^'Iyos-Hormos  and  Berenice.  Tlie  emperor  Adrian, 
who  caused  a  canal  to  be  formed  to  the  east  of  the  Nile,  called  Trajanus  Jimnis,  and 
which  went  off  from  Babylonia,  seems  to  have  intended  it  solely  for  irrigations,  by 
means  of  which  the  province  of  Augustamnica  was  rendered  a  flourishing  country. 

But  the  Arabians,  particularly  El-Magrizi  and  El-Makyn,  attest  that  this  canal 
was  opened  again  by  order  of  the  Caliph  Omar,  and  was  used  for  navigation  from 
the  year  644  to  767.  At  this  time  another  caliph  caused  it  to  be  shut  up,  in  order 
to  deprive  a  rebel  chief  of  his  supplies  of  provisions.  The  Ottoman  emperors  havd 
oftener  than  once  conteznplated  the  re-estabhshment  of  this  canal.  While  the  French 
army  was  in  Egypt,  some  learned  discussions  were  maintained  on  tho  practicability 
and  advantages  of  such  a  restitution.  A  steady  and  enliglitened  government  could 
execute  the  project  at  a  moderate  expense.  The  value  of  the  lands  which  by  means 
of  it  would  be  l)rought  into  cultivation,  whould  be  more  than  sufiicient  to  cover  it. 
But,  as  the  navigation  would,  on  the  one  side,  depend  on  the  rising  of  tiie  Nile,  and, 
on  the  other,  on  the  monsoons  which  prevail  in  the  Arabian  gult';  and  as  llicse  two 
conditions  do  not  coincide  to  such  a  degree  as  to  allow  an  uninterrupted  navigation, 
it  is  very  probable  that  this  canal,  though  highly  useful  and  necessary  for  the  com- 
mercial prosperity  of  Egypt,  would  produce  no  great  revolution  in  the  East  Indian 
trade. 

*  Description  de  I'Figypte;  l^Iemoire  do  M.  I.epcre,  f  Geogr.  xvii. 

\  Plin.  vi.  cap.  29. 


444  BOOK  SlXTV-SECONI>. 


BOOK  LXII. 

EGYPT. 


HiftoricMl  ro- 
vi)liitioii». 


PART  HI. 

Topo[!;raphical  and  Political  Detaih. 

In  our  physical  sketch  of  Epypt,  we  traced  the  influence  of  a  monotonous  terri- 
tory and  an  unchanging  chniate.  A  certain  gloom  will  also  bo  attached  to  our  ac- 
counts of  tho  cities  and  towns  of  a  country  which  has  been  so  often  described.  We 
must  always  sail  along  tho  river  or  its  canals,  always  admire  antique  monuments 
which  we  are  unable  to  explain,  always  cast  a  mournful  look  on  modern  towns  fust 
hastening  to  destruction,  surrounded  by  palms  and  sycamores.  On  every  hand  op- 
pression, misery,  distrust  and  discord  hold  |>ossession  of  a  country  so  well  lUted  to 
become  tho  abode  of  happiness  and  prospeiity. 

In  order  to  give  some  interest  to  this  account,  it  is  necessary  to  call 
to  mind  at  every  step  the  nations  which  have  successively  nded  this 
country,  and  have  left  monuments  behind  them.  In  tho  history  of  every  ago 
Egypt  holds  a  conspicuous  place.  lender  the  Pharaohs  she  derived  streuijth  from 
the  stability  of  her  laws,  and  was  often  tho  successful  rival  (>f  the  greatest  mo- 
narcliies  of  tiio  world.  Invaded  and  devastated  by  Cambyscs,  sho  was  for  193  years 
cither  the  subject  or  tho  vassal  of  Persia,  and  frequently  in  a  state  of  open  rebellion. 
Tho  Greeks  at  last  came  to  her  assistance.  Alexander  the  Great  was  received  by 
her  as  a  deliverer,  and  it  is  probable,  intended  to  make  this  country  the  seat  of  his 
empire. 

For  three  centuries  the  Ptolemies  made  Egypt  a  flourishing  country  in  commerce 
and  tho  arts,  and  her  towns  midcr  them  were  almost  converted  into  Grecian  colonies. 
Augustus  united  this  fertile  kingdom  to  the  Roman  empire,  and  for  6GG  years  it  was 
tho  granary  of  Rome  and  By/.antium.  It  termed  one  of  tho  earliest  conquests  of  the 
successors  t)f  IMalunuet.  About  tho  year  8S7,  the  power  of  the  caliphs  was  suc- 
ceeded by  the  reign  of  the  Turcomans,  their  own  janissaries,  whom  they  had  called 
to  their  aid.  The  dynasties  of  the  Tolonides,  the  Fatimites,  and  the  Aioobitcs,  ruled 
over  Egypt  till  tl>e  year  1250. 

Mamtiukcf.  |  The  Mamclukes,  or  military  slaves  of  the  Turcoman  sultans  of  Egypt, 
then  massacred  their  masters,  and  took  possession  of  the  sovereignty.  The  Turk- 
ish dynasty,  or  that  of  tho  Rassarite  Mamelukes,  reigned  till  1382.  Tho  Circassian 
race,  or  that  of  tho  Rordjite  INlamelukes,  ruled  here  till  within  these  very  few  years; 
for  Selim  II.  emperor  of  the  Ottomans,  alter  taking  possession  of  Egypt,  only  abo- 
lished the  monarchical  form  of  government  of  these  INlamelukes;  he  aUowoil  an  aris- 
tocracy of  twenty-four  Reys  to  remain,  siibjected  to  a  stated  tribute.  Since  his  death, 
the  Mamelukes  have  move  than  once  thrown  o{\'  the  authority  of  the  Ottomans. 
French.  I       In  1798,  tlie   French  abolished  tlio  jMameluke  aristocracy,  and  made 

themselves  masters  of  the  whole  of  Egypt.  A  great  European  colony  now  seemed 
to  si)ring  up  in  this  line  country,  and  a  fair  hope  was  cherished  for  the  progress  of 
civilization.  Tho  sciences,  and  especially  that  of  geography,  would  have  derived 
inestimable  accessions  from  the  success  of  that  mible  iiroject.  Rut  it  was  attempttMl 
during  tho  bloody  wars  and  jealousies  by  which  enlightened  Europe  was  distracted. 
Far  iVoui  being  concerted  by  the  combined  wisdom  of  the  civilized  world,  and  suj)- 
ported  by  its  united  energies,  it  was  und(Mtakeu  in  subserviency  to  the  paltry  object 
of  gratifying  the  sellish  glory  of  Ruonaparte,  and  the  aggrandi,iement  of  the  French 


EGvrT.  445 

nation,  which  hail  tarnished  the  Uhcral  character  of  her  revoKilion,  and  lost  the  corj- 
tulenco  ot'everr  pliilanthropic  mind  hv  the  barbarous  pillaixe  ot' Sierra  Leone.  The 
rival  «i<"ltishness  ot' (treat  l>ritain,  aidiuii  the  vieu's  ol'tlic  Sub!inie  I'orte,  poured  from 
the  British  Islee,  from  the  Hosphoruo,  and  the  (iang^s,  numerous  arnnes  to  cxier- 
minate  the  French  army,  which  wns?  too  happv  to  take  shelter  under  the  wing  of  the 
civilized  maxims  of  war,  and  return  safe  to  Europe,  to  avoid  fallinii  under  the  ruth- 
le:?s  sabre  of  the  Turk.-s.  In  ISOl  this  evacuation  was  effected,  and  barbarism  again 
took  possession  of  her  prey.  I'erfidious  assassinations,  and  merciless  massacres, 
have  signalized  tlie  contests  between  the  Turkish  government  and  the  Mamelukes, 
and  between  the  latter  and  the  now  almost  independent  Pasha  of  Kgypt.  A  ray  of 
improvement  in  the  arts,  and  of  encouragement  to  industry,  has  unexpectedly  begun 
to  glimmer  amidst  the  arbitrary  sway  of  the  ruttian  masters  of  Egypt;  but  under  such 
patronage,  permanent  advancement  in  civilization  canu^t  be  expected. 

The  ancients  had  divided  Kgypt  according  to  a  principle  afforded  them     n,'Xm  dwt 
by  the  course  of  the  river;  into  Upper  Egypt,  called  the  Thebaid,  because     sioi»». 
Thebes  was  its  capital;  Middle  Kgypt,  called  also  the  "Seven  Government^' or 
the  lleptanomis;  and  Lower  Kgvpt,  or  the  Delta,  extending  to  the  sea. 

The  Arabs  and  Ottomans  luivc  oidy  changed  the  names  of  these  divisions: 

1.  Upper  Egypt  is  called  the  Said,  and  includes  tlie  provinces  of  Thebes,  Pjirdjeh, 
and  Sioot. 

2.  Middle  Egypt  is  called  the  Vostani,  consisting  of  the  provinces  of  Faioom,  Re- 
nisooet',  and  Minvet. 

3.  Lower  Egypt  is  called  Bahari,  or  "  the  Maritime  Country,"  and  includes  the 
provinces  of  Bahyreh,  Rasid  or  Rosetta,  Gharbyeh,  IMenoot',  Massoora,  Sharkieh, 
and  the  Cairo  district,  consistinjr  of  the  subdivisions  of  Kclioobeh  and  Attiliieh. 

The  apellafion  of  Upper  Egvpt  is  sometimes  taken  iu  a  strictly  metaphysical  accep- 
tation, and  made  to  include  all  the  provinces  above  Cairo.*  On  this  principle  Abul- 
feda  and  Ebn-Haukal  divide  Egvpt  into  two  parts,  the  Rif  and  the  Saul,  that  is,  the 
coast  and  the  high  country.!  Another  Arabian  calls  these  divisions  Kibli  and  Ba- 
liari,  or  Iho  south  and  the  coast.;j;  But  the  most  recent  observations,  by  making  us 
acquainted  with  a  defile  or  contraction,  separating  the  Yostani  Iromthc  Said  proper, 
incline  us  to  prefer  the  usual  threefold  division. 

We  shall  first  take  a  view  of  the  towns  and  remarkable  localities  of 
Lower  Egypt. 

The  ancient  glory  of  Alexandria  is  still  attested  by  the  extensive 
ruins  by  which  the  present  citv  is  surrounded,  and  in  a  manner  concealed.  It  is  built 
on  a  sandy  stripe  of  land  formed  by  the  sea,  along  the  ancient  mole  which  once  con- 
nected Pharos  with  the  continent.  Of  its  two  harbours  the  most  easterly  seems  to 
have  lost  its  former  advantages  bv  the  chan£rcs  which  the  coast  has  underirone.  The 
ancient  promontory,  the  situation  of  the  modern  Pharillon,  has  been  worn  lower  ana 
destroyed  by  the  waves :  its  ruins  have  been  carried  into  the  interior  of  the  |  H»rbour». 
harbour,  where  the  vessels  have  also  been  long  in  the  habit  of  discharging  tlieir  bal- 
last.— The  famous  Pharos,  built  on  the  island  (now  a  peninsula)  of  the  same  name, 
serves  as  alight-house  at  the  entrance  of  the  harbour,  or  rather  roadstead,  where  ves- 
sels are  frequently  lost.  The  other  extremity  of  the  peninsula  surrounds  in  part  the 
western  or  old  harbour,  which  is  possessed  of  great  advantages,  but  shut  against  Chris- 
tians. To  the  south  of  the  modern  city  and  of  tlie  two  harbours  is  the  site  of  old 
Alexandria. 

Here  among  the  heaps  of  rubbish,  and  among  the  fine  gardens  planted 
with  palms,  oranges,  and  citrons,  are  seen  some  churches,  mosques,  and 
monasteries,  and  three  small  clusters  of  dwellings,  formerly  three  towns,  one  of 
which  is  surrounded  with  a  wall  and  called  the  fort.  Traces  are  seen  of  ancient 
streets,  in  straight  lines,  and  some  ruins  of  colonnades  mark  the  sites  of  palaces. 

•  Compare  d'Anville,  Mem.  snr  I'Eg-^^ite,  p.  "6.  M'anslcben  in  Paulin,  p.  8. 
t  Abulfeila  vers  Micfiaei,  p.  53.  Compare  with  the  notes  of  M.  Siivestre  ile  S.^cy  on  Abdol 
latif,  p.  :^9T. 

t  Notice  et  exlr.Vilsde  Memoircsl.  250. 


Towni  of 
Lower  Egj-pt. 

Alt'xamlria. 


The  ancient 
city. 


Column  called 
Pompey's  Pil- 
lar. 


446  BOOK  SIXTY-SECOND. 

One  of  the  obelisks,  called  Cleopatra's  Needle,  still  stands  upright.  All  this  con- 
fused mass  of  ruins,  gardens,  and  masonry,  is  in  the  greater  part  of  its  circumfe- 
rence, surrounded  with  a  high  and  double  wall.  The  commission  of  the  French 
Institute  of  Egypt  seemed  to  regard  this  enclosure  as  the  Avork  of  the  Arabians. 
Such  also  is  the  opinion  of  Niebuhr,  Wansleb,  and  the  greater  part  of  travellers. 
Pococke,  however,  thinks  that  the  Arabians  only  built  the  inner  wall  ;  and  Baron  de 
Tott  believes  that  nothing  about  it  is  modern,  except  some  local  reparations.  To 
us  this  enclosure  appears  to  represent  precisely  the  space  of  thirty  stadia  in  length, 
and  ten  in  breadth,  which  Strabo  assigns  as  the  dimensions  of  the  city  of  Alexander 
and  the  Ptolemies.  Only  that  part  of  the  wall  which  extends  from  the  Rosetta  Gate 
towards  the  lloman  Tower,  in  a  direction  from  east-south-east  to  west-north-west, 
seems  to  pass  through  the  ancient  quarter  of  Bruchium,  which,  filled  with  palaces 
and  monuments,  extended  quite  round  the  New  Harbour.  Might  not  this  part  of  the 
wall  be  the  work  of  Caracalla,  when,  according  to  the  expression  of  Dion  the  his- 
torian,* that  ferocious  beast  of  Ausonia  came  to  devastate  and  drench  with  blood  the 
beautiful  city  of  Alexandria  1  Even  the  forts  which  exist  to  the  north  and  south  of 
the  ancient  city  seem  to  be  those  erected  by  that  tyrant.  We  also  think  that  many 
of  the  ruins  date  the  epoch  of  the  capture  of  the  city  by  the  cruel  Aurelian. 

On  the  outside  of  the  southern  gate,  a  detached  column  eighty-eight 
feet  high,  forms  the  most  commanding  object  connected  with  the  city 
and  its  environs.  It  has  been  erroneously  called  "  Pompey's  Pillar,"  and  "  the  Pil- 
lar of  Severus."  It  is  the  great  column  which  served  as  the  principal  ornament  of 
the  famous  Serapeum,  a  vast  building  consecrated  to  the  worship  of  an  Egyptian 
divinity,  and  which,  after  the  destruction  of  the  Museum  of  the  Ptolemies,  became 
the  receptacle  of  the  Alexandrian  library,  and  the  resort  of  men  of  letters.  Here,  as 
in  a  place  of  safety,  Caracalla  feasted  his  eye  with  the  massacre  of  the  people  of 
Alexandria  ;  a  circumstance  which,  added  to  many  others,  leads  us  to  think  that  both 
the  Serapeum  and  the  Circus  were  situated  in  a  suburb  without  the  walls  of  the  an- 
cient city.f 

Reduced  to  a  population  of  16,000  souls,  Alexandria,  before  the  French  invasion, 
carried  on  a  trade  in  which  the  south  of  Europe  had  a  considerable  share.  It  Avas 
the  medium  of  all  the  exchange  of  commodities  that  took  place  between  Egypt  and 
Constantinople,  Leghorn,  Venice,  and  Marseilles. 

Near  Aboukir,  the  roadstead  of  which  makes  so  conspicuous  a  figure  in  history, 
the  coast  ceases  to  be  composed  of  rocks,  and  alluvial  lands  begin.  The  city  of 
Rosetta,  |  Rosctta  is  dcscricd  at  a  distance  in  the  midst  of  groves  of  date  trees, 

bananas,  and  sycamores.  It  is  situated  on  the  banks  of  the  Nile,  which  annually 
washes,  without  injury,  the  walls  of  the  houses.  Its  population,  like  that  of  Alex- 
andria, progressively  declines.  The  houses,  though  generally  better  built  than  those 
of  Alexandria,  are  so  crazy  that  they  would  go  to  ruin  in  a  few  months,  if  they  were 
not  favoured  by  a  climate  which  destroys  nothing.  The  stories  projecting  succes- 
sively beyond  one  another,  render  the  streets  dark  and  dismal.  An  island  in  this 
part  of  the  river,  a  league  in  diameter,  presented  to  M.  Denon  the  appearance  of  a 
most  delicious  garden,;};  but  is  described  by  Hasselquist  as  an  insupportable  place 
with  musquitos  and  buftalos.§ 

From  Rosetta  to  Damietta  the  low  sandy  coast  was  formerly  infested 
by  robbers,  or  occupied  by  rude  shepherds  and  fishermen  living  without 
law.  Lake  Bourlos,  filled  with  islets,  extends  over  a  part  of  this  country.  Beltym, 
a  town  situated  on  the  side  of  the  lake^  seems  to  correspond  to  the  ancient  Buto. 
Here  a  learned  man,  well  versed  in  Egyptian  antiquities,  places  Elearchia  or  Bu- 
colise,  that  is,  the  country  of  marshes  and  of  bufiblo  herds.  ||     This  district  bore,  in 

•  Dion.  Hist.  Kom.  1.  Ixviii.  p.  1307.  Herodian,  1.  iv.  p.  158.  Compare  the  plan  of  Alex- 
andria by  M.  Lepere  in  the  Atlas  of  the  Description  de  I'Egypte. 

"t"  Langles,  notes  on  Norden,  Voyage  iii.  p.  279.  Silvcstfe  de  Sacy,  notes  sur  Abdollatif,  p. 
231 — 239.     Zoegn  de  origlne  obcliscorum,  p.  24  et  607. 

i  Denon,  t.  i.  p.  88.  §  Hasselquist,  Voyage,  p.  68. 

■  H  Ktienne  Qiiatremcre,  Recherches  sin*  la  litterature  Egyptiemie,  p.  117.     Idem,  Mtmoircs 
historiqiies  ct  gcographiques,  t.  i.  p.  220 — 223. 


Northern 
coasts. 


EGYPT.  447 

tho  Egyptian  language,  the  name  of  Bashmoor,  the  game  word  which  was  used  for 
a  name  to  the  third  dialect  of  the  ancient  language  of  Kgypt.  The  savage  Bashmu- 
rians  lived  sometimes  in  their  boats,  and  sometimes  among  the  reeds  which  covered 
their  marshy  banks.  Such  appears  still  to  be  the  condition  of  the  people  who  live 
round  Bourlos.  The  same  picture  is  apphcable  to  the  neighbourhood  of  Lake  Men- 
zaleh,  where  Eleavchia  was  placed  by  other  writers. 

All  the  country  round  Damietta  is  tilled  with  large  rice  fields,  on  which  |  Damictta. 
great  attention  is  bestowed.  The  rice  of  Damietta  is  the  most  esteemed  of  any  in 
the  Levant.  But  the  city,  which  according  to  Binos  contains  30,000,  and  according 
to  Savary  80,000  souls,  is  very  dirty,  almost  all  the  inhabitants  delighting  in  the  most 
filthy  habits  of  living.  Their  health,  especially  that  of  the  females,  soon  languishes, 
and  multitudes  of  blind  and  purblind  persons  are  met  in  every  corner.  This  city, 
one  of  the  keys  of  Egypt,  carries  on  a  great  trade  in  rice  and  other  provisions.  It 
was  built  in  1250,  five  miles  and  a  half  from  the  site  of  the  ancient  Thamiatis,  but 
destroyed  in  the  time  of  the  crusades.* 

The  coast  of  the  ancient  eastern  Delta  is  still  lower  and  more  marshy  I  ^owns  of  the 
than  that  between  Rosetta  and  Damietta.  Menzaleh  would  not  deserve  |  Eastern Ddta. 
particular  attention,  were  it  not  for  its  very  large  lake,  in  the  bosom  of  which  are  the 
islands  of  Matharyeh,  which  are  very  populous,  and  covered  with  houses,  some  of 
brick,  and  others  of  clay.  In  that  which  is  called  Mat-el-Matharyeh,  the  hovels  of 
the  people  and  the  tombs  of  the  dead  form  one  promiscuous  assemblage.  The  houses 
seem  rather  to  be  dens  than  human  dwellings. 

The  fishermen  of  Matharyeh  allow  none  of  their  neighbours  to  fish  in  the  lake. 
Constantly  naked,  wading  in  the  water,  and  engaged  in  their  severe  labours,  they  are 
hardy  and  vigorous,  but  almost  perfect  savages. 

On  the  east  side  of  the  lake  are  the  ruins  of  Pelusium ;  on  the  south  side  those  of 
the  ancient  Tunis;  and  on  an  islet  in  the  middle  those  of  Tennis.  Ascending  higher 
in  the  province  of  Sharkieh,  we  find  the  sites  oi  Mendes  and  of  Thmuis,  ancient  cities 
now  in  ruins. 

Lofty  minarets  point  out  from  a  distance  the  city  of  Mansourah,  famous  for 
the  battle  fought  under  its  walls  in  1250,  in  which  Louis  IX.  was  taken  prisoner. 
We  have  also  Mit-Gamar  on  the  Damietta  branch  of  the  Nile  ;  Tel-Bastah  on  the 
canal  of  Moez  ;  Balbeis  on  that  of  Menedje  ;  Salehieh,  an  important  military  post  ; 
and  El-kanka,  on  the  borders  of  the  desert  which  lies  between  Cairo  and  the  Red 
Sea.  Having  passed  these  different  places,  we  arrive  at  the  point  of  the  Point  of  the 
ancient  Delta,  forming  now  the  small  country  of  Kelyovlbeh,t  rich  in  Delta. 
grain,  in  pastures,  and  in  different  species  of  trees.  Its  villages  are  large,  its  flocks 
numerous,  and  its  inhabitants  peaceable  and  comparatively  happy.  To  the  north  of 
Kelyoubeh,  the  ground  is  intersected  by  an  infinity  of  small  canals  for  irrigation. 
The  roads,  though  difficult,  are  very  pleasant ;  several  of  them  are  skirted  with  rich 
gardens,  others  lead  through  thick  groves  and  immense  nurseries. 

The  interior  of  the  modern  Delta  contains  the  populous  city  of  Me- 
hallet,  surnamed  el  Kebir,  or  "the  Great."  Lucas,  Sicard,  and  Pococke, 
considered  it  as,  next  to  Cairo,  the  most  important  in  all  Egypt.;];  It  is  built  of  brick, 
on  a  navigable  canal,  and  surrounded  with  fertile  fields  always  under  crop.  Ahoosir, 
the  ancient  Busires,  formerly  occupied  the  central  point  of  the  Delta.  Samanoud, 
or  Djemnouti,  the  ancient  Sebennytus,§  a  large  town  on  the  river  of  Damietta,  is  fa- 
mous for  producing  numerous  and  excellent  pigeons. 

The  city  of  Tenta  is  at  present  one  of  the  most  considerable  places 
in  the  interior  of  the  Delta.     It  is  the  resort  of  pilgrims  from  differ- 
ent parts  of  Egypt,  Abyssinia,  the   Hedjaz,   and  the  kingdom  of  Dar 
inhabitants  estimate  the  annual  number  of  these  pilgrims  at  150,000.     The  object  of 
these  meetings  is  to  pay  their  respects  at  the  tomb  of  a  saint  called  Seyd  Ahmed-el- 


Intcriijr  of 
the  Delta. 


Places  of 
pilgrimage. 

bor.     The 


•  Abulfeda,  Tab.  Egypt,  p.  24.     Abulpharag.  Chron.  Syriac,  vers,  la  p.  529.     Index  Geo- 
graph.  ad  Boliad.  vit.  Salad,  edit.  Schultens,  in  voce  Damiata. 

t  Malus,  Mdnioire  sur  I'Egypte,  t.  i.  p.  21J.  i  See  Hartinann,  Egyptien,  p.  789. 

i  D'Anville,  Mem.  sur  I'Egypte,  p.  85.  and  Quatremere,  Mem.  Hist,  et  Georg.  i.  p.  503. 


448  BOOK    SIXTY-SECOND. 

Bedaooi.  Commerce  derives  from  them  some  advantages.*  Kenoof  is  the  capital 
of  the  smiUng  and  fertile  province  of  Menoufieh,  which  contains  also  the  city  of 
Shiquin-el-Koom. 

In  the  north  of  the  Delta  we  must  take  notice  of  the  monastery  of  Saint  Germinian, 
a  place  of  pilgrimage  both  for  Christians  and  Mahometans.  The  surrounding  plains 
are  covered  with  tents  ;  horse  races  are  held  ;  wine  and  good  living  animate  the 
pilgrims  ;  the  festival  continues  for  eight  days  ;  it  brings  to  the  place  a  great  number 
of  dancing  women,  who  contribute  much  to  the  pleasures  of  the  occasion,  pleasures 
which  are  kept  up  day  and  night.  In  this  country,  the  night  being  cooler  than  the 
day,  is  more  favourable  to  amusements. 

In  the  corner  of  the  Delta,  adjoining  to  Rosetta,  amidst  a  great  number  of  flou- 
rishing villages,  and  fields  covered  with  excellent  produce,  we  remark  the  towns  of 
Berimbal  and  Fouah.  This  last  was,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  the  seat  of  that  trade 
which  has  since  been  transferred  to  Rosetta. 

wesT"of  Ae^^  I  ^^  ^^®  place  whcrc  the  canal  of  Alexandria  joins  the  Nile,  we  find  the 
Delta.  I  large  town  of  Rahmanie.     On  another  canal  is  situated  the  small  town 

of  Damanhour,  a  mart  for  the  cottons  produced  in  the  neighbouring  country,  and  a 
place  where,  in  the  time  of  the  fairs,  the  coarse  rejoicings  of  the  peasantry  some- 
times remind  the  spectator  of  the  noisy  orgies  of  ancient  Egypt.  Terraneh,  which 
derives  prosperity  from  the  natron  trade,  is  situated  on  the  western  bank  of  the  Nile, 
and  above  it  Wardan,  which  is  at  the  distance  of  a  journey  of  twenty-four  hours  from 
Cairo. 

Grand  Cairo.  |  At  last  the  plain  no  longer  displays  its  uniform  luxuriance.  Mount 
Mokattan  raises  on  one  side  its  arid  head,  on  the  other  we  find  Djizeh,  with  its  eter- 
nal pyramids.  Opposite  to  these  mountains,  the  eye  descries  in  succession,  on  the 
eastern  banks  of  the  great  river,  the  cities  of  Boolak,  New  Cairo,  and  Old  Cairo. 

Boolak|is  the  port  of  Cairo,  where  the  vessels  he  that  come  from  the  lower  part 
of  the  Nile.  It  extends  along  the  banks,  and  exhibits  all  the  bustle  and  confusion 
of  commerce.  In  the  harbour  of  Old  Cairo  the  vessels  lie  that  have  arrived  from 
Upper  Egypt.  Some  of  the  most  distinguished  inhabitants  of  Cairo  have  here  a 
sort  of  country  seats,  to  which  they  retire  during  high  Nile.  Between  these  two 
cities  is  New  Cairo,  called  by  the  orientals,  Grand  Cairo,  by  way  of  eminence.  The 
name  Kahera,  signifies  "  the  victorious."  This  city  lying  a  mile  and  a  half  from  the 
Nile,  extends  to  the  mountains  on  the  east,  which  is  nearly  three  miles.  It  is  sur- 
rounded by  a  stone  wall,  surmounted  by  fine  battlements,  and  fortified  with  lofty 
towers  at  every  hundred  paces.  There  are  three  or  four  beautiful  gates  built  by  the 
Mamelukes,  and  uniting  a  simple  style  of  architecture  with  an  air  of  grandeur  and 
Origin  of  magnificence.    According  to  Abd-el-Rashid,  El-Kaherah,  or  Cairo,  was 

Cairo.  Ijyj2j  [^  ^\yQ  360th  year  of  the  hegira,  the  970th  of  our  common  era,  by 

tlie  Caliph  Almanzor,  (el-Moez-le-Dym  illah  ^bn  el  Mansoor,)  the  first  of  the  Fati- 
mite  caliphs  who  reigned  over  Egypt.  That  city  was  afterwards  joined  to  that  of 
Fostat,  built  also  by  the  Arabians.  Salahh-ed-Dyn,  or  Saladin,  about  the  year  572 
of  the  hegira,  (A.  D.  1176,)  built  the  ramparts  with  which  it  is  surrounded,  which  are 
18,116  yards  in  length.  But  in  this  vast  extent  we  find  only  one  narrow  unpaved 
street.  The  houses,  like  all  others  in  Egypt,  are  badly  built  of  earth  or  indifferent 
bricks,  but  differ  from  most  others,  in  being,  like  those  of  Rosetta,  two  or  three 
stories  high.  Being  lighted  only  by  windows  looking  into  back  courts  or  central 
squares,  they  appear  from  the  street  like  so  many  prisons.  The  aspect  of  Cairo  is 
a  little  reUevcd  by  a  number  of  large  public  but  irregular  squares,  and  many  fine 
mosques.  That  of  Sultan  Hassan,  built  at  the  bottom  of  the  mountain  containing 
the  citadel,  is  very  large,  and  has  the  form  of  a  parallelogram  ;  a  deep  frieze  goes  all 
the  way  round  the  top  of  the  wall,  adorned  with  sculptures  which  we  call  gothic,  but 
which  were  introduced  into  Europe  by  tlie  Spanish  Arabians. 

The  inhabitants  of  Cairo,  fond  of  shows  like  all  the  people  of  large 
cities,  amuse  themselves  chiefly  with  feats  of  bodily  exercise,  such  as 


Manners  and 
amusements. 


•  Savarv,  Lett,  sur  I'Egypte,  t.  i.  p.  281,  282.    Guard,  in  the  Memoires  sur  I'Ejjypte,  t.  iii. 
p.  356—360. 


Town  of  Dji- 
zel),  and  the 
great  py ra- 
ni ids. 


EGYPT.  449 

leaping,  rope-daacing,  and  wrestling  matches ;  also  singing  and  dancing.  Tliey 
have  buffoons,  whose  rude  pleasantries  and  stale  puns  excite  the  ready  laugh  among 
an  ignorant  and  corrupt  people.  The  ahnehs,  or  female  improvisatorcs,  who  amuse 
the  rich  with  the  exercise  of  their  talent,  differ  from  such  as  exhibit  to  the  common 
people.  They  come  to  relieve  the  solitude  of  the  harem,  where  they  teach  the  wo- 
men new  tunes,  and  repeat  poems  which  excite  interest  from  the  representations 
which  they  give  of  Egyptian  manners.  They  initiate  the  Egyptian  ladies  in  the 
mysteries  of  their  art,  and  teach  them  to  practise  dances  of  rather  an  unbecoming 
character.  Some  of  these  improvisatrici  have  cultivated  minds  and  an  agreeable 
conversation,  speaking  their  native  language  with  purity.  Their  poetical  habits 
make  them  familiar  with  the  softest  and  best  sounding  expressions,  and  their  recita- 
tions are  made  with  considerable  grace.  The  ahnehs  are  called  in  on  all  festive 
occasions.  During  meals  they  are  seated  in  a  sort  of  desk,  where  they  sing.  Then 
they  come  into  the  drawing  room  to  perform  their  dances  or  pantomimic  evolutions, 
of  which  love  is  generally  the  ground  work.  They  now  lay  aside  the  veil,  and  along 
with  it  the  modesty  of  their  sex.  They  make  their  appearance  covered  with  a  piece 
of  light  transparent  gauze,  and  the  spirit  of  the  scene  is  kept  up  by  tabors,  castanets, 
and  flutes.  Thus  we  find,  in  all  countries,  dancing  and  music  made  subservient  to 
voluptuous  indulgence,  and  employed  as  the  allies  of  licentiousness. 

On  the  west  bank  of  the  Nile,  we  find  the  city  of  Djizch,  pleasantly 
shaded  by  sycamores,  date,  trees,  and  olives.     To  the  west  of  this  city 
stand  the  three  pyramids,  which,  by  their  unequalled  size  and  celebrity, 
have  eclipsed  all  those  numerous  structures  of  the  same  form,  which  are  scattered 
over  Egypt.     The  height  of  the  first,  which  is  ascribed  to  Cheops,  is  447  feet,  that 
is,  forty  feet  higher  than  St.  Peter's   at  Rome,  and  13.3  higher  than  St.  Paul's  in 
London.     The  length  of  the  base  is  720  feet.     The  antiquity  of  these  erections, 
and  the  purpose  for  which  they  were  formed,  have  furnished  matter   of  much  inge- 
nious conjecture  and  dispute,  in  the  absence  of  certain  information.     It  has  been 
supposed  that  they  were  intended  for  scientific  pui-poses,  such  as  that  of  estabhshing 
the  proper  length  of  the  cubit,  of  which  they  contain  in  breadth  and  height  a  certain 
number  of  multiples.     They  were,  at  all  events,  constructed  on  scientific  principles, 
and  give  evidence  of  a  certain  progress  in  astronomy  ;  for,  their  sides  are  accurately 
adapted  to  the  four  cardinal  points.     Whether  they  were  applied  to  sepulchral  uses, 
and  intended  as  sepulchral  monuments,  had  been  doubted ;  but  the  doubts  have  been 
dispelled  by  the  recent  discoveries  made  by  means  of  laborious  excavations.     The 
drifting  sand  had,  in  the  course  of  ages,  collected  round  their  base  to  a  considerable 
height,  and  had  raised  the  general  surface  of  the  country  above  the  level  which  it 
had  when  they  were  constructed.     The   entrance  to  the  chambers  had  also  been,  in 
the  finishing,  shut  up  with  large  stones,  and  built  round  so  as  to  be  uniform  with  the 
rest  of  the  exterior.     The  largest,  called  the  pyramid  of  Cheops,  had  been  opened, 
and  some  chambers  discovered  in  it,  but  not  so  low  as  the  base,  till  Mr.  Davison, 
British  consul   at  Algiers,  explored  it  in  1763,  when  accompanying  Mr.  Wortley 
Montague  to  Egypt.     He  discovered  a  room  before  unknown,  and   descended  the 
three  successive  wells  to  a  depth  of  155  feet.*     Captain  Caviglia,  master  of  a  mer- 
chant vessel,  has  lately  pursued  the  principal  oblique  passage  200  feet  farther  down 
than  any  former  explorer,  and  found  it  communicating  with  the  bottom  of  the  well. 
This  circumstance  creating  a  circulation  of  air,  he  proceeded  twenty-eight  feet  far- 
ther, and  found  a  spacious  room  sixty-six  feet  by  twenty-seven,  but  of^  unequal  height, 
under  the  centre  of  the  pyramid,  supposed  by  Mr.  Salt  to  have  been  the  place  for 
containing  the  theca,  or  sarcophagus,  < hough  now  none  is  found  in  it.     The  room  is 
tliirty  feet  above  the  level  of  the  Nile.     The  upper  chamber,  35  j  feet  by  17^,  and 
1S|  high,  still  contains  a  sarcophagus.     Herodotus  erred  in  supposing  that  the  water 
of  the  Nile  could  ever  surround  the  tomb  of  Cheops.     In  six  pyramids  which  have 
been  opened,  the  principal  passage  preserves  the  same  inclination  of  26°  to  the  hori- 

•  See  Walpole's  Interesting  Collection  of  Memoirs,  relating  to  European  and  Asiatic  Tur- 
key, 1817. 
Vol.  XL— 3  L 


450  BOOK  SIXTY-SBCOND. 


Pelzoai's  ope- 
rations on  the 
jecond  pynk- 

fnid. 


zon,  being  directed  to  the  polar  star.    M.  Belzoni,  after  some  acute  ob- 
servations on  the  appearances  connected  with  the  second  pyramid,  or  that 
of  Cephrenes,  succeeded  in  opening  it.     The  stones,  which  had  con- 
stituted the  coating,  (by  which  the  sides  of  most  of  the  pyramids  which  now  rise  in 
steps  had  been  formed  into  plain  and  smooth  surfaces,)  lay  in  a  state  of  compact 
and  ponderous  rubbish,  presenting  a  formidable  obstruction  ;  but  somewhat  looser  in 
the  centre  of  the  front,  showing  traces  of  operations  for  exploring  it,  in  an  age  pos- 
terior to  the  erection.     On  the  east  side  of  the  pyramid,  he  discovered  the  founda- 
dation  of  a  large  temple,  connected  with  a  portico   appearing  above  ground,  which 
had  induced  him  to  explore  that  part.     Between  this  and  the  pyramid,  from  which  it 
was  fifty  feet  distant,  a  way  was  cleared  through  rubbish  forty  feet  in  height,  and  a 
pavement  was  found  at  the  bottom,  which  is  supposed  to  extend  quite  round  the  pyra- 
mid ;  but  there  was  no  appearance  of  any  entrance.     On  the  north  side,  though  thc^ 
same  general  appearance  presented  itself  after  the  rubbish  was  cleared  away,  one  of 
the  stones,  though  nicely  adapted  to  its  place,  was  discovered  to  be  loose;  and  when 
it  was  removed,  a  hollow  passage  was  found,  evidently  forced  by  some  former  enter- 
prising explorer,  and  rendered  dangerous  by  the  rubbish  which  fell  from  the  roof;  it 
was  therefore  abandoned.    Reasoning  by  analogy  from  the  entrance  of  the  first  pyra- 
mid, which  is  to  the  east  of  the  centre  on  the  north  side,  he  explored  in  that  situa- 
tion, and  found  at  a  distance  of  thirty  feet  the  true  entrance.     After  incredible 
perseverance  and  labour,  he  found  numerous  passages  all  cut  out  of  the  solid  rock, 
and  a  chamber  forty-sLx  feet  three  inches  by  sixteen  feet  three,  and  twenty-three  feet 
six  inches  high,  containing  a  sarcophagus  in  a  corner,  surrounded  by  large  blocks  of 
granite.     When  opened,  after  great  labour,  this  was  found  to  contain  bones,  which 
mouldered  do\\Ti  when  touched,  and  from  specimens  afterwards  examined,  turned 
out  to  be  bones  of  an  ox.     Human  bones  were  also  found  in  the  same  place.     An 
Arabic  inscription,  made  with  charcoal,  was  on  the  wall,  signifying  that  "  the  place 
had  been  opened  by  Mohammed  Ahmed,  lapicide,  attended  by  the  Master  Othman, 
and  the  King  Alij  Mohammed,"  supposed  to  be  the  Ottoman  emperor,  Mahomet  I. 
in  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century.    It  was  observed,  that  the  rock  surrounding 
the  pyramid  on  the  north  and  west  sides,  was  on  a  level  with  the  upper  part  of  the 
chamber.     It  is  evidently  cut  away  all  round,  and  the  stones  taken  from  it  were  most 
probably  applied  to  the  erection  of  the  pyramid.  There  are  many  places  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood where  the  rock  has  been  evidently  quarried,  so  that  there  is  no  foundation 
for  the  opinion  formerly  common,  and  given  by  Herodotus,  that  the  stones  had  been 
brought  from  the  east  side  of  the  Nile,  which  is  only  probable  as  applied  to  the  gra- 
nite brought  from  Syene.     The  operations  of  Belzoni  have  thrown  light  on  the  man- 
ner in  which  the  pyramids  were  constructed,  as  well  as  the  purpose  for  which  they 
were  intended.    That  they  were  meant  for  sepulchres  cannot  admit  of  a  doubt.    Their 
obliquity  is  so  adjusted  as  to  make  the  north  side  coincide  with  the  obliquity  of  the 
eun's  rays  at  the  summer  solstice.     The  Egyptians  connected  astronomy  with  their 
religious  ceremonies,  and  their  funerals  ;  for  zodiacs  are  found  even  in  their  tombs. 
It  is  remarkable  that  no  hieroglyphic al  inscriptions  are  found  in  or  about  the  pyra- 
piids  as  in  the  other  tombs,  a  circumstance  which  is  supposed  to  indicate  the  period 
of  their  construction  to  have  been  prior  to  the  invention  of  that  mode  of  writmg, 
though  some  think  that  the  difference  may  be  accounted  for  by  a  difiercnce  in  the 
usages  of  difleront  places  and  ages.     Belzoni,  however,  says  that  ho  found  some 
hieroglyphics  in  one  of  the  blocks  forming  a  mausoleum  to  the  west  of  the  first  pyra- 
mid.    The  first  pyramid  seems  never  to  have  been  coated,  and  there  is  not  the  slight- 
est mark  of  any  coating.     The  second  pyramid  showed  that  the  coating  had  been 
executed  from  the  summit  downward,  as  it  appeared  that  it  had  not  in  this  instance 
been  finished  to  the  bottom.* — The  following  are  the  dimensions  of  the  second  py- 
ramid: The  basis,  684  feet;  the  central  line  down  the  front  from  the  apex  to  the 
basis,   568 ;  the  perpendicular,  456  ;  coatmg  from  the  top  to  where  it  ends,  140. 
These  dimensions  being  considerably  greater  than  those  usually  assigned  even  to  the 

•  Belzoni's  Narrative  of  Operations  and  recent  discoveries  In  Egypt  and  Nubia,  second  Edi' 
t}on,yol.  i.  p.  395.425. 


The  great 
Sphinx. 


Pyramids  of 
Siikhara. 


Middle  Egypt. 
Faioora. 


EGYPT.  451 

first  or  largest  pyramid,  are  to  be  accounted  for  by  those  of  Belzoni  being  taken  from 
the  base  as  cleared  from  sand  and  rubbish,  while  the  measurements  of  the  first  pyra- 
mid given  by  others,  only  applied  to  it  as  measured  from  the  level  of  the  surrounding 
sand. 

The  largest  of  the  numberless  sphinxes  found  in  Egypt,  is  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  pyramids  of  Djizeh;  it  was,  at  an  expense  of  ^£800 
or  36900,  (contributed  by  some  European  gentlemen,)  cleared  from  the  accumulated 
sand  in  front  of  it  under  the  superintendence  of  Captain  Caviglia.  This  monstrous 
production  consists  of  a  virgin's  head,  joined  to  the  body  of  a  quadruped.  The  body 
is  principally  formed  out  of  the  solid  rock ;  the  paws  are  of  masonry,  extending  for- 
ward fifty  feet  from  the  body ;  between  the  paws  are  several  sculptured  tablets  so  ar- 
ranged as  to  form  a  small  temple ;  and  farther  forward  a  square  altar  with  horns. 

Ascending  the  Nile  we  come  to  Sakhara,  near  which  are  many  pyra- 
mids, some  of  them  formed  of  brick.  They  are  dispersed  over  a  line  of 
eleven  miles,  and  are  known  by  the  name  of  the  pyramids  of  Aboosir.*  At  the  foot 
of  this  chain  of  mausolea,  lies  the  ancient  Memphis,  which  has  left  some  of  the  rub- 
bish of  its  immense  buildings  at  Mitrahenoo,  and  probably  extending  to  Mohannan.| 
The  inhabitants  carry  on  a  traffic  in  mummies,  the  embalmed  bodies  of  men  and  of 
sacred  animals  found  in  the  excavations  of  the  rocks.  On  the  eastern  bank  is  seen 
the  famous  mosque  called  Atsar-en-Neby,  which  is  much  frequented  by  the  mussul- 
mans  of  Cairo,  who  perform  a  pilgrimage  to  pay  their  respects  to  a  stone  marked 
with  a  perfect  impression  of  the  feet  of  the  prophet.  It  is  covered  with  a  very  rich 
veil  which  the  priests  of  the  mosque  raise  only  for  the  gratification  of  those  true  be- 
lievers who  evince  their  piety  by  means  of  certain  offerings.  Atfieh,  the  capital  of 
the  province  of  Atfieheli,  is  situated  on  the  east  bank,  as  Savary  has  observed,  in 
opposition  to  the  greater  part  of  geographers. 

At  a  distance  of  fifteen  miles  to  the  west  of  the  Nile,  the  mountains 
open  to  form  a  valley  leading  into  the  Faioom,  the  ancient  province  of 
^drsinoe.  The  Bahr  Yoosef  coming  from  the  Nile,  passes  through  the  centre  of  the 
valley  in  various  serpentine  turns,  till  it  reaches  the  Faioom.  In  the  north  part  of 
this  extensive  and  fine  district  is  lake  Mceris,  round  which  the  soil  is  |  Lake  Moeris. 
barren  and  wild.  This  lake,  which  is  now  called  Cairoon,  is  much  inferior  in  size 
to  what  it  was  in  ancient  times,  when  described  with  enthusiasm  by  Strabo,  as  re- 
sembling the  sea  in  its  extent,  in  the  colour  of  its  water,  and  in  th^  nature  of  the  sur- 
rounding shores;  but  it  is  still  about  thirty  leagues  in  circumference,  its  length  being 
between  thirty  and  forty  miles,  and  its  greatest  breadth  about  six.;};  Its  shore  towards 
the  Faioom  is  flat  and  sandy.  The  water  of  the  lake  has  a  slight  saline  impregna- 
tion, but  is  very  well  fitted  for  human  use.  It  contains  some  fish,  and  thus  supports 
a  few  fishermen  who  send  the  fish  to  be  sold  in  the  different  towns* 

This  lake  has  been  believed  to  have  been  an  artificial  excavation  executed  by 
McEris  an  ancient  king  of  Egypt,  who  most  probably  only  formed  the  canal  by  which 
it  is  filled  from  the  Nile.  Belzoni  thinks  that  the  water  was  retained  by  a  dam  at 
its  place  of  entrance,  and  a  second  irrigation  thus  produced.  This  at  least  is  con- 
sidered by  that  traveller  as  the  only  way  in  which  it  could  have  been  rendered  sub- 
servient to  agriculture,  and  thus  it  would  resemble  the  artificial  tanks  which  at  pre- 
sent abound  in  India,  but  to  the  first  irrigation  itself  the  canal  was  necessary.§  This 
canal,  however,  has  been  much  neglected,  and  the  depositions  of  earth  brought  by 
the  Nile  have  elevated  the  surface  of  the  whole  Faioom,  which,  thougli  displaying 
traces  of  its  former  fertility  has  by  the  circumstances  now  specified,  and  the  encroach- 
ments of  the  sand  of  the  desert,  been  reduced  to  one-third  of  its  former  extent.  All 
the  villages  in  it  except  four,  pay  a  fixed  miri,  independent  of  what  is 
due  at  the  rise  of  ihe  Nile.  This  financial  arrangement  must  be  very 
ancient,  and  appears  to  have  been  established  in  consequence  of'  the  great  expense 
at  which  the  kings  of  Egypt  had  rendered  this  country  habitable.     At  the  entrance 

•  Abdollatif,  p.  204. 

t  Compare  Pococke,  Descripticm,  i.  p.  39-293,     D'Anville,  Mem.  p.  I08.     Larcher,  Hero- 
dotus, ii.  362—366. 

*  Browne's  Travels,  p.  169.  §  Belzoni's  Narrative,  vol.  ii.  p.  150—152, 


Peculiar  land- 
tax. 


The  Liiby- 
riiuh. 


452  BOOK  SIXTY-SECOND. 

of  the  Faiooni  is  the  town  of  Medineh,  or  Medinet-el-Faiooni,  (the  word  Medineh 
signifying  "the  City;")  near  to  which  are  the  ruins  of  the  ancient  Jlrsinb'e.  These 
ruins  contain  granite  columns  which  are  only  found  in  this  place  and  at  the  pyramids, 
and  many  of  them  are  seen  among  the  materials  of  which  the  town  of  Medineh  is 
built.  In  this  town  there  are  manufactures  of  linen,  cotton,  and  woollen  stuffs;  of 
oil  and  rose  water.  The  last  article  supplies  the  immense  consumption  which  takes 
place  among  the  great  people  who  keep  their  divans  covered  with  it,  and  are  in  the 
habit  of  offering  it  to  strangers.  Wines  also  are  made,  but  much  inferior  to  those 
formerly  produced  in  this  Arsinoitic  district.  In  this  district  was  situated  the  Laby- 
rinth so  celebrated  in  antiquity,  consisting  of  3000  chambers,  one-half 
above  ground,  and  the  other  half  below.  These  have  left  no  correspond- 
ing marks,  at  least  none  visible  above  ground,  to  render  its  exact  situation  certain. 
It  is  generally  supposed  to  have  been  in  the  place  where  the  ruins  of  the  town  and 
palace  of  Caroon  are  now  found,  about  three  miles  from  the  western  extremity  of  the 
lake.  Here  are  to  be  seen  the  remains  of  a  town  wall,  fragments  of  columns,  and 
blocks  of  stone  of  middling  size.  The  town  is  a  mile  in  circumference.  In  the 
middle  is  the  temple,  which  is  in  tolerable  preservation,  and  is  of  a  singular  construc- 
tion, different  from  the  Egyptian,  having  probably  been  at  some  period  altered  or  re- 
built. It  contains  no  hieroglyphics.  Mr.  Belzoni  did  not  believe  this  to  be  the 
situation  of  the  labyrinth.  That  traveller  visited  some  other  ruins  of  ancient  Greek 
towns,  situated  in  the  same  neighbourhood.  He  found  among  the  blocks  some  frag- 
ments of  Grecian  statues  and  other  specimens  of  sculpture.  When  the  sand  is  re- 
moved, the  roofs  of  habitations  are  found,  with  their  wooden  materials  in  a  state  of 
preservation.  This  traveller  thinks  that  the  remains  of  the  labyrinth  might  perhaps 
be  discovered  if  it  were  practicable  to  remove  the  sand,  but  at  the  same  time  states 
that  several  ancient  remains  are  beneath  the  present  level  of  the  water,  that  many  of 
them  must  be  now  deeply  covered  by  the  annually  accumulating  depositions  from  the 
waters  of  the  Nile,  brought  by  the  canal  of  Joseph,  and  that  the  celebrated  labyrinth 
may  possibly  be  utterly  out  of  the  reach  of  discovery."*  All  along  the  west  side  of 
the  lake,  this  traveller  found  a  great  number  of  stones,  and  columns  of  beautiful  co- 
lours, of  white  marble  and  of  gi^anite.  The  Faiooni  contains  a  town  called  Fcdmin- 
el-Kumois,  or  "  the  Place  of  Churches,"  from  a  tradition  that  it  once  consisted  of 
300  Christian  churches,  which  the  Mahometans  converted  into  a  town.  One  part 
of  it  is  inhabited  by  Mahometans,  and  the  other  by  Copts,  who  live  on  very  tolerant 
terms  with  one  another;  but  the  latter  are  poor,  and  destitute  of  the  means  of  educat- 
ing their  children. 

Vostani,  or  Middle  Egypt,  contains  also  Benisoef,  where  there  is  a  manufacture 
of  coarse  carpeting ;  Minieh,  the  capital  of  a  province,  the  territory  of  which  is  ele- 
vated above  the  adjoining  lands;  Ansana,  or  Ensineh,  where  the  statues  found  among 
the  iTjins  of  Antinoopolis  have  given  rise  to  a  notion  among  the  Arabs  that  human 
bodies  had  been  petrified  ;|  Mellavi,  a  prettily  situated  town,  which  annually  exports 
400,000  sacks  of  wheat;  and  Momfaloot,  known  for  its  manufactures. 

At  the  town  of  Sahoodi  is  the  beginning  of  the  caverns  of  the  Thebaid. 
These  are  quarry  holes,  to  which  the  anchorets,  in  the  first  ages  of  Chris- 
tianity, retired.  They  have  an  extent  of  fifty-six  miles ;  and  the  hieroglyphics  found 
in  them  prove  them  to  have  been  the  work  of  the  Egyptians,  who  had  taken  their 
marble  from  this  place  at  a  very  remote  period. 

Ancient  The  grottos,  near  the  city  of  Sioot,  contain   very  curious   antique 

pamtmg*.  paintings  in  a  good  state  of  preservation.     The  city,  one  of  the  largest 

in  the  Said,  is  the  resort  of  the  caravans  of  Nubia.     Its  vicinity,  and  that  of  Abootish, 
produce  the  best  opium.  Jl 

Among  the  other  villages,  we  remark  on  the  east  bank  Gau-Shcnki6h,  which  has 
succeeded  to  Anteopohs.  Here  was  a  magnificent  temple  in  honour  of  Anteus.  The 
porch  still  remains,  which  is  supported,  according  to  Norden,  by  columns,  and  which 

•  Belzoni,  vol.  n.  p.  161—163.  f  Yakooti,  Not.  et  Extraits,  p.  245. 

*  Noticea  et  Extr.  t»  ii.  p.  424. 


Carerns  of  the 
Ttiebaid, 


EGYPT.  453 

appears  to  be  of  one  stone,  sixty  paces  in  length,  and  fortj  in  breadth.     This  splen- 
did work  now  forms  the  entrance  of  a  stable,  where  the  Turks  keep  their  flocks. 

Akmin,  the  residence  of  an  Arab  prince,  has  succeeded  to  the  ancient  |  Akmin. 
Shemmia  or  Panopolis.  Ancient  ruins  are  found  here  on  the  outside  of  the  present 
town.  Abulfeda  mentions  a  temple  built  of  stones  of  astonishing  size,  which  he 
ranks  among  the  most  celebrated  ancient  monuments.  Mere  fragments,  however, 
are  all  that  now  remain.  The  modern  town  is  handsome ;  very  commercial,  and  has 
manufactures  of  cotton  cloth  and  of  pottery.  It  has  a  regular  and  strict  police,  and 
its  territory  is  fertile  in  all  sorts  of  produce. 

Opposite  to  Akmin,  on  the  west  bank  of  the  river,  is  the  large  town  of  ]  Mesh^ih. 
Meshieh.     Here  all  the  boats  which  go  from  Cairo  to  the  cataracts,  or  from  the  ca- 
taracts  to  Cairo,  stop  to  take  in  provisions,  which  are  plenty  and  cheap. 

Seventeen  miles  to  the  south-east  of  Meshieh,  we  find  Djirdjeh,  the  |  Djinij^b. 
capital  of  Upper  Egypt,  and  lately  the  residence  of  a  Bey,  and  the  seat  of  a  Coptic 
bishop.     The  city  is  modern,  and  owes  its  origin  and  name  to  a  convent  dedicated 
to  St.  George.*     It  has  public  buildings  and  squares,  but  no  monuments.     It  is  a 
place  of  trade  and  industry,  and  the  territory  belonging  to  it  is  fertile. 

Denderah  is  a  place  of  little  consequence  in  itself,  but  travellers  visit  |  Denderah. 
it  with  great  interest  on  account  of  a  great  quantity  of  magnificent  ruins  found  three 
miles  to  the  west  of  it.     Bruce,  Norden,  and  Savary,  agree  in  identifying  it  with  the 
ancient  Tenfyra. 

The  remains  of  three  temples  still  exist.  The  largest  is  in  a  singularly  |  its  temples, 
good  state  of  preservation,  and  the  enormous  masses  of  stone  employed  in  it,  are 
so  disposed  as  to  exhibit  every  where  the  most  just  proportions.  It  is  the  first  and 
most  magnificent  Egyptian  temple  to  be  seen  in  ascending  the  Nile,  and  is  considered 
by  Mr.  Belzoni  as  of  a  much  later  date  than  any  of  the  others.  From  the  superi- 
ority of  the  workmanship,  he  inclines  to  attribute  it  to  the  first  Ptolemy,  the  same 
who  laid  the  foundation  of  the  Alexandrian  library,  and  instituted  the  philosophical 
society  of  the  Museum.  Here,  Denon  thought  himself  in  the  sanctuary  of  the  arts 
and  sciences.  The  columns  which  form  the  portico  are  twenty-four  in  number,, 
divided  into  four  rows.  AYithin  the  gate,  the  square  is  surrounded  w'ith  columns  with 
square  capitals ;  the  shafts  and  every  part  of  the  wall  arc  closely  covered  with  hiero- 
glyphics and  figures  in  basso-rehevo.  On  each  side  there  is  a  colossal  head  of  the 
goddess  Isis,  with  cow's  ears,  with  a  simple  and  almost  smiling  expression.  The 
ceiling  contains  the  zodiac,  inclosed  by  two  female  figures,  which  extend  from  one 
side  of  it  to  the  other.  The  walls  are  divided  into  several  square  compartments^ 
each  containing  figures  of  deities,  and  priests  in  the  act  of  ofiering,  or  immolating 
victims.  On  the  top  of  the  temple  the  Arabs  had  built  a  village  which  is  now  de- 
serted and  in  ruins. f 

As  for  the  zodiacs  or  celestial  planispheres  found  here,  and  their  high  |  The  zodiac*, 
antiquity  so  much  boasted,  an  able  antiquary  has  shown  that  they  could  not  have  been 
prior  to  the  conquest  of  Alexander.  J 

From  Djirdjeh  to  Thebes,  the  Nile  forms  a  great  bending  to  the  east.  At  the 
elbow  nearest  to  the  Red  Sea,  stands  Kenneh,  the  ancient  Cenopozis,  a  town  which 
once  carried  on  an  active  commerce  with  Cosseir.  According  to  Irwin,  an  English 
traveller,  tbis  city,  which  is  still  of  considerable  size,  retains  traces  of  many  ancient 
customs.  In  the  funeral  processions,  the  women  dance  to  the  sound  of 
dolorous  music,  and  utter  hideous  cries.  The  festivals  here,  as  in  the 
Said  in  general,  are  held  during  the  night,  and  on  the  river.  They  are  concluded 
with  a  drama,  partaking  a  little  of  a  mythological  character.  The  dancing  women 
plunge  almost  naked  into  the  water,  where  they  swim  about  like  so  many  nymphs  or 
naiads.  § 

Keft  seems  to  be  the  harbour  of  the  ancient  city  of  Kept  or  Koptos,  |  Keft. 

•  Denon,  Voyages,!,  p.  304.     Sonnini, ii.  p.  575.         f  Belzon's  Narrative,  vol.  i.  p.  52 — ST. 

^  Visconti  in  Larcher's  Herodotus. 

§  Irwin's  Journey  to  the  Red  Sea.    Compare  with  Somini,  Denon,  and  others. 


Remains  of  an* 
cient  customs. 


Ruins  of 
Thebes. 


454  Book  sixty-second. 

from  which  some  authors  derive  the  appellation  given  to  the  Coptic  nation.*  In  all 
that  country  the  inhabitants  manufacture  the  vessels  of  light  and  porous  clay,  which 
by  allowing  the  water  slowly  to  transude  so  as  to  keep  up  an  external  evaporation, 
communicate  a  refreshing  coolness  to  that  which  remains.  These  are  used  through 
the  whole  of  Egypt. 

The  village  of  Luxor,  that  of  Karnak,  and  some  others  on  the  eastern  bank,  con- 
tain more  ruins.  The  case  is  the  same  with  the  western  side.  Savary,  Bruce,  Nor- 
den,  Browne,  and  Denon,  concur  in  speaking  with  admiration  of  the  ancient  ruins  of 
these  places.  New  researches  have  proved  that  they  belong  to  ancient 
Thebes,  the  city  with  a  hundred  gates,  known  to  Homer,  and  which  was 
400  Egyptian  stadia  in  circumference.'!"  Diodorus,  who  speaks  of  Thebes  as  of  a 
city  already  in  ruins,  takes  particular  notice  of  four  principal  temples.  He  speaks 
of  sphinxes,  colossal  figures  decorating  the  entrances,  porticoes,  pyramidal  gateways, 
and  stones  of  astonishing  magnitude  which  entered  into  their  structure.  In  the  de- 
scription given  by  the  travellers  now  mentioned,  and  by  others  who  preceded  them, 
these  monuments  cannot  be  mistaken.  Browne  tells  us,  that  *'  there  remain  four 
immense  temples,  yet  not  so  magnificent  nor  in  so  good  a  state  of  preservation  as 
those  of  Denderah."  "  It  is  surprising,"  says  Norden,  *'  how  well  the  gilding,  the 
ultramarine,  and  various  other  colours,  still  preserve  their  brilliancy."  He  speaks 
also  of  a  colonnade  of  which  thirty-two  columns  are  still  standing,  of  platforms,  pre- 
served galleries,  and  other  remains  of  antiquity,  which  he  has  represented  in  his 
plates,  and  which  he  thinks  the  more  worthy  of  attention  that  they  appear  to  be  the 
same  that  are  mentioned  by  Philostratus  in  his  account  of  the  temple  of  Memnon. 
Temples.  |  No  description  can  give  an  adequate  idea  of  these  wonders  of  anti- 
quity, both  in  regard  to  their  incredible  number  and  their  gigantic  size.  Their  form, 
proportions,  and  construction,  are  almost  as  astonishing  as  their  magnitude.  The 
forests  of  enormous  columns,  towering  high  above  the  palm  trees  of  the  country, 
with  their  capitals  gracefully  adorned  with  the  lotus,  and  the  shafts  covered  Avith  orna- 
mental figures,  the  avenues  of  sphinxes  miles  in  length,  the  colossi  placed  at  the 
numberless  gates,  all  produce  a  most  bewildering  impression  on  the  mind  of  the 
admiring  traveller.  The  temple  of  Tentyra,  being  in  high  preservation,  pleases  by 
the  beauty  of  its  workmanship  and  sculpture  ;  but  at  Thebes  the  mind  is  lost  in  a 
mass  of  colossal  objects,  every  one  of  which  is  more  than  sufficient  to  absorb  its 
whole  attention.  On  the  east  side  of  the  Nile,  at  Karnak,  and  Luxor,  amidst  the 
multitude  of  the  temples  there  are  no  tombs  ;  these  are  confined  to  the  west  bank. 
An  iron  sickle  was  lately  found  under  one  of  the  buried  statues  nearly  of  the  shape 
of  those  which  are  now  in  use,  though  thicker ;  it  is  supposed  to  have  Iain  there 
since  the  invasion  of  Cambyses,  when  the  idols  were  concealed  by  the  superstitious 
to  save  them  from  destruction.  Mr.  Belzoni,  and  others,  have  been  busily  employed 
in  uncovering  and  carrying  away  specimens  of  these  antique  remains,  such  as 
Tombs  and  sphinxes,  obehsks,  and  statues.  On  the  west  side  of  the  river  at  Goor- 
mummy  pits.  ^^^^  Mcdinct  Aboo,  and  Beban-el-Malook,  are  numberless  tombs  in  the 
form  of  subterranean  excavations,  and  containing  many  human  bodies  in  the  state 
of  mummies,  sometimes  accompanied  with  pieces  of  papyrus,  and  other  ancient  cu- 
riosities. These  have  been  the  subjects  of  ardent  reseai-ch ;  and  the  trade  of  dig- 
ging for  tombs  and  mummies  being  found  gainful,  has  been  resorted  to  by  numerous 
Arabs  belonging  to  the  place.  The  tombs  and  mummies  of  persons  of  condition 
are  easily  distinguished  from  those  of  the  common  people,  by  the  care  and  expense 
displayed  in  preparing  them ;  and  from  the  state  in  which  they  are  found  many  inte- 
resting conclusions  are  drawn  illustrative  of  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  ancient 
Egyptians,  who  employed  their  wealth  in  nothing  more  lavishly  than  in  their  mode  of 
disposing  of  the  bodies  of  their  deceased  kindred. 

On  the  east  side  of  the  river,  no  palaces  or  traces  of  ancient  human  habitations 
are  met  with  ;  but  at  Medinet  Aboo  there  are  not  only  Propylcea,  and  temples  highly 
valued  by  the  antiquarian,  but  dwelling  houses  which  seem  to  point  out  that  place  to 

•  Michaelis  ad  Abulfedam,  not.  153,  p.  73.     Harlmann,  Edrisi  Africa,  p.  519,  520. 
t  Account  of  Thebes  in  the  description  de  I'Egypte.    Monumens,  vol,  ii. 


IJescription  of 
the  mummies. 


Evidences  of 
the  state  of  Uie 
arts  amofig 
the  ancient 
Egytians. 


EGYPT.  455 

have  been  once  a  royal  residence.  Mr.  Belzoni  found  at  Goornoo  the  ruins  of  a 
temple  with  octagonal  columns  abounding  in  hieroglyphics,  yet  so  completely  unique 
in  its  style,  that  ho  was  led  to  consider  it  as  of  later  date  than  the  works  of  the  ancient 
Egyptians. 

With  respect  to  the  mummies,  some  are  found  in  wooden  cases  shaped 
like  the  human  body.     These  belonged  to  persons  superior  to  the  lowest 
rank,  but  differing  from  one  another  in  the  quantity  and  quality  of  the  linen  in  which 
the  body  had  been  wrapped.     The  mummies  of  the  poorest  classes  are  found  with- 
out any  wooden  covering,  and  wrapped  in  the  coarsest  linen.     These  differ  from  the 
former  also  in  being  often  accompanied  with  pieces  of  papyrus,  on  which  Belzoni 
supposes  that  an  account  of  tlie  lives  of  the  deceased  had  been  written,  while  a  simi- 
lar account  was  carved  on  the  cases  of  the  more  opulent.     The  cases  are  generally 
of  Egyptian  sycamore,  but  very  different  from  one  another  with  respect  to  plainness 
or  ornament.     Sometimes  there  are  one  or  two  inner  cases,  besides  the  outer  one. 
Leaves   and  flowers  of  acacia  are  often  found  round  the  body,  and  sometimes 
lumps  of  asphaltum,  as  much  as  two  pounds  in  weight.     The  case  is  covered  with  a 
cement  resembling  plaster  of  Paris,  in  which  various  figures  are  cast. 
The  whole  is  painted,  generally  with  a  yellow  ground,  on  which  are  hie- 
roglyphics and  figures  of  green.     The  tombs  of  the  better  classes  are 
highly  magnificent,  consisting  of  different  apartments  adorned  with  figures 
representing  the  different  actions  of  life,  such  as  agricultural  operations,  religious 
ceremonies,  feasts,  and  funeral  processions,  these  last  being  generally  predominant. 
Their  paintings,  which  are  described  by  Mr.  Hamilton,  contain  numerous  articles 
illustrating  the  domestic  habits  of  the  Egyptians.     Small  idols  are  found  lying  about, 
and  sometimes  vases  containing  the  intestines  of  the  mummies,  generally  of  baked 
clay  painted,  some  few  of  alabaster ;  there  is  much  pottery  besides,  and  many  Avooden 
vessels.     Mr.  Belzoni  found  some  leaf-gold  beaten  nearly  as  thin  as  ours.     No  in- 
struments of  war  are  found  in  these  places.     This  gentleman  only  found  an  arrow 
with  a  copper  point,  well  fixed  in  one  end,  while  the  other  end  had  a  notch.  Figures 
of  the  scarabeus  or  beetle,  a  highly  sacred  animal  among  the  Egyptians,  are  some- 
times found  executed  in  alabaster,  verde  antico,  and  other  materials. 

From  the  garments  in  which  the  mummies  are  sometimes  wrapped,  it 
appears  that  linen  manufactures  were  brought  to  equal  perfection  among 
the  ancient  Egyptians  as  they  are  now  among  us.*  They  understood  the  tanning  of 
leather,  of  which  some  shoes  are  found.  Some  of  the  leather  is  stained  with  various 
colours,  and  embossed.  The  art  of  gilding  is  proved  to  have  existed  among  them  in  a 
state  of  great  perfection.  They  knew  how  to  cast  copper,  as  well  as  how 
to  form  it  into  sheets.  A  few  specimens  of  varnishing  are  found  which  show 
that  this  art  and  the  baking  of  the  varnish  on  clay,  were  in  such  perfection,  that  it  ap- 
pears doubtful  whether  it  could  now  be  any  where  imitated.  In  the  art  of  painting  they 
were  a  littlo  behind  in  not  giving  their  figures  relief  by  shading;  but  their  colours,  par- 
ticularly the  red  and  green,  are  well  disposed,  and  produce  a  splendid  effect,  espe- 
cially by  candle  light.|  Their  drawings  are  always  in  profile.  Some  drawino's  are 
found  preparatory  to  sculpturing  on  the  walls,  and  others  in  different  stages  of  their 
execution.  Mr.  Belzoni  observed  some  drawings  executed  by  learners,  and  after- 
wards corrected  in  faulty  places  by  a  master  with  a  different  coloured  chalk. — This 
gentleman  saw  in  some  brick  buildings  of  the  highest  antiquity,  evidences  |  Architecture, 
that  the  Egyptians  understood  the  building  of  arches  with  the  key-stone,  though 
their  predilection  for  numerous  columns  in  the  construction  of  their  large  temples, 
led  them  in  these  buildings  to  neglect  the  arch.  J  Their  sculptures  are  executed  in 
four  kinds  of  stone  ;  sandstone  which  is  comparatively  soft,  a  hard  calcareous  stone, 
breccia,  and  granite.  This  last  is  more  finely  polished  tlian  it  could  bo  by  our  pre- 
sent tools. 

The  Arabs  of  Goornoo  lead  the  lives  of  troglodytes  in  the  entrance  I  xi,e  Arabs 
of  the  tombs,  where  they  choose  a  place  of  convenient  dimensions,  and  |  of  Goornoo. 
shut  up  the  entrance  between  them  and  the  tomb  with  clay,  leaving  only  a  hole  to 

•  Belzoni's  Narrative,  vol.  i.  p.  268,  &c.  f  Ibid.  p.  271.  +  Ibid.  p.  273. 


Linen  manu- 
factures. 


Brawine^  and 
painting. 


Erment  or 
Hermonthis, 


456  BOOK  SIXTY-SECOND. 

creep  through.  Here  their  sheep,  as  well  as  themselves  are  housed.  They  use 
lamps  of  sheep's  tallow  :  the  walls  are  black  like  chimneys,  and  human  bones  and 
pieces  of  mummies  lie  every  where  about  them  unheeded.  They  live  almost  nalied, 
their  children. entirely  so.  They  are  oppressed  and  prevented  from  accumulating 
wealth,  yet  are  reconciled  by  custom  to  their  situation,  and  on  the  whole  happy. 
Their  women  are  very  ambitious  of  such  jewellery  as  beads,  coral,  and  pieces  of 
coin,  and  look  down  with  pity  on  those  who  have  none.  A  mat,  a  few  earthen  pots, 
and  a  grinding  stone,  are  all  the  household  furniture  they  require.  They  are  exceed- 
ingly expert  in  the  art  of  cheating  strangers,  which  constitutes  the  height  of  their 
Researches  of  virtuc  and  a  great  part  of  their  industry.* — The  researches  of  Mr.  Bel- 
Beizoni.  zoni  havc  had  the  effect  of  enriching  the  British  Museum  with  some 

interesting  specimens  of  Egyptian  antiquity,  among  which  are  a  fine  obelisk  from 
the  island  of  Phila?,  and  a  colossal  bust  called  younger  Memnon.  The  model  which 
he  has  made  of  an  Egyptian  tomb  is  particularly  gratifying  to  antiquarian  curiosity. 
While  he  was  in  Egypt,  he  made  moulds  of  every  individual  sculptured  figure,  and 
other  objects  in  the  tomb,  and  a  tomb  is  built  on  the  eame  scale  as  the  original,  with 
fac  similes  of  all  its  contents  executed  with  correctness  in  form,  relief,  and  colouring. 
It  is  seen  by  candle  light,  and  gives  precisely  tlie  same  effect  with  the  origind  exca- 
vation. 

The  ancient  Hermonthis  is  represented  by  the  village  of  Erment.    In 

its  vicinity  is  to  be  seen  a  large  temple  in  a  very  good  state  of  preserva- 
tion, and  the  paintings  of  which  represent,  among  other  animals,  the  giraffe,  an  ani- 
mal at  present  unknown  in  Egypt.f  A  learned  discussion  has  recently  confirmed 
d'Anville's  conjecture,  according  to  which  the  ancient  Latopolis  corresponds  to  the 
modern  town  of  Esneh,J  where  a  temple  of  very  high  antiquity  is  found.  This  town, 
situated  on  a  height  where  vegetation  is  supported  by  artificial  irrigation,  was  en- 
riched by  the  residence  of  some  Mameluke  beys,  who  spent  here  the  money  which 
they  extorted  from  the  cultivators  of  the  neighbourhood.  Esneh  displays  more 
luxury,  and  a  more  refined  industry,  than  the  other  towns  of  Upper  Egypt.  Among 
other  things,  a  great  quantity  of  very  fine  cotton  stuffs  and  shawls  called  Malayeh, 
«iuch  used  in  Egypt,  are  manufactured  here.  The  caravan  from  Sennaar  brings 
'hither  also  the  different  articles  of  its  commerce,  particularly  gum  arabic,  ostiich  fea- 
ihers,  and  ivory.     Wood  in  this  place  is  extremely  rare. 

Esneh  is  the  last  large  town  in  Egypt.     But  a  little  higher  up  we  find 

some  interesting  ruins.  At  Elythia  there  are  two  caverns,  containing  a 
great  number  of  paintings,  representing  the  customs  and  occupations  of  the  ancient 
Egyptians,  and  particularly  the  various  forms  of  ploughs,  and  other  agricultural  im- 
plements. §  At  Edfoo  is  a  large  temple,  the  corridors  and  mysterious  passages  of 
which  are  still  to  be  seen.  At  an  elbow  of  the  Nile,  forming  a  harbour,  we  find  the 
ruins  of  Ornbos  on  a  hill  called  Koom-Ombos.  In  the  great  temple,  some  paintings 
which  have  not  been  finished  show  that  the  Egyptians  employed  in  their  drawings 
the  same  geometrical  methods  with  the  moderns.  They  divided  the  surface  into 
small  squares, — a  method  which  they  also  no  doubt  employed  in  geography.  || 
Huins  of  Near  Assooan  arc  found  the  remains  of  the  ancient  Syme,  consisting 

6yen6.  ^f  somc  granite  columns,  and  an  old  square  building,  with  openings  at 

top.  The  researches  made  here  have  not  confirmed  the  conjecture  of  Savary,  who 
conceived  it  to  be  the  ancient  observatory  of  the  Egyptians,  where,  with  somc  dig- 
ging, the  ancient  well  might  be  found,  at  the  bottom  of  which  the  image  of  the  sun 
Observation  yv^s  reflected  entire  on  the  day  of  the  summer  solstice.  The  observations 
oftheobiiqui.  of  the  French  astronomers  place  Assooan  in  lat.  24°  5'  23"  of  north 
ecirptic!*^  latitude.     If  this  place  was  formerly  situated  under  the  tropic,  the  posi- 

tion of  the  earth  must  be  a  little  altered,  and  the  obliquity  of  the  ecliptic  diminished. 

•  Belzoni,  vol.  i.  p.  291  —282. 

f  Account  of  Hermonthis  by  M.  Jomard,  in  the  Description  de  TEp^ypte,  Monumens,  vol.  i. 
^  Jollais  and  Devilliers,  in  the  Description  de  I'Egypte.     Etienne  Quatremere,  Mem,  Hist, 
sur  I'Egypte,  i.  p.  172. 

§  Baron  Costaz,  Mem.  sur  les  grottes  d'Elethya,  dans  la  Descript.  de  I'Egypte. 
i  Chabrol  et  Jomard,  dans  la  Description  de  i'Egyple. 


Caverns  of 
Elythia. 


Appearance 
of  Syen6. 


EGYPT.  457 

But  we  should  be  aware  of  the  vagueness  of  the  observations  made  by  the  ancients, 
which  have  conferred  so  much  celebrity  un  these  places.  The  phenomenon  of  the 
extinction  of  the  shadow,  whether  within  a  deep  pit,  or  round  a  perpendicular  gno- 
mon, is  not  confined  to  one  exact  mathematical  position  of  the  sun,  but  is  common 
to  a  certain  extent  of  latitude  corresponding  to  the  visible  diameter  of  that  luminary, 
which  is  more  than  half  a  degree.  It  would  be  sufficient,  therefore,  that  the  northern 
margin  of  the  sun's  disc  should  reach  the  zenith  of  Sycne  on  the  day  of  the  summer 
solstice,  to  abolish  all  lateral  shadow  of  a  perpendicular  object.  Now,  in  the  second 
century,  the  obliquity  of  (he  ecliptic,  reckoned  from  the  observations  of  Hipparchus, 
was  23°  49'  25".  If  we  add  the  semidiameter  of  the  sun,  which  is  15'  57",  we  find 
for  the  northern  margm  24°  5'  22",  which  is  within  a  second  of  the  actual  latitude  of 
Syene.  At  present,  when  the  obliquity  of  the  ecliptic  is  23°  28'  the  northern  limb 
of  the  sun  comes  no  nearer  the  latitude  of  Syen6  than  21'  3",  yet  the  shadow  is 
scarcely  perceptible.  We  have,  therefore,  no  imperious  reason  for  admitting  a  greater 
diminution  in  the  obliquity  of  the  ecliptic  than  that  which  is  shown  by  real  astrono- 
mical observations  of  the  most  exact  and  authentic  kind.  That  of  the  well  of  Syene 
is  not  among  the  number  of  these  last,  and  can  give  us  no  assistance  in  ascertaining 
the  position  of  the  tropic  thirty  centuries  ago,  as  some  respectable  men  of  science 
seem  to  have  believed.* 

Syene,  which,  under  so  many  different  masters,  has  been  the  southern 
frontier  of  Egypt,  presents  in  a  greater  degree  than  any  other  spot  on 
the  surface  of  the  globe,  that  confused  mixture  of  monuments  which,  even  in  the 
destinies  of  the  most  potent  nations,  reminds  us  of  human  instability.  Here  the 
Pharaohs  and  the  Ptolemies  raised  the  temples  and  the  palaces  v/hich  are  found  half 
buried  under  the  drifting  sand.  Here  are  forts  and  walls  built  by  the  Romans  and 
the  Arabians,  and  on  the  remains  of  all  these  buildings  French  inscriptions  are  found, 
attesting  that  the  warriors  and  the  learned  men  of  modern  Europe  pitched  their  tents, 
and  erected  their  observatories  on  this  spot.  But  the  eternal  power  of  nature  pre- 
sents a  still  more  magnificent  spectacle.  Here  are  the  terraces  of  reddish  granite 
of  a  particular  character,  hence  called  Syenite,  a  term  applied  to  those  rocks  which 
differ  from  granite  in  containing  particles  of  hornblende.  These  mighty  terraces, 
shaped  hke  peaks,  cross  the  bed  of  the  Nile,  and  over  them  the  river  rolls  majesti- 
cally his  impetuous  foaming  waves.  Here  are  the  quarries  from  which  the  obelisks 
and  colossal  statues  of  the  Egyptian  temples  were  dug.  An  obelisk,  partially  formed 
and  still  remaining  attached  to  the  native  rock,  bears  testimony  to  the  laborious  and 
patient  efforts  of  human  art.  On  the  polished  surfaces  of  these  rocks  hieroglyphic 
sculptures  represent  the  Egyptian  deities,  together  with  the  sacrifices  and  offerings 
of  this  nation,  which  more  than  any  other  has  identified  itself  with  the  country  which 
it  inhabited,  and  has  in  the  most  literal  sense  engraved  the  records  of  its  glory  on  the 
terrestrial  globe. 

In  the  midst  of  this  valley,  generally  skirted  with  arid  rocks,  a  series  of  sweet  3e- 
licious  islands  covered  with  palms,  date  trees,  mulberries,  acacias,  and  napecas,  has 
merited  the  appellation  of  "  the  'Tropical  Gardens."  The  one  called  islands  of 
El-Sag,  opposite  to  Syene,  is  the  Elephantine  of  the  ancients;  while  the  ^ndihiis?"' 
ancient  PJiUk  is  recognised  in  the  El-Heif  of  the  moderns.  Both  of  them,  especi- 
ally the  latter,  filled  with  beautiful  remains  of  temples,  quays,  and  other  monuments,! 
attest  the  ancient  civilization  of  which  they  must  have  been  the  seat. 

It  is  probable  that  the  two  names  of  Philcc  and  Elephantine  are  origi- 
nally one,  for  Fil  in  these  Oriental  languages,  signifies  an  elephant,  and 
these  islands,  fertilized  by  the  deposited  slime  of  the  river  Nile,  must,  in  ancient 
times,  have  attracted  elephants  by  their  rich  vegetation.  This  ingenious  conjecture 
explains  the  reason  why  Herodotus  has  not  named  Philcc  in  describing  Elephanline,^ 
so  as  to  give  the  idea  that  he  placed  it  to  the  south  of  the  first  cataract.     It  explains 

•  Compare  Jomard,  Description  de  Syene  et  des  Cataractes,  in  the  Description  de  I'Egypte. 

t  Jomard,  Description  d'Eii^phantine.     Lancret,  Description  de  Phils.     Girard,  Mem.  sur 
le  Nilomctre  d'Elephantine,  in  the  Description  de  I'Egypte. 

t  Jomard,  loc.  cit.     Compare  Forster,  epist.  ad  Michael,  p.  36.     Zoega  de  origine  obeliscor. 
p.  286,  not.  28.    Quatremere,  M^m.  hist,  ceoer.  i.  p.  387. 
Vol.  II 3  M 


The  names  of 
these  islands. 


458  BOOK  SIXTY-SECOND. 

the  possibility  of  a  former  kingdom  of  Elepbantiiie,  a  kingdom  which  could  not  be 
confined  to  a  single  island  1400  yards  long  and  400  broad.  Julius  Africanus  bears 
testimony  to  its  existence  and  duration.  The  Augustine  history  speaks  of  a  king  of 
Thebes,  an  ally  of  Zenobia.  These  facts,  taken  altogether,  show  that  the  narrow 
valley  of  Upper  Egypt,  has,  in  all  ages,  been  the  retreat  of  small  and  almost  inde- 
pendent states. 

Shores  of  the  From  the  ever  memorable  scenes  of  the  valley  of  the  Nile,  we  cross 

Red  Sea.  narrow  gorges  and  sterile  plains  covered  with  sand,  where  even  the  ser- 

pent and  the  lizard  cannot  find  subsistence ;  and  where  no  bird  dares  to  extend  his 
flight, — and  arrive  at  the  no  less  arid  shores  of  the  Red  Sea.  The  coasts  of  this  sea 
are  rich  in  coral,  madrepores,  and  sea  sponges.  Among  the  reefs  of  coral  is  found 
Cosseii-o  I  the  port  of  Cosseir.     The  town  of  this  name  is  only  a  collection  of  old 

houses,  and  large  storehouses  occupied  from  time  to  time  by  the  caravans,  but  with- 
out any  fixed  inhabitants.  It  labours  under  a  want  of  fresh  water,  and  the  only  pro- 
duce of  the  vicinity  is  the  coloquintida.* 

Desert  of  the  But  the  vast  dcsert  of  the  Thcbaid,  lying  between  this  portion  of  the 

Thebaid.  valley  of  the  Nile  and  the  Red  Sea,  is  not  equally  sterile  in  every  part. 

Mr.  Irwin,  who  travelled  from  Kenne  to  Cairo  by  a  road  which  passes  obliquely  the 
northern  part  of  this  desert,  found  by  the  sides  of  frightful  ravines  and  black  chasms, 
some  valleys  in  which  acacia  bushes,  covered  with  white  and  fragrant  blossoms,  fur- 
nished a  delightful  shade  to  the  timid  antelope.  Some  tufts  of  wild  wheat,  a  date 
tree,  a  well,  and  a  grotto  called  to  mind  the  old  anchorets,  who  chose  in  these  soli- 
tudes to  relinquish  their  intercourse  with  a  perverse  world.  Two  similar  verdant 
spots  near  the  shores  of  the  Red  Sea,  somewhat  nearer  to  Suez  than  Cosseir,  con- 
Monasteries  of  tain  the  monasteries  of  St.  Anthony  and  St.  Paul,  surrounded  with  hand- 
anci'sJ.'S.  some  orchards  of  date  trees,  olives,  and  apricots.  The  first  of  these 
convents  has  a  vineyard  which  produces  good  white  wine.| 

City  of  Suez.  |  A  route  somcwhat  less  gloomy  leads  from  Cairo  to'  Suez,  a  town  si- 
tuated on  the  isthmus  of  that  name.  The  port  of  Suez  has  only  a  bad  quay  at  which 
small  boats  can  scarcely  land  at  high  water,  while  the  vessels  lie  at  anchor  in  the 
roads.  The  only  supply  of  water  that  the  inhabitants  have  is  one  brackish  spring. 
The  sea  abounds  in  fish,  but  they  are  neglected  by  the  people.  All  the  necessaries 
of  life  are  wanting  in  this  wretched  place,  which  is  situated  in  a  parched  sandy  plain, 
about  a  league  from  the  roadstead.  The  fortress  is  of  a  piece  with  the  town,  con- 
sisting of  some  towers  in  a  half  ruinous  condition. 

In  the  most  southerly  part  of  this  desert,  about  the  latitude  of  Assouan  or  Syene, 
The  ancient  is  the  site  of  the  ancient  city  of  Berenice,  dehghtfuUy  situated  in  a  plain 
Berenice.  almost  surrounded  by  mountains,  at  a  distance  of  five  miles.     Its  ruins 

are  still  perceptible,  even  to  the  arrangement  of  the  streets,  and  in  the  centre  is  a  small 
Egyptian  temple,  which,  as  well  as  the  insides  of  the  houses  is  nearly  covered  by 
tlie  sand.  The  temple  is  built  of  soft  calcareous  stone,  and  sandstone.  Mr.  Bel- 
zoni  found  it  adorned  with  Egyptian  sculpture,  well  executed  in  basso-rehevo,  and 
carried  away  a  tablet  of  breccia  covered  with  hieroglyphics  and  figures.  The  soil  of 
the  plain  is  sandy,  but  appears  susceptible  of  cultivation  for  pasture  and  other  pur- 
poses. It  contains  some  bushes  which  make  good  firewood.  Mr.  Belzoni  calcu- 
lated from  the  apparent  extent  of  the  ruins  and  the  size  of  the  houses,  that  this  sea- 
port had  contained  a  population  exceeding  10,000.  It  has  a  fine  harbour,  with  a 
northern  entrance  entirely  formed  by  nature. 

Emerald  Not  far  from  this  place  are  the  famous  mountains  of  emeralds,  the 

mountains.  highest  of  which  is  called  Zubara,  and  which  were  visited  by  Mr.  Bruce 
and  Mr.  Belzoni.  The  present  pasha  of  Egypt  made  an  attempt  to  work  the  eme- 
rald mines,  and  had  about  fifty  men  employed  as  miners  in  the  year  1818,  but  the 
mines  appear  to  have  been  exhausted  by  the  ancients.  The  miners  were  exposed 
to  great  inconvenience  and  risk,  being  supplied  with  all  their  food  by  caravans  from 
the  Nile,  at  a  distance  of  seven  days  journey.     From  the  negligence  of  the  pur- 

•  Dubois-Ayme  dans  la  Description  de  I'Egypte,  i.  p.  193,  194. 

t  Sicard,  Cartes  des  d<isert3  de  la  Thebaide,  aux  environs  des  monasteres,  &c. 


EGYPT.  459 

veyors  it  was  often  late  in  arriving ;  and  the  caravans  were  liable  to  be  interrupted 
by  the  inhabitants  of  the  desert.  These  miners  sometimes  rose  against  their  leaders 
and  killed  them.  The  old  excavations  consisted  of  low  galleries  much  obstructed 
with  rubbish,  and  rendered  dangerous  by  the  looseness  of  the  roof.  The  passages 
went  very  far  into  the  mountain,  along  the  strata  of  mica  and  of  marble,  and  eme- 
ralds were  found  at  a  great  distance  from  the  surface,  and  chiefly  at  the  place  where 
two  marble  strata  enclosing  the  mica  between  them,  met  one  another. 

The  deserts  of  eastern  Egypt  arc  inhabited  by  some  tribes  of  Arabs,  |  Arabuibcj. 
who  call  themselves  its  sovereigns.  Those  who  occupy  the  countries  between 
the  isthmus  and  the  valley  of  Cosseir,  receive  the  general  name  of  A'toonis,  or 
Antonis,  which  to  us  seems  a  corruption  of  Saint  Antony,  whose  name  was  given 
to  a  part  of  these  deserts.  The  tribes  whose  real  names  are  known,  are  the 
Hooatal,  who  occupy  the  istlunus  and  the  vicinity  of  Suez;  the  Mahazeh,  who 
live  about  the  latitudes  of  Benisooef  and  the  monastery  of  St.  Antony  ;  and  the  Be- 
ni-Wasell  who  live  in  the  latitude  of  Monfaloot  and  Minieh.  All  these  Arabs  are 
enemies  to  the  Ababdeh,  who  rule  over  all  the  deserts  from  Cosseir  to  a  distant  part 
of  Nubia. 

In  the  topography  of  Egypt  we  must  include  the  oases,  which  have  |  The  ossei. 
always  formed  a  part  of  this  kingdom.  Strabo,  gives  an  excellent  definition  of  the 
word  oasis.  "This,"  says  he,  "  is  the  name  given  in  the  language  of  the  Egyptians, 
to  inhabited  cantons,  which  are  entirely  surrounded  by  vast  deserts,  in  which  they 
resemble  so  many  islands  in  the  midst  of  the  ocean."  The  Arabs  call  them  Ooadeh, 
and  in  a  Coptic  dictionary  we  are  told  that,  in  the  Coptic  language,  that  word  sig- 
nifies an  inhabited  place.*  There  are  three  to  the  west  of  Egypt  to  which  this  name 
is  particularly  applied.  The  term  oasis  is  somewhat  ambiguous  from  being  indis- 
criminately used  to  signify  either  one  of  these  islands,  or  a  collection  of  them. 

The  great  and  the  small  oasis  of  the  ancients  are  each  composed  of  a  certain  num- 
ber of  spots  generally  separated  by  spaces  larger  than  their  own  diameters.  These 
places  have,  like  Egypt  itself,  been  described  in  very  opposite  colours  by  difl'erent 
writers.  The  Greeks  called  them  "  the  islands  of  the  blessed,"  {MaKxem  vti^-oi,) 
and  they  certainly  appear  delightful  in  the  eyes  of  the  traveller  who  has  for  days  been 
traversing  the  parched  and  sterile  desert.  But  the  inhabitants  of  extensive  cultivated 
countries  have  habitually  viewed  them  with  horror.  They  were  often  assigned  as 
places  of  banishment.  They  have,  for  the  most  part,  been  described  by  grave  wri- 
ters in  terms  unusually  poetic,  and  leaning  to  the  lively  or  the  dismal  according  to 
the  prevalent  bent  of  the  respective  authors.  Even  the  physical  delineations  of  them 
have  often  laboured  under  essential  errors.  Their  physical  character,  as  distin- 
guished from  the  surrounding  deserts,  is  chiefly  derived  from  subterranean  springs, 
by  means  of  which  vegetation  is  created  and  maintained,  and  a  vegetable  mould 
formed.  The  springs  are  accounted  for  by  the  high  lands  with  which  these  oases 
are  universally  surrounded.  Wells  are  often  dug  to  a  depth  of  300  and  sometimes 
500  feet,  and  the  water  is  drawn  up  from  them  for  irrigation.  M.  Maillet,  in  de- 
scribing these  spots,  allows  his  imagination  to  be  so  far  deceived  by  what  he  knew 
of  the  Faioom,  as  to  say  that  these  oases  are  watered  by  canals  connected  with  the 
Nile.  Their  fertility  has  always  been  deservedly  celebrated.  Strabo  mentions  the 
superiority  of  their  wine  ;  Abulfeda  and  Edrisi,  the  luxuriance  of  the  palm-trees  ; 
and  Vansleb,  the  Dominican  traveller,  states  that  they  exported  sweeter  and  finer 
dried  dates  than  were  to  be  found  any  where  else.  Sir  Archibald  Edmonstone  states 
that,  in  one  of  them,  he  passed  through  a  beautiful  wood  of  acacias  far  exceeding  in 
size  any  he  had  ever  seen,  the  trunks  of  some  of  them  measuring  more  than  seven- 
teen feet  in  circumference.! 

The  Great  Oasis,  which  is  most  to  the  south  and  the  east,  is  formed 
of  a  number  of  fertile  isolated  spots,  which  lie  in  a  line  parallel  to  the 
course  of  the  Nile,  and  to  the  mountains  which  bound  the  valley  of  Egypt  on  the 
west.    These  patches  of  firm  land  are  separated  from  one  another  by  deserts  of  twelve 

*  Langles,  Voyape  de  Hornemum,  &.c.  t.  ii,  p.  243,  &c. 

t  Sir  Archibald  Edinonslone's  Journey  to  Two  of  the  Oases  of  Upper  Egypt,  1822,  p.  44, 


The  Great 
Oasis. 


460  BOOK  SIXTY-SECOND. 

or  fourteen  hours  walk ;  so  that  the  whole  extent  of  this  oasis  is  nearly  100  miles, 
the  greater  proportion  consisting  of  a  desert.  M.  Poncet  visited  it  in  1698.  He 
says  it  contains  many  gardens  watered  with  rivulets,  and  that  its  palm  groves  exhibit 
a  perpetual  verdure.  According  to  a  more  recent  account,  it  contains  Egyptian 
ruins  covered  with  hieroglyphic  inscriptions.  *The  principal  town  is  called  El-Kar- 
Tempie  of  %'^^'     Here  are  the  remains  of  a  temple,  beautifully  situated  in  the  midst 

Ei-Kargeh.  of  a  rich  grovc  of  palm  trees."!"  The  temple  stands  east  and  west,  and 
a  rich  cornice  runs  all  round  the  top.  The  front  is  covered  with  colossal  figures  and 
hieroglyphics.  There  are  several  chambers  still  entire,  containing  hieroglyphics  in 
stucco,  with  marks  of  red  and  blue  paint ;  but  the  roof  of  a  great  part  has  fallen  in. 
It  seems  to  have  been  protected  by  a  triple  wall ;  each  wall  had  its  propylon  or  door- 
way, and  these  are  all  standing.  One  of  the  propyla  is  covered  over  with  a  Greek 
inscription,  consisting  of  a  long  rescript,  published  in  the  reign  of  Galba,  respecting 
a  reform  in  the  administration  of  justice  in  this  and  other  Egyptian  territories.;}; 
Necropolis.  |  Near  El-Kargeh  there  is  also  a  regular  Necropolis,  or  cemetery,  con- 
taining 200  or  300  buildings  of  unburned  brick,  chiefly  of  a  square  shape,  and 
each  surmounted  by  a  dome  similar  to  the  small  mosques  erected  over  the  graves  of 
sheiks.  One  of  them  is  divided  into  aisles,  and  has  been  used  at  one  time  as  a 
Christian  church,  as  appears  from  the  traces  of  saints  painted  on  the  wall.  Sir  A. 
Edmonstone  found  them  to  be  very  different  in  form  from  any  other  cemeteries  that 
he  had  seen,  and  represents  in  a  plate  the  general  aspect  of  this  curious  group  of 
buildings.  §  At  distances  of  a  few  miles  some  other  remains  of  ancient  temples  are 
found.  This  whole  oasis  has  always  been,  and  still  is  dependent  on  Egypt.  It 
serves  as  a  place  of  refreshment  for  the  caravans,  being  on  the  route  from  Abyssinia 
and  from  Darfoor  to  Egypt.  Its  distance  from  Egypt  is  five  days  journey,  by  the 
route  from  the  Faioom  to  the  Great  Oasis,  and  about  two  days  journey  west  from 
the  nearest  part  of  the  valley  of  the  Nile.  Mr.  Belzoni  found  in  the  adjoining  de- 
sert about  thirty  tumuh,  some  large  enough  to  contain  100  corpses:  he  supposes 
them  to  contain  the  bodies  of  that  part  of  the  army  of  Cambyses  which  was  sent  to 
conquer  the  Ammonii  in  the  deserts  of  Lybia,  and  who  were  left  to  perish  in  the 
desert,  in  consequence  of  being  betrayed  by  their  guides.  But  that  is  a  mere  sur- 
mise. The  question  naturally  arises,  What  set  of  people  can  we  suppose  to  have 
so  far  interested  themselves  about  these  unfortunates  as  to  give  them  interment,  and 
collect  stones  over  their  graves'?  Edmonstone  considers  them  as  natural  hillocks. 
Western  Oasis.  |  At  the  distance  of  105  miles  to  the  west  of  the  Great  Oasis,  there  is 
another  which  was  never  visited  by  any  European  before  Sir  A.  Edmonstone  in  1S19, 
and  is  not  even  mentioned  by  any  ancient  or  Arabian  geographer  excepting  Olympi- 
odorus.  The  chief  town  of  that  Oasis  is  El-Cazar,  beautifully  situated  on  an  emi- 
nence at  the  foot  of  a  line  of  rocks  rising  abruptly  behind  it,  and  encircled  by  exten- 
sive gardens  filled  with  a  great  variety  of  trees.  It  contains  a  strong  sulphureous 
chalybeate  spring,  on  which  the  inhabitants  set  a  high  value.  There  are  some  mummy 
Temple  of  1  pits  in  the  caverns  of  the  neighbouring  rocks.  A  few  miles  from  El- 
jar!'"  *'"  I  Cazar  are  the  remains  of  a  temple  called  Daer-al-Hadjar,  very  much 
choked  up  with  sand,  like  other  Egyptian  antiquities.  But  some  chambers,  covered 
with  hieroglyphics,  and  blackened  with  the  lamps  of  the  ancient  worshippers,  are 
accessible,  and  their  roof  is  still  entire.  This  oasis  contains  in  all  twelve  villages. 
The  climate  is  extremely  variable  in  winter.  The  rains  are  sometimes  very  abun- 
dant, though  some  seasons  pass  without  any.  Violent  winds  are  frequent,  and  the 
khamseen  in  May  and  June  is  severely  felt.  The  plague  is  unknown,  but  intermit- 
tent fevers  are  common  during  the  intense  heats  of  summer.  The  soil  is  a  very  red 
light  earth,  fertilized  entirely  by  irrigation,  and  producing  chiefly  barley  and  rice. 
The  inhabitants  are  Bedouins.  They  are  much  exposed  to  the  incursions  of  the 
Barbary  or  Mogrebbin  Arabs.     From  this  to  Tripoli  is  thirty  days'  journey  of  ten 

*  Annales  ties  Voyages,  t.  xxi.  p.  163. 

•j-  KdmonstoHe's  Journey  to  Two  of  the  Oases  of  Upper  Egypt. 

:^  Ibid.  p.  74 — 98.     Classical  Journal,  No.  45  and  46. 

§  Sir  A.  Edmonstone,  p.  108,  109. 


EGYPT.  461 


Indigo  itianu- 
t'acture. 


Government 
of  Egypt. 

a  pasha  at 


hours  each.  Lions  and  hycenas  are  not  uncommon.  At  a  village  called 
Bellata,  indigo  is  manufactured.  The  dry  plant  is  put  into  an  earthern 
jar  with  hot  water,  and  stirred  round  and  worked  till  the  colour  is  pressed  out.  The 
liquor  is  then  strained  through  the  bark  of  a  tree  into  another  jar,  where  it  is  left  for 
eight  or  nine  days.  The  sediment  is  poured  afterwards  into  a  broad  shallow  hole  in 
the  sand,  which  absorbs  the  water,  and  leaves  the  indigo  in  solid  cakes.  It  is  one 
of  the  few  manufactures  which  the  pasha  of  Egypt  has  not  monopolized.  This 
western  oasis  is  connected  with  the  great  oasis  to  the  east  by  a  low  chain  of  moun- 
tains, with  a  table  land  on  the  top,  along  which  travellers  proceed  from  the  one  to  the 
other.  The  elevation  of  this  table  land  makes  it  comparatively  cold.  In  the  course 
of  this  track  are  found  the  dilapidated  remains  of  a  very  ancient  temple,  called  Ena- 
moor.  The  inhabitants  have  some  vague  reports  about  other  Oases  to  the  west  and 
to  the  north,  which,  however,  are  otherwise  alike  unknown  to  them  and  to  geogra- 
phers. 

The  Little  Oasis  is  on  a  road  that  is  very  little  frequented;  Ptolemy  j  Little Oasis. 
makes  its  latitude  2S°  25'.  Such  is  the  position,  probably,  of  its  principal  place. 
This  oasis  produces  the  best  dates  known  in  Egypt.  According  to  Browne,  it  is  a 
kind  of  head  quarters  for  the  Mogrebbin,  or  western  Arabs,  who  extend  as  far  as 
Fezzan,  and  even  to  Tripoli.  Towards  the  isthmus  of  Suez,  there  is  oases  in  the 
an  oasis  called  Korayn  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  country.  It  contains  ^^^^'^"^  desert, 
eight  or  ten  hamlets  with  their  gardens,  and  about  4000  inhabitants.  In  the  same 
direction  is  Saleheyd,  another  oasis  shaded  by  a  wood  six  miles  long.  It  contains 
ten  villages  and  about  6000  inhabitants. 

Egypt,  which  we  have  described  in  a  physical  and  topographic  point 
of  view,  has  in  modern  times  been  considered  as  forming  part  of  the 
Ottoman  empire,  and,  like  all  the  great  divisions  of  that  empire,  has  hac 
the  head  of  the  government.  This  situation  did  not  confer  much  authority,  but  was 
very  lucrative.  It  was  an  object  of  keen  solicitation  at  Constantinople,  and  generally 
well  paid  for  to  the  intriguing  characters  of  the  Seraglio.  The  pasha  held  his  place 
only  for  a  year  or  two.  When  he  arrived  in  Egypt  he  received  great  honours.  He 
presided  over  the  divan  at  public  ceremonies ;  yet  was  only  the  idle  spectator  of  the 
acts  of  the  Mameluke  Beys,  those  miUtary  chiefs  who  held  the  efficient  authority  in 
their  own  hands,  and  even  dismissed  the  pashas  if  they  were  not  satisfied  with  their 
conduct.  The  Porte  has  repeatedly  submitted  to  this  indignity.  The  pasha  had  a 
feeble  militia  of  ill  equipped  janissaries,  and  raw  undisciplined  Arnauts. 

The  lands  of  Egypt  were  possessed  as  fiefs  of  the  Grand  Signior,  by  |  Land  tenures, 
the  multecyms,  a  sort  of  nobility  who  in  Turkey  Proper  are  called  timariots.  Almost 
all  the  fiefs  of  Egypt  were  till  lately  in  the  hands  of  the  Mameluke  soldiery  and  their 
Beys.  In  its  internal  administration,  Egypt  was  divided  into  twenty-four  provinces, 
called  Kirrals.  The  command  of  the  provinces  was  every  year  distributed  among 
the  Beys.  They  made  their  respective  circuits  to  enforce  the  payment  of  taxes,  keep 
the  Arabs  in  subjection,  and  maintain  the  police.  The  Bey  possessed  of  most  in- 
fluence generally  resided  at  Cairo,  with  the  title  of  Sheik-el-Beled,  (Sheik  of  the 
country.) 

The  revenues  were  of  two  descriptions;  those  which  belonged  to  the  |  Revenues, 
government,  and  those  which  belonged  to  the  Mamelukes.  The  first  comprehended 
the  mm,  or  territorial  tax,  valued  either  in  money  or  in  produce;  the  customs,  or 
duties  on  inland  commerce:  the  rent  of  certain  mines;  and  the  kharadjeh,  or  cajiita- 
tion  tax  paid  by  foreigners.  These  revenues  were  charged  with  tho  expenses  of 
government,  and  the  surplus  was  supposed  to  be  sent  to  Constantinople;  but  the  dif- 
ferent agents,  from  the  receivers  up  to  the  Beys,  managed  so  well,  that  the  Grand 
Signior  seldom  touched  any  part  of  all  these  imposts.  They  even  charged  to  his 
account,  expenses  incurred  by  repairs  of  buildings  and  canals  which  never  were  ex- 
ecuted. 

The  revenues  of  the  Beys  were  composed  not  only  of  whatever  they  received  from 
the  villages  assigned  to  them,  but  also  of  what  they  could  extort  in  numberless  ways. 
It  is  generally  believed  that  the  Mamelukes  drew  from  Egypt  in  public  and  private 
revenues,  about  a  million  and  a  half  sterling.     While  the  French  were  in  possession 


Miinners  and 
eostoms  of  the 
Mamelukes. 


462  BOOK  SIXTY-SECOND. 

of  the  country,  they  varied  from  year  to  year  according  to  the  state  of  the  war.  Ge- 
neral Reynier  values  them  at  from  twenty  to  twenty-five  milUons  of  francs,  (from 
56833,333  to  ^1,041,666.) 

Population.      |       The  population  of  Egypt  has  often  been  rated  at  two  millions  and  a 
half:   but  it  has  never  been  numbered,  and  we  do  not  even  know  whether  this  esti- 
mate includes  the  Arabs  who  occupy  so  great  a  part  of  the  country. 
Recent  revc  The  powcr  of  the  Mamelukes  received  from  the  French  invasion  a 

lutions.  serious  shock,  from  which  it  has  not  been  able  to  recover.     The  Ar- 

nauts,  or  Albanian  troops  who  came  to  subjugate  the  country  to  the  Turks,  sought 
to  seize  it  as  a  sovereignty  for  themselves.  Egypt  was  distracted  by  numerous  par- 
ties, and  seemed  to  long  for  another  European  invasion.  But  a  pasha  of  energetic 
character  arrived,  who  stuck  at  no  cruelty  or  perfidy  in  the  execution  of  his  policy, 
and,  having  brought  the  Mamelukes  together  into  his  palace  under  the  pretext  of  an 
entertainment,  put  them  to  the  sword.  Those  who  had  the  good  fortune  to  escape 
fled  to  Nubia,  where  they  established  themselves  first  at  Ibrim,  and  attempted  to 
make  a  stand.  Driven  from  that  place  by  the  arms  of  the  pasha,  they  retreated  to 
Dongola  to  the  number  of  500,  where  they  armed  4000  or  5000  negro  slaves,  and 
surrounded  their  city  with  a  wall.  At  their  head  was  Osman  Bey  Bardisi,  who  is 
said  to  have  made  a  vow  never  to  shave  his  head  or  his  beard  till  he  should  enter 
Cairo  in  triumph.  It  appears,  however,  that  in  consequence  of  the  farther  extension 
of  the  warlike  operations  of  the  pasha  Mahomet  Ali,  they  have  been  forced  to  leave 
that  station,  have  been  reduced  to  an  insignificant  number  by  war  and  hardships,  and 
that  their  slender  remains  had  found  their  way  to  the  kingdom  of  Darfoor,  where 
their  restless  character  was  likely  to  procure  their  speedy  annihilation. 

These  famous  Mamelukes,  the  tyrants  of  Egypt,  were,  as  is  well 
known,  military  slaves,  purchased  by  the  Fatimite  Caliphs,  to  form  their 
body  guard.  Notwithstanding  the  influence  which  the  Turks  exercised  on  the  civil 
administration,  the  Mameluke  body  maintained  its  own  military  organization,  and 
was  always  recruited  in  the  same  manner.  Turkish  merchants  brought  to  Egypt 
slaves  collected  from  different  countries.  Some  were  Germans  and  Russians ;  the 
greater  part  were  from  the  Caucasian  countries,  from  Georgia  and  Circassia,  and 
were  generally  from  fifteen  to  seventeen  years  old.  The  Mameluke  chiefs  always 
purchased  some  of  them.  These  children  were  employed  in  personal  attendance  on 
their  masters,  wlx*  gave  tliem  an  education  entirely  military.  Each  styled  his  master 
father,  and  was  regarded  as  a  part  of  his  family. 

When  a  master  in  reward  of  their  services  gave  them  their  freedom,  they  left  his 
house,  taking  with  them  some  property  :  often  he  married  them  to  one  of  his  slaves. 
They  were  always  ready  to  obey  him  and  follow  him  in  war.  The  great  badge  of 
their  liberty  was  permission  to  let  the  beard  grow. 

The  spirit  of  the  corps  quite  extinguished  the  sentiment  of  parental  affection.  The 
children  of  Mamelukes  only  succeeded  to  the  personal  effects  of  their  father,  never  to 
his  rank  and  power.  A  child  reared  by  the  women  in  the  harem  was  an  object  of 
contempt.  Perhaps  that  mode  of  thinking  arose  from  an  observation  verified  by  long 
experience,  that  in  Egypt  foreign  races  degenerate  like  exotic  plants  in  the  second 
or  third  generation. 

In  general,  the  wives  of  the  Mamelukes  lived  like  those  of  the  Osmanlis  ;  for 
their  husbands  were  equally  jealous.  But,  as  the  children  could  never  succeed  to 
the  situations  or  the  titles  of  their  fatliers,  they  were  less  addicted  to  the  delights  of 
maternal  fondness,  and  all  those  who  could  dispense  with  the  privilege  of  becoming 
mothers  took  the  requisite  means,  without  attaching  to  the  act  any  notion  of  crimi- 
nality. 

The  government  is  now  more  completely  Turkish  in  its  character  than  under  the 
Mamelukes.  The  pasha  in  many  of  his  acts  disregards  the  Grand  Siguier,  in 
this  respect  resembling  most  other  pashas  placed  in  his  commanding  situation  ;  but 
he  does  not  declare  himself  independent.  On  the  contrary,  he  lays  his  conquests  at 
the  feet  of  the  Sultan's  throne,  as  in  the  instance  of  his  victory  over  the  Wahabees, 
and  the  deliverance  of  Mecca,  when  he  sent  the  captive  chief  of  that  formidable 
sect  to  Constantinople,  to  give  the  supreme  powers  the  pleasure  of  beheading  him. 


Manners  and 
customs  of  the 
Copts. 


EGYPT.  463 

For  thifs  he  received  the  distinguishing  title  of  Khan,  which  carries  with  it  a  perpetual 
immunity  from  tlie  risk  of  judicial  decapitation.  His  troops  are  chiefly  Albanians, 
and  Syrian  cavalry,  and,  like  other  Turkish  armies,  occasionally  prone  to  formidable 
mutinies,  one  of  which  lately  occurred  among  the  Albanians,  while  Mr.  Belzoni  was 
in  the  country,*  and  was  attended  by  a  dreadful  state  of  lawless  disorder,  more 
especially  at  Cairo  and  in  its  neighbourhood.  It  arose  from  an  attempt  on  the 
part  of  the  pasha  to  introduce  European  discipline  and  tactics,  and  it  was  only  on 
abandoning  tliat  design  that  the  soldiers  were  appeased,  and  the  pasha's  own  security 
for  power  and  life  restored.  The  energy  of  that  ruler,  has  created  a  greater  degree 
of  order  in  the  country  than  had  ever  before  existed  in  modern  times.  His  police  is 
vigilant,  and  Europeans  can  conseqviently  travel  here  with  safety,  without  being  sub- 
jected to  those  dangers  and  indignities  which  formerly  rendered  a  journey  through 
Egypt  a  scene  of  perilous  adventure  and  perpetual  suffering.  This  regularity  is  kept 
up  by  a  system  of  summary  justice  in  cases  of  murder,  and  other  lawless  acts.  The 
pasha  encourages  the  introduction  of  European  improvements,  wherever  the  preju- 
dices, and  the  established  and  immediate  interests  of  the  natives  do  not  present  an 
unsurmountable  obstruction  :  but  that  is  not  always  the  case  even  in  the  most  civi- 
lized states.  He  has  introduced  the  fabrication  of  gunpowder,  the  refining  of  sugar, 
the  making  of  fine  indigo,  and  the  silk  manufactures,  from  which  he  derives  great 
advantage.  He  is  always  inquiring  after  novelties  in  experimental  philosophy,  as 
well  as  the  economical  arts.  He  is  very  active,  and  constantly  in  motion.  His  leisure 
time  is  mostly  spent  at  Soubra,  a  pleasure-house  furnished  with  delightful  garden?, 
three  miles  from  Cairo,  where  one  of  his  quondam  Mamelukes  who  had  been  faith- 
ful to  him,  and  recommended  himself  by  his  knowledge  of  agriculture,  and  his  gene- 
ral intelligence,  occupies  the  situation  of  governor. 

The  Copts  may  be  regarded  as  the  rightful  proprietors  of  Egypt. 
They  bear  the  same  relation  to  the  Arabs  that  the  Gauls  did  to  the 
Franks  under  the  first  race  of  the  French  kings.  But  the  victors  and  the  vanquished 
have  not  been  amalgamated  into  one  national  body.  The  Arabs  in  their  fierce  into- 
lerance reduced  the  unhappy  Greeks  and  Egyptians  to  a  state  of  oppression.  They 
thus  forced  them  to  live  separate  from  themselves,  forming  a  different  nation,  ruined, 
and  almost  annihilated.  They  did  not,  however,  peremptorily  insist  on  the  alterna- 
tive of  conversion  or  extermination  and  exile,  as  tlie  Romish  Christians  did  with  the 
Arabian  Mussulmans  in  Spain ;  and  the  talent  for  writing  and  keeping  accounts 
which  the  Copts  possessed  proved  the  means  of  earning  a  livehhood,  and  thus  keep- 
ing up  the  existence  of  their  race.  The  Arab,  who  knew  no  art  but  that  of  war,  saw 
that  he  had  an  interest  in  preserving  them.  The  present  number  of  Copts  is  esti- 
mated at  30,000  families,  or  according  to  other  data  200,000  souls.  They  are  scat- 
tered partly  over  the  Delta  ;  but  they  live  principally  in  Upper  Egypt.  In  the  Saide 
they  are  sometimes  almost  the  exclusive  inhabitants  of  whole  villages.  They  are 
the  descendants  of  the  ancient  Egyptians,  mingled  with  the  Persians  left  by  Cam- 
byses,  and  the  Greeks  left  by  Alexander  and  the  Ptolemies. 

According  to  the  concurring  testimonies  of  travellers,  the  Copts  are 
distinguished  by  a  darker  complexion  than  the  Arabs,  flat  foreheads,  and 
hair  partaking  of  the  woolly  character  ;  the  eyes  large,  and  raised  at  the  angles  ; 
high  cheeks  ;  short,  though  not  flat  noses,  wide  unmeaning  mouths,  far  from  the 
nose,  and  surrounded  with  rather  thick  lips  ;  thin  beards,  want  of  grace  in  their 
shape,  bandy  legs  ill  adapted  for  agility,  and  long  flat  toes.t 

Eight  or  ten  centuries  ago  the  Copts  spoke  a  peculiar  language,  which  I  Coptic  lan- 
is  still  employed  in  their  worship.    It  is  a  relict  of  the  ancient  Egyptian,  |  S"«ee. 
mixed  with  some  Arabic  and  Greek  words.     Though  generally  superseded  by  the. 
Arabic  in  common  conversation,  it  is  still  commonly  used  in  the  Coptic  town  of  Na- 
gadeh.;];     Two  dialects  of  this  idiom,  the  Memphitic  or  Bahiritic  and  the  Saidic,  are 
known  to  us  by  different  religious  books  written  in  them  :  a  third,  the  Bashmooric, 

•  llelzoni's  Narrative,  vol.  i, 

t  Voyage  de  Denon,  t.  i.  p.  136.    Planche,  108.  No.  23.  Wansleb.  Volney. 

i  Information  from  a  native  Copt. — Tk. 


Physical  con- 
stitutions- 


464  BOOK    SIXTY-SECOND. 

has  occasioned  great  discussions  among  philologists,  and  they  are  not  yet  agreed 
about  its  nature  and  origin.*  The  general  character  of  the  Coptic  language  con- 
sists in  the  shortness  of  its  words,  which  are  often  monosyllables,  in  the  simplicity 
of  its  grammatical  modifications,  and  in  the  circumstance  of  expressing  genders  and 
cases  by  prefixed  syllables,  and  not  by  terminations. "f  Compared  with  all  other 
known  languages,  it  has  only  been  found  to  have  some  feeble  indications  of  an  an- 
cient connection  with  the  Hebrew  and  the  Ethiopian.  Without  any  foreign  deriva- 
tion, or  known  afiinities,  it  seems  to  have  an  origin  and  formation  of  its  own.  The 
theocracy  of  ancient  Egypt  perhaps  created  a  new  and  arbitrary  language  for  the 
nation,  which  it  was  the  object  of  that  body  to  isolate  from  all  its  neighbours.  The 
Coptic  alphabet,  though  evidently  modelled  on  the  Greek,  contains  some  characters 
Religion.  |  belonging  to  the  ancient  alphabet  or  alphabets  of  Egypt.lJ; — The  Copts, 
at  first  attached  to  the  ceremonial  of  the  Great  Eastern  Greek  Church,  were  drawn 
off*  by  the  sect  of  the  Eutychians  or  Jacobites,  whose  creed  confounds  under  one 
the  two  natures  of  Christ.  Circumcision,  though  not  viewed  as  a  religious  cere- 
mony, is  practised  among  them  as  contributing  to  decorum  and  cleanliness.  The 
patriarch  of  Alexandria  gives  himself  out  as  the  successor  of  St.  Mark  the  evange- 
list, whose  body,  or  the  head  at  least,  the  Venitians  pretend  to  have  removed.  Acute, 
sober,  avaricious,  and  grovelling,  the  Copts  of  the  towns  succeed  in  matters  of 
business,  and  make  themselves  useful  to  the  ignorant  Mamelukes  and  Turkish  go- 
vernments. 

These  characters  furnish  evidences  of  the  identity  of  this  nation  with  the  ancient 
inhabitants  of  Egypt,  who,  under  the  Ptolemies  and  the  Cesars,  necessarily  mingled 
Name  of  ^^^^^^  ^^^^  Greeks,  the  Syrians,  and  the  Romans.    Some  have  derived  the 

Copts.  term  Copt  from  the  name  of  the  city  Koptos  in  Upper  Egypt ;  but  that 

city  seems  never  to  have  enjoyed  any  distinction,  being  only  one  of  the  nine  residences 
of  their  bishops.  Others  have  identified  the  term  with  a  Greek  word  signifying  cir- 
cumcised.§  But  it  is  not  probable  that  the  Copts  themselves  would  adopt  a  nickname 
of  that  kind.  The  most  probable  opinion  is,  that  it  is  identical  with  ^s:yptius,  which 
was  also  written  JEgoptios,||  and  in  which  the  first  syllable  is  an  article.  It  is  the 
same  with  the  term  I-'ypt,  kibt,  or  kebt,  employed  by  the  Copts  as  a  designation  for 
their  country. IT  Homer  seems  to  have  given  the  name  of  iEgyptos  to  the  Nile  ;** 
and,  according  to  Herodotus,  Thebes,  the  ancient  capital,  v/as  called  Egyptus,|j 
which  at  least  serves  to  prove  that  this  term  was  equally  indigenous  with  Chymi  or 
Chemi,  under  which  the  Egyptians  habitually  designated  their  country. JJ 
The  Arabs.  |  After  the  Copts  come  the  Arabs,  the  most  numerous  of  the  inhabitants 
of  modern  Egypt;  distinguished  by  a  lively  and  expressive  physiognomy,  sunk,  small 
and  sparkling  eyes,  a  general  angularity  of  form,  short  pointed  beards,  their  hps  ha- 
bitually open  and  showing  the  teeth,  muscular  arms,  the  whole  body  more  remark- 
able for  agility  than  beauty,  and  more  nervous  than  handsome.  Such  is  the  pastoral 
and  more  civilized  Arab.§§  The  Bedouin,  or  independent  Arab,  has  a  wilder  physi- 
ognomy. The  Arab  cultivators,  including  all  who  live  in  the  country,  such  as  the 
Feiiaiu.  1  sheiks  or  heads  of  villages,  the  fellahs  or  peasants,  the  boufakirs  or  beg- 

gars, and  the  artisans,  being  more  mixed  and  of  different  professions,  present  a  cha- 
Turks.  I  racter  less  distinctly  marked.  I||| — The  Turks  have  graver  features  and 

sleeker  forms,  thick  eyelids  allowing  little  expression  to  the  eyes,  large  noses,  hand- 

•  Quatremere,  llecherches  sur  la  litterature  Egypt,  p.  173,  174.  Idem,  Mem.  geogr.  et 
histor.  sur.  I'Egypt,  i.  p,  235.     Munter  de  indole  versionis  Sahidicse. 

f  Vater  in  Adelung's  Mithridates,  t.  iii.  p.  87. 

i  Zoega,  de  orig.  et  usu  obeliscorum,  sect.  iv.  ch.  2,  p.  4:24 — 483,  p.  497.  Tychsen,  Biblioth. 
de  I'ancienne  literature,  ch. 

§  Du  Burnat,  Nouv.  Mem.  des  Mission,  ii.  p.  13. 

II  Masius  in  Syror.  peculio.  quoted  by  Brerewood  in  his  Reclierclies  sur  les  Langues,  ch.23. 
Des  Cophtites. 

If  D'  Herbelot,  Biblioth.  orient.     See  Kebt  and  Kibt. 

**  Schlichthorst,  Geogr.  Homeri. 

ff  Herod.  Euterpe  in  princ.  p.  59,  editio  H.  Stephani. 

H  Kircheri,  Prodromus  Koptus,  p.  293. 

§§  Denon.  PI.  109,  No.  4.  jli  Idem,  PI.  9.  fig.  1, ;  PI.  107.  fig.  5, ;  Pi.  106,  No.  1. 


Contrast  of 
manners. 


Hereditary 
parties. 


EGYPT.  465 

sonic  mouths,  good  lips,  long  tufted  beards,  lighter  complexions,  short  necks,  a  grave 
and  indolent  habit  of  body  ;  and  in  every  thing  an  air  of  weight  which  they  associate 
with  the  idea  of  nobleness.  The  Greeks,  who  must  now  be  classed  as  ]  Greeks. 
foreigners,  give  us  an  idea  of  the  regular  features,  the  delicacy,  and  the  versatility 
of  their  ancestors  :  they  have  the  character  of  shrewdness  and  roguery  in  their  trans- 
actions. The  Jews,  who  have  the  same  physiognomy  as  in  Europe,  but  among 
whom  some  handsome  individuals,  particularly  among  the  young,  remind  us  of  the 
head  consecrated  among  painters  as  a  representation  of  Jesus  Christ,  are,  as  every 
where  else,  devoted  to  the  pursuits  of  commerce.  Despised  and  incessantly  buf- 
fetted  about  without  being  expelled,  they  compete  with  the  Copts  in  the  large  towns 
of  Egypt  for  situations  in  the  customs,  and  the  management  of  the  business  of  the 
Avealthy. 

Nothing  could  be  more  curious  than  to  see  alongside  of  Arabs,  who 
are  a  people  rigidly  attached  to  the  distinctions  of  hereditary  rank,  a  nu- 
merous class  whose  respect  was  all  reserved  for  the  purchased  slave  whose  relations 
were  unknown,  and  whose  bravery,  or  other  personal  qualities,  raised  him  to  the  first 
honours  in  the  country.  "  I  have  heard,"  says  General  Reynier,  "  both  Turkish  and 
Mameluke  officers  say  of  persons  who  occupied  great  posts,  '  He  is  a  man  of  the 
best  connexions  ;  he  was  purchased.'  "*  On  the  contrary,  the  sheiks  of  villages,  as 
soon  as  they  are  rich  enough  to  have  a  household,  and  a  certain  number  of  horse- 
men, get  a  genealogy  made  out,  which  makes  them  to  descend  from  some  illustrious 
personage. 

Besides  the  various  alliances  which  subsist  among  tribes,  the  Arabs 
have  leading  parties,  which  may  be  considered  as  so  many  confedera- 
cies, and  are  headed  by  powerful  sheiks.  Some  of  these  are  found  even  in  the  heart 
of  the  Delta.  "  The  inhabitants  of  the  villages,"  says  M.  Girard,t  "  form  two  hos- 
tile parties,  who  do  every  thing  in  their  power  to  injure  each  other.  They  are  dis- 
tinguished by  the  appellations  of  the  Saad  and  the  Hharam.  In  the  civil  wars  which 
desolated  Arabia  in  the  65th  year  of  the  hegira,  under  the  caliph  Yezyd-ebn-Ma'ouyeh, 
tiie  two  armies  used  these  words  as  their  respective  watchwords  during  the  night. 
They  were  the  family  names  of  their  respective  chiefs.  The  combatants  and  their 
posterity  adopted  them  ever  after,  and  under  them  perpetuated  their  discords.  The 
Arabs,  who  have  at  different  times  come  to  settle  in  Egypt,  brought  along  with  one 
or  other  of  these  names  a  blind  hatred  towards  the  opposite  faction. 

Some  particular  traits  distinguish  the  Egyptians  from  the  other  Ori-     Artofswim- 
entals.     A  country  frequently  laid  under  water  makes  the  art  of  swim-     ""na- 
ming a  valuable  acquisition.     The  children  learn  it  at  play,  even  the  girls  become 
fond  of  it,  and  are  seen  swimming  in  flocks  from  village  to  village  with  all  the  dex- 
terity of  the  fabled  nymphs.;];     At  the  festival  of  the  opening  of  the  canals,  several 
professional  swimmers  publicly  perform  a  swimming  mock-fight,  and  land  to.  attack 
an  enemy  in  presence  of  the  pasha.     Their  evolutions  are  executed  with  surprising 
vigour.     They  sometimes  float  down  the  river  on  their  backs,  with  a  cup  of  coffee 
in  one  hand,  and  a  pipe  in  the  other,  while  their  feet  are  tied  together  with  an  iron 
chain. §     The  Egyptians  are  well  acquainted  with  the  art  of  training  animals.     Sad- 
dled goats  are  seen  carrying  monkeys  on  their  backs,  and  asses  as  well  trained  and 
as  docile  as  English  horses.    Carrying  pigeons  wore  more  common  here     carrying 
than  in  any  other  part  of  the  east.     In  the  17th  century  the  governor  of    pigeons. 
Damietta  corresponded  with  the  pasha  of  Cairo  by  means  of  these  winged  messen- 
gers. ||     Mallet  mentions  this  as  a  practice  which  had  fallen  into  disuse. IF     The  most 
astonishing  phenomenon  of  this  description  is  the  power  which  certain  persons  have 
of  handling  and  governing  the  most  venomous  serpents.     The  modern 
psijUes  are  not  inferior  to  the  ancient.     They  suffer  vipers  to  twine  round 


Enchanters 
of  serpents. 


•  Reynier,  I'Egypte,  p.  68.  f  Mem.  sur  fEgypte,  iii.  p.  358. 

^  Tott,  Memoircs,  t.  iv.  p.  60.     Savary,  Lettres,  t.  i.     Sicard,  Nouv.  Mem.  ii.  p.  190. 

§  Wansleb.  deux  Voyages,  p.  279. 

H  De  la  Valle,  p.  128.     Moncoiiys,  p.  295. 

1  Mallet,  Descript.  de  I'Egypte,  ii.  p.  267". 

Vol.  1I._3  N 


Antiquities  of 
this  £rt. 


466  1500K  SIXTY-SECOND. 

their  bodies  ;  they  keep  them  in  the  folds  of  their  shirts ;  they  make  them  go  into 
bottles,  and  come  out  again :  sometimes  they  tear  them  with  their  teeth,  and  eat  their 
flesh.*  The  secrets  on  which  these  practices  depend  are  miknown:  they  are  founded 
on  address  and  observation,  though  the  Orientals  ascribe  them  to  magic. f 

In  order  to  complete  our  picture  of  modern  Egypt,  we  shall  give  a  brief  view  of  its 
trade  and  manufactures. 

I'ottery.  |       It  is  chiefly  at  Balass  in  Upper  Egypt  that  the  earthern  jars,  hence 

called  balasses,  are  manufactured.  These  manufactures  supply  not  only  the  whole 
of  Egypt,  but  Syria  and  the  islands  of  the  Grecian  Archipelago.  They  have  the 
property  of  allowing  the  water  to  transude  gradually,  and  thus  keep  up  a  refreshing 
coolness  by  its  evaporation.  The  manufacture  not  being  expensive,  they  are  sold 
so  very  cheap  that  the  poorest  person  can  command  as  many  as  he  wants,  and  they 
often  enter  among  the  materials  for  building  the  walls  of  houses ;  nature  furnishes 
the  raw  clay  in  a  state  ready  for  use,  in  the  adjoining  desert.  It  consists  of  a  fat, 
line,  saponaceous  and  compact  marl,  which  only  requires  moistening  and  working  up 
to  become  pliable  and  tenacious,  and  the  vessels  which  are  turned  from  it,  after  being 
dried  and  half  baked  in  the  sun,  are,  in  a  few  hours,  completed  by  the  heat  of  a 
slight  straw  fire.  They  are  set  up  in  rows,  which  are  described  by  all  travellers  in 
Egypt.  Such  is  the  stability  of  the  habits,  customs,  and  arts  in  this  sin- 
gular country,  that  M.  Denon  observed  jars  of  the  same  sort,  of  the 
same  shape,  employed  for  the  same  purposes,  and  set  on  the  same  tripods  in  hiero- 
glyphic paintings,  and  in  representations  contained  in  manuscripts. 
Weaving.  |  In  Sioot  and  the  neighbourhood,  a  considerable  quantity  of  linen  is 
manufactured;  at  Djirdjeh,  Farshyoot,  and  Kenneh,  cotton  stuffs  and  shawls  of  a 
much  closer  fabric.  The  cotton  manufactured  in  these  three  places  is  brought  from 
Syria  and  the  Delta,  that  which  is  produced  in  the  country  being  only  employed  at 
Esneh,  where  the  handsomest  cotton  cloths  of  Upper  Egypt  are  made.  From  this 
part  of  the  country  there  is  a  considerable  exportation  of  grain,  linea,  and  cotton 
stuffs,  and  different  sorts  of  oil.  It  receives  in  exchange  rice  and  salt  from  the  Delta, 
soap,  silk,  and  cotton  stuffs  from  Syria,  and  different  European  articles,  such  as  iron, 
lead,  copper,  woollen  cloths,  and  tar. 

Rose  water.  |  It  is  Only  in  Faioom  that  rose  Avater  is  made.  When  the  roses  are 
plenty,  thirty  sets  of  apparatus  are  employed  at  Medineh  for  distilling  them.  The 
apparatus  is  very  simple.  The  same  place  also  contains  manufactures  of  woollen, 
cotton,  and  linen  stuffs  and  shawls.  Sometimes  8000  shawls  are  exported  from  this 
place  in  a  month. 

The  caravans  from  Abyssinia  travel  northward  through  the  desert,  on 
the  east  of  the  Nile,  as  far  as  Esneh.  They  bring  ivory  and  ostrich 
feathers ;  but  their  principal  trade  consists  in  gum  and  young  slaves  of  both  sexes. 
Cairo  Ls  the  ultimate  destination  of  the  latter,  and  the  place  where  their  sales  are 
made.  They  carry  home  Venetian  glass  manufactures,  woollen  dresses,  cotton  and 
linen  stuffs,  blue  shawls,  and  some  other  articles  which  they  purchase  at  Sioot  and  at 
Kenneh.  The  Ababdeh  and  Bisharieh  tribes  also  come  to  Esneh  for  metals,  uten- 
sils, and  such  grain  as  they  require.  They  sell  slaves,  camels,  acacia  gum,  which 
they  gather  in  their  deserts,  and  the  charcoal  which  they  make  from  the  acacia  trees; 
but  the  most  valuable  commodity  which  they  bring  is  senna,  which  they  gather  in  the 
mountains  between  the  Nile  and  the  Red  Sea,  as  high  as  Syene,  and  farther  south, 
where  it  grows  without  culture.  The  inhabitants  of  Goobanieh,  a  village  four  hours 
walk  below  Syene,  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Nile,  form,  every  year,  in  company  with 
the  Ababdehs,  a  caravan,  which  goes  to  the  interior  of  the  deserts  which  lie  south- 
west from  the  first  cataract  to  collect  alum,  which  was  formerly  a  considerable  part 
of  the  exports  of  Egypt. 

The  trade  to  Cosseir,  on  the  shore  of  the  Red  Sea,  is  only  a  feeble 
remnant  of  that  by  which  Egypt  was  once  enriched.  The  exports  are 
wheat,  flour,  barley,  beans,  lentils,  sugar,  carthamom  floAvers,  oil  of  lettuce,  and  but- 
ter.    The  importations  arc,  coffee,  cotton  cloth,  Indian  muslins,  Enghsh  silks,  spices, 

•  Idem,  i.  p.  132.   Savary,  Thevenot.  f  Hasselquist's  Travels,  p.  76—80.  (in  German.) 


Abyssinian 
caravans. 


Commerce  of 
Cosseir. 


EGYFT. 


467 


This  trade  is  conducted  by  persons  going  on  their 


Caravans  from 
Darfoor. 


incense,  and  Cashmere  shawls 
pilgrimage  to  Mecca. 

Two  caravans  arrive  every  year  from  Darfoor,  each  composed  of 
4000  or  5000  camels,  led  by  200  or  300  persons,  who  bring  to  Sioot  and 
to  Cairo  elephants'  teeth,  rhinoceros'  horns,  ostrich  feathers,  gum-arabic,  tamarinds, 
natron,  and  slaves,  the  number  of  which  averages  5000  or  6000  annually,  chiefly 
young  girls  or  women.  One  author  says  that  the  number  of  slaves  sometimes 
amounts  to  12,000,  and  that  of  the  camels  to  15,000. 

Egypt  also  receives  caravans  from  Syria,  from  Barbary,  and  from 
Sennaar.     Those  from  Syria  bring  cottons,  tobacco,  silk  and  woUen 
stufls,  wax,  honey,  dried  raisins,  and  other  objects  of  consumption.     T 
from  Sennaar  are  smaller  than  those  from  Darfoor,  and  bring  nearly  the  same  arti- 
cles, together  with  civets,  and  the  teeth  and  skins  of  the  hippopotamus.* 

Such  is  the  present  languishing  condition  of  Egypt,  that  celebrated  country  which 
was  once  covered  with  towns,  temples,  palaces,  obelisks  and  pyramids.  Yet  Egypt  is 
still  a  civilized  and  happy  country  in  comparison  of  some  others  in  Africa  which  are 
immediately  to  come  under  our  review. 

Table  of  Gcograjyhical  Posilions,  astronnmicnlly  nhxe.rijed  by  JVJ.  JSCouet. 


Other  cara. 
vani. 

le  caravans 


Places. 


Aboo-el-Sheik,  (on  the  canal  of  Soveys) 

Alexandria,  (at  Pharos) 

Antinoe,  (its  ruins) 

Belbeys  . 

Beni-Sooef 

Damietta 

Denderah,  (temple) 

Dybeh,  (mouth  of  Lake  Menzaleh)   .     . 

Edfoo,  (town  and  temple) 

Esne,  (town  and  temple) 

Djirdjeh 

Hoc 


Isle  of  Philce,  (temple  above  the  cataracts) 
Cairo,  (house  of  the  Institute)        .     .     . 

Karnac,  (ruins  of  Thebes) 

Koom-ombos,  (temple) 

Lesbeh 

Longsor,  (ruins  of  Thebes)  .... 
Medinet-Aboo,  (ruins  of  Thebes)      .     . 

Minieh 

Omfarege,  (mouth  of  Lake  Menzaleh)  . 
Palace  of  Memnon,  (ruins  of  Thebes)  . 
Pyramid  north  of  Memphis  .... 
Kaoo-el-Koobra,  (town  and  temple)  .     . 

Kenneh 

Rosetta,  (north  minaret) 


)uez 


Saleh-hiyeh 

Syene     

Sioot       

Tannis,  (island  of  Lake  Menzaleh) 

Tower  of  Aboo  Gir 

Tower  of  the  Janissaries,  (Cairo) 

Tower  of  Boghaseh 

Tower  of  Boghaz 

Tower  of  Maraboo 


Long.  E. 
from  Lon. 


leg. 

31 

29 

30 

31 

31 

31 

32 

32 

32 

32 

31 

32 

32 

31 

32 

32 

31 

32 

32 

30 

32 

32 

31 

31 

32 

30 

32 

32 

32 

31 

32 

30 

31 

31 

31 

29 


mm.     sec. 

52  16 
55  45 
55  29 


33 

13 
50 


40  57 
8     0 

53  59 
29  56 
55  42 
21   12 

54  31 
IS  45 
39  49 
59  24 
47  35 
39  53 

37  47 
49  87 

31  54 

38  19 

12  17 

32  9 
45  15 
28  50 
35  50 

0   15 
0     4 

13  35 
12  30 

7  IS 
19  56 
53  36 
52  22 
49  56 


Lat.  N. 


deg.  min.  sec. 

30  31  10 

31  13  5 

27  48  15 

30  24  49 

29  8  28 

31  25  0 
26  8  36 
31  21  24 

24  58  43 

25  17  38 

26  20  3 
26  11  20 

24  1  34 

30  2  21 

25  42  57 

24  27  17 

31  29  8 

25  41  57 
25  42  58 

28  5 
31  8 

25  43  27 

29  59  5 

26  53  33 

26  9  36 
31  24  34 

29  58  37 

30  47  30 
24  5  23 

27  10  14 

31  12  0 
31  19  44 
50  2  8 
31  21  41 
31  30  7 
31  9  9 


28 
16 


Mem,  sur  TEgyptc,  iv.  p.  81. 


468  BOOK   SIXTY-THIRD. 

We  shall  not  undertake  to  give  a  comparative  tabular  view  of  the  ancient  and  mo- 
dern divisions  of  Egypt.  For  such  a  task  we  have  not  sufficient  data.  The  reader 
who  wishes  for  such  information  as  history  affords  on  this  subject,  may  consult  a 
work  by  the  learned  M.  Champollion,  entitled,  "  I'Egypte  sous  Ics  Pharaons." 


BOOK  LXIII. 


NUBIA,  ABYSSINIA,  AND  THE  COASTS  OF  BEJA  AND  IIABESH. 

We  have  described  the  region  of  the  lower  Nile,  with  a  minuteness  corresponding 
to  its  great  celebrity.  Our  survey  of  the  countries  situated  on  the  higher  parts  of  the 
Region  of  the  course  of  this  river  will  be  somewhat  more  rapid.  In  the  present  state 
Upper  Nile.  ^f  q^j.  knowledge,  it  is  convenient  not  to  include  in  this  division  the  coun- 
tries yet  unknown  which  are  watered  by  the  Bahr-el-Abiad,  before  it  joins  the  Nile 
of  Abyssinia.  The  region  now  to  be  described,  being  thus  restricted,  will  corre- 
spond to  the  Ethiopia  supra  JEgyphim  of  the  ancients,  a  country  concerning  which 
ancient  history  furnishes  us  with  some  scattered  lights,  such  as  the  accounts  con- 
tained in  the  history  of  Herodotus,  the  researches  of  Strabo,  the  travels  of  Artemi- 
dorus  and  Agatharchides,  to  which  are  to  be  added  the  inscriptions  of  Adulis,  which 
are  monuments  of  the  expeditions  of  one  of  the  Ptolemies,  or  of  an  Abyssinian  king,* 
and  the  information  given  by  Pliny  the  naturalist,  as  stated  in  our  History  of  Geo- 
graphy. 

Nubia.  The  first  country  which  is  entered  by  a  person  ascending  the  Nile, 

Its  boundaries,  abovc  the  first  cataract,  is  Nubia,  a  most  extensive  region,  the  bouiida- 
ries  of  which  arc  vague  and  uncertain.  Bakooi  makes  the  road  along  the  east  bank 
of  the  Nile,|  thirty  days  journey  in  length.  Edrisi,  who  most  probably  includes 
Sennaar  under  the  same  name,  says  that  two  months  are  required  for  crossing  Nubia,  J 
an  account  which  in  that  case  coincides  with  the  journals  of  Poncet  and  Bruce. 
Climate.  |  While  authors  differ  widely  in  several  particulars  relative  to  Nubia, 
they  all  agree  respecting  the  physical  aspect  of  the  country.  From  January  to  April 
it  is  scorched  up  with  insupportable  heats.  The  rainy  season  lasts  from  June  to 
September,  with  frequent  irregularities.  The  thermometer  sometimes  reaches  119 
degrees  of  Fahrenheit,  and  the  burning  sands  render  travelling  impracticable  except 
Deserts.  |  by  night.  §     The  high  lands  consist  entirely  of  frightful  deserts.     That 

which  is  called  the  Desert  of  Nubia  extends  on  the  east  of  the  Nile  from  Syene  to 
Gooz.  The  traveller  constantly  marches  either  over  deep  sand  or  sharp  stones.  In 
several  places  the  ground  is  covered  with  a  stratum  of  rock-salt,  or  studded  with 
masses  of  granite,  jasper,  or  marble.  Now  and  then  we  find  a  grove  of  stunted  aca- 
cias, or  tufts  of  colocynth  and  of  senna.  The  traveller  often  finds  no  water  to  allay 
his  thirst,  except  what  is  brackish  and  putrid,  for  the  murderous  Arab,  the  sanguinary 
Bishareen,  the  fanatical  Jahalee,  the  Takakee,  and  the  Shaigee,  lie  in  ambush  near 
the  few  springs  which  the  country  contains.  ||  The  western  desert,  less  arid  and 
less  extensive,  is  known  by  the  name  of  Bahiooda.  Between  these  two  solitudes, 
condemned  by  nature  to  an  unvarying  and  utter  sterility,  lies  the  narrow  vale  of  the 
Nile,  which,  though  deprived  of  the  advantages  of  regular  inundations  in  consequence 
of  the  height  of  the  surface  above  the  river,  has  some  districts,  and  more  particularly 

*  Compare  the  account  in  the  History  of  Geography  with  the  observations  of  Mr.  Salt,  and 
with  Silvestre  de  Sacy's  Mem.  sur  I'Inscription  d' Adulis. 
t  Notes  et  Extr.  de  MSS.  de  la  Biblioth.  du  Koi,  ii.  396. 
^  Edrisi  Clim.  i.  4.     Hartmann,  Comm.  de  Geog.  Edrisi,  p.  50. 
§  Abulfeda,  Africa,  ed.  Eichorn.  Arab.  p.  29.  A  Bruce,  i.  viii.  ch.  11  et  12. 


Vegetable  sjie* 
cies. 


NUBIA.  469 

islands,  in  which  a  high  degree  of  fertiUty  rewards  the  industry  of  those  who  raise  by 
artificial  means  the  waters  of  the  river.*  The  sovithern  parts  of  Nubia,  watered  by 
the  Tacazze,  the  Bahr-el-Azurek,  and  the  Bahr-el-Abiad,  present  a  very  diflbrent 
appearance.  Under  the  shade  of  close  forests,  or  on  the  verdant  surface  of  vast 
meadows,  are  seen  sometimes  the  heavy  buffalo,  sometimes  the  fleet  gazelle.  Fre- 
quently, however,  the  extreme  heat,  the  rains,  and  the  formidable  swarms  of  the  salt- 
salya  fly,  spread  desolation  over  these  countries,  which  belong  to  the  kingdom  of 
Sennaar.  The  dourra  and  the  bammia,  (the  last  of  which  is  described  by  Prosper 
Alpinus,)  are  the  principal  sorts  of  grain,  though  wheat  and  millet  are  also  cultivated. 
Two  sorts  of  senna  are  exported;  but  the  sugar  cane,  which  abounds  along  the  course 
of  the  Nile,  is  not  turned  to  any  account.  The  ebony  tree  predominates  in  the  fo- 
rests,! which  also  contain  many  species  of  palms. 

The  Jlcacia  vera  and  Mimosa  niloiica,  from  which  the  gum  is  obtain- 
ed, extend  from  Egypt  to  Darfoor.  Pliny  seems  to  reckon  the  large 
wild  cotton  tree  among  the  trees  of  Nubia.J  About  the  ancient  Meroe  apple  trees, 
according  to  Strabo,  ceased  to  prosper,  and  the  sheep  were  covered  with  hair  instead 
of  wool.§  Elephants,  rhinoceroses,  gazelles,  ostriches,  and  all  the  Afri-  |  Animals, 
can  animals,  perhaps  even  the  girafT:e,||  arc  to  be  seen  in  Nubia.  The  gold  of  Sen- 
naar is  sometimes  mentioned;  but,  though  [bn-al-Ooardy  says  that  there  |  Minerals, 
are  mines  of  this  metal  in  Nubia,  it  is  impossible  to  determine  their  situation.  The 
famous  mountain  of  emeralds,  which  was  said  to  be  in  Nubia,  belongs  to  its  northern 
part,  or  rather  to  the  south  of  Egypt.  It  is  called  Zubarah,  and  is  not  far  from  the 
Red  Sea.  Of  these  mines,  in  their  present  state,  we  have  already  given  an  account. 
Strabo  and  Diodorus  tell  us  that  the  ancient  Meroe,  which  corresponds  with  South- 
ern Nubia,  contained  mines  of  gold,  of  copper,  and  of  iron. IF 

It  would  be  vain  to  attempt  to  give  any  precise  account  of  the  politi-  |  Divisions. 
cal  subdivisions  of  a  country  so  little  known,  and  involved  in  so  wild  astate  of  anarchy. 
We  shall  merely  give  a  few  rapid  sketches  on  the  sul))ect.  Turkish 
Nubia  extends  from  Assooan,  or  Syene,  to  the  fort  of  Ibrim,  (or  Ibra- 
him,) which  Father  Sicard  dignifies  with  the  title  of  its  capital.**  The  power  of  the 
beys  or  pashas  of  Egypt  over  this  remote  district,  has  always  been  uncertain  and 
temporary.  At  present  the  energetic  and  enterprising  Pasha  Mahomed  Ali  has  ex- 
tended his  arms  to  a  great  distance  up  the  Nile,  having  subdued  the  whole  of  Nubia 
Proper,  and  even  taken  Sennaar. 

Egyptian  Nubia  contains,  along  the  banks  of  the  Nile,  numerous 
monuments  of  ancient  art,  as  temples,  obelisks,  and  statues.  Some  of 
these  monuments  are  Egyptian,  others  Grecian. 

At  Taffa,  the  granite  rocks  rise  prerupt  on  each  side  of  the  Nile,  the  chain  cross- 
ing it  at  this  place,  and  appearing  as  if  a  passage  had  been  cut  through  it  for  the 
river.  At  Katabishe  there  are  ruins  of  some  Sarazenic  houses,  and  an  elegant 
Egyptian  temple,  thought  to  have  been  built  in  the  time  of  the  Ptolemies  ;  in  that 
neighbourhood  the  ruins  of  a  small  Grecian  temple  are  observed,  which  has  been 
overturned  by  violence.  Lately  a  golden  Grecian  lamp  was  found  buried  under  the 
ruins. 

Deir,  the  capital  of  lower  Nubia,  consists  of  several  groups  of  houses  |  Deir. 
built  of  earth  intermixed  with  stones. 

Ibrim  is  built  on  a  rock  at  the  river's  edge,  but  the  houses  have  been  |  ibrim. 
deserted  ever  since  the  Mamelukes  left  the  place  on  their  retreat  to  Dongola. 

Mr.  Belzoni  is  the  first  recent  traveller  who  has  ascended  the  river  beyond  Ibrim. 
He  found  the  remains  of  a  well  constructed  tower  on  the  island  of  Hogos.  |  Hogos. 
The  people  here  are  exceedingly  poor  and  dirty,  sometimes  eating  the  raw  entrails 
of  animals,  afler  dipping  them  once  slightly  in  water.     At  Ebsambool  |  EbsamUooi. 
are  some  temples  and  colossal  statues.     Some  of  the  latter  cut  out  of  the  solid  rocK, 

•  Poncet,  Lettres  ^dif.  t.  iv.  f  Plin.  1.  vi.  chap.  SO, 

i  Idem,  lib.  xiii.  cap.  12.  §  Strabo,  lib.  xvii.  p.  565,  Casaiib. 

11  Bar.  Hebrjeus,  c\t6  par  Bruns.  1  Diod.  Sic.  i.  p.  29,  p,  145.     Wess. 
••  N.  Mem.  de  la  Comp.  de  Jesus,  ii.  186. 


Turkish 
Nubia. 


Sketches  of  to* 
pography  and 
antiquities. 


470  BOOK  SIXTY'THlllD. 

are  thirty  feet  higli.  The  inhabitants  of  the  place  and  neighbourhood  lead  the  most 
abject  lives  that  can  be  imagined.  The  Cachef  and  his  servants  make  the  freest 
use  of  the  property  of  the  people,  taking  without  ceremony  whatever  they  want.  If 
refused  they  use  force,  and  if  resisted  they  murder  the  opponent.  In  this  manner 
all  the  time  of  the  rulers  is  spent ;  and  in  this  manner  they  live.  Their  purchases 
and  sales  are  entirely  conducted  by  barter,  and  Mr.  Belzoni  found  it  almost  impossi- 
ble to  convince  them  that  money  could  procure  dourra  or  other  articles  from  Syene 
and  other  distant  places. 

At  Ooadi- Haifa,  above  Ebsambool,  is  the  second  cataract.  The  rock  forming  it 
is  black,  probably  basaltic.  It  seems  not  to  be  navigable  at  any  season.  The  high 
lands  of  northern  Nubia  are  inhabited  by  two  almost  independent  nomade  tribes. 
Barabrij.  |  One  of  them  lives  on  the  west  side  of  the  Nile,  and  is  called  the  Barabras. 
They  are  a  very  lean  race  of  men,  apparently  destitute  of  both  fat  and  of  flesh,  and 
made  up  of  nerves  and  tendons,  with  a  few  muscular  fibres,  more  elastic  than  strong. 
Their  shining  skin  is  of  a  transparent  black  and  brown.  They  have  no  resemblance  to 
the  negroes  of  the  west  of  Africa.  Their  hollow  eyes  sparkle  under  an  uncommonly 
projecting  eye-brow,  their  nostrils  are  large,  the  nose  sharp,  the  mouth  wide,  yet  the 
lips  thin  ;  the  hair  of  the  head  and  beard  is  thin  and  in  small  tufts.  Wrinkled  at  an 
early  ege,  but  always  lively,  always  nimble,  they  only  betray  their  age  by  the  white- 
ness of  their  beards.  Their  physiognomy  is  cheerful,  and  their  dispositions  lively 
and  good  humoured.  In  Egypt  they  are  generally  employed  to  watch  the  magazines 
and  wood  yards.  They  dress  in  a  piece  of  white  or  blue  AvooUen  cloth,  earn  very 
little,  subsist  on  next  to  nothing,  and  are  always  attached  and  faithful  to  their  masters.* 
The  AbabJ^s.  |  The  deserts  situated  to  the  east  of  the  Nile,  from  the  valley  of  Cosseir 
till  we  proceed  far  south  in  Nubia,  are  occupied  by  the  Ababdes.  They  are  ene- 
mies to  all  the  tribes  which  live  between  the  valley  of  Cosseir  and  the  isthmus  of 
Suez.  The  Ababdes  ditfer  entirely  in  their  customs,  language,  and  dress,  from  the 
Arabs  found  in  Egypt.  They  are  black,  but  have  the  same  form  of  head  as  the 
Europeans. I  Their  heads  are  uncovered,  but  their  hair  is  worn  long.  Their  cloth- 
ing consists  of  a  piece  of  cloth  fixed  over  the  haunches.  They  anoint  their  bodies, 
and  particularly  their  heads,  with  suet.  They  have  no  fire-arms,  and  few  horses. 
They  rear  a  sort  of  camel  which  they  call  aguine,  which  is  smaller,  better  made, 
and  more  active  than  the  common  kind.  Their  warlike  amusements  are  animated 
by  a  music  less  pensive  and  dull  than  that  of  the  Egyptians.  The  same  individual 
is  both  poet  and  musician,  and  he  accompanies  his  song  with  a  sort  of  mandoline. 
They  are  Mahometans,  but  not  rigid.  They  bury  their  dead  by  covering  the  bodies 
%vith  stones. 

State  of  Don-  I       The  middle  part  of  Nubia  contains  a  state  or  kingdom  concerning 
goia-  I  which  we  have  little  recent  information.     It  goes  under  the  name  of 

Dongola,  which  is  also  the  name  of  the  capital, — a  city  rich  and  commercial,  and 
containing  10,000  families,  according  to  the  Arabian  authors  of  the  middle  a-ge.'l 
Poncet  found  the  city  ill  built,  the  cabins  formed  of  clay,  and  the  intervening  spaces 
encumbered  with  sand-hills. §  The  castle  which  stands  in  the  centre  of  the  city  is 
spacious  but  poorly  fortified,  though  sufficient  to  keep  the  Arabs  in  check.  The 
fields,  watered  by  the  Nile,  exhibit  in  the  month  of  September  an  agreeable  verdure. 
The  people  conjoin  great  ferocity  with  great  cunning.  The  palace,  like  those  of  all 
the  kings  of  Africa,  is  a  vast  cottage.  According  to  Thevenot,  the  king  of  Dongola 
paid  a  tribute  in  cloth  to  the  king  of  Sennaar.  The  inhabitants  export  slaves,  gold 
Adust,  and  ostrich  feathers,  and,  according  to  Leo,  musk  and  sandal-wood.  They  are 
iBarabras,  or,  as  Thevenot  calls  them,  Barberins.  Persons  of  rank  here  go  bare- 
headed, their  hair  being  disposed  in  tresses,  and  their  whole  clothing  consists  in  a 
rude  vest  without  sleeves.  They  are  very  skilful  riders,  and  have  beautiful  horses. 
Taey  profess  the  religion  of  Mahomet,  and  continually  repeat  its  brief  and  compre- 
hensive creed,  but  know  nothing  farther.     Their  lives  are  extremely  dissolute.    The 

•  Costaz,  Mem.  sur  les  Barabras,  dans  la  Descript.  de  I'Egypte.  Denon,  Pi.  107,  fig.  4.  The- 
enot.  Voyage,  p.  i.  1.  2.  ch.  69. 

t  M^m.  sur  I'Egypte,  iii.  p.  280.  i  Leo  Africanus,  vii.  cap.  17.     Bakooi,  &c, 

§  Poncet,  Lettr.  6dif.  iv.  p.  8.     (JV.jB.  Gondala  is  a  typographical  error.) 


Kinplom  of 
Sennaar. 


SENNAAR.  471 

Mamelukes,  when  they  fled  from  Egypt,  lately  took  possession  of  Dongola,  but  sub- 
sequently Mahomed  Ali,  Pasha  of  Kgypt,  carried  his  victorious  arms  to  this  part  of 
Nubia,  and  added  it  to  his  dominions. 

Ascending  to  the  confluence  of  the  great  Nile  with  the  Nile  of  Abys- 
sinia, we  enter  the  territories  of  the  kingdom  of  Sennaar,  wliich  occupy 
the  space  assigned  by  the  ancients  to  the  famous  empire  of  M^eroe,  the  origin  of 
Avhich  is  lost  amidst  the  darkness  of  antiquity.  Many  writers,  both  ancient  and  mo- 
dern, have  considered  it  as  the  cradle  of  all  the  religious  and  political  institutions  of 
Egypt,*  and  it  must  at  least  be  admitted  to  have  been  a  very  civilized  and  a  very 
powerful  state.  Bruce  thought  that  he  su.w  the  ruins  of  its  capital  under  the  village 
of  Shandy,  opposite  to  the  isle  of  Kurgos.  The  distances  given  by  Herodotus  and 
Eratosthenes  coincide  very  well  with  that  position  ;  and  the  island  which,  according 
to  Pliny,  formed  the  port  of  Meroe,  is  found  to  correspond  with  equal  probability. 

The  JVubcB  of  Ptolemy  lived  more  to  the  west.  They  probably  ex-  |  iniiabUams. 
tended  to  the  countries  adjoining  the  Nile,  above  the  fall  of  Meroe.  These  people 
are  a  gentle  sort  of  Negroes,  with  small  features,  woolly  hair,  flat  noses,  |  The  Nubians, 
speaking  a  soft  sonorous  language  totally  distinct  from  that  of  their  neighbours. 
They  are  idolaters,  or  rather,  according  to  Bruce,  they  appear  to  have  preserved 
some  traces  of  the  ancient  religion  of  the  Sabeans.  They  worship  the  moon,  and 
always  do  homage  to  that  luminary  while  she  shines  during  the  night.  At  new  moon 
they  issue  from  their  dark  huts,  and  pronounce  some  forms  of  religious  words. 
They  seemed  to  Bruce  to  show  less  respect  to  the  sun.  The  Nuba;  resemble  the 
Mahometans  in  being  circumcised,  but  they  keep  flocks  of  pigs,  and  cat  pork  freely. 
They  probably  were  once  subdued  by  the  Arabs  ;  for,  according  to  Bakooi,|  the 
Nubians  had  a  king  of  the  ancient  family  of  the  Homerites.  It  is  possible,  how- 
ever, as  this  same  author  affirms,  that  they  may  have  been  Christians.  The  Chris- 
tian religion  was  lost  for  want  of  priests,  which  they  could  no  longer  procure  from 
Egypt,  and  with  which  the  Abyssinians  refused  to  supply  them.;}] 

In  1504  a  negro  nation,  till  then  unknown,  leaving  the  west  bank  of  |  The  shiiiooUs, 
the  White  River,  or  Bahr-el-Abiad,  embarked  on  this  river,  and  came  down  to  invade 
the  lands  of  the  Nubian  Arabs.  The  event  of  a  very  bloody  battle  proved  favourable 
to  their  cause.  These  negroes  called  themselves  Shillooks.  They  demanded  that 
the  Arabs  should  give  them  every  year  one-half  of  their  flocks.  On  this  condition, 
they  allowed  the  Arabs  to  retain  their  own  chief,  under  the  title  of  wed-ap;id,  and  lieu- 
tenant of  their  malek.  On  the  Blue  River,  or  Abyssinian  Nile,  the  Shillooks  founded 
the  city  of  Sennaar,  which,  according  to  Poncet,  contained  100,000  in-  cityof  Sen- 
habitants.§  It  is  a  commercial  place,  and  sends  caravans  to  Egypt,  to  "^"^' 
Nigritia,  and  to  the  port  of  Jidda  in  Arabia.  The  brick  walls  of  the  malek\s  palace, 
and  some  Persian  tapestry  displayed  in  the  interior,  announce  the  magnificence  of  a 
great  sovereign  for  this  country.  The  town  is  nearly  on  the  same  level  with  the 
river,  being  only  as  high  above  it  as  to  prevent  the  danger  of  being  flooded.  The 
soil  of  the  adjoining  district,  for  a  breadth  of  two  miles  on  each  side  of  the  river,  is 
uncommonly  rich  and  fertile,  and  produces  great  abundance  of  food.  But  the  coun- 
try is  unhealthy  to  men,  and  no  domestic  animals  can  live  in  it.  The  latter  are 
reared  on  the  neighbouring  sands.  The  king  of  Sennaar  cannot  maintain  a  single 
horse,  while  the  sheik  of  the  desert  has  a  regular  establishment  of  cavalry. 

To  the  north  of  Sennaar  we  find  Gherri,  the  ancient  capital  of  the  Nubians;  Hal- 
faya,  which  is  built  of  hewn  stone;  Ilarbagi,  in  a  wooded  country,  where  the  yellow 
and  blue  flowers  of  a  very  thorny  acacia  exhale  their  perfumes,  and  where  the  scene 
is  animated  with  paroquets,  and  a  tiiousand  other  birds.  To  the  south  we  find  (iisine, 
in  the  midst  of  a  forest  oi'  iloomy  palms,  the  leaves  of  which  are  used  for  making  sails 
and  cordage,  while  their  fruit  contains  a  juice  very  pleasant  to  drink, ||  then  Deleb; 
and,  after  crossing  a  forest  of  tamarind  trees,  we  find  Scrke,  a  town  of  700  houses 
on  the  frontier  of  Abyssinia. 

•  Ifecren,  Idem  uber  Politick,  &c.  i.  262,  &c.  1st.  edition. 

t  Not.  et  E.\tr.  de  iVlSS.  de  la  Biblioth.  +  Alvarez,  Hist.  jEtlieop-  c.  37. 

§  Poncet,  p.  25  and  36.  ij  lb.  p.  47. 


On  the  name 
of  Fungi. 

is  worthy  o 


Southern  pro- 
vinces. 


472  BOOK  SIXTY-THIRD. 

Government.    |       TliG  Shillooks  wevo  Originally  idolaters,  but  their  intercourse  with  the 
Egyptians  brought  them  over  to  Mahometanism.     Their  government  is  despotic, 
yet  mild.     They  attach  to  the  title  of  slave  the  same  honour  which  in  Europe  is  con- 
nected with  that  of  a  nobleman.     The  kingdom  is  hereditary,  descending  to  the 
eldest  son,  and  all  the  other  sons  are  put  to  death.     A  council  of  the  grandees  of 
the  state  has  the  power  of  deposing  the  sovereign,  or  condemning  him  to  death. 
During  his  reign,  there  is  one  of  his  relations  whose  office  it  is  to  act  the  execu- 
tioner's part  in  case  of  his  condemnation,  and  who  has  the  title  of  the  royal  hangman. 
It  is  a  place  of  great  distinction;   and  the  individual  who  holds  it  lives  on  terms  of 
sufficient  cordiality  with  the   prince  to  whom  he  stands  in  so  singular  a  relation. 
Some  of  them  have  had  repeated  occasion  to  exercise  their  function.     The  army 
consists  of  1800  Shillook  cavalry,  and  12,000  Nubians  armed  with  lances.     The 
name  of  Fungi  by  which  the  Shillooks  arc  called,  is,  according  to  Bruns, 
only  an  honourable  title  of  Arabic  derivation*  signifying  victors.     But  it 
'  remark,  that  the  Portuguese  give  the  name  of  Funchens  to  a  nation  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  Congo.     Sennaar,  however,  is  included  among  the  recent  con- 
quests of  the  Pasha  of  Egypt;   and  if  the  former  government,  with  its  laws  and  ar- 
rangements, is  permitted  to  remain,  it  is  only  as  the  vassal  of  that  Turkish  power. 
According  to  some  geographers,  we  must  also  comprehend  in  Nubia 
three  provinces '  situated  to  the  south  of  Sennaar.     The  lirst   is  El- 
Aice,  situated  on  both  sides  of  a  great  river,  a  country  peopled  by  fishermen,  who  in 
their  small  barks  boldly  pass  the  cataracts. 

Kordofon  extends  along  the  Bahr-el-Abiad.  There  a  trade  is  carried  on  in  slaves, 
brought  from  Dyre  and  from  Tegla,  unknown  countries  of  the  interior. 

Lastly,  the  country  of  Fazuelo  is  bounded  on  the  cast  by  the  Bahr-cl-Azurek,  or 
the  Nile  of  Abyssinia.  The  public  revenues  here  are  paid  in  gold  or  in  slaves. 
These  three  countries,  hov/ever,  seem  to  undergo  a  frequent  change  of  masters,  and, 
according  to  Browne,  Kordofan  was  about  twenty  years  ago  subject  to  the  sultan  of 
Darfoor. 

We  might  have  now  given  a  sketch  of  the  coast  of  Nubia  on  the  Arabian  Gulf, 
but  several  reasons,  both  geographical  and  historical,  have  determined  us  to  connect 
that  territory  in  the  same  description  with  the  coast  of  Abyssinia,  which  will  be  found 
in  a  subsequent  part  of  the  present  Book. 

Abyssinia.       |       To  the  south  of  Nubia  are  situated  the  extensive  provinces  which 
belong,  or  have  belonged,  to  the  kingdom  of  Ethiopia,  more  generally  known  by  the 
name  of  Abyssinia.     We  have  not  much  certain  and  authentic  information,  respect- 
ing this  country.     The  accounts  given  by  the  Arabian  geographers,  Bakooi,  Edrisi,  - 
and  most  particularly  by  Macrizi,!  show  us  that  the  Mahometans  have  had  little 
connection  with  this  Christian  empire.     The  modern  geography  of  the  country  is  al- 
most entirely  derived  from  the  travels  of  the  Portuguese,  Alvarez,  Bermudez,  Payz, 
Almeida,  and  Lobo,  carefully  extracted  by  their  countryman  Tellez,  and  learnedly 
commented  on  by  the  German  Ludolf,  the  Strabo  of  these  countries.     To   this   we 
must  add  a  few  notices  furnished  by  Thevenot  and  Poncet.     An  important  narrative 
by  Petit-la-Croix,  dated  in  1700,  partly  drawn  up  from  information  furnished  by  Abys- 
sinians  whom  the  author  had  known  in  Egypt,  exists  in  manuscript  in  the   library  at 
Lcyden.J     At  last,  in  the  eighteenth  century,  appeared  the  famous  work  of  Mr. 
Bruce,  the  best  known,  though  not  the  purest  of  fill  our  sources  of  information.     It 
has  since  received  confirmation  in  some  points,  and  correction  in  others,  from  Mr. 
Salt. 

It  is  with  these  insufficient  materials  that  geography  has  to  make  out  a  description 
of  Abyssinia.  This  description  must  therefore  be  vague  and  incomplete.  Our  ac- 
count of  the  situation  and  extent  of  the  country  does  not  admit  of  rigorous  precision; 
Situation  and  for  the  limits  -which  separate  the  Abyssinians  from  Nubia  on  the  north, 
extent.  fioni  the  Galla  on  the  south-west  and  south,  and  from  the  kingdom  of 

Add  on  the  south-cast,  constantly  depend  on  the  uncertain  issue  of  frequent  appeals 

•  Afrika,  t.  ii.  p.  31.  f  Bmns,  Afrika,  ii.  49—57. 

i  liixnistahl,  Voyage,  p.  391.  (in  German.)     Bruns,  Afrika,  ii.  65. 


AHYSSIKIA.  473 

to  arms.  If  wc  include  in  it  the  coasts  of  the  Red  Sea,  and  the  provinces  occupied 
by  the  Gallaa,  wc  may  give  Abyssinia  a  length  of  5G0  miles,  from  the  15th  to  the  7th 
parallel  of  north  latitude,  and  a  breadth  of  640  miles  from  the  32d  to  the  42d  degree 
of  east  longitude.  Taken  in  this  geographical  and  historical  acceptation,  Abysshua 
would  have  an  extent  of  322,000  square  miles.  This  country  corresponds  to  the 
southern  part  of  the  JEthiopia  supra  JEgrjplum  of  the  ancients,  and,  although  we 
are  certain  that  the  denomination  of  Ethiopians  is  of  Greek  origin,  and  Difftrcnt 
has  been  employed  to  signify  every  people  of  a  deep  complexion,  the  "»"'«• 
Abyssinians  still  call  themselves  Iliopiawnn,  and  their  country  Itiopia.  But  they  jyrcfer 
the  name  of  Agazuui  for  the  people,  and  that  of  AgazT,  or  Giiez  for  the  kingdom. 
The  name  of  Habesh,  given  to  them  by  the  Mahometans,  and  from  which  the  Euro- 
peans have  coined  such  names  as  Massi  and  Abyssini,  is  an  Arabic  term,  signifying 
"  a  mixed  people,"  and  the  Abyssinians  scornfully  disclaim  it.* 

Considered  as  a  whole,  Abyssinia  forms  a  table  land  gently  inclined  to  the  north- 
west, and  having  two  great  steeps  on  the  east  and  ou  the  south  ;  the  first  towards 
the  Arabian  Gulf,  and  the  second  towards  the  interior  of  Africa.  Do  |  Mountains, 
these  two  steeps  consist  of  regular  chains  ?  or  are  they  only  crowned  with  isrdatcd 
mountains,  like  Lamahr.on  and  Amba-(Jcdeou?  These  are  rpiestions  which  we  arc 
not  yet  prepared  to  answer.  Travellers  only  speak  in  a  general  way  of  the  extraor- 
dinary configuration  of  these  mountains.  They  shoot  up  almost  every  whore  in 
sharp  peaks,  and  are  ascended  by  means  of  ropes  and  ladders.  The  rocks  re'semble 
the  ramparts  and  traces  of  ruined  towns.  Father  Tellez  pretends  that  these  moun- 
tains are  higher  than  the  Alps,"j'  but  we  find  them  nowhere  capped  with  snow,  except, 
perhaps,  the  Samen  mountains  in  the  province  of  Tigre,  and  that  of  Namera  in 
G  of  am.  J 

The  number  of  rivers  which  take  their  rise  in  this  country  is  one  evi-  |  Rivers, 
dence  of  its  great  elevation.  Beginning  in  the  west,  the  Malcg,  the  Bahr-el-Azurok, 
or  Abyssinian  Nile,  (the  Astapus  of  the  ancients,)  the  Ilahad,  which  receives  the 
Dender,  and  the  Tacazze,  which  receives  the  Mareb,  all  contribute  to  form  or  to 
augment  the  great  Nile,  v.-hile  the  Hanazo  and  the  Ilawash  disappear  under  the  sand 
before  reaching  the  Aral)ian  Gulf.  The  Zebce  runs  perhaps  to  the  coasts  of  Zan- 
quebar.  According  to  Petit-la-Croix,  it  is  lost  in  the  sands  of  the  soutlicrn  phitoau.vj 
Wc  must  also  take  notice  of  the  great  lake  Dembea,  whicli,  like  all  those  of  the  tor- 
rid zone,  changes  its  size  witli  the  revolutions  of  the  seasons. 

In  general,  the  rivers,  the  rains,  and  the  elevation  of  the  surfice,  ren-  |  Ttmiaiatinv. 
der  the  temperature  much  cooler  than  that  of  Egypt  and  of  Nubia.  The  heat  of 
the  atmosphere,  judging  by  the  feelings  of  the  human  body,  is  much  less  than  that 
indicated  by  the  thermometer.  ||  Some  of  the  provinces  are  even  more  trmpcrate 
than  Portugal  or  Spain ;  but  in  the  low  villages,  the  eflects  of  a  suflocating  heat  arc 
combined  with  those  of  the  exhalations  of  stagnant  water,  to  give  origin  to  elephan- 
tiasis, ophthalmia,  and  many  fatal  diseases.  IT 

The  winter  in  Abyssinia,  in  so  far  as  weather  is  concerned,  begins  in  |  Seasons. 
June,  and  continues  till  the  beginning  of  September.  The  rain,  often  attended  with 
thunder  and  dreadful  hurricanes,  obliges  the  inhabitants  to  intermit  all  their  labours, 
and  puts  a  stop  to  all  military  operations.**  The  other  months  of  the  year  are  not 
entirely  exempt  from  inclement  weather.  The  finest  are  those  of  December  and 
January.  This  is  the  general  character  of  the  climate,  particularly  in  the  interior 
of  the  country.  But  the  mountainous  surface  of  Abyssinia  gives  rise  to  many  va- 
riations. In  the  east,  on  the  borders  of  the  lied  Sea,  between  the  shore  and  flic 
mountains,  the  rainy  season  begins  when  it  is  over  in  the  interior.  This  singularity 
greatly  surprised  Alvarez,  a  Portuguese,  who,  at  Dobba,  found  himself  transported 
at  once  from  winter  to  summcr.|j 

•  Luclolf,  Hist.  1.  i.  ch.  i.  Comment,  p.  50.  f  Liulolf,  Illsl.  i.  6. 

+  Lobo,  Hist.  JRth.  i.  p.  1  tl.     Hist,  clc  cc  qui  s'cst  pas.sc,  fkc.  p.  lot. 
§  IJiuns,  AfVika,  ii.  87.  H   Jiliuiicnbacli's  Notes  on  Jirucc,  v.  274, 

i  Alviuez,  Hist.  c.  .11.  c.  67.  IJrucc,  8ic. 
••  Lobo,  Hist.  i.  101.     Urucf,  &.c.  tf  H'sl.  t.  •17 

Vol.  II.— 3  V 


474  BOOK  SlXTY-THlUll. 


Mineral  pro' 
duetioni. 


Abyssinia,  being  full  of  mountains,  cannot  be  destitute  of  minerals. 
According  to  the  manuscript  of  Petit-la-Croix,  it  contains  many  mines  of 
iron,  copper,  lead,  and  sulphur,*  but  no  mention  is  made  of  them  by  travellers.  The 
washing  operations  of  Damota,  and  the  shallow  mines  of  Enarea,  produce  a  gold  of 
extreme  fineness.!  Bruce  informs  us  that  the  finest  gold  is  found  in  the  western 
provinces,  at  the  feet  of  the  mountains  of  Dyre  and  Tegla.  The  great  plains,  co- 
vered with  rock-salt,  at  the  bottom  of  the  eastern  mountains,  have  excited  the  admi- 
ration of  travellers.  The  salt  here  forms  crystals  of  uncommon  length. 
Finn's-  I       In  a  mountainous  humid  country,  warmed  by  a  vertical  sun,  the  vege- 

table kingdom  naturally  displays  a  magnificence  which  botanists  are  sorry  they  have 
not  an  opportunity  of  surveying.  On  this,  as  on  many  other  points,  Mr.  Bruce  has 
deceived  our  hopes.  He  gives  little  information  that  is  really  new.  The  ctisso  tree, 
for  example,  which  he  has  named  Banksia  Myssinica,  had  been  previously  described 
by  Godigny.;j:  Messrs.  Blumenbach  and  Gmelin  had  been  long  acquainted  with  the 
girgir,  a  gramineous  plant,  which  the  English  traveller  considered  as  a  discovery  of 
his  own.  The  trees  of  Abyssinia  hitherto  described,  though  probably  not  the  prin- 
cipal ones  of  the  country,  are  the  sycamore-fig,  the  Erythrina  corallodendron,  the 
tamarind,  the  date,  the  coffee  tree,  a  large  tree  used  for  building  boats  which  Bruce 
calls  the  rak,  and  two  species  of  gum-bearing  mimosas.  The  Eiiphorbiwn  arhorescens 
is  found  on  some  of  the  arid  mountains.  A  shrub  called  in  the  language  of  the 
country  icooginoos,  the  Brucea  antidysenterica  of  Bruce  and  Gmelin,  is  justly  praised 
by  the  EngUsh  traveller  for  its  medical  powers. 

Alimentary  The  chief  alimentary  plants  are  millet,  barley,  wheat,  maize,  and  teff, 

plants.  besides  which  there  are  many  others.     All  travellers  concur  in  praising 

the  fine  wheatcn  bread  of  Abyssinia;  but  it  is  only  eaten  by  people  of  rank. 

The  teff  or  tafo  is  a  grain  smaller  than  mustard  seed,  well  tasted,  and  not  liable  to 
the  depredations  of  worms.  §  Blumenbach  thinks  that  it  is  the  same  with  the  Poa 
Abyssinica.  The  gardens  of  Abyssinia  contain  many  species  of  fruit  trees,  and  of 
leguminous  and  oily  plants  which  are  unknown  to  us.||  There  are  generally  two 
harvests,  one  during  the  rainy  season,  in  the  months  of  July,  August,  and  September; 
the  other  in  spring.  At  Adowa  and  in  the  neighbourhood,  there  are  three  crops. 
Here,  as  in  Egypt,  the  grain  is  thrashed  by  the  feet  of  cattle.  Some  vines  are  cul- 
tivated, and  wine  is  made,  though  in  very  small  quantity;  for  this  liquor  is  not  much 
relished  by  the  inhabitants,  who  prefer  a  sort  of  hydromel  mixed  with  opium.  The 
natives  cultivate  great  quantities  of  a  herbaceous  alimentary  plant  resembling  the 
banana,  which  serves  them  for  bread,  and  which  Lobo  calls  ensete.^  The  Cypc- 
Aromatio  trees.  |  ms  papyrus  is  found  in  the  marshes  of  Abyssinia  as  well  as  in  Egypt. 
Mr.  Bruce  asserts,  that  the  tree  which  produces  the  balm  of  Judea,  and  myrrh,  is 
indigenous  in  Abyssinia,  or  more  properly  speaking,  on  the  coast  of  Adel,  from  the 
Straits  of  Bab-el-mandeb  to  Cape  Guardafooi.  He  expresses  his  apprehensions 
that  the  odoriferous  forests  of  that  country,  which  were  known  even  to  Herodotus,** 
were  cut  down  so  fast  that  they  were  in  danger  of  soon  disappearing.  The  whole 
of  Abyssinia  is  scented  with  the  perfumes  exhaled  from  the  roses,  jessamines,  lilies, 
and  primroses  with  which  the  fields  are  covered. 

Animals.  |  The  animal  kingdom  displays  equal  variety  and  abundance.  The 
cattle  are  numerous  and  of  large  size,  with  horns  of  enormous  length.  There  are 
wild  buffaloes,  which  sometimes  attack  travellers.  The  ass  and  the  mule  supply  in 
this  country  the  place  of  the  camel.  The  horses,  which  are  small  but  extremely 
lively,  as  in  all  mountainous  countries,  are  only  used  for  the  purposes  of  war.  The 
Twohomedi  two  horncd  rhinoccros  is  seen  wandering  in  numerous  flocks.  This  ani- 
rhmoceros.  ^^^  differs  essentially  from  the  one-horned  rhinoceros  of  Asia.  Lobo 
and  Bruce  both  think,  in  opposition  to  the  general  opinion  of  naturalists,  that  the 


*  Bruna.  ii.  117. 

t  Alvarez,  c.  39.  c.  133.     Ludolf,  Hist.  i.  7.     Thevenot,  ii.  69.  p.  760. 

i  Bruns,  Afrika,  ii.  115. 

§  Gmelin's  Appendix  to  Brace's  Travels,  p.  59  of  Rinteln's  German  tr.inslation. 

H  Pelit-la-Croix,  c.  6.     Alvarez,  c.  19.  c.  44.  c.  48.         %  Lo1)0,  Voyage  Ilistorique,  i.  p.  143. 

•»  riiiJosophical  Transactions,  Ixv.  409. 


AHYSSINIA.  475 

one-horned  rhinoceros  is  also  found  in  Abyssinia.  But  Lobo  says  that  he  has  found 
in  the  accounts  given  by  some  of  his  own  countrymen,  another  animal  quite  different 
from  the  rhinoceros.  This,  he  supposes  to  be  the  famous  unicorn,  which  resembles 
the  horse,  and  is  furnished  with  a  mane.*  Very  probably  these  Portuguese  had  seen 
the  same  animal  which  has  lately  been  seen,  and  authentically  described,  by  Mr. 
Campbell,  in  exploring  the  south  of  Africa,  and  of  which  we  shall  give  an  account  in 
a  subsequent  Book. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  name  the  lions,  panthers,  and  various  other  animals  of  the  cat 
kind,  of  which  Africa  is  the  native  country.  The  giraffe  extends  to  |  The  giraffe. 
Abyssinia.  Marco  Polo  and  Bakooi,  an  Arabian  author,  long  ago  spoke  of  it  in  such 
a  way  as  to  leave  no  doubt  of  its  existence.  Browne  says  that  it  is  found  in  Dar- 
foor.  So  numerous,  so  ferocious,  and  so  bold  are  the  hyajnas  in  Abyssinia,  that  they 
sometimes  prowl  in  the  streets  of  the  towns  during  the  night.  There  are  also  wild 
boars,  gazelles  or  antelopes,  and  monkeys  ;  among  the  last  is  a  small  green  kind 
which  commits  serious  ravages  among  the  corn.  Lobo  and  Petit-La-Croix,!  de- 
scribe the  zebra  so  minutely  as  to  show  that  this  animal  is  found  in  Abys-  |  The  Zebra, 
sinia.  The  Mikoho^  described  by  Mr.  Bruce,  is  the  Cavia  cajienis  according  to 
Blumenbach,  and  the  booted  lynx  according  to  Gmehn.J  There  is  also  a  great 
number  of  serpents  of  remarkable  species,  and  enormous  in  size.  The  lakes  and 
rivers  swarm  with  hippopotami  and  crocodiles.  The  species  of  birds  are  no  less 
numerous.  One  of  these  is  the  great  gilded  eagle.  Alvarez  and  Lobo  mention 
many  singular  birds  resembling  the  birds  of  paradise,  the  ostrich,  and  other  species 
peculiar  to  the  torrid  zone  ;  but  aquatic  birds  are  rare. 

Travellers  speak  of  many  species  of  wild  bees,  which  build  their  |  insecti. 
combs  under  ground,  and  produce  excellent  honey. §  The  most  remarkable  insect 
is  a  fly,  the  sting  of  which  is  dreaded  even  by  the  lion,  and  which  forces  whole  tribes 
to  change  their  residence,  a  circumstance  which  Agatharcides  had  anticipated  Bruce 
.  in  remarking.  II  The  locusts  are  still  more  destructive.  Their  numberless  swarms 
devastate  whole  provinces,  and  involve  the  inhabitants  in  the  miseries  of  famine. IT 

This  general  description  of  so  extensive  a  country,  must  be  subject 
to  many  local  gradations  and  modifications,  depending  on  the  different 
positions  of  its  component  parta.  But  our  topographical  information  respecting 
Abyssinia  is  so  limited  and  obscure,  that  we  cannot  even  give  a  complete  enumera- 
tion of  the  provinces.  Ludolf  speaks  of  nine  kingdoms  and  five  provinces.  The- 
venot,  from  the  information  of  an  Ethiopian  ambassador,  says  there  are  seven  king- 
doms and  twenty-four  provinces.  Bruce  mentions  nineteen  provinces,  and,  lastly, 
Petit-la-Croix  enumerates  thirty-five  kingdoms  and  ten  provinces,  which  have  be- 
longed to  the  Abyssinian  monarch,  of  which  he  retains  only  six  kingdoms  and  a 
half,  with  the  ten  provinces.** 

Reserving  the  maritime  parts  of  Abyssinia  for  another  place,  wo  must 
begin  our  tour  with  the  kingdom  of  Tigre,  which  forms  the  north-east- 
ern extremity  of  Abyssinia.  This  large  and  very  populous  province  contains  the 
city  of  Axum,  which  is  120  miles  from  the  Red  Sea.^l  It  is  the  ancient  |  cuyof  Axum. 
residence  of  the  Abyssinian  monarchs,  who  still  go  thither  for  the  ceremony  of  coro- 
nation. The  learned  are  not  agreed  respecting  the  antiquity  of  this  city,  which  was 
not  known  to  Herodotus  or  Strabo.  The  first  author  who  mentions  it  is  Arrian,  in 
his  Periplus  of  the  Erythrean  Sea.  In  the  second  century,  when  he  wrote,  it  was  a 
place  of  great  trade  in  ivory.+J  Its  flourishing  condition  in  the  fourteenth,  fifteenth, 
and  sixteenth  centuries,  is  attested  by  the  descriptions  left  us  by  Procopius,  Ste- 
phanus  Byzantinus,  Cosmas,  and  Nonnossus.§i§  The  Portuguese  travellers  found  in 
it  magnificent  ruins,  the  remains  of  temples  and  palaces,  obelisks  without  hicrogly- 

•  Lobo,  Short  Relat.  p.  23.  f  Idem.  Voy.  Hist.  i.  291—292.   Bnins,  ii.  91. 

i  See  Brace's  Travels,  Appendix.  §  Ludolf,  Hist.  i.  13.     Lobo,  i.  p.  89. 

0  Agath.  in  Geogr.  Mill.  Hudson,  i.  43,  t  Alvarez,  c.  82,  83,  Loho.  Ludolf 

••  Petit-la-Croix,  ch.  21.  |f  D'Anvillc,  Mem.  sur  I'Egypte,  p.  265. 

i^  Hudson,  Geogr.  Minor,  t.  i.  1.  3. 

§§  Quoted  by  Ludolf,  Hist,  iFAhiop.  ii.  ch.  11.     Comment,  p.  60  and  251. 


Uncertainty  of 
t!ie  number  of 
)ir<iTince», 


Kingdom  of 
TigrC'. 


476  HOOK  SIXTV-TiniCD. 

phics,  one  of  which  was  sixty-four  feet  in  height,  consisting  of  a  single  block  of 
granite,  terminated  by  a  crescent  with  mutilated  figures  of  lions,  bears,  and  dogs, 
and  Greek  and  Latin  cliaracters.*  According  to  Mr.  Salt,  the  obelisk,  which  is  still 
standing,  is  eighty  feet  high.  There  were  fifty-four  others  which  had  been  thrown 
down  by  the  misguided  zeal  of  a  Christian  princess.  The  scat  on  which  the  kings 
used  to  sit  when  the  crown  was  put  on  their  head,  in  front  of  the  great  church,  has 
Inscription.  |  an  Ethiopic  inscription.  Another  Greek  inscription  on  a  monument,  the 
original  purpose  of  which  is  unknown,  attests  the  victories  of  King  Aeizanes.  The 
existence  of  that  inscription,  establishes  the  authenticity  of  the  one  seen* by  Cosmas 
at  Adulis.  But  tlie  one  which  Bruce  pretended  to  have  discovered  at  Axum  appears 
to  have  been  a  mere  fabrication.  The  modern  town  of  Axum  reckons  600  houses, 
I)ut  no  remarkable  buildings.  It  contains  manufactories  of  good  parchment,  and  of 
coarse  cotton  stuffs.  This  last  branch  of  industry  is  also  carried  on  to  a  great  ex- 
tent at  Adorva,  a  town  of  300  houses,  which  has,  since  1769,  become  the  capital  of 
the  province.  The  neighbourhood  of  Adorva,  though  containing  steep  mountains, 
yields  three  crops  in  the  year. — In  the  northern  part  of  this  province,  on  the  road 
DLxan,  j  from  Masuah  to  Axum,  is  Dixan,  a  considerable  town  with  flat-roofed 

houses,  on  the  tops  of  which  two  earthen  pots  are  stuck  up  instead  of  chimneys. 
The  inliabitants  are  said  to  be  idle  and  dirty.  The  women  perform  the  drudgeries 
of  agriculture,  to  which  they  go  out  carrying  their  children  on  their  backs.  The 
peoj)lc  are  very  ignorant,  and  the  few  who  can  read  are  considered  as  fully  qualified 
lor  the  priesthood.  It  is  an  emporium  for  the  sale  of  white  cloths,  tobacco,  pepper, 
looking-glasses,  and  spirits.  Many  children  are  also  sold  and  sent  to  the  Arabians 
ivmpie  of  of  Mecca. — At  Abuhasubba,  between  Dixan  and  Axum,  there  is  a  large 

Ai,„i.asubba.  church  cut  entirely  out  of  the  solid  rock.  One  of  its  rooms  is  fifty 
foot  by  thirty  :  another  has  a  dome  forty  feet  high.  The  walls  are  carved,  adorned 
with  crosses,  Ethiopic  inscriptions,  and  paintings  representing  Christ,  the  apostles, 
and  St.  George.  On  the  eastern  frontier  of  Tigre  is  the  town  of  Antale,  which, 
during  the  visit  of  Mr.  Salt,  was  the  seat  of  government,  being  the  residence  of  the 
viceroy,  Ras  Wellata  Selasse.  It  consists  of  aboutl  000  hovels  of  mud  and  straw, 
Mi.nasteryof  together  with  the  palace. — In  this  province  is  the  monastery  of  Fre- 
Fremona.  mona,  which  has  always  been  the  chief  establishment  of  the  Jesuits. 

It  is  about  a  mile  in  circumference,  surrounded  by  walls,  flanked  with  towers,  and 
pierced  for  musquetry.  It  appeared  to  Mr.  Bruce  to  have  more  the  air  of  a  castle 
than  of  a  convent,  and  to  be  the  most  defensible  place  that  he  saw  in  Abyssinia.  The 
province  of  Tigre  in  general  is  extremely  fertile,  but  the  inhabitants  are  a  ferocious, 
blood-thirsty,  corrupt,  and  perfidious  race.t 

The  provinces  adjoining  Tigre  on  the  west  are  called  Wogara,  Sireh, 
and  Samen.  Wogara  is  one  of  the  granaries  of  Abyssinia.  The  hu- 
mid plains  of  the  Sireh  produce  numerous  palms,  and  a  variety  of  fruit  trees.  The 
banks  of  the  Tacazze,  on  its  borders,  are  very  beautiful,  from  the  number  of  fine 
trees  with  which  they  are  decorated.  In  Samen  we  find  several  mountain  chains, 
the  most  celobrated  of  which  are  Lamalmon  and  Amba-Gideon.  The  last  is  pro- 
perly a  table  land,  which  has  so  steep  a  descent  all  round  as  to  be  rendered  almost 
inaccessible,  but  sufticient,  both  in  size  and  fertility,  to  support  a  whole  army.  It 
was  the  fortress  of  the  Falasja  or  Abyssinian  Jews,  who  were  once  masters  of  the 
province  of  Samen. 

To  the  south-west  of  Tigre,  in  the  fertile  plains  surrounding  lake 
T/.ana,  lies  tlic  province  or  kingdom  of  Dembea,  where  we  find  Gondar, 
the  modern  capital  of  Abyssinia. 

cityof  Goii-  This  city,  according  to  the  report  of  a  native,  almost  equals  Grand 

''*"■•  Cairo  in  extent  and  po|)ulation.J     But  Bruce  reduces  the  number  of  its 

inhabitants  to  10,000  families. §     The  houses  are  built  of  red  stone,  and  roofed  with 


Provinces  of 
"Wofjai-a,  Si- 
reli,  &c. 


Kinfi^lom  of 
Dumbca. 


*  Loho,  Yoyacfe,  255.     Alvarez,  cap.  38.     Hist,  de  ce  qui  s'est  passe,  &c.  p.  137. 
t  Petit-la-Crnix,  cli.  10. 

i  AWraliam,  an  Ahys.shiian,  quoted  by  Sir  W.  Jones,  in  his  Asiatic  Researches. 
§  llnicc's  1  ravels. 


Kingdom  of 
Gujam. 


AIJYSSINIA.  477 

lliatch.  It  contains  a  huiulred  Christian  churches.  One  quarter  of  the  city  is  peo- 
pled with  Moors.  The  king's  palaco  resembles  a  Gothic  fort.  The  trade,  which  is 
extensive,  is  carried  on  in  a  vast  open  space,  where  the  goods  are  daily  exposed  on 
mats.  The  current  media  of  exchange  are  gold  and  salt;  sometimes,  also,  the 
woollen  cloths  manufactured  at  Adorva.  The  province  of  Dembea  contains  also  the 
town  of  Emfras,  consisting  of  300  houses,  and  agreeably  situated.  This  province 
is  remarkably  fertile  in  grain. 

To  the  south  of  Dembea,  the  Nile  winds  round  the  kingdom  of  Go- 
jam,  forming  thus  a  sort  of  peninsula.  This  part  of  the  river  has  a  most 
magniticent  waterfall,  the  Avhole  river  falling  down  from  a  height  of  forty  feet,  with 
tremendous  force  and  noise,  into  a  basin  where  it  wheels  round  in  numerous  eddies. 
Abounding  in  all  sorts  of  productions,  this  province  derives  its  chief  riches  from  its 
herds  of  cattle. 

To  the  east  of  Gojam  are  found  the  provinces  of  Amhara  and  Begam-  |  Begamder. 
der;  the  name  of  the  latter  of  which  signifies  "  the  Sheep  Country."  It  also  con- 
tains horses,  and  its  inhabitants  are  very  warhke.  The  mountainous  country  called 
liaata,  inhabited  by  a  tribe  which  is  generally  independent,  contains  some  iron  mines. 
Amhara,  to  the  south  of  Begamder,  has  always  passed  for  one  of  the  |  Amhara. 
principal  provinces  of  Abyssinia,  and  contains  a  numerous  and  brave  nobility.*  Here 
is  the  famous  state-prison  of  Geshen,  or  Ainba-Geshen,  which  is  now  |  state-prison, 
succeeded  by  Wechneh  in  the  province  of  Begamder.  It  seems  to  consist  of  steep 
mountains,  which  contain  either  a  natural  cavern  or  an  artificial  ditch,  into  which  the 
prisoners  descend  by  means  of  a  rope.  Here  the  Abyssinian  monarch  causes  to  be 
kept  under  his  own  eye  all  those  princes  of  his  family  from  whom  he  thinks  he  has 
any  thing  to  apprehend.  It  is  often  to  this  tomb  of  living  beings  that  the  grandees 
of  the  kingdom  come  to  select  the  prince  whom,  from  a  regard  for  his  birth,  or  from 
puro  afi:ection,  they  call  to  tlie  throne.  These  barbarous  usages,  howevfr,  vary  ac- 
cording to  the  character  of  the  monarch,  and  according  to  the  anarchical  or  compa- 
ratively peaceful  state  of  the  country.^ 

When  we  have  added  to  these  provinces  that  of  Xoa,  or  Shoa,  formed 
by  a  large  valley  very  difticult  of  access, J  and  that  of  Damota,  rich  in 
gold,  in  crystal,  and  in  cattle  with  monstrous  horns, §  we  have  gone  over  the  Abys- 
sinian empire  properly  so  called.  Lobo,  who  resided  for  a  time  in  Damota,  extols 
it  as  the  most  delightful  country  he  had  ever  beheld.  The  air  is  temperate  and 
healthy,  the  mountains  beautifully  shaded  with  trees,  without  having  the  appearance 
of  wild  and  irregular  forests.  Vegetation  here  is  perpetually  active :  the  operations 
of  sowing  and  reaping  are  common  to  all  seasons  of  the  year,  and  the  whole  scene 
has  the  aspect  of  a  pleasure  garden.  As  for  Shoa,  its  ruling  prince  is  stated  by 
Bruce  to  be  rather  an  ally  to  the  king  of  Gondar  than  a  vassal. 

The  more  remote  provinces  are  mostly  under  the  yoke  of  the  ferocious     Dismembered 
Galla,  and  other  savage  tribes  hostile  to  the  Abyssinians.     To  the  east     provinces, 
are  the  countries  of  Angot  and  Bali  :  to  the  south  we  are  told  of  those  of  Fatgar,  of 
Yvat,  of  Cambat,  and  most  especially  the  kingdom  of  Enarea,  which,  from  Brace's 
account,  seems  to  be  a  table  land,  watered  by  several  rivers  which  have  no  visible 
outlet,  and  deriving  a  temperate  climate  from  its  elevation.     The  inhabitants,  w-ho  in 
the  mountains  have  pretty  clear  complexions,  trade  with  the  people  of  Melinda  on 
the  Indian  ocean,  and  with  those  of  Angola  on  the  Ethiopic.     The  hilly  district  of 
C!afla  must  be  conterminous  with  Enarea  on  the  south.  All  these  heights  are  covered 
witii  coffee  trees.     But  this  report,  from  a  traveller  in  other  respects  not  very  scru- 
pidous,  requires  further  confirmation.  || 

In  the  topographical  sketch  of  Abyssinia  now  given,  we  observe  the     inhabitants, 
mixed  nature  of  the  population  of  this  country.     We  shall  first  take  a 
glance  of  the  Abyssins,  or,  as  they  call  themselves  the  Agazians.     In 
their  handsome  forms,  their  long  hair,  and  their  features,  they  approach  to  the  Euro- 


Xoa. 
Damota. 


The  Abyssins 
or  Agaaians. 


•  ThevcHOt,  p.  764.  f  Bruns,  Afiika,  li. 

i  Salt's  Travels.  §  Lacroze,  quoted  by  Bruns,  Afrika,  ii.  p.  217. 

t|  Bruns,  Afrika,  ii.  217,  218. 


478  BOOK  SIXTY-THIRD. 

pean ;  but  they  are  distinguished  from  all  known  races  by  a  complexion  altogether 
peculiar,  which  Mr.  Bruce  compares  sometimes  to  that  of  pale  ink,*  sometimes  to  an 
olive  brown,  and  which,  according  to  the  French  Institute  of  Egypt,  seems  to  par- 
take of  a  bronze  colour.  The  portraits  of  the  Abyssinians,  given  by  Ludolf  and 
Bruce,  betray,  however,  some  traits  of  similarity  to  the  negroes.  When  we  attend 
Language!.  |  to  their  language,  we  find  that  the  Gheez,  which  is  spoken  in  the  king- 
dom of  Tigre,  and  in  which  the  books  of  the  Abyssinians  are  written,  is  regarded  by 
all  the  learned  as  a  dialect  derived  from  the  Arabic.  The  Amharac  language,  used 
at  the  Abyssinian  court  since  the  14th  century,  and  spoken  in  most  of  the  provinces, 
has  also  many  Arabic  roots,  but  carries  in  its  syntax  evidences  of  a  peculiar  origin. 
The  Gheez  language,  harder  than  the  Arabic,  contains  five  consonants  which,  to  the 
organs  of  a  European,  are  unutterable.  The  Amharic  is  much  softer,  but  has  not 
that  variety  of  grammatical  forms  which  characterizes  the  Asiatic  languages. "f"  It 
would  appear,  therefore,  that  Abyssinia,  first  peopled  by  an  indigenous  and  primitive 
race,  has  received,  more  especially  in  its  northern  and  maritime  parts,  a  colony  of 
Arabs,  and  probably  of  the  tribe  of  Cush,  whose  name  is,  in  the  prophetic  books  of 
Scripture,  applied  both  to  a  part  of  Arabia  and  to  Ethiopia.  J  This  Arabian  origin  of 
a  part  of  the  Abyssinians  explains  the  reason  why  several  of  the  Byzantine  authors 
have  placed  the  country  of  the  Maseni  in  Arabia  Felix. 

Historical  ^'^^  intimate  relations  which  Abyssinia  has  maintained  with  the  nations 

epochs.  of  Asia  confirm  the  opinion  of  their  descent  from  the  Kushite  Arabs. 

The  indigenous  history  of  the  Abyssinians,  so  far  at  least  as  it  is  known  to  us,  goes 
no  farther  back  than  the  famous  Queen  of  Sheba,  who  travelled  to  Judea  to  admire 
the  magnificence  of  Solomon.  The  son  whom  she  bore  to  the  king  of  the  Jews  had 
the  two  names  of  David  and  Menihelec.  His  descendants  continued  to  reign  till 
the  year  960  of  the  Christian  era. — Under  the  two  brothers,  Abraha  and  Azbaha,  in 
the  year  330,  the  Christian  religion  was  introduced  into  Abyssinia.  In  522,  king 
Caleb,  called  also  Elesbaan,  in  alliance  with  the  emperor  Justinian,  fought  several 
campaigns  in  Arabia  against  the  Jews  and  the  Koreishites.  The  Zogaic  dynasty 
reigned  for  340  years.  The  most  celebrated  king  of  that  family,  Lalibala,  caused 
several  dwellings  to  be  cut  in  the  rocks,  and  among  others,  ten  churches,  of  which  a 
traveller  of  the  16th  century  has  given  representations  in  plates.  In  1368,  the  gran- 
dees of  Shoa  reinstated  a  branch  of  the  old  Solomonic  dynasty  on  a  throne,  of  which, 
twenty  years  ago,  it  continued  in  possession.  Among  the  princes  of  this  dynasty, 
Amda  Zion,  at  the  beginning  of  the  14th  century,  was  a  warlike  and  powerful  prince. 
Zara  Jacob  sent  to  the  council  of  Florence  ambassadors,  who  declared  for  the  eastern 
church. — Under  the  unfortunate  David  III.  began  the  connections  of  Abyssinia  with 
Portugal.  His  son  Claudius,  or  Azenaf  Segued,  a  prince  of  the  highest  endowments, 
had  to  contend  at  the  same  time  with  the  ferocious  Mahometans  who  devastated  his 
empire,  and  the  intrigues  of  the  missionaries  who  laboured  to  subject  him  to  the  au- 
thority of  the  Pope.  He  kept  up  the  alliance  with  the  Portuguese,  who,  in  1542, 
sent  him  an  auxiliary  body  of  450  men,  under  the  command  of  Christopher  de  Gama. 
That  hero  died  gloriously  fighting  against  a  numerous  army  of  Moors,  and  the  king 
himself  lost  his  life  in  a  subsequent  battle.  Under  the  reigns  of  his  successors 
the  intrigues  of  the  Roman  Catholics  continued  unsuccessful ;  and,  when  at  last,  in 
the  year  1620,  the  learned  and  able  father  Paez  succeeded  in  making  the  kingSoci- 
nios,  or  Susneus,  declare  publicly  for  the  church  of  Rome,  the  only  result  was  a  train 
of  the  bloodiest  civil  wars.  In  1632,  king  Basilides,  or  Facilidas,  put  an  end  to 
them,  by  expelling  the  cathohcs,  and  securing  the  exclusive  sway  to  the  Abyssinian 
church.  From  that  period  Abyssinia  ceased  to  be  known  in  Europe.  But  in  1691, 
king  Yasoos  I.  sent  an  embassy  to  Batavia.  This  monarch,  distinguished  for  his 
virtues,  repaired  to  the  foot  of  the  famous  mount  Wecneh,  caused  all  the  princes  who 
were  immured  in  that  place  of  confinement  to  be  brought  before  him,  consoled  them, 

•  Adelung,  Mithridates,  i.  404. 

■j-  Ludolf,  Gramm.  Amharica. 

i  Michaelis,  Spicileg.  Georp.  Hebr.  Extera:,  t.  i.  p.  145 — 157.  Eichhorn,  Programma  de 
Kuschoeis.  Arnstadt,  1774.  Compare  Isaiah,  cap.  18  and  20.  Ezekiel,  cap.  29.  v.  10.  cap.  30. 
V.  3.  v.  9.    Nchemiah,  cap.  3.  v.  8.    Joseph.  Antiq.  Judaic,  i.  6.  §  2.  &c.  &c. 


ABYSSINIA.  479 

passed  some  weeks  in  their  society,  and  left  them  so  delighted  with  his  kindness,  that 
they  returned  with  good  will  to  their  dreary  abode.  The  vices  of  the  children  of 
Yasoos  I.  favoured  for  a  moment  the  enterprises  of  a  usurper  who  filled  the  throne, 
and  declared  in  favour  of  the  Catholic  religion.  Yasoos  II.  spent  his  leisure  hours 
in  studying  the  arts,  particularly  architecture.  He  married  a  princess  from  one  of 
the  Galia  tribes,  and  his  successor,  by  his  marriage,  gave  occasion  to  civil  wars,  by 
conferring  some  of  the  government  appointments  on  the  Gallas. — At  the  prgjent 
time  of  Mr.  Bruce's  visit,  the  reigning  king,  called  Tecla  Haimanut,  sue-  ""'e. 
ceeded  in  quieting  these  troubles  ;  but,  dethroned  by  a  rebel  prince,  he  left  his  coun- 
try a  prey  to  anarchy.  The  7'ns,  or  governor  of  Tigre,  the  powerful  Wellata  Selasse, 
whom  Mr.  Salt  visited,  supports  a  nominal  king  who  lives  at  Axum,  while  Guxo,  a 
Galla  chief,  has  set  up  another  nominal  sovereign.* 

Separated  from  Europe  by  distrust  as  well  as  by  natural  obstacles,  and  |  Religion, 
insulated  in  the  midst  of  Mahometan  and  Pagan  nations,  the  Abyssinians,  though 
possessing  vigour  and  talent,  languish  in  a  condition  not  unlike  that  of  Europe  in  the 
12th  century.  Their  Christianity,  mixed  with  Jewish  practices,  admits  circumcision 
in  both  sexes  as  a  harmless  practice.  They  keep  both  the  Jewish  sabbath  and  the 
first  day  of  the  week.  During  the  great  discussions  which  were  held  on  abstract 
doctrines  respecting  the  nature  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  church  of  Abyssinia  was  by  its 
geographical  position  drawn  over  to  the  sect  of  the  Monophysites,  of  which  it  forms  a 
leading  branch  along  with  the  Copts  of  Egypt.f  Yet,  in  their  numerous  festivals,  in 
the  worship  of  saints  and  angels,  and  in  the  adoration  almost  divine  which  they  pay 
to  the  Virgin  Mary,  they  come  near  to  the  Catholicism  of  the  Spaniards  and  Italians.;!; 
Thoy  make  use  of  incense  and  of  holy  water.  The  sacraments  which  they  acknow- 
ledge are  baptism,  confession,  and  the  eucharist.  They  take  the  last  in  both  kinds, 
and  believe  in  transubstantiation.  Their  Bible  contains  the  same  books  as  that  of 
the  catholics,  besides  an  additional  one  called  the  book  of  Enoch,  of  which  Mr. 
Bruce  brought  home  three  copies. §  In  the  metropolitan  church  of  Axum,  a  holy 
arch  is  kept  up,  which  is  regarded  as  the  palladium  of  the  empire.  The  Abuna, 
who  is  the  head  of  the  clergy,  and  may  be  compared  to  the  exarchs,  is  nominated  by 
the  Coptic  patriarch  of  Alexandria,  and  is  always  a  foreigner.  The  monks  of  the 
two  orders  of  Saint  Eustathius  and  Saint  Tecla  Haimanut,  make  themselves  useful 
in  cultivating  the  ground.  ||  The  marriage  of  priests  is  allowed  as  in  the  Greek 
church. 

If  this  religion  be,  as  the  Abyssinians  pretend,  one  of  the  most  an- 
cient forms  of  Christianity,  it  certainly  has  little  influence  on  the  civili- 
zation of  tho  people.  Every  thing  almost  is  conducted  in  the  same  manner  as  in 
Turkey.  The  Abyssinian  monarch,  an  absolute  despot,  sells  the  provincial  govern- 
ments to  other  subordinate  despots. IT  Some  of  these  governors  have  contrived  to 
render  their  dignity  hereditary.**  The  Vizier  or  prime  minister  has  the  title  of  Ras. 
The  nobility  consists  of  descendants  of  the  royal  family,  tho  number  of  which  is 
augmented  by  the  practice  of  polygamy,  which,  though  condemned  by  the  church,  is 
kept  up  by  the  force  of  custom,  and  the  influence  of  the  climate.  Those  princes  who 
have  pretensions  to  the  succession  are  usually  kept  in  the  royal  prison.  According 
to  some  authors,  there  is  scarcely  such  a  thing  as  the  right  of  property  ;  yet  other 
accounts  mention  a  sort  of  magistrate  who  taxes  the  produce,  and  fixes  the  sum  to 
be  paid  by  the  farmer  to  the  proprietor,  a  procedure  which  seems  to  suppose  consi- 
derable respect  for  the  rights  and  interests  of  the  people. H  Justice  is  administered 
with  great  promptitude  ;  punishments  of  the  most  barbarous  kind  seem  to  be  fre- 
quent. There  are  tribunals  of  twelve  persons  with  a  presiding  judge,  which,  like 
the  old  Gothic  tribunals,  hold  their  court  in  the  open  air.  The  king's  revenues  con- 
sist of  supplies  of  grain,  fruit,  and  honey,  with  some  slender  payments  in  gold. 

•  Salt's  Travels. 

f  Tecla  Abyss,  quoted  by  Thomas  a  J^sus,  de  Convers.  gent.  vii.  1.  c.  13. 

±  Ludolf,  Hist.  iii.  cap.  5.     Lobo,  ii.  90,  91. 

§  Silvestre  dc  Sacy,  Magasin  Eiicycloped.  1800. 

!|   Tetit-la-Croix,  ch.  17—20.  &.c.  %  Lobo,  i.  32,". 

••  rclit-la-Croi.\-,  cJj.  21,  ft  Uruii.s  Alrika,  ii.  126, 


Civil  and  poli- 
ticat  state. 


Abyssinian 
feasts. 


480  BOOK  S[XTY-TI11U1). 

Every  three  years  a  tenth  part  of  the  cattle  is  appropriated  by  the  govcrnmcnU* 
Thenrmy.  |  The  army,  which  is  paid  by  grants  of  land,  amounts  to  40,000  men,  a 
tenth  part  of  whom  are  cavalry.  Some  carry  short  firelocks,  which  they  never  fire 
without  resting  them  on  a  post.  The  greater  part  are  armed  with  lances  and  swords. 
The  bravery  of  the  Abyssinians,  not  being  directed  by  tactics,  has  usually  no  other 
effect  than  that  of  exposing  them  to  extensive  carnage.  When  victorious  they  give 
full  scope  to  their  ferocity,  mutilating  the  dead  bodies  of  their  enemies  in  a  shocking 
manner,  and  exhibiting  publicly  the  most  indecent  trophies  of  their  success. f 

This  single  feature  nmst  excite  in  our  readers  a  disgust  sufficient  to  suppress  all 
avidity  for  a  detailed  description  of  the  manners  of  the  Abyssinians  ;  we  shall  thcrc- 
Hou«e>.  I  fore  only  subjoin  such  brief  sketches  as  are  necessary.     They  live  in 

round  hovels  with  conical  roofs,  a  form  rendered  necessary  by  the  violent  rains.  A 
light  cotton  dress,  some  pieces  of  Persian  carpet,  and  a  few  articles  of  handsome 
black  pottery,  form  the  chief  objects  of  luxury.  The  children  go  naked  till  the  age 
of  fifteen.  J  The  arts  and  mechanical  professions  are  in  a  great  measure  in  the  hands 
of  strangers,  and  especially  of  the  Jews.§  To  these  last  belong  all  the  smiths, 
masons,  and  thatchers  in  the  country. 

The  proud  indolence  of  the  Abyssinians  is  shown  in  their  manner  of  eating.  The 
great  lords  have  servants  at  table  to  introduce  their  newly  dressed  victuals  into  their 
mouths. 

It  seems  certain,  after  much  discussion  maintained  on  the  point,  that 
the  Abyssinians  have  no  repugnance  to  raw  flesh,  accompanied  with  a 
gravy  of  fresh  blood,  and  rather  consider  it  as  a  delicacy.  |j  Bruce  has  perhaps  exag- 
gerated in  saying  that  they  cut  slices  from  the  live  ox  for  immediate  use,  the  blood 
of  the  animal  staining  the  entrance,  and  his  bellowings  mingling  with  the  festive 
noise  of  the  company.  The  savage  gaiety  of  these  feasts  is  animated  by  hydromel 
in  which  opium  is  dissolved.  The  two  sexes  indulge  publicly  in  freedoms  Avhich  to 
other  nations  seem  licentious,  though  perhaps  not  in  the  gross  debaucheries  of  which 
they  have  been  accused. 

Such  being  the  character  of  the  Christians  of  Abyssinia,  we  cannot  be  surprised 
at  any  thing  in  the  manners  of  the  more  savage  nations  that  live  in  this  country. 
Savage  nations.  |  The  ferocity  and  the  dirtiness  of  the  Gallas  surpass  every  idea  that  can 
be  formed.  They  live  entirely  on  raw  meat ;  they  smear  their  faces  with  the  blood 
of  their  slain  enemies,  and  hang  their  entrails  round  their  necks,  or  interweave  them 
with  their  hair.  The  incursions  of  these  nomade  and  pastoral  tribes  are  sudden  and 
disastrous.  Every  living  thing  is  put  to  the  sword  ;  they  butcher  the  infant  in  the 
mother's  womb  ;  and  the  youths,  after  being  mutilated,  are  sold  by  them  into  slavery. 
These  people  are  distinguished  from  the  negroes  by  their  low  stature,  their  deep 
brown  complexions,  and  their  long  hair.  These  African  Tartars,  who  first  made  their 
appearance  in  the  countries  situated  to  the  south-east  of  Abyssinia,  now  occupy  five 
or  six  great  provinces  of  that  empire,  as  stated  in  the  topography.  They  are  divided 
into  many  tribes,  which  according  to  some,  are  arranged  into  three  national  commu- 
nities. Those  of  the  south  are  little  known ;  those  of  the  west  are  called  Bertuma- 
Galla:  they  have  kings,  or  war-chiefs,  called  Loobo;  tliose  in  the  east  are  called 
Boren-Galla,  and  their  chiefs  Mooty.  Their  chiefs,  Avho,  according  to 
Lobo,  only  enjoy  a  temporary  authority,  give  audience  in  wretched  hovels. 
Their  guards  and  courtiers  beginning  by  beating  with  bludgeons  any  stranger  who 
presents  himself;  then  introduce  him  into  the  king's  presence,  and  compliment  him 
as  an  intrepid  fellow  who  would  not  sufler  himself  to  be  dismissed.**  The  Gallas 
worship  trees,  stones,  the  moon,  and  some  of  the  stars.  They  believe  in  magic, 
and  in  a  future  state.  The  rights  of  property,  marriage,  and  the  support  of  aged 
relations,  are  made  binding  by  their  laws.     Warriors  are  allowed  to  expose  their 

•  Petit-la-Cro'ix,  cli.  22.  f  Bnicc's  Travels. 

i  Petit-la-Croix,  ch.  11.  §  LuJoIf,  1.  iv.  c.  5.     Petit-la-Croix,  cli.  0,  Stc. 

H  Bruns,  Afrika,  ii.  137. 

H  Bnice's  Travels.  Liulolf,  Hislor.  .'Elliiop.  i.  15,  16.  ValcntLVs  Voyages  and  TiavcLs,  iii. 
p.  ■27. 

••  Lobo,  I.e.  i.  p.  26. 


Tlieirreligion, 
laws, »  nil 
customs. 


ABYSSINIA.  481 

children.     In  their  distant  expeditions  across  desert  countries,  they  hve  on  pounded 
coflee. 

The  Abysssinians  consider  the  G alias  as  originally  beloiiffjng  to  the  east  coast  of 
Africa.  Their  name  seems  to  figure  among  the  nations  which  were  vanquished  or 
subjugated  by  Ptolemy  Philadelphus,  according  to  the  inscription  of  Adulis.  When, 
along  with  these  circumstances,  we  take  into  view  the  physical  features  which  dis- 
tinguish them  from  the  negroes,  we  must  at  once  reject  the  hypothesis  of  some  geo- 
graphers who  would  represent  them  as  a  colony  of  the  Galla  negroes  of  the  Pepper 
Coast.     They  belong  more  probably  to  the  nomade  tribes  of  southern  central  Africa. 

The  other  pagan  and  savage  races  are  not  quite  so  Ibrniidable.     In  tlie     The  shan- 
north-west  parts,  and  to  the  east  of  the  river  Tacazze,  the  Shangalla     ^*""'' 
inhabit  the  wooded  heights  which  are  called  KoUaby  tlie  Abyssinians.     The  visages 
of  these  negroes  bear  a  resemblance  to  those  of  apes.     They  spend  one  part  of  the 
year  under  the  shadows  of  trees,  and  the  rest  in  caverns,  which  have  been  dug  in  the 
soft  sandstone  rocks.     Sotne  of  these  tril)es  live  on  elephants  and  rhinoceroses, 
others  on  lions  and  boars;  one  of  them  subsists  on  locusts.     They  go  quite  naked, 
and  are  armed  with  poisoned  javelins.     The  Abyssinians  hunt  them  like  wild  beasts. 
These  tribes,  the  description  of  which  forms  one  of  the  most  valuable  parts  of  Mr. 
Bruce's  account,*  were  long  ago  designated  by  ancient  authors  under  the  name  of 
locust-eaters,  ostrich-eaters,  and  elephant  eaters,  f     The  nature  of  the  soil,  alterna- 
tively covered  with  water,  and  baked  and  cracked  into  chinks  by  the  violent  heat,  ex- 
cludes every  sort  of  culture. 

There  are  two  nations  called  Agows.  The  one  lives  in  the  province  |  TimAgows. 
of  Lasta,  round  the  sources  of  the  Tacazze,  (he  other  possesses  the  neighbourhood 
of  the  sources  of  the  Nile  of  Abyssinia.  Possessing  fertile  but  inaccessible  covm- 
tries,  courageous,  and  provided  with  good  cavalry,  they  mnintfiin  their  independence 
both  against  the  G alias  and  Aljyssiniuns.  The  Agows  of  the  Nile  furnish  Gondar 
with  beef,  butter,  and  honey.  Altliough  they  retain  some  traces  of  the  progress 
which  the  Christian  religion  formerly  made  among  them,  their  principal  worship  is 
addressed  to  the  spirit  whom  they  consider  as  presiding  over  the  sources  of  the  Nile. 
Every  year  they  sacrifice  a  cow  to  that  spirit,  and  some  neighbouring  tribes,  among 
whom  are  the  Gafates,  join  in  the  sacrifice. 

The  Gafates  are  a  numerous  people,  who  speak  a  distinct  language  |  TiieCafutei. 
and  live  in  Damot.     Their  counfry  produces  very  fine  cotton. 

The  Gurags,  a  set  of  expert  and  intrepid  robbers,  live  in  the  hollows  |  TiieGur»g«. 
of  rocks  to  the  south-east  of  Abyssinia.     Bermudas  places  them  in  the  kingdom  of 
Oggy,  contained  in  the  list  of  provinces  given  by  Petit-la-t'roix.t    "  This  country," 
says  that  author,  "  produces  musk,  amber,  saudal-wood,  and  ebony,  and  is  visited 
by  while  merchants." 

Of  all  the  inhabitants  of  Abyssinia,  the  Jews,  called  Falasja,  or  "  the 
exiled,"  present  the  most  extraordinary  liistorical  curiosity.  That  na- 
tion seems  to  have  formed  for  ages  a  state  more  or  less  independent  in  tli 
of  Samen,  under  a  dynasty,  the  kings  of  which  always  bore  the  name  of  Gideon, 
and  the  (jueens  that  of  Judith. §  That  family  being  now  extinct,  the  Falasja  submit 
to  the  king  of  Abyssiuia.||  They  exercise  the  vocations  of  weavers, 'smiths,  and 
carpenters.  At  Gondar  they  are  considered  as  sorcerers,  who  during  the  night  as- 
sume the  form  of  hyicnas.  According  to  Ludulf  they  had  synagogues  and  Ilebrow 
Bibles,  and  spoke  a  cttrrupt  dialijct  of  Hebrew. H  Bruce  asserts  that  they  have  the 
sacred  books  only  in  the  Gheez  laiigunge  ;  tliat  tiiey  have  lost  all  knowledge!  of  tho 
Hebrew,  speak  a  jargon  peculiar  to  themselves,  and  know  nothing  of  the  Talmud, 
the  Targorun,  or  the  Cabbala.  The  greater  part  of  the  l''alasjns  live  on  tho  Bahr- 
el-Abiad  among  the  Shiilooks.  This  is  the  very  country  that  was  occupied  by  the 
Egyptian  exiles,  the  Asinach  and  Sebridiu.     Perhaps  a  company  of  Egyptian  Jews 

•  Rlumenbacliin  liis  translation  of  Rrucc,  V.  2^0.  "■ 

f  Agalliarch.  in  (ico.t,^!-.  Mill.  Hudson,  i.  37.     Diod.  Sic.  iii.  Stc. 

+  Hruiis,  AlVika,  ii.'.JJO.  §  Bnici's 'Iravels. 

11  Sail's  iravt lb.  1  Ludoll",  llibt.  iEtliiop.  1.  i.  cap.  14, 

Vol.  H.— 3  P 


Tlic  Kalaijiis, 
ur  Abyssinian 
Jews. 

10  province 


482  BOOK   SIXTY-THIRD. 


■"to 

U'roglodytica, 
or  the  coast  of 
Habesh. 


Vegetables. 
Animals. 


followed  the  steps  of  these  emigrants,  and  it  is  not  unlikely  that  they  have  been  mix- 
ed together. 

Travellers,  both  ancient  and  modern,  agree  in  comprehending  all  the 
African  coasts,  from  Egypt  to  the  strait  of  Bab-el-Mandeb,  under  the 
general  name  of  Troglodytica,  the  coast  of  Abex,  or  Habesh,  or  New  Arabia. 
There  is  nothing  to  prevent  us  from  adopting  that  interesting  division,  in  relation  to 
history  and  to  physical  geography.  We  have  found  that  neither  Nubia  nor  Abyssinia 
have  any  fixed  limits:  and  an  Arabian  geographer  of  great  weight,  Abulfeda,  makes 
a  formal  distinction  between  Nubia  and  the  maritime  parts.* 

The  ancients,  whom  we  must  often  take  for  our  guides,  represent  the  chain  of 
Minerals.  |  mountains  which  skirts  the  Arabian  Gulf  as  very  rich  in  metals  and  pre- 
cious stones.  Agatharchides'j'  and  DiodorusJ  make  mention  of  mines  of  gold  which 
were  worked.  These  were  contained  in  a  white  rock,  probably  granite.  Pliny  makes 
these  riches  common  to  all  the  mountainous  region  between  the  Nile  and  the  Gulf  § 
The  Arabian  geographers  have  confirmed  these  accoimts  as  well  as  those  which  re- 
Want  of  water.  I  late  to  a  quarry  of  emeralds.  But  the  excessive  heat  and  the  scarcity 
of  water  render  the  low  part  of  the  coast  uninhabitable.  Cisterns  must  be  every 
where  used,  as  there  are  no  springs.  ||  In  the  dry  season  the  elephants  dig  holes 
with  their  trunks  and  their  teeth  to  find  water.  The  Etesian,  or  north-east  winds, 
bring  the  periodical  rains. IT  The  small  lakes  or  marshes  which  abound  on  the 
coast  are  then  filled  with  lain  water.  The  palms,  laurels,  olive  tress, 
styraxes,  and  other  aromatic  trees,  cover  the  islands  and  low  coasts.  In 
the  woods  are  found  the  elephant,  the  giraffe,  the  ant-eater,  and  numerous  sorts  of 
monkeys.  The  sea,  which  is  not  very  deep,  is  green  like  a  meadow,  from  the  great 
quantity  of  algai  and  other  marine  plants  which  it  maintains.  It  likewise  contains 
much  coral. 

The  nature  of  the  soil  and  climate  has,  in  all  ages,  kept  the  inhabi- 
tants in  a  uniform  state  of  savage  wretchedness.  Divided  into  tribes, 
and  subject  to  hereditary  chiefs,  they  lived  formerly,  and  still  live,  on 
the  produce  of  their  flocks  of  goats,  and  by  fishing.  The  hollows  of  the  rocks  were 
and  still  are  their  ordinary  dwelling.  From  these  caverns,  called  in  Greek  trogla, 
is  derived  the  general  name  under  which  they  are  designated  by  the  ancients.  That 
kind  of  lodging  was  anciently  used  in  many  other  countries  of  the  world.  We  find 
Troglodytes  at  the  bottom  of  Caucasus  and  of  Mount  Atlas,  in  Mossia,  in  Italy,  and 
in  Sicily.  This  last  mentioned  island  contains  an  example  of  a  whole  city,  formed 
by  excavation  in  the  interior  of  a  mountain.**  But  of  all  the  races  that  have  dwelt 
in  caverns,  those  of  the  Arabian  Gulf  have  longest  preserved  the  habits  and  the  name 
of  Troglodytes. 

According  to  the  ancients,  these  people  are  of  Arabian  origin.  Bruce 
considers  them  under  the  general  and  comprehensive  name  of  Agazi  or 
Gheez,  which  means  shepherds.  They  speak  the  Gheez  language,  which  is  a  dia- 
lect of  the  Arabic.  The  uncouth  and  singular  sounds  of  this  language  made  the 
ancients  say  that  the  Troglodytes  hissed  and  howled  instead  of  speaking.  They 
were  said  to  practise  circumcision  on  both  sexes.  They  employed  a  barbarous  cus- 
tom, which  is  used  at  this  day  among  the  Kora-Hottentots,  that  of  a  partial  castra- 
tion.It  I"  ancient  times  they  observed  none  of  the  laws  of  marriage;  the  wives  of 
the  chiefs  of  tribes  were  the  only  women  who  could  be  said  to  have  husbands. tj 
They  painted  their  whole  bodies  with  white  lead,  and  hung  round  their  necks  shells, 
which  they  believed  to  have  the  power  of  protecting  them  from  sorcery.     Some  of 

*  Abulfeda,  Afrika,  edit.  Eichhorn,  tab.  xxvii. 

f  Agatharch.  de  Mar.  Kub.  Geogr.  Min.  Hudson. 

i;  Died.  Sic.  §  Plin.  vi.  30, 

11  Idem.  "t  Strabo. 

••  Travels  in  Sicily  by  Prince  Biscari,  in  Italian. 

tf  "  lis  se  privaient  <\'\\x\  testicule,  coutume  barbare  qui  se  retrouve  aujoufd'hui  chez  les 
Kora-Hottentots." 

U  "  Aiicienneinent  les  femmes  ctaient  en  coinnnui,  a  I'excention  de  celles  des  chefs  de  tri- 
bus." 


Modes  of  li? 

ing. 

The  Troglo. 

dytes. 


Language 
manners,  anil 
customs. 


Emerald 
mines. 


HABESH.  483 

these  tribes  killed  none  of  their  domestic  animals,  but  lived  on  their  milk,  as  the  Ha- 
zorta  still  do;  others  ate  serpents  and  locusts,  a  food  still  relished  by  various  tribes 
of  the  Shangallas;  finally,  there  were  among  them  some  who  devoured  the  tlesh  and 
bones  of  animals  mashed  together,  and  cooked  in  a  bag  formed  of  the  skin.  They 
manufactured  a  vinous  liquor  from  certain  wild  fruits.  The  most  wretched  among 
them  repaired  in  flocks,  like  cattle,  to  the  marshes  or  lakes,  to  allay  their  thirst.  This 
pictiu'e  of  the  ancient  Troglodytes  is  in  a  great  measure  applicable  to  the  present 
inhabitants  of  these  coasts. 

Mr.  Belzoni,  who,  in  his  excursion  to  the  Red  Sea,  came  near  the  countries  now 
under  consideration,  met  with  a  fisherman,  who  was  probably  a  fair  spe-  |  Fishermen, 
cimen  of  that  department  of  the  population.*  He  lived  in  a  tent  only  five  feet  wide, 
with  his  wite,  daughter,  and  son-in-law.  He  had  no  boat,  but  went  to  sea  on  the 
trunk  of  a  doomt  tree,t  ten  or  twelve  feet  long,  with  a  horizontal  piece  of  wood  at 
each  end,  to  prevent  it  from  turning  round;  a  small  hole  for  a  mast;  and  a  shawl  for 
a  sail,  managed  by  means  of  a  cord.  On  this  apparatus  two  fishermen  mount  as  on 
horseback,  carrying  a  long  spear,  which  they  dart  at  the  fish  when  they  see  them. 
The  weather  requires  to  be  very  favourable  when  they  go  to  sea,  this  being  imprac- 
ticable during  the  east,  and  dangerous  in  west  winds. 

We  shall  begin  the  topography  of  the  coast  with  the  promontory  Ral-  |  Topography, 
el-enf,  or  the  J)Ions  Smaragdus  of  the  ancients.  Mr.  Bruce  places  opposite  to  this 
Cape  an  "  Isle  of  Emeralds,"  where  he  found  fine  green  crystals  of  fluor  spar.  But 
the  famous  emerald  mine,  which  was  worked  by  the  Egyptians,  was  on 
the  continent.  The  Arabian  geographers  place  it  in  a  more  southerly 
latitude  than  Assouan  or  Syene.  They  say  that  the  mountain  is  shaped  like  a  bridge, 
and  that  the  emeralds  are  found  sometimes  in  sand,  sometimes  in  a  blackish  gangue.j 
Some  moderns  have  given  vague  confirmations  of  the  existence  of  this  mine.§  We 
believe  it  to  be  the  same  which  was  visited  by  Belzoni.  Pliny  extols  its  precious 
.stones  for  their  hardness, ||  and  they  are  in  great  request  in  the  east,  under  the  name 
of  "  emeralds  of  the  Saide."Tr 

Zomorget  Island,  which  is  farther  from  the  continent  than  the  Isle  of 
Emeralds,  passes  for  the  Topaz  Island  of  the  ancients.**  It  is  a  barren 
rock,  and  was  inhabited  only  by  serpents,  when  chance  led  to  the  discovery  of  a 
quarry  of  beautiful  stones,  which  the  ancients  called  topazes,  and  the  working  of  them 
was  undertaken  by  the  kings  of  Egypt. 

The  coast  makes  a  great  concave  sweep,  called,  by  ancient  and  modern  naviga- 
tors, Foul  Bay.  At  the  bottom  of  this  gulf  is  the  port  of  the  Abyssinians.  The 
Arabian  geographers  give  the  coast  nearest  this  port,  the  name  of  Baza,  I  The  country 
Beja,  or  13odsha.  According  to  them  it  is  a  kingdom  separated  from  j  Bodsha.' 
Nubia  by  a  chain  of  mountains,  rich  in  gold,  silver,  and  emeralds.^l  We  have  very 
discordant  accounts,  both  of  the  orthography  of  the  name  and  the  boundaries  of  the 
country.  The  name  of  Baza  is  found  in  that  of  the  promontory  called  Bazinm  by 
the  ancients,  and  now  Raz-el-ComoI.  The  inhabitants  of  this  country,  who  are 
called  Bugiha  by  I;oo  Africanus,  Bogai'tes  in  the  inscription  at  Axum,  and  Bedjah 
by  the  generality  of  the  Arabians,  lead  a  nomade  and  savage  life.  They  derive 
abundant  aliment  from  the  milk  and  flesh  of  their  camels,  cattle,  and  sheep  ;  every 
father  exercises  a  patriarchal  rule  in  his  family,  and  they  have  no  other  government. 
Full  of  loyalty  to  one  another,  and  hospitable  to  strangers,  they  continually  rob  the 
neighbouring  agriculturists,  and  trading  caravans.  Their  cattle  have  horns  of 
enormous  size,  and  their  sheep  are  spotted.  The  men  are  all  subjected  to  the  bar- 
barous and  indecent  mutilation  already  mentioned  of  the  Gallas  and  the  Kora-Hot- 
tentots.     There  are  some  tribes  among  them  in  which  the  front  teeth  are  extracted  ; 

•  Narrative,  vol.  ii.  p.  68.  f  The  Cucifera  Thebaica  of  Delille,  a  palm. 

i  Edrisi,  Bakooi,  Ibn-al-Ooardi,  in  Edrisi's  Africa,  ed.  Hartmann,  p.  79. 
§  Mulllet,  Uescript.  de  TEgypte,  p.  307.     Niebuhr,  Voyage,  i.  210.  Lucas,  &c.  Sic. 
II  Plin.  xxxvii.  16. 

•J  Otter,  VoyaR-e,  &c.  i.  20S.     Wansleben,  in  Paulas,  Collect,  des  Voyages,  &c.  i.  33. 
•♦  U'Anville,  Descr.  du  Golfe  Arab.  p.  233.     Gosselin,  Recherches'sur  la  Geographic  des 
Anciens,  ii.  lyf). 
ft  Abulfeda,  loc.  cit.  Edrisi,  Africa,  p.  78—80. 


Isle  of  To. 
pazes. 


Town  and  di>> 
trict  uf  Sua- 
kem. 


484  BOOK  SIXTY-THIRD. 

and  there  is  a  society  of  women  who  manufacture  arms,  and  lead  the  lives  of  Ama- 
zons.* The  custom  of  hanging  up  a  garment  on  the  end  of  a  pike  as  a  signal  of 
peace,  and  for  commanding  silence,  is  common  to  them  with  the  Hazorta,  a  tribe  on 
the  coast  of  Abyssinia. t — Bruce  asserts  that  they  speak  a  dialect  of  the  Gheez,  or 
Abyssinian  language.  But  the  Arabian  historian  of  Nubia  makes  tliem  belong  to 
the  race  of  Berbers,  or  Barabras.  A  learned  orientalist,  M.  Quatremere,  has  en- 
deavoured to  demonstrate  the  identity  of  the  Bugihas  or  Bejahs,  with  the  Blemmyes 
of  the  ancients,  or  the  Balnemoois  of  the  Coptic  writers.  The  descriptions  of  the 
ancients  appear  to  us  to  apply  more  naturally  to  the  Ababdehs.  The  other  hypo- 
thesis is  formally  contradicted  by  a  passage  of  Strabo.  "  The  Megabajri,"  says  that 
geographer,  "  and  the  Blemmyes,  live  beyond  Mcroe,  on  the  banks  of  the  Nile 
nearest  the  Red  Sea.  They  are  neighbours  to  the  Egyptians,  and  subject  to  the 
Ethiopians,  but  on  the  sea  shore  live  the  Troglodytes. "j;  From  this  passage  we 
must  consider  the  Megabaris  as  chiefly  represented  by  the  Makorrah  of  the  historian 
Abdallah,  the  Blemmyes  by  the  Ababdehs,  and  the  Troglodytes  by  the  Bejahs. 
Portof  Aidab.  |  The  port  of  Aidab,  called  Gidid  by  the  Portuguese,  long  served  as  a 
point  of  communication  between  Africa  and  Arabia.  It  was  a  gi'eat  place  of  em- 
barkation for  Mahometan  pilgrims  bound  to  Mecca.  The  Samoom  wind  renders 
this  place  scarcely  habitable. 

Suakem,  called  Szawaken§  by  M.  Seetzen,  in  the  latitude  of  Dongola 
in  Nubia,  is  now  the  most  frequented  port.  The  town  is  surrounded 
with  some  redoubts,  and  is  mostly  built  on  an  island.  It  possesses  mosques  and  even 
schools,  and  has  a  garrison  appointed  by  the  Sherift"  of  Mecca.  The  adjoining 
coast  has  no  river,  and  is  badly  supplied  with  fresh  water  ;  it  contains  calcareous  rock, 
potters  clay,  and  red  ochre,  but  no  metals.  Here  some  dourra,  tobacco,  water-melons, 
and  sugar-cane,  are  cultivated.  Among  its  trees  we  find  the  sycamore,  which,  as  well 
as  the  Persc«,  II  the  ancients  mention  as  growing  in  Troglodytica.  The  forests  con- 
sist of  ebony  trees,  gummy  acacias,  and  many  varieties  of  palms.  There  is  a  large 
tree  which  produces  a  fruit  reseml)liiig  grapes.  Here  are  t"o\md  the  giraffe  and  nu- 
merous herds  of  elephants.  The  sea  yields  pearls  and  black  coral.  Besides  all 
these  productions,  the  city  exports  slaves  and  gold  rings  brought  from  Soodan.lT  The 
inhabitants  of  Suakem,  and  those  of  Hallinga-Taka,  the  adjoining  tribe  of  the 
Bishareens,  and  that  of  Iladindoa,  speak  a  peculiar  language.** 

The  promontory  of  Ras-Ageeg,or  Ahehas,seems  to  be  the  termination  of  the  Bejah, 
or  Bodja,  or  Baza  country.  After  this  promontory  comes  a  desert  coast  lined  with  islets 
and  rocks.  It  was  here  that  the  Ptolemies  procured  the  elephants  which  they  required 
for  their  armies.  Here  Ijord  Valentia  found  a  large  harbour,  to  which  he  gave  the  name 
of  Port  Mornington.  The  first  considerable  island  met  with  is  called  Da- 
halac,  the  largest  indeed  belonging  to  the  Arabian  Gulf,  being  more  than 
sixty  miles  in  circumference.  It  is  level  on  the  side  towards  the  continent  but  rises 
eastward,  and  has  a  rocky  precipitous  coast  towards  the  sea."!'!  It  contains  goats 
with  long  silky  hair,  and  furnishes  a  sort  of  gum-lac,  the  produce  of  a  particidar 
shrub. JJ  The  pearls  formerly  got  here  had  a  yellowish  water,  and  were  of  little 
value. §§  To  this  island  vessels  repair  for  fresh  water, ||||  which,  however,  according 
to  Mr.  Brucc's  account,  is  very  bad,  being  kept  in  370  dirty  cisterns. 
Massna.  |       In  the  gulf  foruicd  between  this  island  and  the  coast  is  found  Massua, 

orMatzua,  an  arid  rock,  with  a  bad  fortress  and  a  very  good  harbour.    It  is  here  that 
travellers  land  who  go  to  Abyssinia  by  sea.     At  the  bottom  of  the  gulf  the  town  of 

•  Abdallah,  Hlstoire  de  la  Nubie,  d'apr<!s  Makrisi,  frad.   par.  M.  E.  Quatremere.     Mem. 
Hist.  G(^ogr.  sur  TEg-ypte,  ii.  p,  1  j5. 

f  Compare  Quatremere,  ibid.  p.  139,  and  S.aU's  Travels. 

■^  Geopfrapliia,  lib.  xvii.  in  prlncipio. 

§  Sz  in  the  Polish  lanji^uage,  is  pronounced  like  our  sh.  I  Strabo,  loc.  cit. 

U  Seetzen,  information  received  from  a  native.     Zach's  Corrrspondence,  July,  1809. 

•*  Mithridate,  t.  iii.  p.  120,  from  a  manuscript  note  of  M.  Seetzen. 

tt  Alvarez, c.  19.  c.  20.     13'Anville,  Wescript.du  golfe  Arab.  p.  206. 

*1:  Vincent  J.eblanc,  p.  i.  ch.  9.     Coronelli,  Isol,  p.  110,  '  §§  Lobo.  i.  51. 

nil  Poncet,  German  transl.  171. 


Island  of  Da- 
balac. 


ATLANTIC    REGIONS.  485 

Arkiko  commands  an  anchorage,  which  is  exposed  to  the  north-east  winds.     It  con- 
tains 400^houses,  some  of  which  are  buiU  of  cKiy,  and  others  of  plaited  grass.* 

This  low,  sandy,  and  burning  coast,  called  Samhar,  is  the  scene  of  country  of 
the  wanderings  of  different  nomade  tribes,  as  the  Shihos,  who  are  very  san'''ar. 
black  in  complexion,  and  the  Hazortas,  who  are  small  and  copper-coloured.  These 
people,  like  the  ancient  Troglodytes,  inhabit  holes  in  the  rocks,  or  hovels  made  of 
rushes  and  sea-weed.  Leading  a  pastoral  life,  they  change  their  dwelling  as  soon 
as  the  rains  give  rise  to  a  little  verdure  on  the  burning  soil ;  for,  when  the  rainy 
season  ends  in  the  plains,  it  begins  among  the  mountains. 

The  Turks,  who  have  been  masters  of  this  coast  since  the  sixteenth  century,  gave 
the  government  of  it  to  an  Arab  Sheik  of  the  Bellowe  tribe,  who  has  the  title  of 
Naib.  But,  according  to  recent  accounts,  it  appears  that  the  governor  of  Abyssinia 
andof  Tigre,  has  resumed  his  ancient  influence  over  this  part  of  the  Abyssinian  em- 
pire.l  The  last  traveller,  Mr.  Salt,  found  the  Naib  independent  of  the  Turks,  and 
acknowledging  the  power  of  the  Ras  of  Tigre. 

The  government  of  the  coast,  called  in  ancient  accounts  the  territory 
of  the  Bahar-Nagash,  that  is,  "the  King  of  the  Sea,"  formerly  extended 
from  Suakem  to  the  south  of  the  Straits  of  Bab-el-Mandeb.  Dobarva,  or  Barva, 
its  ancient  capital,  was,  in  Bruce's  time,  in  the  hands  of  the  Naib  of  Massua.  This 
town,  situated  on  the  Mareb,  is  considered  as  the  key  of  Abyssinia  towards  the  sea. 
During  the  existence  of  the  Portuguese  influence  it  was  a  place  of  great  trade, +  but 
it  was  not  visited  by  Mr.  Salt. 

To  the  south  of  Samhar,  the  coast  takes  the  name  of  Dankali,  or,  as  |  Dankaii. 
Niebuhr  calls  it,  Denakil,§  a  sandy  country  from  which  salt  is  obtained,  and  the  chief 
port  of  which  is  Bayloor.     The  inhabitants  are  called  Taltals,  and,  though  Mahome- 
tans, are  in  alliance  with  Abyssinia. 

The  country  round  the  strait  of  Bab-el-Mandeb  is,  in  the  best  modern  maps,  called 
Adeil ;  but  we  know  not  whether  it  belongs  to  Abyssinia,  or,  as  the  name  seems  to 
indicate,  to  the  kingdom  of  Adel.  Bruce  mentions  some  magnificent  ruins  at  Assab, 
the  chief  port  of  this  province,  but  gives  a  very  obscure  account  of  the  place  and 
country. 


Territory  of 
lialiarNaggsb. 


BOOK  LXIV. 

THE  REGION  OF  MOUNT  ATLAS,  BARBARY,  AND  ZAIIARA. 


PART  I. 

General  Features  of  these  Coimtrics. 

From  the  Egyptian  Delta  and  the  pyramids,  we  have  ascended  the  Nile  as  far  as 
we  enjoyed  the  assistance  of  history  and  of  the  journals  of  European  travellers.  Be- 
fore attempting  to  penetrate  the  mysterious  centre  of  northern  Africa,  we  shall  com- 
plete our  view  of  its  more  accessible  parts,  turning  our  attention  in  the 
first  place  to  mount  Atlas,  and  the  pillars  of  Hercules.     A  straight  line 


Region  of  the 
Atlas. 


•  Uruce's  Travels,  lib.  v.  cb.  12. 

■\  Bi'uns,  Afiik:*,  ii.  195.     l-ett,  di  S.  Tgnacio  cli  Lovola,  &c.     Home,  1790,  p.  21. 

i  Alvarez,  c.  18.  20.  23.  128.  §  Niebuhr,  Ucscript.  de  I'Arabic,  tab.  xx. 


Mount  Atlas 
described. 


Great  and 
small  chaias. 


486  BOOK    SIXTY-FOURTH. 

passing  from  the  cataracts  of  the  Nile  to  Cape  Blanco,  or  the  mouth  of  the  Senegal, 
will  form  the  southern  boundary  of  the  region  now  to  be  described.  Here  physical 
geography  presents  us  with  two  leading  and  characteristic  phenomena,  the  greatest 
desert  in  the  known  world,  and  one  of  the  most  extensive  mountain  chains.  These 
two  features  belong  to  two  distinct  regions.  We  shall  first  trace  that  of  Mount 
Atlas,  to  which  the  common  practice  of  Arabian  and  European  geographers  has  given 
the  name  of  Barbary,  or  more  properly  Berbery,  from  the  Arabic  name  of  the  most 
ancient  indigenous  race  of  its  inhabitants. 

Mount  Atlas  has  a  certain  degree  of  poetical  celebrity,  being  repre- 
sented by  Homer  and  Herodotus  as  one  of  the  pillars  of  heaven.  Ac- 
cording to  Virgil,  "  Atlas  is  a  hero  metamorphosed  into  a  rock.  His  robust  limbs 
are  converted  into  pillars ;  he  bears  on  his  shoulders  the  entire  heavens,  with  all 
their  orbs,  without  feeling  oppression  from  their  weight.  His  head,  crowned  with  a 
forest  of  pines,  is  continually  girt  with  clouds,  or  battered  by  winds  and  storms.  A 
mantle  of  snow  covers  his  shoulders,  and  rapid  torrents  flow  down  his  venerable 
beard."  But  this  famous  mountain  js  at  present  obscurely  known  to  Europeans, 
and  we  wait  for  some  fortunate  traveller  to  give  us  a  satisfactory  and  complete  de- 
scription of  it.  M.  Desfontaines,  who  with  the  eyes  of  a  learned  botanist  surveyed 
a  great  part  of  this  system  of  mountains,  considers  it  as  divided  into  two  leading 
chains.  The  southern  one,  adjoining  the  desert,  is  called  the  Great 
Atlas,  the  other  lying  towards  the  Mediterranean  is  called  the  little  chain. 
Both  run  east  and  west,  and  are  connected  together  by  several  intermediate  moun- 
tains running  north  and  south,  and  containing  between  them  both  valleys  and  table 
lands.  This  description,  though  general  and  rather  vague,  is  the  clearest  that  we 
possess.  It  is  easily  reconciled  with  the  account  given  by  Mr.  Shaw,  who  describes 
Atlas  as  a  series  consisting  of  many  ranges  of  hills  successively  increasing  in  eleva- 
tion, and  terminating  in  steep  and  inaccessible  peaks.*  But  it  is  worthy  of  remark, 
that  the  great  and  little  Atlas  of  Ptolemy,  the  one  of  which  is  terminated  at  Cape 
Felneh,  and  the  other  at  Cape  Cantin,  differ  from  the  chains  of  the  French  traveller, 
being  lateral  branches  which  go  off"  from  the  main  system,  to  form  promontories  on 
Extension  of  ^^'^  ^^^  coast.  Another  question  is,  whether  is  the  principal  chain  con- 
Atlas,  tinued  without  interruption  to  the  east  of  the  smaller  Syrtte?  or  do  the 
mountains  of  Tripoli,  of  Fezzan,  and  of  Barca,  form  separate  systems  ?  The  Ara- 
bian geographers  seem  inclined  to  the  former  opinion, |  and  no  person  is  prepared  to 
contradict  them.  They  tell  us  that  "  Mount  Daran  extends  eastward  from  Sus  in 
Morocco,  joins  the  mountains  of  Tripoli,  and  then  is  lost  in  a  plain."  These  ex- 
pressions are  not  inconsistent  with  the  belief  that  Atlas  is  completely  terminated  on 
the  south  of  the  Great  Syrtre,  from  whence  it  is  probable  that  a  low  lying  territory 
extends  a  great  way  into  the  interior. 

The  great  height  of  Mount  Atlas  is  proved  by  the  perpetual  snows  which  cover  its 
summits  in  the  east  part  of  Morocco,  under  the  latitude  of  32°.  J  According  to 
Humboldt's  principles,  these  summits  must  be  12,000  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea. 
Leo  Africanus,  who  travelled  here  in  the  month  of  October,  narrowly  escaped  being 
buried  in  an  avalanche  of  snow.  In  the  state  of  Algiers,  the  snow  disappears  on  the 
tops  of  Jurjura  and  of  Fclizia  in  the  month  of  May,  and  covers  them  again  before 
the  end  of  September. §  The  Wanashisre,  situated  in  35^  55',  and  forming  an  in- 
termediate chain  between  the  maritime  one  and  that  of  the  interior,  is  covered  with 
a  mantle  of  snow  nearly  the  whole  of  the  year.||  Even  to  the  east,  where  the  ele- 
vation appears  to  diminish,  the  Gariano,  or  Garean  mountains  to  the  south  of  Tri- 
poli, are  covered  with  snow  for  three  months. 

Nature  of  the  The  ingredients  of  the  rocks  have  not  been  sufficiently  investigated, 

locks.  jj^  ^l^g  pa^j-^g  belonging  to  Tunis,  Algiers,  and  Morocco,  which  were  vi- 


•  Shaw's  Travels  and  Observations,  p.  5. 

f  Abulfeda.     See  IJuscbinjj's  Magasin,  Geogr.  t.  iv,  p.  418.     Hartmann,  Edrisi,  Geogr. 
.  143,  144. 

t  Hisl's  Accotint  of  Morocco,  p.  78,  (German  translation.)     Chenier  Histoire  de  Maroc. 
§  Relation  du  rfiyaumc  d'.-Vlger,  (Altona,  1798,)  t.  i.  p.  152. 
11  Ibidem,  249. 


Hypothesis  of 
M.  Ideler  on 
the  Atlas  of 
the  ancients. 


The  Atlas  of 
the  Pheni- 
cians. 


ATLANTIC  REGIONS.  487 

sited  by  M.  Desfontaines,  the  chain  of  the  Atlas  is  formed  of  limestone,*  and  this 
gentleman  adds  that  he  found  in  the  mountains  large  heaps  of  shells  and  marine  bo- 
dies, at  a  great  distance  from  the  sea;  a  phenomenon  noticed  by  all  modern  travel- 
lersjf  and  which  also  struck  the  less  observant  minds  of  the  ancients. J  Some  of 
the  elegant  marbles  of  Numidia,  exhausted  by  Roman  luxury,  were  of  a  uniform 
yellow;  others  were  spotted  with  various  colours. §  The  Carthaginians  employed 
them  previously  to  the  Romans,  for  constructing  pavements  in  mosaic.  But  the  cop- 
per, iron,  lead,  and  other  mines,  worked  in  Morocco  and  Agiers,  show  the  existence 
of  schistous  or  granite  rocks.  M.  Poiret  informs  us,  that  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Bana,  a  maritime  town  of  the  kingdom  of  Algiers,  the  rocks  are  of  quartz  mixed  with 
mica, II  and  Shaw  mentions  that  a  sort  of  sandstone  is  employed  for  building  in  Al- 
giers.lT  The  hills  which  terminate  the  Atlas  in  the  desert  of  Barca,  are  calcareous 
masses  surrounded  by  a  crest  of  basalt.  Such  at  least  is  the  case  with  the  mountain 
of  Harutch,  observed  by  Hornemann.  According  to  Pliny,  the  sides  of  the  Atlas 
which  look  toward  the  Western  Ocean,  that  is,  the  south  sides,  raise  their  arid  and 
dark  masses  abruptly  from  the  bosom  of  a  sea  of  sand,  while  the  more  gentle  north- 
ern declivity  is  adorned  with  beautiful  forests  and  verdant  pastures.** 

But  was  the  chain  of  mountains  now  described  really  the  Atlas  of  the 
ancients?  This  is  denied  by  a  learned  German,  who  reasons  in  the  fol- 
lowing manner: 

"  In  the  earliest  periods  of  history  the  Phenicians  ventured  to  pass  the  Strait  of 
Gibraltar.    On  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic  they  founded  Gades  and  Tartessus  in  Spain, 
and  Lixus  and  several  other  cities  in  Mauritania.     From  these  settlements  they  na- 
vigated northward  to  the  coast  of  Prussia,  where  they  found  amber.     In  the  south 
they  proceeded  beyond  Madeira  to  the  islands  of  Cape  Verd.     They  frequented 
most  especially,  the  archipelago  of  the  Canaries.     Here  they  were  asto- 
nished at  the  sight  of  the  Peak  of  Tenerifle,  the  height  of  which,  in  itself 
very  great,  appears  still  greater  by  shooting  up  immediately  from  the  flat  surface  of 
the  ocean.     The  colonies  which  they  sent  to  Greece,  and  most  especially  that  which, 
under  the  conduct  of  Cadmus,  settled  in  Beeotia,  brought  to  these  countries  some  in- 
formation respecting  that  mountain  which  towered  above  the  region  of  the  clouds, 
and  the  Happy  Islands  over  which  it  presides,  embellished  with  oranges,  called  in 
their  phraseology,  golden  apples.     This  tradition,  propagated  over  Greece  by  the 
verses  of  the  poets,  was  handed  down  to  the  era  of  Plomer.     His  Atlas     TheAtiaiof 
has  its  foundation  in  the  depths  of  the  ocean,  and  lofty  pillars  reaching     ^°"^'=''* 
from  earth  to  heaven,  jl  The  Elysian  Fields^;};  are  described  as  an  enchanting  coun- 
try, situated  somewhere  in  the  west.     Hesiod  speaks  of  Atlas  in  a  similar  style,  de- 
scribing that  personage  as  the  near  neighbour  of  the  Hesperian  nymphs. §§    He  calls 
the  Happy  Islands  the  Elysian  Fields,  and  places  them  at  the  western  extremity  of 
the  earth.  Jl  II     Later  poets  a^ded  new  embellishments  to  the  fables  of  Atlas  and  the 
Hesperides,  their  golden  apples,  and  the  Islands  of  the  Blessed,  describing  them  as 
the  destined  habitation  of  the  righteous  after  death.     With  these  they  have  connected 
the  expeditions  of  Melicertes,  the  Tyrian  god  of  commerce,  and  those  of  the  Grecian 
Hercules.     It  was  at  a  comparatively  late  period  that  the  Greeks  began  to  rival  the 
Carthaginians  and  Phenicians  in  navigation.     They  visited  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic 
Ocean,  yet  it  does  not  appear  that  their  voyages  in  that  ocean  were  greatly  extended. 
It  is  doubtful  whether  or  not  they  ever  saw  the  Peak  of  Teneriffe  and  the  Canary 
Islands,  for  they  thought  it  necessary  to  search  on  the  west  coast  of  Africa  for  the 
Atlas  which  their  poets  and  their  traditions  had  represented  to  them  as  a  very  lofty 
mountain  situated  at  the  western  extremity  of  the  earth.     It  is  thus  that  Strabo,  Pto- 

•  Flora  Atlantica,  preface,  p.  3. 

•^  Shaw's  '['ravels,  p.  470.     Poiret,  Voyage  en  Barbaric,  ii.  p.  279. 
i  Strabo's  Geography,  xvii.  at  the  end. 

^  Pliny  and  Isidorus.    Compared  in  the  notes  of  Justus  Lipsius  on  Seneca's  Epistles. 
II  Poiret,  ii.  p.  277.  t  Shaw,  p.  152.  ••  Pliny,  v.  cap.  1. 

ft  Odyssey,  Book  i.  verse  52. 

i^  Iliad,  Book  iv.  v.  561.     The  word  is  of  Phenician  origin,  and  signifies  the  abode  of  joy — 
(A  note  by  M.  Ideler.) 
§^  Thcogonia,  lib,  v.  v.  517.  I!  I  Opera  et  Dies,  v.  167. 


Objections  to 
this  liypo the- 
sis. 


488  BOOK  SIXTY-FOURTH. 

lemy,  and  other  geographers,  have  altered  its  position.  But  since  there  is  not  found 
iti  the  north-west  of  Africa  any  mountain  of  remarkable  height," — (this  is  a  mistake) 
— "  much  ditSculty  arose  in  recognising  the  true  position  of  Atlas.  Sometimes  search 
was  made  for  it  on  the  coast,  sometimes  in  the  interior  of  the  country,  sometimes 
near  the  Mediterranean  sea,  sometimes  farther  to  the  south.  In  the  first  century  of 
our  era,  when  the  Romans  carried  tlieir  arms  into  the  interior  of  Mauritania  and  Nu- 
midia,  the  habit  sprung  up  of  giving  the  name  of  Atlas  to  the  chain  of  mountains  in 
the  north  of  Africa,  which  extends  from  east  to  west,  in  a  direction  nearly  parallel 
to  the  coast  of  the  Mediterranean.  Pliny  and  Solinus  perceived  that  the  descriptions 
of  Atlas  given  by  the  Greek  and  Roman  poets  did  not  apply  to  this  chain  of  moun- 
tains. They,  therefore,  thought  it  necessary  to  find,  in  the  unknown  part  of  central 
Africa,  a  locality  for  tliis  Peak,  of  which,  while  they  copied  poetical  traditions,  they 
drew  so  agreeable  a  picture.  But  the  Atlas  of  Homer  and  Hesiod  can  only  be  the 
Peak  of  Teneriile,  while  the  Atlas  of  the  Greek  or  the  Roman  geographers  must  be 
found  in  the  north  of  Africa."* 

This  reasoning  we  cannot  consider  as  well  founded.  The  passages 
referred  to  in  Homer,  Hesiod,  and  Herodotus,  are  extremely  vague. 
The  Atlas  of  Herodotus  might  be  a  promontory  of  the  southern  chain,  rising  from 
the  plains  of  the  desert,  such  as  Mount  Saluban  in  Bildulgerid  appears  to  be.  It 
agrees  with  the  distances  assigned  by  this  historian.  It  is  besides  possible,  that  all 
these  contradictions  may  owe  their  origin  to  that  optical  illusion  by  which  a  chain  of 
mountains  seen  in  profile  has  the  appearance  of  a  narrow  peak.  "When  at  sea," 
says  Humboldt,  "  I  have  often  mistaken  long  chains  for  isolated  mountains."  This 
explanation  might  be  still  further  simplified,  if  it  were  admitted  that  the  name  of  Atlas 
belonged  originally  to  a  promontory  remarkable  for  form  and  its  peculiar  isolated 
situation,  such  as  most  of  those  on  the  coast  of  Morocco.  A  curious  passage  in 
Maximus  Tyrius  seems  to  countenance  this  hypothesis:  "  The  Ethio- 
pian Ilesperians,"  says  he,|  "  worship  Mount  Atlas,  who  is  both  their 
temple  and  their  idol.  The  Atlas  is  a  mountain  of  moderate  elevation,  concave,  and 
open  towards  the  sea  in  the  form  of  an  amphitheatre.  Half  way  from  the  mountain 
a  great  valley  extends,  which  is  very  remarkably  fertile  and  adorned  with  richly  laden 
fruit  trees.  The  eye  plunges  into  this  valley  as  into  a  deep  well,  but  the  precipice 
is  too  steep  for  any  person  to  venture  to  descend,  and  the  descent  is  prohibited  by 
feelings  of  religious  awe. .  The  most  wonderful  thing  is  to  see  the  waves  of  the  ocean 
at  high  water  overspreading  the  adjoining  plains,  but  stopping  short  before  Mount 
Atlas,  and  standing  up  like  a  wall,  without  penetrating  into  the  hollow  of  the  valley, 
though  not  restrained  by  any  earthy  barrier.  Nothing  but  the  air  and  the  sacred 
thicket  prevent  the  water  from  reaching  the  mountain.  Such  is  the  temple  and  the 
god  of  the  Libyans;  such  the  object  of  their  worship  and  the  witness  of  their  oaths." 
In  the  physical  delineations  contained  in  this  account  we  perceive  some  features  of 
resemblance  to  the  coast  between  Cape  Tefelneh  and  Cape  Geer,  which  resembles 
an  amphitheatre  crowned  with  a  series  of  detached  rocks.;};  In  the  moral  descrip- 
tion, we  find  traces  of  fetichism ;  rocks  remarkable  for  their  shape  being  still  wor- 
shipped by  some  negro  tribes. 

Leaving  these  dubious  questions  to  the  sagacity  of  authors  who  make 
them  a  subject  of  express  research,  we  shall  now  give  a  view  of  the  ac- 
tual physical  geography  of  the  region  of  Mount  Atlas. 

Vegetation.  |  The  fertility  of  this  part  of  Africa  was  celebrated  by  Strabo  and  Pliny. 
The  latter  extolled  its  ligs,§  olives,  ||  corn, IT  and  valuable  woods.**  He  observed  that 
the  wines  had  a  certain  sharpness,  which  was  corrected  by  adding  to  them  a  little 

"  Ideler,  in  M.  de  Humboldt's  Tableatix  tie  la  Nature,  i.  p.  141,  8tc.  trad,  de  M.  Eyries.  Cora- 
pare  Bory  Saint- Vincent,  Essai  sur  Ics  lies  Forttinces,  p.  427. 

f  Max.  Tyr.  Dissertat.  xxxviii.  p.  457,  4.58,  edit.  Oxon.  e  theatro  Siieldon. 

i  Dalzel,  liislructioii  sur  lee  coles  d'Afrique,  Trad.  Manuscrite,  avec  Notes,  par  M.  Mallard 
Dubecc. 

§  IMiiiy,  lib.  xv.  cap.  18.  Il   Pliny,  lib.  xvii.  cap.  12. 

1  Idem,  lib.  xviii.  cap.  7.  **  Idem,  lib.  .\iii.  cap.  15 — 19. 


Passape  in 
Maximus  Ty. 
rius. 


Description  of 
the  refjion  of 
Mount  Atlas. 


ATLANTIC  REGIONS.  489 

plaster,*  and  says  that  the  vineyards  had  a  northern  and  western  exposure,  j    Strabo 
says  that  the  vine  trunks  were  sometimes  so  thick  that  two  men  could  scarcely  clasp 
them  round,  and  that  the  clusters  were  a  cubit  in  length.J     A  horrible  government, 
and  a  total  absence  of  civilization,  have  not  succeeded  in  annihilating  these  bounties 
of  nature.     Barbary  and  Morocco  still  export  large  quantities  of  grain.     The  olive 
tree  is  superior  here  to  that  of  Provence, §  and  the  Moors,  notwithstanding  the  hos- 
tility to  Bacchus,  which  marks  their  rehgion,  cultivate  seven  varieties  of  the  vine. 
The  soil  of  the  plains  in  many  places  resembles  that  of  the  rest  of  Africa,  being 
light  and  sandy,  and  containing  numerous  rocks:  but  the  valleys  of  Mount  Atlas, 
and  those   of  the  rivulets  which  descend  from  it  to  the  Mediterranean,  are  covered 
with  a  compact,  fertile,  and  well  watered  soil.     Hence,  the  most  common  native 
plants  flourish  on  their  banks,  or  strike  their  roots  deep  into  the  moveable  sands, 
while  the  rarest  species  grow  in  the  marshes  and  the  forests.     The  arid  shoi-es  are 
covered  with  numerous  saline  and  succulent  plants,  such  as  the  SalsoJa  and  Salicomia 
the  Pancratium  marilimum,  and  the  Scilla  mariiima,  with  dift'erent  species  of  hardy 
long-rooted  plants,  among  which  are  the  Lygeum  spartum,  the  Pcmicum  himiidumy 
the  Saccharum  cxjUndncum,  and  the  Jtg^'ostis  pungens,  mixed  here  and  there  with  the 
Heliotropium  and  SoldaneUa.\\     The  dry  and  rocky  table-lands  which  lie     vegetation  of 
between  the  valleys  of  the  interior  greatly  resemble  the  downs  (landes)     «i»e  tabie-iaud. 
of  Spain.  They  abound  in  scattered  groves  of  cork  trees,  and  evergreen  oaks,  under 
whose  shadow  sage,  lavender,  and  other  aromatic  plants  grow  in  great  abundance, 
and  rise  to  an  extraordinary  height.     The  tall-stemmed  Genista,  the  different  species 
of  cistus,  mignonette,  sumac,  broom,  agave,  and  many  species   of  euphorbiitm  and 
cactus,  adorn  the  windings  and  clefts  of  the  rocks,  where,  braving  the  heat  and 
drought,  they  furnish  a  shade  and  a  wholesome  food  for  the  goats. 

The  forests  which  cover  the  sides  of  the  fertile  mountains  in  the  |  The  forests, 
northern  parts  of  these  countries  are,  according  to-  M.  Desfontaines,  composed  of 
different  species  of  oaks,  as  the  Quercus  ilex,  coccifera,  and  Ballota,  the  acorns  of 
which  form  part  of  the  food  of  the  inhabitants.  The  mastic  tree,  the  Pistacia  At- 
lantica,  the  TImya  arliculata,  and  the  Rhus  pentaphijllum,  are  frequently  found  here. 
The  large  cypress,  like  a  verdant  pyramid,  stretches  its  branches  towards  heaven  ; 
the  wild  olive  yields  excellent  fruit  without  culture.  The  Jlrhuttts  unedo  bears  a  red 
fruit  resembling  strawberries.  The  tall  broom  tree  diftuscs  widely  its  delightful  per- 
fumes. All  the  valleys  that  have  a  moderate  elevation  form  in  April  and  May  so 
many  little  Elysiums.  The  shade,  the  coolness,  the  bright  verdure,  the  |  riowen. 
diversity  of  the  flowers,  and  the  mixture  of  agreeable  odours,  combine  to  charm  the 
senses  of  the  botanist,  who,  amidst  such  scenes,  might  forget  his  native  country, 
were  he  not  shocked  and  alarmed  by  the  barbaiity  of  the  inhabitants. IT  On  the 
coasts  and  in  the  plains,  the  orange-tree,  the  myrtle,  the  lupine,  the  virgin's  bower, 
and  tlie  narcissus,  are,  in  the  month  of  January,  covered  with  flowers  and  young 
leaves.  But  in  June,  July,  August,  and  September,  the  parched  and  cracked  soil  is 
only  covered  with  the  yellow  remains  of  dead  and  withering  plants.  The  cork  tree 
darkens  the  forest  with  the  gloom  of  its  scorched  bark.  Yet  at  this  season,**  the 
rose-bay  displays  its  bright  flowers  on  the  banks  of  all  the  torrents  and  rivers,  from 
the  tops  of  the  mountains  down  to  the  deepest  valleys. 

Among  the  cultivated  plants  arc  hard  wheat,  barley,  maize,  the  Hol- 
cus  sorghum,  and  the  Hulcus  saccharatu^  rice  in  the  lands  capable  of 
being  inundated,  tobacco,  dates,  olives,  figs,  almonds,  vines,  apricots,  jujubes,  melons, 
pumpkins,  saffron,  the  white  mulberry,  the  Indigofera  glavca,  and  the  sugar-cane. 
The  gardens  yield  almost  all  the  species  of  pulse  known  in  Europe.  ■  The  inhabitants 
of  these  countries  preserve  their  grain  for  several  years,  by  burying  it  in  large  holes 
in  dry  situations.     Wheat  is  sown  in  autumn,  and  gathered  in  April  or  May.    Maize 

•  Pliny,  lib.  xiv.  cap.  9.  t  Wem,  lib.  xvii.  cap.  "2. 

i  Strabo,  lib.  xvii.  p.  568.  §  Poiret,  Voyage,  ii.  p.  81. 

11  Desfontaines,  Flora  .\tlantica.  Poiret,  Voyag^e  en  Barbaric, />flss?m. 
t  Poiret,  ii.  p.  71.  •*  Poiret,  p.  129. 

Vol.  II.— 3  Q 


Alimentary 
plants. 


Aii'mal 
kingdom 


Camel  of  the 
Desert, 


Degrees  of 
swiftness. 


490  BOOK  SIXTY-FOUKTH. 

and  sorghum  are  sown  in  spring,  and  cut  down  in  summer.*-  Oats  grow  spontane- 
ously.'!" Some  of  the  fruits,  such  as  the  fig,J  are  inferior  in  quality  to  those  of 
Europe  :  but  the  acorns  of  the  oak  taste  like  our  chesnuts.§ 

The  animal  kingdom  comprehends  most  of  the  species  known  in  the 
rest  of  Africa;  we  must  except  from  these  the  rhinoceros,  the  hippo- 
potamus, the  giraffe,  the  zebra,  and  several  of  the  monkeys. 

Nature  has  supplied  the  inhabitants  of  the  desert  of  Zahara  with  the  means  of 
crossing  the  immense  deserts  of  western  Africa  in  a  few  days.  Mounted 
on  the  heiree,  or  camel  of  the  desert,  which  resembles  the  dromedary, 
and  is  only  distinguished  from  it  by  greater  elegance  of  figure,  the  Arab,  after  tying 
lip  his  loins,  his  breast,  and  his  ears,  to  protect  himself  from  the  blasts  of  a  dange- 
rous wind,  traverses  with  the  speed  of  an  arrow  that  burning  desert,  the  fiery  atmo- 
sphere of  which  deeply  affects  respiration,  and  is  almost  sufficient  to  suffocate  any 
unwary  traveller.  The  motions  of  this  animal  are  so  harsh  and  violent,  that  no 
person  could  bear  them  without  all  the  patience,  the  abstinence,  and  toilsome  habits 
of  the  Arabs.  The  most  indifferent  variety  of  these  camels  is  called 
talayeh,  a  term  denoting  that  the  animal  cannot  accomplish  more  than 
three  ordinary  days  journey  in  a  day.  The  most  abundant  variety  called  sebay  can 
make  out  seven.  There  is  a  kind  which  accomplishes  nine,  and  is  called  tasay,  but 
these  are  exceedingly  rare,  and  bring  enormous  prices.  The  Arab  in  his  figurative 
phraseology  thus  describes  the  swiftness  of  the  camel  of  the  desert — "When  you 
meet  a  heiree,  and  say  to  the  rider  salem  alik,  (peace  be  with  you,)  he  is  out  of  sight 
before  he  can  return  the  alik  salem,  for  he  flies  like  the  wind."  Mr.  Jackson  relates 
facts  on  this  subject  which  are  almost  incredible.  A  heiree  arrived  at  Senegal  in 
seven  days  from  Mogadore,  having  traversed  14  degrees  of  latitude,  and,  including 
the  windings  of  the  road,  had  travelled  1000,  or  1100  English  miles,  making  150  in 
a  day.  A  Moor  of  Mogadore  mounted  his  heiree  in  the  morning,  went  to  Morocco, 
which  is  100  English  miles  off,  and  returned  in  the  evening  of  the  same  day  with  a 
parcel  of  oranges,  for  which  one  of  his  women  had  longed.  Mr.  Jackson  allows 
that  these  facts  put  the  faith  of  the  reader  to  a  severe  test;  but  three  older  travellers 
give  similar  accounts.  It  is  at  the  same  time  added,  that  camels  of  this  quality  are 
but  few.  II  Geography  might  receive  some  interesting  accession,  if  Europeans,  well 
armed,  and  in  sufficient  number,  could  procure  these  fleet  creatures,  and  learn  to  ride 
them,  in  order  to  explore  the  deserts  of  northern  Africa.  Asses  are  also 
used,  and  are  of  two  sorts,  the  one  strong  and  large,  the  other  very  small. 
Morocco  produces  fine  horses  of  the  Arabian  breed.  In  the  whole  of  Barbary  the 
cattle  are  small  and  lean;  the  cows  give  little  milk,  and  that  of  an  unpleasant  taste. — 
Goats  and  sheep  are  plenty.  Pigs  being  held  in  abhorrence  among  the  Mahometans, 
are  only  found  in  the  houses  of  Europeans.  Cats,  dogs,  and  European  poultry  are 
common.     The  Arabs  breed  a  great  many  bees. IT 

Wild  animals.  |  The  panther  has  in  all  periods  been  a  famous  animal,  but  it  is  only 
within  these  few  years  that  he  has  been  described  with  precision.**  The  ounce  and 
leopard  of  Buffon  seem  to  be  the  panther  at  different  ages  ;  yet  it  would  be  rash  to 
expunge  them  at  once  from  the  list  of  quadrupeds.  The  bubalus,  an  animal  of  the 
antelope  kind,  belongs  to  the  deserts  of  the  north  of  Africa.  It  lives  in  a  gi'ega- 
rious  state,  and  flocks  of  them  come  to  the  marshes  and  canals  of  Egypt  to  assuage 
their  thirst.  The  hieroglyphics  in  the  ^emples  of  Upper  Egypt  contain  several 
figures  evidently  representing  this  animal.  Among  the  other  animals  of  the  same 
genus  common  in  these  countries,  the  pasap  is  the  most  frequent,  then  the  corinna 
gazelle,  which  differs  very  little  from  llie  kevel,  or  proper  gazelle.ll  In  the  forests 
and  deserts  are  found  the  elephant,  the  lion,  the  African  bear,  two  species  of  the 
hyaena,  the  ferret,  which  lives  in  the  bushes,  and  some  apes,  among  which  are  the 

*  Desfontahies,  Flora  Atlantlca.  f  Shaw,  p.  138. 

+  Poiret,  ii.  p.  267.  §  Hocst,  p.  305. 

11  Hccst's  Account  of  Morocco,  translated  from  Danish  into  German,  p.  289.   Shaw's  Travels 
in  Barbary,  p.  157.     Lempriere's  Travels. 

^  Nachrichten  und  Bemerkungen  uber  Algier,  &c.  t.  iii. 

••  Cuvier,  Menagerie  du  Museum,  article  Panther.  tt  Idem.  ibid.  art.  Corinne. 


Other  domes 
tic  animals. 


Ostrich  hunt- 
ing. 


ATLANTIC    REGIONS.  491 

old  man  and  the  baboon.  According  to  a  conjecture  of  M.  Walckenaer,  the  rats 
seen  by  Windhus  the  traveller,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Mequinez,  *'  rats  as  large 
as  rabbits,  and  which  like  them  burrow  in  ll)e  earth,"  were  archmijs  gvvdi,  a  kind  of 
marmots.  It  has  been  disputed  whether  there  are  anv  bears  in  Aliica.  n<^^ynption  of 
The  learned  Cuvier  doubts  their  existence  in  such  southerly  latitudes,  Atvica. 
but  Baldens,  a  well  informed  writer,  says  that  he  saw  them  in  Ceylon.*  It  cannot 
be  denied,  that  two  grave  authors,  Herodotus  and  Strabo,  assert  the  existence  of  the 
bear  in  Africa,  distinguishing  him  from  the  lion  and  from  the  panther.  Dion,  or  his 
abridger  Xiphilin,  makes  a  similar  assertion  ;  Virgil,  Juvenal,  and  Martial  might  be 
quoted  to  the  same  etlcct.|  Aristotle  does  not  expressly  exclude  the  bear  from 
Africa,  j  On  these  accounts  we  ought  not  yet  to  reject  the  testimony  of  modern  tra- 
vellers, who  maintain  the  existence  of  this  animal  in  the  high  parts  of  Mount  Atlas, 
only  acknowledging  that  it  cannot  be  very  common.  § 

Ostrich  hunting  is  a  curious  amusement  of  this  country.  Twenty 
Arabs  mounted  on  the  horses  of  the  desert,  which  are  as  transcendent 
among  horses  as  the  heiree  is  among  camels,  proceed  to  windward  in  quest  of  an 
ostrich  track,  and  when  they  have  found  one,  follow  it  In  a  body  with  the  utmost  ra- 
pidity, keeping  at  the  distance  of  half  a  mile  from  one  another.  The  ostrich,  fa- 
tigued with  running  against  the  wind,  which  beats  against  his  wings,  turns  about  to 
the  hunters  and  attempts  to  penetrate  their  line  ;  but  they  surround  him,  and  all  at 
once  fire  on  the  bird,  when  he  falls.  Without  this  address  they  could  never  take  the 
ostrich,  which,  though  deprived  of  the  power  of  flying,  surpasses  in  running  the 
swiftest  animals. 

The  south  wind  brings  along  with  it  clouds  of  locusts,  which,  by  devastating  the 
fields,  create  famines,  and  often  cover  the  ground  so  completely,  as  to  make  a  travel- 
ler lose  his  way.  II  The  wild  bee  fills  the  trunks  of  the  trees  with  aromatic  honey, 
and  with  wax,  which  are  gathered  by  the  inhabitants  in  great  abundance.lT 

To  the  preceding  physical  delineation,  which  is  applicable  to  the  states  |  inhahitann. 
of  Tripoh,  Tunis,  Algiers,  and  Morocco,  we  shall  subjoin  an  equally  general  view 
of  the  inhabitants. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  towns  and  cultivated  plains  are  distinguished  by  |  The  Moors, 
the  name  of  Moors.  Though  they  speak  a  dialect  of  the  Arabic,  abounding  in  ex- 
pressions peculiar  to  themselves,  their  physical  constitution,  their  complexion,  which 
is  whiter  than  that  of  the  Arabs,  their  countenance,  which  is  more  full,  the  less  ele- 
vated nose,  and  less  expressive  physiognomy,  seem  to  show  that  they  are  descended 
from  a  mixture  of  the  ancient  Mauritanians  and  Numidians,  with  the  Phenicians, 
Romans,  and  Arabians. — Since  Sallust  asserts,  that  the  Numidians  and  Mauritanians 
had  sprung  from  an  Asiatic  colony,  composed  of  Modes,  Armenians,  and  Persians,** 
it  would  be  an  interesting  thing  to  examine  thoroughly  the  characteristic  idioms  of 
the  Moorish  language. ff  The  acounts  given  by  European  travellers  make  the  moral 
character  of  this  nation  a  compound  of  every  vice.  Avaricious  and  debauched, 
blood-thirsty  and  effeminate,  greedy  yet  idle,  revengeful  yet  fawning,  they  do  not  re- 
deem these  vices  by  a  single  good  quality  :  But  may  we  not  suppose  that  the  hatred 
which  the  Moors  have  vowed  against  their  Christian  persecutors,  ever  since  they 
were  driven  out  of  Spain,  has  excited  corresponding  feetiiTgs  among  travellers  ?  The 
Moors  are  Mahometans,  and  belong  chiefly  to  the  fanatical  sect  called  Maleki.  They, 
like  the  fanatics  of  many  other  religions,  consider  their  piety  as  compensating  for 
every  moral  defect,  and  heresy  as  a  stain  which  can  scarcely  be  rendered  more  tole- 
rable by  the  brightest  assemblage  of  moral  virtues. — They  have  among  Moorish  ana- 
them  many  saints  ;  some  distinguished  by  their  absolute  inaction,  others  '"^'""' 
by  a  turbulent  and  mischievous  insanity.     These  last  have  been  seen  to  knock  down 


*  Zimmermann,  Geographische  Geschlchte,  &c. 

+  Salmasii,  Exercitationes  Plinianae,  i.  p.  228.  +  Hist,  Animalium,  viii.  p,  28. 

§  Poiret,  ii.p.  238.     Shaw.  p.  177.     Hccst.  p.  291. 

i  Hccst,  p.  300.     Agrell,  Lettres  stir  le  Maroc,  p.  319. 

1  Poiret,  i.  p.  324.     Iloest,  p.  303.  ••  Sallust  in  Jugurtha. 

tt  Norberg.  Dispui.  de  genie  et  lingua  Marocano,  Lund,  in  Scania,  1787. 


492  BOOK  SIXTY-rOURTII. 

an  ass,  and  devour  the  flesh  still  reeking  and  bloody.*  Several  of  the  emperor's 
horses  have  been  raised  to  the  dignity  of  saintship :  one,  in  particular,  when  Com- 
modore Stewart  was  tiiere,t  was  held  in  such  reverence  by  the  monarch,  that  any 
person  who  had  committed  the  most  enormous  crime,  or  had  even  killed  a  prince  of 
the  blood  royal,  was  perfectly  secure  as  soon  as  he  laid  hold  of  the  sainted  animal. 
Several  Christian  captives  had  by  this  manoeuvre  saved  their  lives.  When  his  ma- 
jesty intended  to  confer  a  signal  mark  of  favour,  he  and  his  horse  drank  successively 
from  the  same  bowl,  and  then  caused  it  to  be  handed  to  the  distinguised  individual. 
These  people  are  addicted  in  an  uncommon  degree  to  a  superstitious  belief  in  the 
influence  of  evil  eyes.  An  emperor  of  Morocco  kept  his  son  in  a  state  of  rigorous 
confinement,  to  preserve  him  from  that  fatal  influence.  One  part  of  their  marriage 
ceremonies  is  to  make  a  solemn  procession  for  the  express  purpose  of  ascertaining 
the  purity  of  the  betrothed  maid.  In  no  part  of  the  world  do  the  men  discover 
more  sensitive  jealousy,  both  before  and  after  wedlock.  In  Morocco,  and  through 
the  whole  interior,  the  Moors  are  temperate  in  their  eating,  and  simple  in  their  dress, 
but  in  Tunis  and  Algiers  the  women  wear  elegant  dresses,  glittering  with  gold  and 
diamonds.;!;  The  whiteness  of  their  skin  is  only  discovered  by  their  bare  feet.  To 
be  able  to  read  the  Alcoran  is  in  the  eyes  of  most  Moors  the  summit  of  polite  learn- 
ing. They  have  also  their  astrologers,  and  they  are  fond  of  history  and  poetry. 
Their  square  flat-roofed  houses  are  sometimes  ornamented  in  the  interior  with  rich 
carpets  and  salient  fountains.  Horse-exercises,  and  shooting-matches,  with  feats  of 
rope-dancing,  form  their  favourite  pastimes.  At  their  funerals,  a  long  train  of  wo- 
men, paid  for  crying  and  howling,  accompanies  the  dead  bodies  to  their  tombs. 
Arabs.  {       The  nomade  Arabs,  who  brought  hither  the  Mahometan  religion  from 

Asia,  preserve  the  purity  of  their  race,  which  is  distinguished  by  a  more  masculine 
physiognomy,  more  lively  eyes,  and  almost  ohve  complexions.  Their  women,  des- 
titute of  personal  attractions,  enjoy  a  great  degree  of  freedom.  There  would  be  no 
use,  indeed,  in  concealing  their  brown  and  haggard  countenances,  which  operate  ra- 
ther as  antidotes  than  incitements  to  guilty  passions.  The  women  of  some  tribes 
ingrain  black  lines  and  figures  on  their  cheeks  and  bosoms.§  The  tents  of  the  Arabs, 
covered  with  a  coarse  stuff",  or  with  palm  leaves,  have  preserved  the  form  of  an  in- 
verted boat,  which,  according  to  Sallust,  was  that  of  the  mapalia  of  the  Numidians.|| 
They  call  a  cabin  of  this  kind  shaima,  and  a  group  of  them  forms  a  duar,  or  hamlet, 
which  is  in  the  form  of  a  ring,  with  the  Sheik's  house  in  the  centre,  and  is  frequently 
surrounded  with  a  thorn  hedge,  as  a  defence  against  the  lions  which  roar  around 
them.  The  number  of  these  Arabs  in  the  empire  of  Morocco  alone  is  sometimes 
estimated  at  40,000.  The  Arabs,  as  well  as  the  Moors,  send  caravans  of  pilgrims 
to  Mecca.  In  Asia,  both  these  classes  of  people  are  comprehended  under  the  name 
of  Magrebi,  or  Mogrebbins,  a  term  which  signifies  "  people  of  the  west." 
The  Berber*.  |  The  Berbers,  who  are  totally  distinct  from  the  Arabs  and  the  Moors, 
seem  to  be  the  indigenous  race  of  northern  Africa.  They  probably  comprehended 
the  remains  of  the  ancient  Getulm  to  the  west  of  Mount  Atlas,  and  of  the  Libyans  to 
the  east. IT  They  form  at  present  four  distinct  nations.  1.  The  Amazirgh,  called 
by  the  Moors  Sliilla,  or  Shulla,  in  the  mountains  of  Morocco.  2.  The  Cabyls,  in 
the  mountains  of  Algiers  Ehid  Tunis.  3.  The  Tibbos,  in  the  desert  between  Fezzan 
and  Egypt;  and,  4.  The  Tooariks  in  the  great  desert.  The  identity  of  the  language 
spoken  by  these  different  tribes,  which  is  perceived  by  a  comparison  of  their  voca- 
bularies,** is  one  of  the  most  important  discoveries  made  in  ethnographic  history. 
This  language  has  not  hitherto  been  found  to  show  any  analogy  to  that  of  the  Bara- 
bras  of  Nubia,  or  of  the  Shillooks  of  Abyssinia,  but  it  is  not  impossible  that  farther 

•  Bruns,  Afrlka,  vj.  p.  126.  -j-  Windhus's  Journey  of  Mequinez,  (London,  1723.) 

^  Nachrlchtcn,  &c.    An  account  of  Algiers,  i.  p.  493.     Altona,  1798. 

§  Agrell,  p.  39,  German  translation. 

II  On  the  etymology  of  this  word,  see  Bochart,  Canaan,  1.  ii.  cap.  9. 

^  Mithridates,  by  Adelung  and  Vater,  iil.  p.  45. 

"*  Hoest's  Account  of  Morocco,  (in  Danish,)  p.  128.  Joneses  Dissertation  de  lingua  Sliillensi 
in  the  Dissertat.  ex  Occas.  Sylloges,  kc,  Atnsterd.  1715.  Siiaw's  Travels,  p.  52.  Ilornemann. 
Marsdea.     Venture 


Tlie  Mara- 
booU. 


ATLANTIC  REGIONS.  493 

researches  may  discover  a  connection.     The  Berber  language,  which  the  Amazirgh 
call  the  Tamazeght,  and  the  Cabyls,  Shoivia,  seems  to  us  to  have  quite  an  original 
character,  though  approaching  to  the  Hebrew  and  the  Phenician.    The  Berbers  have 
a  complexion  of  mixed  red  and  black,  a  tall  and  handsome  form,  of  spare  habits,  and 
a  lean  body.*     In  religious  fanaticism  they  surpass  even  the  Moors.     When  an 
opportunity  is  presented  they  occasionally  gratify  their  antipathies  by  shedding  the 
blood  of  Jews  and  of  Christians.     The  Shillahs,  however,  eat  the  flesh  of  the  wild 
boar,  and  drink  wine.     The  Maraboots,  who  are  honoured  as  a  sort  of 
saints,  exercise  in   many  of  the   Kabyl  villages  a  despotic  authority. 
These  hypocrites  distribute  amulets,  and  affect  to  work  miracles.     Two  of  the  most 
eminent  of  these  at  present  in  Morocco  are  Sidi  Hamet  and  Sidi  Alarbi,  and  hardly 
any  thing  is  done  in  that  empire  without  consulting  them.     Though  they  are  consi- 
dered as  endued  with  the  gift  of  prophecy  and  of  miracles,  they  are  not  distinguished 
in  the  least  degree  by  personal  austerity  or  self-denial.     In  their  respective  districts 
no  tribute  is  paid  but  to  them.     With  their  revenues  and  the  valuable  offerings  which 
they  continually  receive,  they  support  an  armed  force,  with  which  they  are  always 
surrounded,  and  maintain  a  liberal  establishment  of  wives  and  concubines,  without 
incurring  the  slightest  abatement  from  the  sanctity  of  their  character.     In  other  si- 
tuations, especially  among  the  Shillahs,  there  are  sheiks  who  rule  the  small  tribes 
into  which  the  nation  is  divided.     Those  who  live  in  the  high  valleys  of  the  Atlas 
are  almost  entirely  independent.    In  Morocco  some  tribes  have  joined  together  under 
princes  or  hereditary  kings,  called  Amargar,  whose  patriarchal  authority  extends  no 
farther  than  to  the  punishment  of  theft  and  murder.     They  manufacture  their  own 
gunpowder.     Their  meals  consist  of  brown  bread,  olives,  and  water.     The  poverty 
and  dirtiness  of  their  dress  give  them  a  most  savage  appearance.     Yet  the  Berbers 
manifest,  in  the  cultivation  of  their  fertile  fields,  a  laborious  disposition,  and  a  degree 
of  intelhgence  which  might  be  turned  to  good  account.     They  furnish  the  indolent 
Moors  with  wheat,  olives,  and  all  sorts  of  provisions.     Their  villages,  some  of  which 
may,  for  size  and  population,  be  called  towns,  are  fortified  with  watch-towers,  from 
which  they  can  spy  the  approach  of  an  enemy.     On  the  slightest  signal  all  the  men 
are  in  arms.     They  handle  the  musket  with  much  skill,  tossing  it  in  the  air,  catching 
it  again,  and  discharging  it  with  astonishing  accuracy  and  rapidity. 

Besides  these  genuine  African  nations,  the  northern  part  of  this  continent  con- 
tains some  foreign  colonists,  among  whom  are  the  Turks,  the  masters  of  Algiers, 
and  once  of  Tunis  and  Tripoli,  and  the  Jews  who  are  spread  over  the  whole  of 
BarSary,  even  among  the  valleys  of  the  Kabyls. 

This  country,  though  one  of  the  most  salubrious,  and  the  most  propitious  to  the 
multiplication  of  the  human  race,  is,  in  consequence  of  the  absence  of  a  regular 
government,  exposed  to  calamitous  visitations,  and  particularly  to  the  ravages  of  the 
plague.  Mr.  Jackson,  British  consul  at  Mogadore,  has  drawn  a  hor-  I  Description  of 
rible  picture  of  a  plague,  which,  some  years  ago,  depopulated  the  ]  *P'^sue. 
empire  of  Morocco.  The  deaths  in  the  city  of  Morocco  amounted  to  50,000, 
those  at  Fez  to  65,000,  at  Mogadore  to  4500,  and  at  Saffi  to  5000.  The  survivors 
had  not  time  to  bury  the  dead  with  any  regularity.  The  bodies  were  thrown  into  large 
trenches,  which,  when  nearly  full,  were  covered  over  with  earth.  The  young,  the 
healthy,  and  the  vigorous  were  first  attacked ;  then  the  women  and  children  ;  and 
last  of  all,  the  lean,  the  exhausted,  the  valetudinary,  and  the  aged.  When  the 
scourge  disappeared,  a  total  revolution  was  found  to  have  taken  place  in  the  fortunes 
and  situation  of  individuals.  Some  who  had  previously  been  plain  mechanics,  now 
found  themselves  in  possession  of  large  capitals,  and  sometimes  purchased  horses 
which  they  scarcely  knew  how  to  mount.  Provisions  were  sold  in  great  abundance, 
and  extremely  cheap.  Flocks,  with  their  shepherds,  wandered  in  the  pastures  without 
owners.  Great  temptations  were  thus  presented  to  the  Arab,  the  Berber,  and  the 
Moor,  all  equally  prone  to  theft.  But  they  were  restrained  by  an  apprehension  for 
their  lives  :  for  the  plague,  (el  khere,)  is  believed  by  them  to  be  a  divine  judgment 
in  punishment  of  theu:  crimes.     It  was,  therefore,  imperiously  necessary  to  avoid 

*  llocsl,  p.  141.    Lemprierc,  Chcuier,  Shaw,  &.c. 


494  BOOK  SIXTY-FIFTH. 

being  caught  by  the  avenging  angel  in  the  flagrant  act,  and  rather  to  regulate  their 
conduct  so  as  to  prepare  themselves  for  paradise.  The  price  of  labour  was  soon 
out  of  all  bounds  ;  and  as  the  number  of  persons  capable  of  working  was  not  suffi- 
cient to  supply  the  demands  of  the  rich  who  were  able  to  pay  them,  the  latter  found 
themselves  under  the  necessity  of  performing  little  domestic  offices  with  their  own 
hands.  They  ground  corn  and  baked  bread,  and  the  simplicity  of  the  golden  age 
seemed  to  spring  up  in  this  recommencement  of  the  organization  of  society.  Many 
large  estates  which  remained  without  owners  were  seized  by  the  Arabs  of  the  de- 
serU* 


BOOK   LXV. 


THE  BARBARY  STATES,  AND  THE  GREAT  DESERT  OF 

ZAHARA. 


PART  n. 

Detailed  Descriptions. 

In  the  preceding  Book  we  have  delineated  the  physical  geography  and  ethnogra- 
phy of  the  whole  Atlantic  regions.  We  must  now  take  a  view  of  the  different  states 
or  kingdoms  of  Barbary,  and  the  cities  and  towns  included  in  these  political  divisions. 
We  shall  first  turn  our  attention  to  the  small  states  scattered  over  the  desert  which 
bounds  Egypt  on  the  west.  Then  passing  the  SijrtfK,  we  shall  follow  the  chain  of 
Mount  Atlas,  giving  an  account  of  the  States  of  Tripoh,  Tunis,  Algiers,  and  Mo- 
rocco, and  conclude  with  a  description  of  the  Great  Desert  of  Zahara.  ♦ 
The  desert  or          The  country  of  Barca  is  the  first  that  comes  in  our  way  on  leaving 

kingdom  of  oii-r»  7j  ji-  •  -i  • 

Barca.  Egypt,     bomc  Call  Jt)arca  a  desert,  and  the  mtenor  certamly  merits  that 

name  ;  others  call  it  a  Jcingdom,  an  appellation  founded  on  the  existence  of  this  coun- 
try as  the  independent  kingdom  of  Cyrene,  governed  by  a  branch  of  the  Ptolemies. 
The  coast  of  Barca,  once  famed  for  its  threefold  crops,!  is  now  very  ill  cultivated  ; 
the  wandering  tribes  of  the  desert  allow  no  rest  to  the  inhabitants,  or  security  to  their 
labours.  The  sovereignty  of  it  is  divided  between  two  Beys,  one  of  whom  resides 
at  Derne,  a  town  surrounded  with  gardens,  and  watered  by  refi"eshing  rivulets :  his 
subjects  may  amount  to  30,000  tents  or  families.  The  other  lives  at  Bengazi,  a 
town  of  10,000  houses,  with  a  tolerable  harbour,  on  a  shore  abounding  with  fish, 
and  in  a  fertile  territory,  from  which  much  wool  is  exported.  The  Bey  of  Tripoli 
appoints  these  two  governors,  whose  obedience  to  his  authority  is  often  ambiguous.  J 
Ruins  of  Among  the   magnificent  ruins  of  Cyrene,  the  limpid  spring  still   flows 

Cyren^.  from  which  the  city  had  its  name.     A  tribe  of  Arabs  pitches  its  tents 

amidst  its  sadly  mutilated  statues,  and  falling  colonnades.  Tolometa,  or  the  ancient 
Ptolcmais,  the  port  of  Barca,  preserves  its  ancient  walls,  a  temple,  and  some  inscrip- 
tions. This  coast  seems  to  hold  out  an  invitation  to  European  colonies  ;  it  seems 
to  be  the  property  of  no  government  or  people.     A  colony  established  here  would 

•  Jackson's  Account  of  the  Empire  of  Morocco.     London,  1809. 
t  See  Herodotus  and  Strabo,  and  our  volume  on  tlie  History  of  fleograpliy. 
i  Lemaire,  consul  Franijais,  Vaj  age  dans  les  Montagues  de  Derne,  dans  Ic  deuxicme  Vayage 
de  Paul  Lucas,  ii.  p.  110,  Sec. 


RARCA.  495 

ro-discover  those  beautiful  places  which  the  ancients  surnamed  the  Hills  of  the 
(•races,  and  tlie  Gardens  of  the  Hesperides.  Such,  however,  is  the  latent  rivalry  of 
the  civilized  world,  in  matters  connected  with  power  and  vanity,  and  the  phantoms 
attached  to  the  ideas  of  national  greatness,  and  even  national  existence,  that  the  most 
beneficent  efforts  of  any  people  are  liable  to  be  resisted  by  the  jealousy  of  another  of 
equal  pretensions. 

The  travels  of  the  intrepid  Hornemann  have  procured  for  us  a  little  information  re- 
specting the  countries  situated  beyond  Barca.  A  chain  of  mountains  runs  west  from 
the  Natron  Lakes  as  we  leave  Egypt,  and  taking  successively  the  names  of  Mokarra 
and  Gulsdoba,  extends  to  the  oasis  of  Audjelah,  being  about  four  miles  in  length. 
These  mountains  are  calcareous,  naked,  and  precipitous.  At  their  feet  we  pass  over 
a  flat  marshy  country,  from  one  to  six  miles  broad,  and  abounding  in  springs.  Fol- 
lowing these  mountains  westward,  we  first  arrive  at  the  oasis  of  Siwah,  which  forms 
a  small  independent  state.  The  inhabitants  speak  the  Tibbo  dialect  of  oasisof 
the  Berber  language.  This  is  the  country  of  Ammon  of  the  ancients,  siwaii. 
The  ruins  of  Oummibida  seem  to  belong  to  a  fortified  caravansera,  connected  with 
the  temple  of  Jupiter  Ammon.  They  contain  some  hieroglyphics  in  relief.  Their 
materials  consist  of  a  limestone  brought  from  the  adjoining  mountains,  containing 
petrified  shells  and  marine  animals.  Diodorus  speaks  of  the  temple  situated  in  the 
port  as  distinct  from  that  of  the  forest  near  the  fountain  of  the  sun.*  The  arable 
territory  of  the  oasis  of  Siwah,  is  about  six  miles  long  and  four  broad.  The  chief 
plantations  consist  of  date  trees  ;  there  are  also  pomegranates,  fig  trees,  olives,  apri- 
cots, and  bananas.  A  considerable  quantity  of  a  reddish  grained  rice  is  cultivated 
here,  being  a  different  variety  from  that  which  is  grown  in  the  Egyptian  Delta.  It 
also  produces  wheat  for  the  consumption  of  the  inhabitants.  Abundance  of  water, 
both  fresh  and  salt,  is  found.  The  fresh  water  springs  are  mostly  warm,  and  are  ac- 
cused of  giving  rise  to  dangerous  fevers,  when  used  by  strangers. "j"  The  population 
of  Siwah  is  capable  of  furnishing  about  1500  armed  men.  This  country  is  the  San- 
tariah  of  Abulfeda,  and  the  Sant-Ryah  of  Edrisi.  According  to  Ebn-Ayas,  an  Ara- 
bian author,  the  zebra  is  met  with  in  the  adjoining  deserts.;}^ 

From  Siwah  to  Audjelah,  the  mountains  rise  in  peaks  from  the  midst  of  the  plain. 
The  naked  rock  is  not  covered  with  a  particle  of  soil,  or  even  with  sand.  A  sandy 
plain  at  the  bottom  of  the  mountains,  presents  on  its  surface  an  immense  horizontal 
calcareous  bank,  which  contains  no  traces  of  petrification,  while  the  adjacent  moun- 
tains, also  calcareous,  are  full  of  the  remains  of  marine  animals  and  shells.  These 
are  also  met  with  here  in  large  isolated  heaps. 

The  oasis  of  Audjelah,  the  Augila  of  Herodotus,  contains  three  towns     The  oasis  of 
or  villages,  and  is  the  residence  of  a  bey,  who  is  dependent  on  the  bey     Audjelah. 
of  Tripoli.     The  town  of  Audjelah  is  only  a  mile  in  circumference,  and  contains 
only  three  narrow  and  dirty  streets  of  mean  houses  built  of  limestone.     The  public 
buildings  have  a  most  wretched  aspect.     At  Audjelah  is  the  termination  of  the  long 
chain  of  mountains  which  bounds  the  desert  of  Barca  on  the  south,  and  separates  it 
from  that  of  Libya,  turning  west  to  Fezzan.     A  little  beyond  this  we  find  another 
chain  called  Marai,  of  the  extent  and  direction  of  which  we  know  but  little,  only  that 
it  appears  to  send  off  ramifications  to  the  north.     Then  we  find  the  sin-     The  desert  of 
gular  hilly  desert  called  Haroodje,  which  is  probably  the  Mons  aler  of    Marooiijei.. 
Pliny.     It  commences  at  two  or  three  days'  journey  from  Audjelah,  reaches  the 
mountains  by  which  Fezzan  is  bounded,  and  is  prolonged  to  the  north  of  Fezzan; 
but  the  branches  which  it  forms  in  this  direction,  and  those  also  to  the  south,  are  less 
known.     Haroodjeh  presents  a  mass  of  broken  mountains,  mostly  bare  and  sterile, 
composed  of  black  basalt.     Their  appearance  is  volcanic  and  exceedingly  wild.     In 
several  places  the  ranges  of  basalt  alternate  with  others  of  limestone.     The  low 
calcareous  hills  bounding  the  plains  are  composed  of  petrifactions,  which  consist 
mostly  of  the  heads  of  fishes. 

•  Diodorus,  edit.  Wessel,  p.  589. 

t  Voyage  de  Browne,  t.  i,  p.  34.  de  la  trad.  Franjaise. 

*  Langles,  M^moire  sur  les  Oases. 


496  BOOK    SIXTY-FIFTH. 


Fabulous 
tuwii. 


Soil  and  pro- 
duciions. 


It  is  probably  in  Haroodjc  that  the  solution  will  one  day  be  found  of 
the  enigma  of  the  Arabian  geographers,  respecting  a  town,  which  they 
call  Raz  Sem,  the  inhabitants  of  which  were  turned  into  stone.  Shaw  and  Bruce 
did  not  penetrate  so  far  as  to  procure  information  deserving  of  reliance.  The  tra- 
dition has  the  appearance  of  concealing  under  it  a  curious  fact,  the  existence  of 
mummies  in  some  JVecropoUs,  or  city  of  the  dead,  like  those  of  Egypt. 
Fezzan.  j      From  the  Haroodje  we  enter  Fezzan.     Major  Rennel  and  the  learned 

Larcher  consider  Fezzan  as  the  ancient  country  of  the   Garamantes ;  a  point  still, 
however,  very  doubtful,  as  we  have  shown  in  our  History  of  Geography. 

Fezzan  is  bounded  by  the  state  of  Tripoli  on  the  north,  by  the  desert  of  Barca  on ' 
the  east,  and  by  the  great  desert  of  Zahara  on  the  west  and  south.  The  greatest 
length  of  the  cultivated  country,  from  north  to  south,  is  about  255  miles,  and  its 
greatest  breadth  200  miles  from  east  to  west ;  but  the  mountainous  region  of  Ha- 
roodjeh  is  comprehended  in  its  territory.  According  to  Hornemann,  this  small  state 
contains  100  towns  and  villages,  of  which  Moorzook  is  the  capital.  Sakna,  Wadan, 
and  Germah,  are  the  names  of  others,  the  last  of  which  resembles  the  ancient  Ga- 
rama.  There  is  alse  Zooilah,  which,  according  to  old  travellers,  contained  magnifi- 
ciiraate.  |  cent  ruins,  but  none  such  were  seen  by  Hornemann.  During  the  south 
wind  the  heat  here  is  scarcely  supportable  even  to  the  inhabitants,  who  then  sprinkle 
their  rooms  over  with  water,  in  order  to  be  able  to  breathe.  The  winter  is  not  so 
mild  as  might  be  expected,  owing  to  a  cold  and  piercing  north  wind,  which  completely 
chilled  the  inhabitants  while  Hornemann  was  there,  and  obliged  this  traveller  himself, 
though  inured  to  a  cold  climate,  to  draw  near  a  fire.*  Rains  here  are  infrequent  and 
scanty.  Hurricanes  sometimes  blow  from  the  north,  darkening  the  atmosphere  with 
clouds  of  dust  and  sand. 

In  the  whole  country  there  is  no  river  or  stream  worthy  of  notice. 
The  soil  is  a  deep  sand  covering  rocks,  and  sometimes  calcareous  or 
argillaceous  earth.  There  are  numerous  springs,  which  supply  water  for  the  purpose 
of  agriculture.  The  whole  of  Fezzan,  indeed,  abounds  in  water,  at  a  moderate  depth 
under  ground,  derived,  no  doubt,  from  the  rains  which  fall  on  hills  more  or  less  dis- 
tant, perhaps  on  the  confines  of  the  desert,  and  though  absorbed  by  the  sand,  find 
their  level  among  the  loose  strata,  across  a  broad  extent  of  desert,  till  they  become 
accessible  in  Fezzan,  and  impart  to  this  country  its  characteristic  fertility.  Dates 
are  the  natural  produce  and  the  staple  commodity  of  Fezzan.  Figs,  pomegranates, 
and  lemons,  also  succeed.  A  great  quantity  of  maize  and  barley  is  cultivated  ;  but 
the  inhabitants  do  not  raise  wheat  sufficient  for  their  own  consumption,  and  receive 
a  great  part  of  what  they  use  from  the  Arabs.  Some  ascribe  this  to  their  indolence; 
but  remarks  of  that  kind  are  often  gratuitous  conclusions,  arising  from  a  deficient 
comprehensien  of  the  principles  of  wealth  and  commerce.  If  the  inhabitants  are  in- 
dolent, how  do  they  contrive  to  procure  an  equivalent  to  give  to  these  Arabs  for 
their  wheat  1  The  latter  may  feed  them  because  they  are  rich,  but  not  simply  be- 
cause they  are  unwilling  to  work.  Such  facts,  if  they  authorize  any  inference  on 
the  subject,  would  rather  incHne  us  to  think  that  the  industry  of  the  people  was  such 
as  to  produce  a  population  greater  than  the  food  produced  in  the  country  is  able  to 
maintain,  or  that  a  produce  of  a  more  delicate  kind  was  given  by  them  to  the  import- 
ing Arabs,  in  exchange  for  an  article  which  goes  farther  for  the  purposes  of  nutri- 
ment. Fezzan  abounds  in  pulse  and  culinary  vegetables.  The  most  common 
domestic  animal  is  the  goat.  Sheep  are  reared  in  the  southern  parts.  The  ass  is 
their  beast  of  burden  and  draught.  Camels  are  extremely  scarce  and  high  priced. 
All  these  animals  are  fed  on  dates  or  date-stones.  In  the  province  of  Mendrah, 
natron  floats  in  large  masses  on  the  surfaces  of  several  lakes,  over  which  a  dense  fog 
is  frequently  seen  to  hover. 

The  Fezzanese  send  caravans  to  Tripoli,  Tombuctoo,  and  Bornoo.  They  trade 
in  gold  dust  and  black  slaves.  They  are  acquainted  with  the  cowrie  shell,  or  cyphrosa 
mnnda,  a  circumstance  which  shows  that  their  comercial  relations  extend  to  the  coast 
of  Guinea.]"     From  October  to  February,  Moorzook  is  the  great  mart  and  ren- 

•  Proceedings  of  the  African  Association,  vol.  i. 
t  Brun's  Afrika,  v.  p.  315. 


TRIPOLI.  497 

dezvous  of  the  diflercnt  caravans  which  come  from  Cairo,  Bcngazi,  Tripoli,  Gadamcs, 
Tooat,  and  Soodan. 

According  to  some,  the  suUan  of  this  country  is  tributary  to  the  Bey  of  |  Government. 
TripoH;*  according  to  others,  he  only  sends  him  a  present. f  According  to  Horne- 
mann,  his  revenues  arise  from  his  landed  estates;  others  mention  three  or  four  mo- 
derate taxes.  The  population  of  Fezzan  is  estimated  by  Hornemann  at  (  inhabitants. 
60,000  or  70,000  souls.  The  variety  of  their  complexion  shows  that  they  are  a 
mixed  people.  The  indigenous  race  is  of  middling  stature,  of  little  vigour,  with 
brown  complexions,  black  short  hair,  a  form  of  countenance  which  in  Europe  would 
be  called  regular,  and  a  nose  less  flattened  than  that  of  the  negro.  The  women,  as 
in  the  whole  of  Africa,  are  immoderately  fond  of  dancing.  According  to  Hornemann, 
all  the  inhabitants  arc  Mahometans ;  according  to  others,  there  are  also  some  pagans 
among  them,  who  live  in  a  good  understanding  with  the  Mussulmen.J  The  Fez- 
zanese  intoxicate  themselves  with  the  juice  of  the  date;  in  other  respects  they  are 
very  sober,  which  is  partly  the  result  of  necessity.  Hornemann  says  that  a  person 
who  can  afford  to  eat  bread  and  meat  daily  is  esteemed  a  man  of  great  wealth.  The 
houses  of  Fezzan  arc  built  of  sun-dried  bricks,  made  of  calcareous  and  argillaceous 
earth.  They  are  extremely  low,  and  lighted  only  by  the  door.  In  this  country 
young  persons  are  often  mutilated  and  transformed  into  eunuchs. 

The  Tibbos,  a  Berber  nation,  occupy  the  almost  desert  countries  to  |  Tibbos. 
the  south-oast  of  Fezzan,  and  from  these  extend  eastward  along  the  southern  boun- 
dary of  Haroodjeh,  and  the  desert  of  Audjelah,  as  far  as  the  vast  sandy  desert  of 
Levata,  by  which  Egypt  is  hemmed  in  on  the  west.  This  desert  is  the  eastern  limit 
of  the  Tibbos.  The  space  on  the  south,  lying  between  the  Tibbos  and  the  kingdom 
of  Borneo,  is  in  the  possession  of  the  wandering  Arabs,  some  of  whose  tribes  hve  in 
caverns  or  grottos  during  the  intense  heats.  Berdoa,  an  oasis  mentioned  by  Leo, 
is  perhaps  identical  with  Boorgon,  the  capital  of  the  Tibbos. 

The  state  of  Tripoli,  properly  so  called,  extends  on  the  north  of  Fez-  |  Tripoli, 
zan  between  the  great  and  the  little  Sijrtcc;  that  is,  between  the  Gulf  of  Sidra  and 
that  of  Gabes. 

Here  the  climate  is  extremely  unpleasant;  the  heat  of  the  day  and  the 
coldness  of  the  night  being  equally  insupportable.  From  the  month  of 
May  till  the  end  of  October  no  rain  falls.  Vegetation  is  more  abundant  in  winter 
than  in  summer.  The  soil  is  tolerably  fertile,  producing  dates,  oranges,  citrons,  figs, 
almonds,  and  many  other  fruits.  In  winter  there  is  abundance  of  all  sorts  of  pulse, 
cabbages,  turnips,  and  onions :  in  summer  cucumbers  and  melons.  Two  days'  jour- 
ney south  from  Tripoli,  there  is  on  Mount  Garean  a  great  plantation  of  saffron. — 
Lions  and  panthers  are  rarely  seen;  the  jackals  and  hedgehogs  are  numerous.  Much 
inconvenience  is  created  by  serpents  and  scorpions. § 

The  comparative  geography  of  the  towns  is  involved  in  an  obscurity  |  Towns, 
which  it  is  not  in  our  power  to  dissipate.  There  were  three  conspicuous  towns  in 
the  Syrtic  region;  and  in  the  fifth  century  this  region  received  the  name  of  Tripoli, 
which  means  "  the  country  of  the  three  cities;"  but,  in  order  to  determine  what  these 
towns  were,  and  what  modern  localities  correspond  to  them,  would  require  a  long 
and  not  very  amusing  discussion.  It  seems  to  be  certain,  that  during  the  first  inva- 
sions of  the  Arabians,  the  city  of  Sabrata,  apparently  the  capital  of  the  province,  had 
in  common  language  received  the  name  of  Tripolis.  It  is  still  called 
Sabart,  and  "  Old  Tripoli."  Its  inhabitants  took  refuge  in  the  place 
now  called  New  Tripoli.  This  city  may  have  been  called  Ncapolis  by  the  Byzan- 
tine authors,  but  it  was  certainly  diflcrent  from  that  which  Pliny  and  the  rest  of  the 
ancients  designated  uirder  that  name.  Was  it  identical  with  Ocea?  This  has  been 
denied  without  decisive  evidence.  It  is  at  least  an  ancient  city,  for  it  has  a  triumphal 
arch,  dedicated,  as  appears  by  the  remains  of  the  inscription,  to  Marcus  Amelius 

•  Abderrhamau  Aga,  Tripolltan  Ambassador,  Account  given  to  Mr.  Niebuhr  in  the  New  Ger- 
man Museum,  iii.  p.  992. 

f  Proceedings  of  the  African  Aiisociatlon,  i.  t  Nouv.  Mgs.  Allcm.  p.  993. 

§  Rothmann's  Letters  on  Tripoli,  in  Schlsetzcr's  Political  Correspondence,  vol.  ix.  No.  vi. 
(ia  German.) 

Vol.  II.— 3  K 


Climate  and 
]u'ocluctiou9. 


Antiquity  of 
Tripoli. 


498  BOOK  siXTV-Firrn. 

Antonius,  suni.amcd  the  philosopher,  and  to  his  imperial  colleague,  Lucius  Verus.* 
After  heing  taken  from  the  Arabs  by  Roger  of  Sicily,  and  occupied  by  the  troops  of 
Charles  V.  and  by  the  Knights  of  Malta,  it  always  returned  into  the  hands  of  the 
Mussulmans;  but  industry  and  trade  have  been  much  injured  by  these  revolutions. 
Some  stuffs  are  manufactured  here.  The  harbour  opens  in  a  semicircular  form,  and 
is  feebly  protected  by  old  fortifications. 

Different  I  To  the  east  of  the  capital  is  Lebida,  the  ancient  Leptis  magna,  with 
towns.  I  ^j^^  remains  of  a  temple,  a  triumphal  arch,  and  an  aqueduct;!  also  Me- 

surate,  or  Mezrata,  the  residence  of  a  bey.  To  the  west  we  find  Arzori,  of  sufficient 
importance  in  the  fifth  century  to  give  its  name  to  the  province  which  was  called 
Arzugum  Regio;  and  the  island  of  the  Lotophagi,  now  called  Zerbi.  The  small 
towns  on  the  borders  of  the  two  Syrtte,  obscure  in  modern,  as  they  were  in  ancient 
geography,  seem  to  disappear  with  a  rapidity  like  that  of  the  shifting  sand  hills  by 
which  they  are  surrounded.  The  populous  villages  of  Mount  Garean  are  partly 
composed  of  grottos  cut  in  the  rocks.  The  tombs  are  sometimes  over  the  dwellings 
of  the  living.J 

Government.  The  State  of  Tripoli,  possessing  an  extensive  territory,  but  depopulated, 

Navy.  full  of  barren  districts,  and  a  prey  to  anarchy,  is  the  weakest  of  the  Bar- 

bary  States.  The  hereditary  prince,  or  pasha,  who  reigns  here,  does  not  annex  to 
his  name  the  title  of  Dey,  but  only  that  of  Bey.  He  is  more  dependent  on  the  Sub- 
lime Porte  than  the  princes  of  Tunis  and  Algiers.  He  does  not  maintain  regular 
troops,  and  his  navy  consists  of  some  xebecs  and  armed  polacres.  The  Danish  fri- 
gate the  Naiad,  of  40  guns,  commanded  by  Captain  Sten-bille,  was  perfidiously 
inveigled  into  the  harbour  of  Tripoli,  where  it  was  attacked  by  the  whole  Tripolitan 
navy.  The  frigate  drove  off  all  the  xebecs  and  polacres,  and  made  the  pasha  trem- 
ble in  his  palace,  so  that  he  offered  more  moderate  conditions  than  he  usually  exacts. 
Tripoli  exports  the  wool  of  Barca,  gold  dust,  ostrich  feathers,  slaves  brought  from 
the  interior  of  Africa,  senna,  wax,  and  morocco  leather.  Caravans  annually  arrive 
here  from  Fezzan,  Morocco,  and  Tombuctoo. 

To  the  west  of  Tripoli  is  the  kingdom  of  Tunis,  the  ancient  Africa 
Propria,  and  the  seat  of  the  Carthaginian  power.  In  the  middle  age, 
the  State  of  Tripoli  was  subject  to  Tunis,  of  which  Barbyrossa  took  possession  in 
1533.  At  the  present  day,  the  Tunisians,  more  civilized  than  the  Algerines,  are 
their  inferiors  in  power,  and  have  some  difficulty  to  support  their  independence.  The 
State  contains  four  or  five  millions  of  inhabitants.  The  Moors,  who  are  the  agri- 
culturists and  merchants,  are  less  numerous  than  the  nomade  Arabs.  The  Turkish 
and  Mameluke  soldiery  are  comprehended  under  the  designation  of  harefi,  and  are 
now  deprived  of  all  influence.  The  princes,  who  are  hereditary,  are  |  Government, 
descended  from  a  Greek  renegado,  and  a  Genoese  female  slave,  but  they  are  sur- 
rounded by  an  army  of  Moors.  The  sovereign  is  called  Kamouda  Bey,  a  person  of 
extraordinary  vigour  of  character,  and  has  now  reigned  nearly  thirty  years,  without 
any  attempt  having  been  made  to  shake  his  authority.  He  is  not  the  legitimate, 
heir,  yet  lives  on  terms  of  intimacy  with  his  cousins,  who  ought  to  have  inherited 
the  throne.  He  superintends  all  the  departments  of  government,  and  extends  the 
protection  of  the  law  to  Christians  and  Jews.  The  regular  army  does  not  amount 
to  20,000  men,  and  the  navy  consists  of  a  few  vessels  armed  for  giving  chace.  Ad- 
dicted to  agriculture,  and  other  branches  of  industry,  the  Tunisians  are  less  given  to 
piracy  than  the  other  people  of  Barbary.  The  state  revenues  may  amount  to  a 
million  Sterling.  § 

Climate.  |      The  heat  becomes  insupportable  in  July  and  August,  when  the  south 

wind  brings  the  heated  air  from  the  interior  of  Africa.  Some  branches  of  the  Atlas 
contain  elevated  and  temperate  regions.     A  fertile  plain  lies  along  the  river  Mejerda, 

•  Picturesque  Travels  in  Caramania,  8tc.  from  the  cabinet  of  Sir  Robert  Ainslie.  London, 
1809. 

t  Stromberg's  Remarks  on  the  Trade  of  Tripoli,  (in  Swedish.) 

t  Rothmann,  Lettres  sur  Tripoli. 

§  Chateaubriand,  Mcmoire  sur  Tunis,  dans  I'ltineraire  ^  Jerusalem.  MacGill's  Account  of 
Tunis.    London,  1811,  p.  24—39,  &c. 


Kinjjdom  of 
Tunis, 


Ruins  of  Car 
thage. 


ALGIERS.  49 

the  Bagradas  of  tlio  ancitnits.  Among  its  minerals  are  found  alabaster,  |  rroductiom. 
crystal,  clay,  plumbago,  iron,  and  lead.  The  cattle  are  small  and  delicate.  Th 
horses  are  a  degenerate  breed.  The  sheep  of  Zaara,  which  are  bred  here,  are  a 
large  as  deer.  Here  are  lions,  panthers,  hyaenas,  jackals,  and  other  ferocious  animals 

The  southern  part  is  sandy,  rather  level,  barren,  and  dried  up  by  the  solar  hea' 
It  contains  a  large  shallow  lake  called  Loodeah,*  which  is  the  Paltis  Tritonis  of  th 
ancients.  Tiie  country  along  the  sea  shore  is  rich  in  olives,  and  contains  many  town 
and  populous  villages.  But  the  western  part  is  full  of  mountains  and  hills,  watere 
by  numerous  rivulets,  with  highly  fertile  banks,  yielding  the  finest  and  most  abundar 
crops.  Even  the  Mejerda  is  not  navigable  in  summer.  The  generality  of  the  so 
is  impregnated  with  sea  salt  and  nitre,  and  salt  springs  are  more  plenty  than  fres 
ones. 

The  city  of  Tunis  is  one  of  the  first  in  Africa.  It  has  a  harbour  with  |  city  of  xunii 
good  fortifications.  The  only  fresh  water  to  be  had  is  rain  water.  This  cit 
lias  manufactures  of  velvets,  silks,  cloths,  and  red  bonnets,  which  are  worn  by  th 
people.  The  chief  exports  consist  of  woollen  stuffs,  red  bonnets,  gold  dust,  leac 
oils,  and  morocco  leather.  The  most  active  part  of  the  trade  is  carried  on  wit 
France.  In  no  part  of  Barbary  are  the  Moors  so  tolerant  and  so  courteous  as  hen 
The  commercial  spirit  of  ancient  Carthage  seems  to  hover  over  this  locality,  so  Ion 
the  focus  of  African  civilization  and  power.  The  ruins  of  that  ancient 
city  are  to  the  north-west  of  Tunis.  Her  harbours,  once  the  asylum  of 
so  many  formidable  fleets,  seem  partly  filled  up  by  the  falling  in  of  the  ground.  I 
the  south-east  part  are  seen  remains  of  the  moles  by  which  they  were  bounded. 
A  noble  aqueduct  is  still  to  be  seen,  a  monument  of  the  Roman  power,  under  whic 
the  second  Carthage  flourished.  The  emperor  Charles  V.  caused  a  di-awing  to  b 
made  of  it,  and  the  design  was  arranged  by  the  celebrated  Titian,  to  serve  as  a  mode 
for  some  tapestry  to  be  executed  for  the  Austrian  court,  j 

Among  the  modern  places  we  may  mention  Barda,  the  Tunisian  Versailles,  bein, 
the  palace  in  which  the  Bey  resides.  The  Goletta,  a  well  appointed  fortress,  com 
mands  the  roadstead  of  Tunis,  and  the  entrance  of  a  large  pool,  which  is  scarcel 
navigable  for  boats.  Biserta,  a  fortified  town,  is  situated  on  a  lagoon,  which  is  c.x 
ceedingly  well  stocked  with  fish,  and  might  be  formed  into  a  magnificent  harbour. 

Porto-Farina,  situated  to  the  north-west  on  the  Mediterranean,  has  an  exceller 
harbour,  which  has  become  foul  with  rubbish.  The  ancient  Utica,  where  the  younge 
Cato  died  a  voluntary  death,  was  near  this  place.  Sooza,  a  trading  town,  built  on 
rock,  has  a  castle,  and  a  good  harbour,  on  the  IMediterranean.  Hamamet,  Sfakes 
and  Gabes,  have  also  harbours  or  roadsteads.  In  the  interior  we  notice  Kairooan 
a  town  founded  by  the  Arabians,  and  for  some  centuries  the  capital  of  Africa.  'Thi 
Mussulmans  boast  of  its  principal  mosque,  supported,  as  they  say,  by  500  granitii 
columns.     Foser,  on  Lake  Loodeah,  is  a  great  mart  for  wool. 

The  Bey  of  Tunis  has  sometimes  disputed  with  the  Bey  of  Tripoli 
the  sovereignty  of  the  small  state  of  Gadamcs,  which  is  at  a  distance  in 
the  interior,  to  the  south  of  the  lesser  Syrta3.  Gadames  had  once  a  flourishing  trade 
which  has  declined  since  the  caravans,  in  going  from  Tripoli  to  Tombuctoo,  havi 
stopped  at  Agadez,  instead  of  this  place.  All  the  caravans  from  the  interior  brin; 
slaves,  ostrich  feathers,  ivory,  amber,  senna  leaves,  and  gold  dust.  Gadames  i 
called  by  a  modern  autlior  Gdamsia.§ 

Proceeding  westward,  we  enter  the  state  of  Algiers.  ||     This  king- 
dom, watered  by  the  Shellif  and  the  Wadi-Jiddi,  is  crossed  in  its  southern 


State  of  Ga- 
dames. 


State  of  Al- 
giers. 


•  Brun's  Afrika,  vl.  p.  329. 

f  Chateaubriand,  Itineraire,  i'li.  p.  186,  &c.    Jackson,  Memou'  on  the  lluins  of  Carthage. 

i  Fischer  d'Erlacb,  Architecture  Historique,  liv,  ii.  Planche  ii.  Vienne,  1721. 

§  Flora  Atlantica,  preface,  p.  2. 

II  A  very  interesting  account  of  Algr'iers,  was  published  in  1826,  by  Mr.  Shaler,  Americai 
Consul  resident  at  that  place.  According  to  his  account,  the  western  limit  of  Algiers  is  at  : 
place  called  Twunt,  (about  forty  miles  east  of  the  great  river  Mulucha  or  Malva,  and  sixteei 
minutes  west  of  the  meridian  of  Greenwich,)  from  whence  to  Taburca  its  eastern  limit,  at  tli( 
mouth  of  the  little  river  Zaine,  in  9°  16'  E.  long.,  the  distance  is  about  500  miles.  The  breadtl 


500  BOOK  SIXTY-FIFTH. 

part  by  the  chains  of  the  Atlas,  called  Lowat  and  Ammer.     We  have  described 
these  chains,  and  mentioned  the  mountain  of  Jurjura,  one  of  the  highest  in  Barbary. 

is  uncertain,  the  northern  border  of  the  Sahara  never  having  been  determined  by  observation. 
The  whole  territory  is  mountainous,  but  the  natives  say  none  of  the  mountains  are  bald,  their 
summits  being  inhabited  by  the  Kabyles,  who  find  there  sufficient  pasturage  for  their  flocks, 
and  arable  land  to  subsist  upon.  The  city  of  Algiers,  as  seen  from  the  sea,  resembles  a  ship's 
topsail  on  a  green  field.  The  country  enjoys  a  healthy  and  agreeable  temperature,  neither 
oppressive  in  summer  or  severe  in  winter,  except  during  the  winds  from  Sahara,  which  blow 
occasionally  in  mid-summer  four  or  five  days,  when  the  mercury  often  rises  to  108°.  Fi-om 
April  to  September,  the  winds  are  usually  from  the  eastward,  damp  without  rain;  the  rest  of 
the  year  westerly.  The  season  of  rain  is  from  November  to  April,  sometimes  excessive  in 
November  and  December.  The  quantity  of  rain  falling  annually  is  24  to  28  inches.  The  soil 
throughout  is  equally  fertile  ;  in  some  places  black,  and  in  some  red — rarely  is  any  grain  cul- 
tivated but  wheat  and  barley.  The  wheat  is  of  the  hard  species.  Nothing  is  more  rare  than 
to  find  forest  trees  in  the  plain.  The  only  metals  known  to  exist  at  Algiers  are  iron  and  lead. 
Inexhaustible  mines  of  the  finest  foSsil  salt  abound  in  the  mountains.  The  river  Shelliff  is 
the  most  considerable;  its  sources  are  in  the  Sahara;  it  approaches  within  50  miles  of  Algiers; 
when  becoming  a  river  of  some  consequence,  it  turns  to  the  west,  parallel  to  the  coast,  and 
disembogues  in  1°  20'  E.  long.  There  is  no  other  remarkable  river,  though  there  are  nume- 
rous streams  which  reach  the  sea.  The  sea  coast  is  every  where  bold  and  free  from  hidden 
dangers.  Its  only  known  good  harbours  are  Boujaiah  and  the  Gulf  of  Stora,  which  are  very 
spacious  and  afford  perfect  shelter  at  all  times.  Bona,  Algiers  and  Oran  have  safe  anchorage 
in  ordinary  times,  but  afford  no  shelter  from  the  northerly  gales,  which  sometimes  in  winter 
blow  with  excessive  fury.  Mr.  Shaler  says,  although  the  Barbary  horses  have  had  much  repu- 
tation, he  does  not  recollect  having  seen  a  fine  horse  in  Algiers.  In  every  respect  the  horses 
appeared  to  him  inferior  to  those  of  the  United  States.  The  neat  cattle  are  very  small,  and 
the  cows  give  very  little  milk.  The  wool  is  of  good  quality,  and  in  its  unsorted,  unwashed 
state  usually  commands  50  franks  per  English  quintal  in  France  and  Italy.  The  territory  of 
Algiers  is  politically  divided  into  three  provinces — Oran,  the  western;  Titterie,  the  southern; 
and  Constantine,  the  eastern.  Titterie  is  bounded  on  the  west  by  the  river  Massafran  in  3° 
12'  E.  long.,  which  separates  it  from  Oran ;  and  by  the  river  Boobrak  in  4°  15'  E.  long.,  which 
separates  it  from  Constantine  on  the  east.  The  capital  of  the  kingdom  is  on  the  coast  of  Tit- 
terie, in  lat.  36°  48'  N.  and  long.  3°  30'  E.,  and  is  supposed  to  stand  on  the  site  of  ancient 
Icosium.  It  ex-ercises  an  indefinite  jurisdiction,  several  governments  in  the  three  provinces 
depending  directly  upon  it.  It  may  therefore  be  termed  a  fourth  province.  The  cities  except 
the  capital  are  of  little  note.  Tlemsen  has  fallen  into  entire  decay,  and  is  now  supposed 
to  contain  a  population  of  3000  souls.  Oran  contains  about  8000,  and  is  undoubtedly  the  se- 
cond place  in  the  kingdom,  taking  its  advantages  into  view. — Mustiganim,  formerly  a  Moorish 
city  of  much  importance,  has  fallen  into  entire  decay.- — Belidah  is  a  town  of  8  or  10,000  inha- 
bitants. Median  the  capital  of  Titterie,  is  a  town  of  about  the  same  size  and  importance. 
Constantine  the  ancient  Cirta,  and  the  capital  of  the  eastern  province,  is  stated  by  the  natives 
to  contain  25,000  inhabitants.  Bona  contains  about  3  or  4000  inhabitants.  Boujaiah  has  the 
best  harbour  on  the  coast.  It  is  at  present  in  a  state  of  total  decay,  with  about  2000  inhabi- 
tants, and  known  only  as  a  place  where  coarse  pottery  is  made,  Shershell,  mentioned  by  Dr. 
Shaw  as  of  some  consequence,  has  dwindled  into  total  insignificance.  Mr.  Shaler  from  the  best 
estimate  he  can  make,  thinks  tiie  population  of  the  kingdom  of  Algiers  is  rather  under  than 
over  one  million  of  souls.  The  population  of  the  city  of  Algiers  appears  to  have  been  greatly 
exaggerated  by  all  who  have  attempted  to  describe  it.  Mr.  S.  does  not  estimate  it  at  more 
than  50,000. 

Islamism  is  the  only  religion  of  the  country,  and  no  other  is  tolerated  except  the  Jewish. — 
The  languages  spoken  at  Algiers  are  Turkisii,  Arabic,  Hebrew  and  the  Showiah,  that  of  the 
independent  mountaineers,  whicli  there  is  strong  reason  for  believing  to  be  an  ancient  and 
original  language.  The  Turkish  is  that  of  tiie  government,  the  Arabic  the  predominant  tongue. 
The  Lingua  Franca,  a  barbarous  compound,  is  the  medium  of  communication  between  the 
foreigners  and  natives.  The  Deys  of  Algiers,  though  now  elected,  continued  to  be  appointed  by 
the  Porte  as  late  as  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century.  The  government  consists  of  a 
Uey,  and  a  Divan  indefinite  in  point  of  number,  and  composed  of  the  ancient  military  who  are 
or  have  been  commanders  of  corps.  It  is  in  fact  a  military  republic,  with  a  chief  elective  for 
life.  The  exclusive  right  of  filling  all  offices  of  trust,  honour,  or  profit,  is  reserved  to  the 
Janissaries.  The  Divan  elects  theDey,  and  deliberates  on  such  affairs  as  he  chooses  to  lay 
before  them. 

Since  the  late  removal  of  the  residence  of  the  Dey,  into  the  citadel,  the  Divan  may  be  re- 
garded as  a  dead  letter  in  the  constitution.  The  Dey  appoints  his  own  ministers;  and  these 
ministers  with  the  Dey,  are  the  real  government,  free  of  any  control  by  the  Divan.  The  title 
of  Dej'is  hardly  known  in.  Algiers,  and  is  used  only  by  foreigners.  It  is  probably  a  nick- 
name, meaning  in  Turkish  "  uncle."     His  ordinary  title  is  Bashaw. 

In  times  of  prosperity,  Algiers  sends  to  the  Grand  Seignor,  once  in  three  years,  a  present 
amounting  sometimes  to  half  a  mllhon  of  dollars.  In  return  the  Porte  usually  .sends  them  a 
vessel  of  war  with  military  and  naval  stores,  and  gives  them  permission  to  recruit  in  its  donii- 


ALGIERS.  501 

This  chain  is  about  twcnty-lwo  miles  long  from  north-cast  to  south-west:  the  chains 
of  Wannoogah  and  of  Auress  form  the  continuation  of  it  to  the  cast.     Full  of  rocks 

nions.  The  Algerinea  have  not  always  respected  the  Ottoman  flag,  although  the  solemn  intsal- 
lation  of  the  Dey  never  takes  place  till  the  recognition  of  the  Grand  iSeignor  is  received. 
Bat  this  is  never  refused.  The  three  provinces  are  governed  by  Ueys  appointed  by  the  Dey, 
and  each  province  is  taxed  in  a  specific  sum,  which  is  paid  semi-annually  into  the  puWic  trea- 
sury. Each  visit  of  the  Beys  of  Oran  and  Constantine  cost  those  governors  in  expenses,, 
bribes,  &,c.  not  less  than  300,000  dollars,  no  part  of  which  goes  into  the  treasury.  These 
visits  are  required  to  be  once  every  three  lunar  years,  and  are  very  splendid.  Tiie  officers  of 
the  regency  receive  no  salary  but  their  pay  and  rations  as  Janissaries.  They  depend  on  their 
various  extortions  for  what  they  want  beyond  these. 

A  general  system  of  prohibiting  the  exportation  of  the  produce  of  the  country,  except  a 
few  articles  which  constitute  monopolies,  has  reduced  the  kingdom  to  a  most  deplorable 
state. 

The  corps  of  Turks  has  in  latter  times  seldom  exceeded  5000,  and  at  this  time  is  probably 
under  4000.  The  navy  is  an  exception  to  the  general  rule.  In  this  service  native  Algerines 
may  lise  to  the  highest  rank.  The  sons  of  Beys  have  in  some  instances  succeeded  their  fathers, 
and  Colories  (sons  of  Turks)  have  been  appointed  Kaids,  or  governors  of  districts,  probably 
through  corruption,  but  in  consequence  of  a  revolt  of  a  Bey  of  Oran,  who  in  1814,  marched 
an  army  within  three  leagues  of  Algiers,  it  will  probably  be  never  again  permitted.  The 
corps  of  Turks  is  kept  up  by  recruits  from  the  Levant,  the  sweepings  of  prisons,  and  the  re- 
fuse of  society.  The  pay  of  the  Janissaries  on  their  first  arrival  hardly  exceeds  lialf  a  dollar 
]5er  month,  but  is  gradually  increased  to  eight  dollars.  Though  the  Turks  are  essentially  sol- 
diers, part  of  them  are  separated  into  a  civil  division,  termed  the  corps  of  Khodgias,  writers, 
which  enjoys  superior  privileges,  and  furnishes  writers  to  the  public  offices.  The  Turks  are  a 
plain,  prudent,  sensible  people.  In  general  their  word  may  be  relied  on,  and  in  the  common 
intercourse  of  life  they  are  courteous,  friendly  and  humane,  but  in  their  political  career  have 
all  the  ferocity  of  barbarians.  Taverns  are  kept  by  Jews,  where  the  indulgence  of  the  Turkish 
soldiery  in  wine  and  spirits  is  connived  at  on  condition  that  no  scandalous  scenes  are  exhibited. 
The  constraint  under  which  the  Janissaries  are  held  is  evidently  irksome,  and  they  desert 
whenever  they  can. 

The  Colories,  or  sons  of  Turks,  are  believed  to  exceed  20,000.  They  have  no  sympathies 
with  the  Turks,  and  can  hardly  be  regarded  as  a  class  distinct  from  the  general  population. 

Since  1815,  the  government  has  derived  no  benefit  from  pillage.  If  the  taxes  were  col- 
lected with  the  good  faith  under  which  they  are  assessed,  they  would  not  only  be  light  but 
afford  a  more  abundant  provision.  Oppression  has  depopulated  the  country,  by  driving  the 
inhabitants  from  the  fertile  plains  into  less  accessible  positions  in  the  mountains,  and  the  bor- 
ders of  the  desert,  and  evidently  tends  to  the  extinguishment  of  this  government. 

The  receipts  into  the  treasury  in  1822,  were  in  Spanish  dollars,        .         .        434,000 
Expenditures, 859,000 


Leaving  a  balance  against  the  treasury  of 425,000 

But  the  regency  receives  annually  from  various  Sheiks  and  Beys  200,000  measures  of  wheat 
and  20,000  measures  of  barley. 

The  military  establishment  consists  of  15,000  men  including  Turks,  Colories  and  Arabs.  The 
two  former  infantry,  the  latter  cavalry.  In  this  army  a  large  part  is  merely  enrolled,  and  doing 
duty  only  by  rotation  ;  there  is  nothing  that  can  be  called  organization  or  discipline,  and  they 
are  the  most  inefficient  body  ever  put  under  arms. 

The  government  maintains  constantly  in  service  about  3000  seamen,  which  in  cases  of  emer- 
gency may  be  increased  to  6000.  Their  vessels  as  ships  of  war  are  contemptible.  The  sea- 
men have  httle  skill,  and  the  desperate  intrepidity  for  which  they  have  had  credit  is  purely 
gratuitous  and  without  any  foundation.  Upon  the  whole,  Mr.  Shaler  .says,  the  power  of  Al- 
giers is  utterly  insignificant.  Since  the  attack  by  the  British  and  Dutch  in  1816,  a  battery  of 
36  heavy  cannon  has  been  constructed  opposite  the  mole  head,  which  rakes  the  position 
taken  by  Lord  Exmouth's  licet;  but  as  vessels  may  be  anchored  in  tlie  bay  without  the  r.ange 
of  cannon  shot,  the  city  may  be  bombarded  with  complete  eficct. 

Algiers  on  the  land  side  is  nearly  defenceless.  The  several  expeditions  against  it  have  landed 
in  the  bay  to  the  eastward.  This  discovers  an  unpardonable  ignorance;  for  all  the  means  of 
defence  are  concentrated  there.  Any  force  might  be  landed  in  the  fine  bay  of  Sidi  Ferrajh 
without  opposition,  whence  by  a  single  march  they  might  arrive  upon  the  heiglits  which  com- 
mand tho  Castle  del  Emperador,  the  walls  of  which  could  be  scaled  or  breached  in  a  short 
time.  This  position  being  mastered,  batteries  might  be  established  on  a  height  commanding 
the  citadel.  On  this  hclglit  formerly  stood  a  fortress,  which  the  government  destroyed,  be- 
cause it  commanded  the  citadel  and  of  course  the  city.  There  is  no  city  in  the  world  with  a 
more  vigilant  police,  or  where  there  is  better  security  for  person  and  property  than  in  Algiers. 
The  property  of  a  native  who  is  passive  in  political  revolutions,  is  as  well  protected Jicre  as  in 
any  other  country.  Ali,'icrs  may  be  considered  as  one  of  the  richest  cities  in  the  world  in 
metallic  wealth.  Tiie  widow  of  Achmet  Fashaw,  with  whom  the  United  States  concluded  the 
first  peace,  lately  died  with  a  fortune  of  several  millions  of  dollars.  The  heirs  of  hi»  successor 


502  nOOK  SIXTY-FIFTH. 

and  piccipicos,  they  are  covered  with  snow  for  more  than  nine  months,  perhaps  the 
whole  year. 

possess  real  estate  worth  half  a  million.  Both  these  chiefs  were  publicly  executed.  It  is  sup- 
posed that  the  Dey  Ali  Khadgia,  not  many  years  since,  removed  into  the  citadel  fifty  milUons 
of  dollars  specie  belonging- to  the  public  treasury. 

The  inhabitants  are  a  mixed  race;  few  surpass  them  in  beauty  of  configuration,  and  their 
features  are  remarkably  expressive,  whilst  their  complexions  are  hardly  darker  than  those  of 
the  inhabitants  of  the  South  of  Spain.  Their  finest  women  are  in  the  wane  at  twenty-five, 
when  they  are  often  grandmothers.  Mr.  Shaler  never  remarked  any  thing  in  the  character  of 
the  people  that  discovered  extraordinary  bigotry,  fanaticism,  or  hatred  of  those  who  profess  a 
different  religion. 

The  sciences  are  unknown  or  disregarded  in  Algiers.  No  pretension  is  made  to  the  healing 
art  beyond  charms  and  amulets.  Several  of  the  naval  captains  have  learnt  from  foreigners  to 
determine  the  latitude  by  a  meridian  observation,  and  have  translated  the  necessary  tables. 
Their  usual  practice  when  they  go  out  of  the  Straits,  is  to  impress  some  person  capable  of 
directing  their  route. 

Schools  are  numerous,  where  boys  of  five  and  six  years  of  age  and  upwards,  are  taught  to 
read  and  write,  and  it  is  probable  their  practice  is  the  origin  of  the  Lancasterian  system. 
These  people  stand  on  the  brink  of  civilization,  and  might  be  easily  led  to  it.  Algerines  are 
generally  contented  with  one  wife.  The  nature  of  the  government  has  had  a  silent  and  sure 
effect  in  favour  of  the  sex,  and  the  women  are  less  slaves  to  their  husbands  than  to  custom  and 
long  received  notions  of  decorum.  On  the  celebration  of  marriages,  the  female  i-elatives  and 
friends  assemble  and  enjoy  themselves  during  several  days,  to  the  utter  discomfiture  of  the 
men,  who  are  driven  out  of  the  house  or  compelled  to  hide  themselves. 

The  Jews  are  about  5000,  who  have  the  free  exercise  of  their  religion,  and  are  governed  by 
their  own  laws  in  civil  cases  by  a  chief  of  their  own  nation  appointed  by  the  Bashaw.  They 
are  the  only  dealers  in  money  and  exchange. 

The  streets  of  Algiers  are  mere  alleys,  in  most  of  which  two  persons  on  horseback  would 
find  it  difficult  to  pass  without  a  shock ;  but  they  are  paved  and  kept  clean.  There  is  one  street 
where  two  carts  might  pass  with  care.  The  public  buildings  consist  of  nine  large  mosques,  and 
a  number  of  minor  places  of  worship  j  five  barracks ;  three  colleges  ;  five  bagnios,  where  for- 
merly Christian  slaves  were  confined ;  several  open  bazars  or  market  places;  and  tlie  old  palace. 

The  Citadel,  now  the  residence  of  the  Dey,  is  an  immense  fortified  enclosure,  occupying  all 
the  superior  part  of  the  city,  and  one  tenth  of  its  superficies.  It  contains  a  grand  mosque, 
several  palaces,  and  accommodations  for  a  large  garrison. 

The  Coral  fishery  on  the  eastern  coast,  with  the  export  trade  of  Bona,  is  farmed  to  France 
for  30,000  dollars  annually.  In  consequence  of  the  prohibition  of  exporting  oil  and  grain 
there  is  never  a  surplus.  In  1819,  such  was  the  scarcity,  that  50,000  bushels  of  wheat  were 
imported. 

The  duties  on  the  importation  of  foreign  merchandise  are  fixed  at  five  per  centum,  and  dou- 
ble this  amount  when  imported  by  Jews,  and  by  foreigners  who  have  no  stipulation  by  treaty. 

Imports  in  1822, gl,200,000 

Exports, 273,000 

The  balance  of 927,000  is  remitted 

annually  in  gold  and  silver. 

The  plain  of  Matijah,  the  eastern  part  of  which  is  contiguous  to  Algiers,  is  one  of  the  most 
valuable  expanses  of  territory  in  the  world.  It  contains  about  1000  square  miles,  is  watered 
by  innumerable  springs  and  streams,  and  is  capable  of  subsisting  a  greater  population  than 
any  territory  of  its  size  on  earth. 

The  Biscaries  inhabit  the  southern  region,  or  the  borders  of  the  Saliara,  south  of  the  great 
salt  marsh  called  the  Schott,  They  are  a  swarthy,  serious  people,  diff'ering  mach  in  appear- 
ance, spirit,  and  manners  from  the  other  African  tribes.  They  are  the  most  quiet  subjects  of 
the  itegenc}'.  They  are  a  quiescent  faithful  people,  are  employed  as  confidential  servants, 
have  the  monopoly  of  the  bake  houses,  are  the  only  porters  and  labourers  on  the  public  works. 
Blindness  appears  to  be  an  infirmity  of  this  little  nation. 

The  Mozabis  inhabit  a  district  of  the  desert  20  days  journey  of  a  caravan,  south  of  Algiers, 
at  least  five  days  south  of  the  regency  without  water.  Mr.  Shaler  says  there  is  no  ascertaining 
the  distance,  as  some  persons  have  told  him  it  was  forty  days' journey.  There  are  five  districts 
of  this  nation — Gordica,  Berigun,  Wargala,  Engoussa,  and  Nadeam.  Major  Kennel's  map  does 
not  correspond  with  Mr.  Shaler's  information,  unless  a  days  journey  be  reduced  to  15  miles. 
They  are  independent  of  the  Regency  of  Algiers.  The  Mozabis,  in  exchange  for  foreign 
goods,  import  into  Algiers  gold  dust,  ostrich  feathers,  camels,  and  dates.  They  bring  dates  of 
the  choicest  quality,  consisting  of  a  single  cluster  weighing  from  6  to  10  pounds,  in  dried  goat 
skins.  A  Thaleb  of  this  people  told  Mr.  Shaler  that  the  Tuarics  were  a  ferocious  nation  of 
robbers. 

The  Kabyles  are  most  deserving  of  attention  of  any  people  in  this  northern  portion  of  Africa. 
They  have  always  maintained  their  independence.  They  are  also  called  Berebersor  Brabers, 
and  arc  probably  remnants  of  the  Numidico  Mauritanians.     They  are  of  light  complexions, 


ALtUERS.  503 


Soil  and  pro^ 
tluctioDs. 


According  to  M.  Desfontaincs,*  the  territory  of  Algiers,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  the  parts  bordering  on  the  desert,  is  less  sandy  and  more 
fertile  than  that  of  Tunis.  He  found  the  climate  more  temperate,  the  mountains  higher 
and  more  numerous,  the  rains  more  plenty,  the  springs  and  streams  more  frequent, 
the  vegetation  more  active  and  more  diversified.  The  mountains  arrest  the  clouds 
that  come  from  the  north,  and  condense  them  by  means  of  the  snows  which  cover 
their  summits,  so  that  they  fall  down  in  rain.  There  are  many  rivers  and  salt  springs, 
and  near  the  lake  called  Marks  there  is  a  mountain  of  rock  salt.  Several  mineral 
springs  are  known.  Earthquakes  are  frequent,  but  not  disastrous.  There  is  a  sandy 
plain  which  the  Moors  call  Shott  or  Shatt,  which  is  sometimes  inundated,  and  re- 
ceives five  small  rivers. 

According  to  Mr.  Shaw,  the  boundary  of  this  state,  with  that  of  Mo-  |  Boundaries, 
rocco,  is  Mount  Trara,  which  lies  north  and  south,  forming  with  its  northern  extre- 
mity Cape  Hone,  called  by  the  inhabitants  Hunein  or  Mellack:  others  |  Divisions, 
extend  it  to  the  little  river  of  MuUoia  or  Malva.  It  is  a  matter  of  little  moment,  aa 
the  country  which  lies  between  these  two  states  is  the  desert  of  Angara,  a  sandy 
country,  which  appears  to  be  still,  as  in  the  time  of  Leo  Africanus,  the  abode  of  lions, 
ostriches,  and  Arabian  robbers,  who  plunder  every  defenceless  traveller.  On  tho 
south  the  state  of  Algiers  extends  no  farther  than  the  river  Wadi-Jiddi.  It  is  divided 
into  four  provinces.  Mascara  in  the  west ;  the  province  of  Algiers :  Titeri  to  the 
south  of  it ;  and  Constantine,  which  is  most  easterly,  and  conterminous  with  Tunis. 

The  country  of  Zab,  in  the  south,  inhabited  by  Arabs  or  nomadic  Berbers,  yields 
a  very  doubtful  obedience  to  the  authority  of  Algiers,  the  southern  limits  of  which 
are  uncertain,  and  lost  in  the  desert. 

The  city  of  Algiers,  which  contains  a  population  of  80,000  souls,  |  ciiyofAigiers. 
rises  in  the  form  of  an  amphitheatre  at  the  extremity  of  a  fortified  anchoring  ground, 
which  however  is  not  safe  in  a  north  wind.  The  numerous  and  handsome  country 
seats  scattered  over  an  amphitheatre  of  hills,  among  groves  of  olive,  citron,  and  ba- 
nana trees,  present  a  rural  and  peaceful  landscape,  very  dissimilar  in  character  to  a 
nation  of  pirates. |  In  the  province  of  Algiers  the  city  of  Shersel,  the  ancient  Ce- 
sarea,  exhibits  its  ruins  at  the  foot  of  a  mountain  covered  with  orchards.  On  the 
coast  of  the  province  of  Mascara,  we  find  Mostagan,  a  large  town ; 
Arseoo,  a  harbour  from  which  grain  is  exported ;  and  Oran,  a  fortress 
long  occupied  by  the  Spaniards,  who  restored  it  to  the  Algerines,  reserving  to  them- 
selves the  fort  of  Marsal-kibir,  so  situated  as  to  command  a  large  and  good  ancho- 
rage. Telemsen  is  always  the  chief  city  of  the  interior,  although  the  governing  bey 
has  established  his  residence  at  Mascara,  a  fortified  place.  At  Telemsen  there  are 
some  woollen  manufactures.     Among  the  nomade  tribes  of  this  province,  the  Beni- 

with  hair  nearly  flaxen,  resembling  rather  the  peasants  of  the  North  of  Europe  than  Africans. 
Mr.  Shaler  has  seen  some  of  the  fairest  complexions  with  light  flaxen  hair.  The  Kabyles  in- 
habit the  mountains  to  their  highest  summits,  and  never  descend  into  the  plains  but  for  the 
purposes  of  war  or  adventure.  The  Kabyles  constitute  the  most  numerous  class  of  the  Alge- 
rine  population. 

The  Beni  Abbass  command  the  passes  in  the  mountains  between  Algiers  and  Constantine, 
and  are  alone  capable  of  coping  with  all  the  force  of  the  Regency.  The  Kabyles,  although 
professing  Mahometanism  when  at  Algiers,  are  not  required  to  do  so  when  at  home.  Although 
Dr.  Shaw  says  they  speak  a  language  called  the  Shillah,  or  Showiah,  Mr.  Shaler  could  not  find 
that  those  terms  are  now  known  at  all. 

The  basis  of  the  Algerine  metallic  currency  is  the  messoon,  a  small  silver  coin,  sixty  of 
which  are  equal  to  a  Spanish  dollar.  The  messoon  is  divided  into  twenty-nine  asperos,  a  small 
base  coin  resembling  bits  of  tin.  The  gold  coins  are  the  sequin  of  108  messoons ;  the  half 
sequin ;  and  the  mahboob  of  72  messoons. 

On  the  2d  of  March,  1825,  at  half  past  9  A.  M.  a  very  severe  shock  of  an  earthquake  was 
felt  at  Algiers,  and  was  followed  by  others  in  the  space  of  48  hours,  which  totally  destroyed 
the  town  of  Belidah,  not  leaving  a  single  dwelling  standing.  Few  of  its  inhabitants  escaped. 
According  to  the  most  moderate  reports  10,000  persons  perished. 

The  authenticity  of  the  information  in  this  note,  will  it  is  hoped,  apologise |for  its  length; 
especially  as  the  author  of  the  principal  work  has  been  brief  on  the  subject  of  Algiers. 

Phil,  Ed. 

•  Flora  Atlantica,  preface,  p.  2. 

t  Hebenstrcit,  dans  Jiernouilli,  Collect,  des  Voyages,  ix.  p.  323. 


Towns  of  the 
province  of 
Mascara. 


504  BOOK  SIXTY-FIFTH. 

Ammer  had  in  a  great  measure  adopted  the  language  and  manners  of  the  Spaniards 
of  Oran. — In  the  province  of  Titeri  is  the  town  of  Bleda,  occupying  a  cheerful 
Of  Constan.  Situation.  It  contains  some  independent  tribes. — The  province  of  Con- 
*'"°"  stantine,  governed  by  a  very  powerful  bey,  almost  forms  an  independent 

state.  On  the  coast  we  have  the  town  of  Boogia,  with  a  good  harbour,  where  the 
mountaineers  sell  ship  timber,  figs,  and  oil;  Coolloo,  which  exports  cowhides;  Bona, 
in  a  country  so  rich  in  olives,  lemons,  jujubes,  figs,  and  other  fruit,  that  they  arc  suf- 
fered to  rot  on  the  trees ;  and,  lastly,  La  Calle,  lately  the  station  of  a  French  com- 
mercial company,  the  chief  object  of  which  was  the  coral  fishery.  The  interior 
contains  the  towns  of  Tubnah,  Messila,  Medrashem,  with  the  tomb  of  Syphax. 
There  is  also  Tifseh,  a  place  fortified  to  cover  the  frontier  on  the  side  of  Tunis, 
and  tlie  capital  Constantine,  containing  nearly  100,000  souls,  and  adorned  with  many 
fine  remains  of  Roman  architecture.  A  short  way  from  this  city,  the  petrifying 
springs,  called  the  enchanted  baths,  form  small  pyramids  by  the  deposition  of  calca- 
reous earth  with  which  their  waters  are  impregnated.  The  Coocos  and  Beni-Abbes, 
in  the  vicinity  of  Boogia ;  the  Henneishas,  on  the  Tunisian  frontier,  and  on  the  banks 
of  the  Mejerda,  are  the  powerful  tribes  of  Kabyls,  who  yield  to  the  bey  of  Constan- 
tine an  obedience  equally  precarious  with  that  which  he  yields  to  the  Dey  of  Algiers. 
In  the  mountains  of  Auress,  the  romantic  traveller,  Mr.  Bruce,  says  he  met  with  a 
tribe  distinguished  by  a  white  complexion  and  red  hair,  whom  he  believed  to  be  a 
remnant  of  the  Vandals.*     They  mark  their  foreheads  with  a  Greek  cross. 

The  country  of  Zab,  watered  by  the  river  El-Djidid,  which  loses  itself  in  a 
marsh,  supports  with  much  difficulty  its  inhabitants,  who  are  called  Biscaris.  It  is  a 
desert,  containing  some  scattered  groves  of  date  trees.  The  countries  of  Wadreag 
and  Guargala  in  the  south,  and  of  Sobair  and  Tegorarin  in  the  west,  seem  to  belong 
to  independent  Berbers. 

Inhabitants.  |  In  Algiers  there  are  about  14,  or  16,000  Turks.  The  remainder  of 
the  population  consists  of  Colons,  or  Kulogloos,  Jews,  Moors,  Arabian  shepherds, 
negro  slaves,  and  Christians,  part  of  whom,  till  lately,  were  in  a  state  of  slavery, 
part  free.  The  Coloris,  or  Kulogloos,  are  the  posterity  of  Turks,  by  Moorish  and 
negro  women.  They  hold  a  middle  rank  between  the  Moors  and  Turks.  They 
occupy  some  offices,  but  not  the  highest ;  many  of  them  are  very  rich.  They  differ 
little  from  the  Turks  in  figure,  and  a  mutual  jealousy  subsists  between  these  two 
classes.  The  government  is  both  despotic  and  aristocratic.  The  army,  which  is 
composed  of  Turks,  chooses  the  Dey,  or  Sovereign,  whose  arbitrary  power  seems 
to  be  mitigated  by  the  principal  officers  composing  the  Divan,  the  members  of  which 
are  chosen  from  the  oldest  warriors.  The  army  consists  of  about  6500  Turks ;  but 
during  war,  and  when  the  Coloris  are  armed,  the  city  of  Algiers  can  send  16,000 
men  into  the  field.  The  revenues  raised  in  the  three  provinces,  from  taxes  on  the 
Jews  and  Christians  of  Algiers,  from  the  government  monopoly  of  grain,  the  sale 
and  ransom  of  prisoners,  and  confiscations,  amount  to  a  million  and  nine  thousand 
Algerine  piasters.  The  sciences  and  arts  here  are  in  a  most  deplorable  state.  The 
Algerines  are  even  indifferently  skilled  in  ship-building,  and  their  compass  is  only 
marked  with  eight  points.  The  chase  is  with  them  an  interesting  occupation.  In 
autumn,  and  in  winter,  fifty  or  sixty  persons  join  together  to  hunt  the  lion,  the  leopard, 
and  other  ferocious  animals. 

Empire  of  The  empire  of  Morocco  is  a  remnant  of  the  great^African  monarchies, 

Morocco.  founded  by  the  Arabs.     The  dynasty  of  the  Aglabites,  whose  capital  at 

one  time  was  Kaironan,  and  more  lately  Tunis,  and  that  of  the  Edrisites,  which  re- 
sided at  Fez,  were  subjugated  by  the  Fatimites,  who  afterwards  being  occupied  with 
the  conquest  of  Egypt,  allowed  their  western  possessions  to  be  usurped  by  the  Ze'i- 
rites,  who  were  succeeded  by  the  Hamadians  and  the  Abuhafsians  in  the  provinces 
of  Tunis  and  Constantine.  But  in  the  western  extremity,  a  prince  of  the  Lemtu- 
naas,  a  tribe  belonging  to  the  Great  Desert,  at  present  unlaiown,  chose  for  the 
reformer  of  his  people,  their  legislator  and  high  priest,  Abdallah-Ben-Iasin,  an  extra- 
ordinary person,  who  lived  on  water,  game,  and  fish,  but  who  married  and  divorced 

•  Uruce's  Travels. 


1'lie  Aliuora- 
vides. 


MOROCCO.  505 

many  women  every  month.  This  urtful  fanatic  created  a  sect  markeil  in  the  first  ni- 
slancc  by  furious  zeal,  and  always  extremely  ambitious  and  enterprising,  called  the 
Ahnoravides,  or  more  [)roi>erly  Blorabeth.  It  issued  from  the  desert  like 
a  liery  hurricane,  threatening  by  turns  Africa  and  Europe.  The  su- 
preme head  of  these  concpiering  zealots  took  the  title  of  Eiitir-al-J\Ttnneniin,  or 
Prince  of  the  Faithful.  In  1052,  Abutasfin  built  the  city  of  Morocco,  or  Merakash. 
Joosooph  invaded  and  subjugated  the  finest  part  of  Spain.  At  the  same  time  the 
religious  and  political  rule  of  the  Morabeths  extended  over  Algiers,  the  Great  De- 
sert, Tombuetoo,  and  other  towns  of  Soodan  ;  but  new  sectaries  of  a  more  austere 
character,  the  Mooahedes  or  Almohads,  that  is,  the  Unitarians,  conquered  in  1146 
the  great  empire  of  Mogreb,  or  the  west.  Though  less  fortunate  in  Spain,  they 
extended  their  power  in  Africa  as  far  as  Tripoli.  Their  princes  took  the  title  of 
Kmir-al-Mumcnim,  and  even  that  of  Caliph.  After  the  lapse  of  a  century,  intestine 
discords  laid  tlio  Almohads  open  to  the  successful  attacks  of  several  rivals,  among 
whom  were  the  Merinites,  who  took  possession  of  the  kingdom  of  Fez  and  Mo- 
rocco. This  dynasty,  more  bent  on  retaining  than  on  extending  its  possessions, 
made  no  efibrt  to  re-establish  the  great  emi)ire  of  Mogreb.  In  1547,  a  Sherif,  or 
descendant  of  Mahomet,  put  a  period  to  the  power  of  the  Merinites.  IJ  is  posterity 
still  reigns,  after  having  weathered  frequent  revolutions.  The  sovereigns  of  Mo- 
rocco conjoin  the  title  of  Sherif  with  that  of  Sultan. 

The  State  of  which  we  have  now  traced  the  origin,  slill  embraces  a  |  Uoumiaiies. 
territory  of  500,  or  550  miles  in  length,  and  420  in  breadth,  almost  as  large  as  Spain, 
even  |when  we  confine  ourselves  to  the  cultivated  parts  of  the  provinces  of  Segel- 
mesias,  Tafilet,  and  Darah,  situated  near  Mount  Atlas.  All  travellers  join  in  prais- 
ing the  fertility  of  the  kingdoms  of  Fez  and  Morocco,  the  one  of  which  is  situated 
to  the  north  and  the  other  to  the  west  of  the  Atlas.  This  fertility,  how-  |  Prmiuctions. 
ever,  seems  to  be  confined  to  those  parts  in  which  sufilcient  supplies  of  water  co- 
operate with  the  goodness  of  the  soil,  and  the  heat  of  the  climate.  Though  the 
inhabitants  almost  entirely  neglect  cultivation,  fruit  and  grain  are  produced,  not  only 
in  quantities  suflicient  for  the  wants  of  the  people,  but  also  for  exportation.  Mo- 
rocco supplies  a  part  of  Spain  with  these  necessaries  of  life.  The  principal  grain  is 
wheat.  Barley  is  also  abundant.  It  comes  into  ear  in  the  month  of  March.  Oats 
grow  spontaneously.  The  olive  in  its  best  state,  the  citron,  the  orange,  and  the  cot- 
ton tree,  cover  the  hills.  In  the  sandy  plains,  the  Moors,  by  dint  of  irrigation,  rear 
a  variety  of  pulse,  melons,  and  cucumbers.  Many  varieties  of  the  vine  succeed  in 
the  northern  provinces.  The  tbrests  are  full  of  oaks,  with  sweet  acorns,  cork  trees, 
cedars,  arbutuses  and  gum  trees.  The  minerals  are  neglected  ;  co)>per,  tin,  and  an- 
timony are  found  ;  but  they  are  only  worked  superficially.*  The  climate,  excepting 
for  three  months  in  summer,  is  very  pleasant,  but  the  dreadful  hot  wind  of  the  desert 
prevails  for  fifteen  days,  or  three  weeks,  before  the  rainy  season,  which  commences 
in  September.  At  this  time  the  rains  are  not  constant.  Much  snow  falls  in  the 
valleys  of  Mount  Atlas. 

The  rivers  are  shallow,  and  generally  have  a  bar  at  their  mouth,  which  |  Rivers, 
prevents  the  entrance  of  large  vessels.     The  largest  rivers  are  the  Mulluia  which 
flows  into  the  Mediterranean ;  the  Subu  ;  the  Morbeia,  or  Ommirabee,  and  the 
Tensif  which  fall  into  the  Atlantic. 

Without  bewildering  ourselves  in  the  labyrinth  of  the  topography  of  the  provinces, 
we  shall  take  notice  of  the  principal  cities.  I^'ez,  the  capital  of  the  king-  I  citi.s  of  a>e 
dom  of  that  name,  is  conspicuous  among  the  African  citi«3s  fitr  its  ancient  |  y"^' '""  "^ 
literary  renown.  The  )»assion  for  study,  however,  is  now  extinct.  It  has  preseiTed 
some  manufactures  of  silk,  wool,  and  red  morocco  ;  it  has  an  active  trade,  and  is  said 
to  contahi  a  population  of  30,  or  according  to  others,  00,000  souls.  Mequinez,  in 
the  plain  to  the  west  of  Fez,  has,  on  account  of  its  salubrious  climate,  been  fre- 
quently selected  as  a  place  of  residence  for  the  Sultan.  On  the  coast  of  the  3Iediter- 
ranean,  the  fortresses  of  Mehlla,  of  Pennon-de-VcIcz,  and  of  Ceuta,  possessions  of 
httle  use  to  Spain,  are  memorials  of  the  attempts  which  the  Christians  have  made  to 

*  Jackson's  Account  of  Morocco.    Hcrsl's  Relation  du  Maroc. 
Vol.  II.— 3  S 


ta 


Towns  of  the 
kingdom  of 
Morocco. 


506  BOOK    SIXTY-FIFTH. 

invade,  in  their  turn,  the  territories  of  Islamism.  In  Tetuan,  a  town  of  20,000  souls, 
the  houses  are  generally  two  stories  high,  and  good,  but  the  streets  are  extremely 
narrow  and  gloomy.  Their  mode  of  building  is  to  make  a  large  wooden  case  for  the 
wall,  or  for  a  part  of  it,  into  which  they  put  the  mortar,  and  when  it  is  dry  the  case  is 
removed.  The  roofs  are  flat,  and  the  women,  who  live  in  the  higher  apartments, 
walk  along  them  in  paying  their  mutual  visits.  The  women  are  so  handsome,  and 
at  the  same  time  so  susceptible,  that  Mussulman  jealousy  has  been  obhged  to  pro- 
hibit Europeans  from  settling  in  it.*  Tangier,  or  Tandja,  a  town  pleasantly  situated 
on  the  Straits,  has  become  the  residence  of  most  of  the  European  consuls.  Passing 
Cape  Spartle,  we  find  on  the  shore  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean  the  large  town  of  Larash, 
or  El-Araish,  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  Luccas,  which  here  forms  a  port :  Mamera 
on  the  south  side  of  a  number  of  large  lakes,  and  Saleh,  formerly  a  sort  of  piratical 
republic,  now  a  commercial  town,  the  residence  of  the  French  consul,  and  separated 
by  the  river  Buragrag  from  the  town  of  Rabat,  or  New  Saleh.  At  Azamor  on  the 
Morbeya,  the  kingdom  of  Fez  ends,  and  that  of  Morocco  begins. 

The  capital  of  this  kingdom,  and  the  ordinary  residence  of  the  Sultan, 
is  properly  called  Merakash.  It  contains,  according  to  the  best  autho- 
rities, from  20  to  30,000  inhabitants,  silk,  paper,  and  red  morocco  manufactures, 
large  magazines  of  grain,  built  under  the  directions  of  a  Danish  architect,^  and  numer- 
ous mosques,  one  of  which  had  minarets,  surmounted  with  four  golden  globes,  which 
were  said  to  be  enchanted,  but  which  a  Sheriff"  had  courage  enough  to  order  to  be 
removed.  J  On  the  coast  we  find  Mazagan,  a  Portuguese  fortress,  which  was  unsuc- 
cessfully iDesieged  by  200,000  Moors. — Valadia,  the  best  situation  for  a  harbour  on 
this  coast,  where  rapid  currents  and  violent  squalls,  render  a  place  of  shelter  a  most 
valuable  object  to  the  seaman  : — Safi,  or  Asafi,  a  small  town  at  the  foot  of  Mount 
Atlas  : — Mogadore,  the  great  emporium  of  the  whole  empire,  regularly  built,  on  plans 
given  by  a  French  engineer,  well  fortified,  and  provided  with  a  harbour,  which,  how- 
ever, like  all  the  rest  on  this  coast,  is  filled  with  sand. — Next  comes  Agadir  ;  and 
lastly,  Santa  Cruz,  the  most  southerly  port  of  Morocco,  situated  in  the  province  of 
Sus,  the  capital  of  which  is  Tarodant,  a  large  inland  town,  and  a  military  station  for 
resisting  the  depredations  of  the  nomades. 

Towns  to  the  |  Thocities  of  Tafilet,  and  Segelmessa  on  the  south-east  of  Mount  Atlas, 
Atlas."  '  ^  I  though  now  little  known,  were  once  very  flourishing  places.  The  cara- 
vans bound  to  Soodan  and  Egypt,  seem  still  to  join  at  the  latter  of  these  places,  or 
at  least  both  pass  through  it.  According  to  Jackson,  Tafilet  possesses  excellent 
woollen  manufactures. 

The  writer  now  mentioned,  who  oflSciated  as  British  consul  at  Moga- 
dore, has  given  an  opinion  on  the  population  of  Morocco,  very  different 
from  what  is  entertained  by  the  greater  part  of  travellers,  who  represent  this  country 
as  extremely  depopulated,  containing  not  more  than  five  or  six  millions  of  inhabi- 
tants. §  This  author  says  he  has  collected  minute  information  on  this  subject ;  but 
he  does  not  always  mention  the  precise  sources  from  which  it  is  derived.  He  pro- 
fesses to  have  seen  the  imperial  registers,  in  which  the  names  of  all  taxed  persons 
are  inscribed  ;  but  he  docs  not  say  how  these  registers  are  kept,  and  what  evidence 
we  have  of  their  correctness.     The  following  are  the  numbers  which  he  assigns : 

Inhabitants. 

Cities  and  towns  of  the  Empire       -         - 936,000 

Kingdom  of  Morocco  and  Fez,  to  the  west  of  Mount  Atlas       -         -  10,300,000 

Nomade  tribes  on  the  north  of  the  Atlas 3,000,000 

Tafilet,  a  kingdom  to  the  east  of  the  Atlas       .....  650,000 


Population  of 
Morocco. 


Total  population  of  the  empire 14,886,000 

As  the  whole  surface  of  the  Morocco  states  is  369,380  square  miles,  ||  the  popu- 

•  Agrell,  Lettres  sur  le  Maroc.  ■}•  Hocst,  p.  76—78,  &c. 

if  Saint-Olon,  quoted  by  Bru}  zen  La  Martiniere,  under  the  article  Maroc. 
§  Chenier,  Lampriere,  Sic.  &c.     See  I5runs,  Afrika,  vi.  p.  60, 
I  Galterer's  Geography,  p.  123,  (German.) 


MOROCCO.  507 

lation  would  average  forty-two  inhabitants  to  the  square  mile ;  but  it  consists  of  two 
very  different  countries ; — that  which  lies  to  the  west  and  the  north  of  the  Atlas,  and 
that  which  lies  to  the  east  and  the  south.  As  the  latter,  which  gradually  passes  into 
the  desert,  would  only  contain  700,000  persons  on  a  surface  of  134,225  square  miles, 
making  five  or  six  to  each  square  mile,  the  maritime  part,  or  the  kingdom  of  Fez 
and  Morocco,  would  contain,  on  a  surface  of  201,544  square  miles,  more  than  four- 
teen millions  of  inhabitants,  which  would  make  tiic  relative  population  amount  to 
seventy  per  square  mile :  a  proportion  perhaps  equal  to  what  exists  in  Spain  or  Tur- 
key, and  which  it  is  not  easy  to  admit  without  further  inquiring  into  a  country  so  much 
exposed  to  intestine  troubles,  so  ill  governed,  and  so  destitute  of  the  means  of  civili- 
zation. Mr.  Jackson  makes  the  city  of  Morocco  to  contain  270,000  inhabitants, 
and  Fez  380,000, — assertions  too  extravagant  to  require  discussion.  Travellers  of 
excellent  character  give  the  first  of  these  cities  no  more  than  30,000,  and  the  other 
70,000,  and  yet  seem  to  think  it  possible  that  they  exaggerate  them.* 

The  subjects  of  this  empire  are  slaves  to  an  absolute  despot,  and  |  Government, 
strangers  to  the  benefits  of  fixed  laws,  their  only  rule  being  the  will  of  the  emperor. 
Wherever  this  prince  fixes  his  residence  he  distributes  justice  in  person;  for  this 
purpose  he  generally  holds  a  court  twice,  and  sometimes  four  times  in  the  week,  in 
a  hall  of  audience  called  M'shoire-t  Here  all  complaints  are  addressed  to  him; 
every  person  has  access;  the  emperor  hears  each  individual,  foreigners  or  natives, 
man  or  woman,  rich  or  poor.  Distinctions  of  rank  have  no  influence,  every  person 
being  entitled,  without  hindrance  or  embarrassment,  to  approach  the  common  sove- 
reign. Sentence  is  promptly  pronounced,  always  with  absolute  and  ultimate  decision, 
and  for  the  most  part  with  justice. 

With  the  exception  of  these  imperial  audiences,  the  administration  |  Administration, 
under  this  government  is  a  tissue  of  disorder,  rapine,  and  violence.  The  governors 
of  provinces  have  the  title  of  kalif,  or  lieutenant,  that  of  fosha,  or  of  kaid;X  ^^^ 
combine  the  executive  with  the  judicial  power.  They  only  remit  to  the  judges  some 
complicated  causes.  In  some  of  the  towns,  such  as  Fez,  there  are  Icadis,  or  inde- 
pendent judges,  who  are  invested  with  great  powers.  Oppressed  and  harassed  by 
the  sovereign  and  the  courtiers,  all  these  governors  and  judges  oppress  the  people 
in  their  turn.  The  lowest  officer  pillages  legally  in  his  master's  name.  |  civii  condition. 
The  wealth  thus  acquired  falls  in  the  end  into  the  coffers  of  the  sultan,  who,  under 
some  pretext  or  other,  causes  those  who  have  amassed  treasures  to  be  dismissed 
from  oflice,  accused,  and  condemned.  The  sovereign  can  deprive  a  subject  of  every 
thing  belonging  to  him  except  what  is  strictly  necessary  to  save  him  from  starvation. 
The  confiscated  sums  are  said  to  pass  into  the  common  treasure  of  the  Mussulmans ; 
this  is  all  the  account  of  them  that  is  given.  The  consequences  of  such  a  system 
may  be  easily  conceived.  The  people,  suspicious,  cruel,  and  perfidious,  respect  no 
sort  of  obligations.  Their  universal  aim  is  to  pillage  one  another;  no  confidence, 
no  social  tie  exists  among  them,  and  scarcely  even  any  momentary  feelings  of  affec- 
tion.    The  father  dreads  the  son  and  the  son  detests  the  father. 

The  dift'crent  religions  which  maintain  the  unity  of  God  are  tolerated.  |  Reiigionj. 
There  are  Roman  Catholic  monasteries  at  Morocco,  at  Mogadore,  at  Mequinez, 
and  Tangier;  but  the  Romish  monks  at  Morocco  and  at  Mequinez  are  closely  watch- 
ed and  exposed  to  vcxations.§     The  Jews,  who  are  exceedingly  numerous,  and  ex- 
tend even  among  the  valleys  of  the  Atlas,  are  treated  with  the  most  revolting  barba- 
rity.    Their  situation,  civil  and  moral,  in  this  country,  is  a  most  singular  I  situation  of 
phenomenon.     On  the  one  hand,  their  industry,  their  address,  and  their  |  ^•'eJe^s. 
intelligence,  make  them  masters  of  all  the  trade  and  manufactures.     They  direct  the 
royal  coinage ;  they  levy  the  duties  on  exports  and  imports ;  and  officiate  as  interpre- 
ters and  men  of  business.  ||     On  the  other  hand,  they  experience  the  most  odious 
vexations  and  the  most  dreadful  usage.    They  are  prohibited  from  writing  in  Arabic, 
or  even  learning  the  characters,  because  for  them  to  read  the  Koran  would  be  a  pro- 

•  Hoest,  p.  78  and  84.  f  Chenier  writes  it  Meschouar ;  TIast,  Moschouar. 

t  Hoest,  p.  184.    Jackson.  §  Hccst,  p.  161.    Lempricre,  p.  108. 

U  Hccst,  Rclat.  p.  144.    Lempricre,  p.  102,  165,    , 


fanation,*  Tlicir  women  arc  prohibited  from  wearing  any  green  article  of  clotliing, 
and  arc  only  allowed  to  veil  one-half  of  the  face.  A  Moor  enters  the  Jewish  syna- 
gogues without  ceremony,  and  even  abuses  and  insults  the  rabbins.  In  passing  a 
mosque,  the  Jews  must  uncover  their  feet,  and  remove  their  shppers  to  a  respectful 
distance.  They  dare  not  be  seen  on  horseback,  or  sit  cross-legged  before  Moors  of 
a  certain  rank.  They  are  often  assailed  by  the  loAvest  blackguards  in  the  public 
walks,  Avho  cover  them  over  with  mud,  spit  in  their  faces,  or  knock  them  down ;  they 
are  obliged  to  ask  pardon,  and  call  the  person  sidi,  or  "  sir,"  who,  the  moment  be- 
fore, most  outrageous-ly  maltreated  them.|  Should  a  Jew,  under  any  provocation, 
raise  his  hand  to  strike  a  Moor,  ho  runs  the  risic  of  being  capitally  condemned. 
When  employed  to  work  for  the  court,  the  Jews  receive  no  pay,  and  think  themselves 
happy  if  they  are  not  beaten.  One  prince,  Ishem,  ordered  a  dress  from  a  Jewish 
tailor;  the  dress  when  it  came  did  not  exactly  fit  him;  the  prince  proposed  to  kill  the 
Jew  on  the  spot ;  the  governor  of  the  city  interceded  for  him,  and  he  got  oil'  with 
having  his  beard  pulled  out  hair  by  hair.;];  At  Tangier,  an  order  of  government  once 
appeared  in  the  middle  of  winter,  that  every  Jew  should  go  bare-fooled,  under  the 
penalty  of  being  hung  up  by  the  feet.  To  crown  all,  they  are  frequently  condemned 
in  BJorocco  to  be  thrown,  like  Daniel,  into  a  den  of  lions;  but,  as  the  keepers  of  the 
lions  are  themselves  Jews,  it  is  rarely  that  any  deadly  consequences  ensue.  The 
keepers  use  the  precaution  to  feed  the  lions  abundantly,  and  not  to  leave  their  coun- 
trymen exposed  longer  to  them  than  a  single  night. § 

Pride  of  the  The  Moors  entertain  the  loftiest  ideas  of  themselves  and  their  coun- 

Mooi-s.  ^j.y^     These  half-naked  slaves  style  the  Europeans  agcin,  or  barbarians. 

They  are  not  altogether  destitute  of  virtues.  A  Moor  never  abandons  himself  to 
despair;  neither  sutlerings  nor  losses  can  extort  from  him  a  single  murmur;  to  every 
event  he  submits  as  decreed  by  the  will  of  God;  and  habitually  hopes  for  better  times. 
The  Moors  admit  of  no  distinction  founded  on  birth;  nothing  except  public  office 
confers  rank.  Among  the  points  of  etiquette  which  prevail  at  the  court 
of  the  princes  of  Morocco,  a  very  singular  one  is  quoted  by  the  author 
whom  we  follow.  The  word  death  is  never  uttered  in  presence  of  the  sultan.  When 
it  is  unavoidable  to  mention  to  his  sovereign  the  death  of  any  person,  it  is  expressed 
by  such  words  as,  "  He  has  fuUilled  his  destiny,"  on  which  the  monarch  gravely  re- 
marks, "  God  be  merciful  to  him."  Another  point  of  whimsical  superstition  is,  that 
the  numbers  Jive  and  fifteen  must  not  be  mentioned  in  presence  of  the  prince.  || 
Revenues.  |  Mr.  Ha^st  estimates  the  revenues  at  a  million  of  piastres,  the  chief 
sources  of  which  are  the  customs  and  the  land  tithes.  The  sultan  generally  amasses 
treasure.  The  army,  composed  of  24,000  negroes  and  12,000  Moors,  is  ignorant 
of  discipline  and  mancsuvring.  The  navy  consists  entirely  of  corsairs,  which  arc 
sometimes  fifty  in  number.  It  is  only  by  the  position  of  their  country  that  these 
ignorant  and  cowardly  seamen  are  enabled  to  inflict  inconvenience  on  Europeans. 
Export  trade.  |  R  aw  producc  is  all  that  a  country  so  far  behind  in  civilization  can  ex- 
port. The  following  is  a  list  of  its  exports,  according  to  the  concurring  accounts  of 
travelleis:  wool,  wax,  (5000  quintals,)  ox-hides,  morocco-leather,  ivory,  ostrich  fea- 
thers, poultry,  and  eggs,  (to  the  amount  of  two  millions  of  francs,  or  d683,333,  by 
the  ports  of  Larachc  and  Tangier  alone,  according  to  Lempriere,)  cattle  for  Portu- 
gal, mules  for  the  "West  Indies,  gum  arable  of  indiflerent  quality,  crude  copper, 
almonds,  oil  dUirgfine,  used  in  the  manufacture  of  Marseilles  soap  ;  various  fruits. 
Imports.  I  and  wheat,  when  the  exportation  of  it  is  allowed.  The  imports  are  cloths, 
pottery,  Biscayan  iron,  S[)iceries,  and  tea  ;  also  ship-timber,  which  is  not  to  be  had 
on  the  coast,  though  probably  it  would  be  found  on  Mount  Atlas  if  pains  were  taken 
to  inquire  for  it.  In  1 S04  the  exports  from  the  harbour  of  Mogadorc  did  not  exceed 
dCl2S,000  sterling,  duties  included,  and  the  imports  amounted  to  .^150,000.  The 
most  active  part  of  the  trade  of  the  Moroccans  seems  to  be  that  which  they  carry  on 
with  Tombuctoo,  by  means  of  a  caravan  which  goes  from  Akka  in  the  province  of 
Darah. 

•  Agrell,  p.  263.    Hccst,  p.  145.  f  Hoest,  p.  143,  209. 

i^  Agrell,  p.  89.  §  Ilcest,  p.  290.  ||  Htcst,  p.  222,    Agrell,  p.  29G. 


Singular 
points  of  cti 
quelle. 


DESERT  OF  ZAHARA.  509 

Now  that  we  have  taken  our  survey  of  the  whole  of  Barbary,  from  the  confines 
of  Egypt  to  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  the  old  routine  of  geographers  should 
bring  us  to  Bildulgerid  ;  but  there  is  in  reality  no  such  geographical  divi-  |  niWuigend. 
sion.  The  name  oi  Bdad-cl-Djerid,  or,  the  "Land  of  Dates,"  falls  under  the  same 
description  with  those  of  Belad-el-Tolfol,  "  the  Pepper  Country,"  and  Bclad-el-Tibr, 
"  the  Land  of  Gold."  Such  appellations  cannot  apply  to  a  country  of  definite  limits. 
The  Arabs  gave  the  name  of  the  "  Land  of  Dates,"  to  all  the  countries  situated  on 
the  southern  declivity  of  the  Atlas,  as  far  as  the  Great  Desert.  This  stripe  extends 
from  the  Atlantic  Ocean  to  Egypt.  It  includes  Darah,  Tafilct,  Sedjelmessa,  Tego- 
rarin,  Zab,  Guargala,  the  country  of  Totser,  Gadamis,  Fezzan,  Aujelah,  and  Sivah.* 
All  these  districts  have  been  already  mentioned  in  their  proper  places  :  the  country 
of  Totser,  which  belongs  to  Tunis,  and  to  which  Shaw  and  some  others  give  the 
special  name  of  Bclad-el-Djerid,  is  properly  the  Kastiliah  of  the  Arabian  geo- 
graphers.! Other  travellers,  with  rather  less  impropriety,  give  the  name  of  Bildul- 
gerid to  the  i)rovince  of  Darah  in  the  south  part  of  Morocco. 

The  Great  Desert,  called  in  Arabic  Zahara,  extends,  in  the  ordinary  acceptation 
of  the  term,  from  Egypt  and  Nubia  to  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  and  from  the  foot  of 
Mount  Atlas  to  the  banks  of  Niger.    But,  as  Fezzan  and  Agadez,  at  least  according 
to  the  latest  notions,  separate  the  deserts  of  Bilma  and  of  Berdoa  from  the  rest  of 
Zahara,  we  shall  not  at  this  place  take  them  under  our  view.     The  great  desert  of 
the  north-west  of  Africa  seems  to  be  a  table-land  little  raised  above  the  level  of  the 
sea,  covered  with  moving  sands,  and  here  and  there  containing  some  rocky  heights 
and  some  valleys,  where  the  water  collects  and  nourishes  some  thorny  shrubs,  ferns, 
and  grass.  J  The  mountains  along  the  shore  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean  are  in  no  continued 
chain,  but  only  in  detached  peaks.  Towards  the  interior  they  lose  themselves  in  a  plain 
covered  with  white  and  sharp  pebbles.    The  sand  hills,  being  frequently     soU  and  mine- 
moved  by  the  wind  lie  in  undulating  lines  like  the  surface  of  an  agitated     ''^''* 
sea.  At  Tegazza,  and  some  other  places,'a  sal-gem  whiter  than  the  purest  marble,  lies 
in  extensive  strata  under  a  bed  of  rock.§  No  other  mineral  substance  belonging  to  this 
desert  is  mentioned  by  authors ;  but,  on  its  southern  margin,  Golberry  found  masses 
of  native  iron,  his  confused  description  of  which  excites  our  curiosity  Avithout  giving 
any  satisfactory  information.  For  a  great  part  of  the  year  the  dry  heated  |  Climate, 
air  has  the  appearance  of  a  reddish  vapour,  and  the  horizon  looks  like  the  fire  of  a 
series  of  volcanoes.  ||     The  rain,  which  falls  from  July  to  October, IT  does  not  extend 
its  precarious  and  momentary  blessings  to  all  the  districts.  An  aromatic  |  vegetation, 
plant  resembling  thyme,  the  same  which  bears  the  grains  of  Zahara,  acacias,  and 
other  thorny  shrubs,  nettles,  and  brambles,  constitute  the  ordinary  vegetation  of  the 
desert.     It  is  rarely  that  a  grove  of  date  trees,  or  other  palms,  is  to  be  seen.     The 
forests  of  gum  trees,  (the  JMimosa  Senegal  of  Linnaeus,)  situated  on  the  extreme 
border  of  the  desert,  seem  to  be  detachments  derived  from  the  vegetation  of  Sene- 
gambia.     Some  monkeys,  and  some  gazelles,  support  themselves  on  |  Animals, 
this  scanty  vegetation.     The  ostricli  also  lives  here  in  numerous  flocks,  feeding  on 
lizards  and  snails,  together  with  some  coarse  plants,  such  as  apocynums.**^    Lions, 
panthers,  and  serpents,  sometimes  of  enormous  dimensions,  add  to  the  horrors  of 
these  frightful  solitudes.     Ravens,  and  other  birds,  dispute  with  the  Moorish  dogs 
the  dead  bodies  of  men  and  quadrupeds.     These  animals  live  here  almost  without 
drinking.     The  flocks  consist  of  camels,  goats,  and  sheep.     The  horses,  which  arc 
very  rare,  sometimes  receive  milk  to  allay  their  thirst,  for  want  of  water.H 

The  coast  of  Zahara  contains  some  harbours  and  roadsteads.     Those  |  Tiie  coast, 
of  Rio-do-Ouro,  and  of  St.  Cyprian,  are  formed  by  large  creeks,  resembling  the 

•  Leo  Africanus,  p.  623,  edit.  Elz. 

f  Abiilfeda,  Africa,  p.  25.     Timimi,  quoted  in  Edrisi,  Hartmann's  edit.  p.   256.     Paulus, 
Mcmorabil.  iii.  p.  239. 

i  Marmol,  Afrique,  iii.  p.  41.     Leo,  Elzevu-'s  edit.  p.  67.  §  Leon,  p.  633. 

II  Rrisson,  Voyage,  p.  24.  35,  36.  (German  edit.) 

II  Follie,  Voyag'e,  p.  63,  tr.  allem.    Brisson,  p.  45.  161. 

••  Cadamosto  in  Sprenpfel,  iJreytrxgc,  xi.  p.  112.     Shaw,  p.  453.    Poirct,  i.  p.  280. 

tt  Brisson,  p.  161.     Follie,  p.  63.     Compare  with  Leo,  p.  48. 


510  BOOK  SIXTY-FIFTH. 

mouth  of  rivers.  The  Gulf  of  Ardum,  and  the  Portcndic  road,  have  often  been 
visited  by  Europeans.  On  the  same  line  are  Cape  Bojadoro,  the  terror  of  the  navi- 
gators of  the  middle  age,  and,  down  to  1533,  the  fatal  limit  of  all  sea  voyages  in  this 
direction,  and  Cape  Blanco,  which,  according  to  the  most  probable  opinion,  was  the 
limit  of  the  discoveries  of  the  Cathaginians. 

norrifofcape  "^^^^  people  Called  Mooselmins,  live  to  the  north  of  Cape  Bojadore. 
Blanco.  Their  territories  are  intermediate  between  Morocco  and  the  desert. 

These  people  are  composed  of  a  mixture  of  the  descendants  of  Arabs  and  fugitive 
Moors  from  Blorocco.  Their  lands  are  not  destitute  of  fertility,  and  the  limits  be- 
tween them  and  the  desert  are  indicated  by  a  series  of  lofty  pillars.  Their  Ufe  is 
intermediate  between  the  pastoral  and  the  agricultural  state.  Their  corn  is,  in  har- 
vest, deposited  in  large  holes  dug  in  the  sand,  in  which  the  different  individuals  have 
shares  proportioned  to  the  number  of  labourers  whom  they  have  employed.  They 
remain  by  their  fields  in  seed-time  and  harvest,  but  wander  in  all  directions  with  their 
cattle  during  the  rest  of  the  year,  taking  with  them  only  necessary  articles,  and  re- 
turning to  their  stores  from  time  to  time  for  a  supply.  The  more  opulent  among 
them,  and  the  artizans,  reside  in  towns.  The  former  are  proprietors  of  cattle,  which 
are  abroad  in  the  country  under  the  care  of  their  slaves.  Gratuitous  hospitality  is 
habitually  practised  in  the  country,  but  not  in  the  towns.  Their  government  is  re- 
publican, and  their  chiefs  elected  annually.  Their  country  is  populous,  though  their 
numbers  are  in  some  measure  kept  down  by  frequent  warfare  with  the  emperor  of 
Morocco.  These  people  are  better  clothed  and  more  prosperous  than  the  Moroc- 
cans. They  are  almost  continually  on  horseback.  They  excel  in  breaking  and 
managing  their  horses,  which  are  the  best  in  the  world,  and  are  skilful  riders.  The 
Mongearts  live  between  Cape  Bojadore  and  Cape  Blanco.  On  the  heights,  along 
this  dangerous  coast,  they  generally  make  signals  to  the  ships  at  sea,  in  order  to 
allure  them  to  their  inevitable  ruin.  These  ferocious  Africans  instantly  take  posses- 
sion both  of  the  goods  and  crews.  The  Wadelims  and  the  Labdessebas,  who  live 
near  Cape  Blanco,  are  described  as  monsters  of  cruelty,  by  a  Frenchman  who  had 
Fate  of  the  ^'^^  misfortune  to  suffer  shipwreck  on  their  coasts.  The  fate  of  the  pri- 
captives.  soucrs  is  truly  lamentable.     The  Moors,  in  conveying  them  to  the  heart 

of  the  desert,  make  them  walk,  like  themselves,  fifty  miles  per  day,  giving  them  in 
the  evening  only  a  barley  meal,  mixed  with  water,  the  common  food  of  these  nomades. 
The  soles  of  the  feet  in  the  European  swell  dreadfully  from  the  heat  of  the  burning 
sand,  in  which  the  Arab  travels  without  inconvenience.  The  master  soon  perceives 
how  ill  qualified  his  slave  is  for  the  travels  and  toils  of  this  sort  of  life,  and  therefore 
endeavours  to  get  rid  of  him.  After  a  succession  of  hard  marches,  he  generally 
meets  with  one  of  the  Jewish  travellers  who  are  settled  at  Wadi-Noon,  and  cross  the 
desert  with  their  merchandise.  The  Jew  purchases  the  prisoner  for  a  little  tobacco, 
salt,  and  clothes.  This  person  afterwards  writes  to  the  agent  of  the  European  na- 
tion to  which  the  prisoner  belongs,  and  endeavours  to  obtain  for  his  liberty  as  high  a 
ransom  as  he  can.* 

The  gum  forests  between  Cape  Blanco  and  the  Senegal,  are  in  the 
possession  of  three  tribes,  called  Trarsas,  Aulad-el-Hadgi,  and  Ebra- 
quana.  All  the  three  are  of  Arabian  origin,  and  speak  their  mother  tongue  :  they 
are  Mahometans,  and  live  in  camps,  without  any  fixed  houses. 
The  Trarsas.  |  The  territory  of  the  Trarsas  is  bounded  on  the  west  by  the  ocean,  and 
on  the  south  by  the  Senegal.  Their  capital,  if  we  can  be  allowed  to  use  the  term,  is 
in  an  oasis,  the  name  of  which  is  believed  to  be  Hoden.  To  this  place  they  seem  to 
retire  during  the  rainy  Aveather ;  but  they  anxiously  conceal  the  place  of  their  retreat, 
which  they  call  their  country'.  We  are  only  permitted  to  know  that  these  oases  arc 
situated  between  the  18th  and  the  22d  degree  of  north  latitude,  and  between  the 
ocean  and  the  7th  degree  of  longitude,  (reckoning  from  the  island  of  Fcrro.)  The 
territory  of  the  Brachnas,  or  the  Ebraquana,  and  of  the  Auled-el-Hadgi,  is  bounded 
on  the  west  by  the  Trarsas,  on  the  south  by  the  Senegal,  on  the  east  by  Ludaman 
On  the  north  they  have  the  same  sort  of  boundaries  as  the  rest. 

*  Jackson's  Accouiit  of  Morocco.    Brisson,  and  FoHie. 


Tribes  to  the 
soiiUi  of  Cape 
lilanco. 


Manners  of 
tbc  Moors. 


DESERT   OF   ZAHARA.  511 

'  Portendik,  on  the  coast,  is  the  harbour  where  the  trade  with  the  Trarsas  is  carried 
on.     Podor,  on  the  Senegal,  is  the  resort  of  the  most  easterly  tribes. 

These  Moors  or  Arabs,  are  in  general  a  base  and  perfidious  people, 
although  individuals  have  been  found  among  them  distinguished  for 
courage  and  other  virtues.  Cruel  wherever  they  are  possessed  of  power, — treach- 
erous and  faithless, — they  are  strangers  to  every  sentiment  of  generosity  or  humanity. 
Their  wild  aspect  corresponds  to  their  barbarous  manners.  Even  in  their  copper 
complexion,  containing  a  mixture  of  red  and  black,  there  seems  to  be  something 
that  indicates  badness  of  character. 

Golbcrry,  who  has  drawn  this  picture,  saw  their  women,  in  a  more  agreeable  light, 
at  least  during  youth.  According  to  him,  they  are  handsome  at  that  happy  age ; 
their  features  are  fine,  mild,  and  regular  ;  their  colour  inclines  to  a  pale  yellow,  but 
fairer  and  clearer  than  that  of  the  men.  They  live  in  tents  ;  men,  women,  children, 
horses,  camels,  and  other  animals,  being  crowded  promiscuously  under  the  same 
cover.  The  camps,  which  they  form  on  the  banks  of  the  river,  are  composed  of  the 
better  sort  of  tribes.  They  live  on  millet,  maize,  dates,  and  gum  ;  and  their  sobri- 
ety and  abstemiousness  are  almost  inconceivable.  The  greater  part  of  their  fruits 
are  furnished  by  the  oases :  the  date  palms,  above  all,  grow  in  the  greatest  abun- 
dance. They  have  cattle  with  humps  on  the  back,  and  excellent  horses,  whose  rapid 
pace  equals  the  speed  of  the  ostrich. 

Our  arts  and  trades  are  not  altogether  unknown  to  these  barbarous  people:  they 
even  practise  some  of  them  with  skill.  They  have  weavers  who,  with  the  simplest 
portable  looms,  make  stuffs  out  of  the  hair  of  animals,  especially  the  camel  and  the 
goat.  They  have  even  the  secret  of  manufacturing  morocco-leather.  They  know 
how  to  apply  to  purposes  of  utility  the  skins  of  lions,  leopards,  panthers,  and  hippo- 
potami. They  reduce  lamb's  skins  to  the  thinness  of  paper,  then  dye  them  with 
different  colours,  and  fashion  them  into  ornaments.  They  form  stirrups  and  bridle- 
bits  of  single  pieces  of  metal,  as  well  as  sabres  and  poniards ;  incrust  and  damaskene 
the  handles  of  the  latter,  and  adorn  the  scabbards  with  plates  of  gold  and  silver. 
They  have  their  itinerant  goldsmiths  and  jewellers,  who  make  bracelets,  chains,  gold 
rings,  filligrees,  and  arabesque  ornaments,  by  which  they  compose,  with  no  small 
skill  and  taste,  pieces  of  ornamental  dress  for  ladies  and  royal  personages. 

Farther  to  the  east,  we  know  the  tribes  of  the  desert  only  by  the  Mo- 
roccan caravan,  or  akkabah,  which  travels  every  year  to  Tombuctoo. 
The  akkabahs  do  not  proceed  in  a  straight  line  across  the  immense  desert  of  Zahara, 
which  would  afford  no  practicable  road,  but  turn  sometimes  westward,  sometimes 
eastward,  according  to  the  position  of  the  different  oases.  These  verdant  lands, 
scattered  over  this  vast  desert,  serve  as  places  of  rest  and  refreshment  to  the  men 
and  animals.  So  violent  is  the  burning  wind,  called  the  samoom  or  shoom,  that  the 
scorching  heat  often  dries  up  the  water  contained  in  the  leathern  bottles  which  the 
camels  carry  for  the  use  of  the  merchants  and  the  drivers.  There  was  a  monument 
here  which,  in  the  time  of  Leo  Africanus,  attested  the  deplorable  fate  of  I  Dangers  en- 
a  driver  and  a  merchant,  the  one  of  whom  sold  his  last  cup  of  water  to  |  •^""""-'"'^"i- 
the  other  for  ten  drachms  of  gold.  Both  had  perished.  In  1805,  an  akkahah,  con- 
sisting of  2000  persons,  and  1800  camels,  not  finding  water  at  the  usual  resting- 
places,  died  of  thirst,  both  men  and  animals.  The  vehemence  of  the  burning  wind, 
which  in  these  vast  plains  raises  and  rolls  before  it  the  waves  of  red  sand,  makes  the 
desert  so  much  to  resemble  the  stormy  sea,  that  the  Arabs  have  given  it  the  name  of 
a  dry  sea,  (Bahar  hilla  maia.)  Possessing  some  knowledge  of  the  positions  of  the 
stars,  they  use  the  polar  star  for  direction,  and  often  prefer  travelling  during  the  clear 
nights  of  these  climates,  rather  than  brave  during  the  day  the  intense  heats  of  a  burn- 


Tlie  caravau 
of  Morocco. 


mg  sun. 


Route  of  this 
caravan. 


The  Akkabahs  of  Morocco  take  about  1 30  days  to  cross  the  desert, 
including  the  time  occupiod  in  resting  at  the  different  oases.  Leaving 
the  city  of  Fez,  proceeding  at  a  rate  of  three  miles  and  a  half  per  hour,  and  travelling 
seven  hours  each  day,  they  arrive  in  six  at  Wadi-Noon,  Akka,  or  Tatta;  here  they 
stop  a  month  for  the  arrival  of  the  other  caravans  which  are  to  join  them ;  sixteen 
more  days  arc  then  occupied  in  travelling  from  Jlkka  to  Turujjsa,  where  Ihcy  rest 


Mode  of  living 
of  the  travel- 
lers. 


512  BOOK  SIXTY-FIFTH. 

liftecu  days.  Tliey  then  set  out  for  Toinbuctoo,  where  they  arrive  on  the  sixth  day, 
after  a  journey  of  129  days,  being  fifty-four  of  traveUing,  and  seventy-five  of  rest. 
Another  caravan  wliich  leaves  Wadi-Noon  and  Sola-Assa,  crosses  the  desert  between 
the  black  mountains  of  Cape  Bojadore  and  Galata,  goes  to  the  western  Tarassa, 
(probably  the  country  of  the  Trasarts,)  where  it  stops  to  procure  salt,  and  arrives  at 
Tombuctoo  after  a  journey  of  five  or  six  months.  This  akkabah  goes  as  far  as  Jib- 
bel-el-Bud,  or  the  white  mountains  near  Cape  Blanco,  and  crosses  the  desert  of  Ma- 
gaffi'a,  to  the  district  of  Agadir,  where  it  rests  twenty  days.  These  caravans  obtain 
an  escort  from  each  tribe  through  whose  territories  they  pass.  Thus,  in  crossing 
those  of  Woled-Abuseed,  they  are  accompanied  by  a  great  number  of  soldiers,  and 
two  sebayers  or  chiefs  of  clans,  who,  after  conducting  them  to  the  territory  of  Woled- 
Dclcim,  receive  their  remuneration,  and  commit  the  akkabah  into  the  hands  of  the 
chiefs  of  this  district;  these  escort  them  to  the  territory  of  the  tribe  of  Magalfra, 
where  other  guides  convoy  them  to  Tombuctoo.  Sometimes  a  caravan,  bolder  or 
more  hurried  than  the  rest,  attempts  to  cross  the  desert  without  an  escort;  but  they 
seldom  fail  to  repent  of  their  temerity,  by  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  two  tribes  of 
Dekna  and  Emjot,  which  inhabit  the  northern  frontiers  of  the  desert. 

Being  subject  to  a  religious  code  which  forbids  the  use  of  inebriating 
liquors,  the  merchants  of  the  caravans  know  no  other  drink  than  water; 
dates  and  barley  meal  serve  them  for  food  during  a  journey  of  many  weeks  across 
the  desert.  Their  clothing  is  equally  simple.  Fortified  by  this  frugality,  and  sus- 
tained by  the  prospect  of  returning  to  their  homes,  they  sing  as  they  trudge  along, 
to  shorten  the  long  hours  of  travel.  When  they  come  near  a  few  houses,  or  when 
their  camels  seem  in  danger  of  dropping  down  with  fatigue,  their  songs  accpiire  addi- 
tional spirit  and  expression;  their  melody  and  sweetness  restore  animation  to  the 
toiling  camels.  At  four  in  the  evening  they  pitch  their  tents,  and  join  in  prayer;  to 
this  act  of  devotion  supper  succeeds;  then  they  sit  down  in  a  ring,  converse  or  recite 
stories  till  their  eyes  are  closed  in  sleep.  The  Arabic  language  becomes  extremely 
agreeable  in  the  mouths  of  the  camel  drivers;  it  is  then  equally  soft,  and  more  sono- 
rous than  the  Italian ;  their  particular  dialect  resembles  the  ancient  language  of  the 
Alcoran,  which  for  1200  years  has  scarcely  undergone  any  alteration.  The  Arabs 
of  Mogafiiia,  and  those  of  Woled-Abusebah,  compose  extemporaneous  verses  with 
great  readiness;  the  women  are  good  judges  of  poetry,  and  show  particular  favour 
for  those  young  Arabs  who  excel  in  this  literary  exercise. 
Deserts  and     I       Wg  jo  not  know  the  prcciso  situation  of  the  deserts  of  Zuenga  and 

oasis  of  tlie  \     rT\  -iiti  l  ir>i-r- 

centre.  |  Targa,  mentioned  by  Leo:  they  must  be  to  the  north  of  the  oasis  of 

Thuat.  The  Lemtuna  people  of  this  writer  seem  to  form  part  of  the  Tuariks  of  the 
moderns.  Agadez,  a  large  town  inhabited  by  slave-merchants,  and  situated  to  the 
south  of  Tezzane,  is  also  known  by  the  name  of  Tuarik,*  probably  as  being  the  chief 
settlement  of  that  people. 

May  not  the  great  desert  which  we  have  now  described  be  the  dried 
basin  of  a  sea?  Diodorus  speaks  of  the  lake  of  the  Hesperides,  which 
was  turned  into  dry  land  by  an  earthquake;  perhaps  the  countries  of  Mount  Atlas, 
once  surrounded  by  a  double  Mediterranean,  formed  that  celebrated  Atlantic  island 
which  is  sought  for  in  every  direction  and  nowhere  found.  On  the  borders  of  the 
great  desert  there  are  immense  collections  of  the  remains  of  marine  animals.  The 
Soodan  is  destitute  of  salt,  but  the  deserts  of  Zahara  are  covered  with  it.  I'liny 
and  Leo  concur  in  saying  that  in  several  districts,  sal-gem  was  cut  like  marble  or 
jasper,  and  used  as  stones  for  building  houses.  These  facts  seem  favourable  to  the 
hyi)othesis  now  mentioned ;  but  the  level  of  the  desert  is  unknown ;  and  such  theo- 
ries do  not,  in  the  present  state  of  retrospective  geology,  admit  of  any  approximation 
to  proof. 

*  Abderrhaman,  in  dans  le  Nuuv.  Mus.  Allein.  Hi.  p.  988. 


Origin  of  tlie 
desert. 


SENEI.AMI51A  AND  (iUlNKA.  Ol3 


Climate  nml 
tiMiipiratnn' 
oi"  Sciicijain- 
bin. 


BOOK  LXVI. 


8 KNEGAMBIA  AND  GUINEA. 

The  country  which  we  arc  now  to  visit,  affords  a  rcnuirkablc  example,  both  of 
the  beneficence  of  nature  and  of  the  perversity  of  the  human  niiud.  Those  coun- 
tries, in  which  tyranny  and  ignorance  have  not  had  the  power  to  destroy  the  inex- 
haustible fecundity  of  the  soil,  have,  down  to  the  present  times,  been  the  theatre  of 
eternal  robbery,  and  one  vast  market  of  human  blood. 

The  sea-coasts  of  this  country  experience  the  most  intense  heat  that 
is  known  in  any  part  of  the  globe.  The  cause  of  this  is  to  be  found 
in  the  east  winds  which  arrive  on  these  coasts,  after  having  swept  over 
the  burning  surface  of  Africa  in  all  its  breadth.*  At  Goree,  in  the  years  17S7  and 
17SS,  in  November  and  in  May,  the  thermometer  stood  at  (38°  and  S8.^°  :  during  tlie 
night  it  did  not  fall  below  G0°,  From  May  till  November  it  did  not  fall  below  77", 
nor  rise  above  99^.  Thus  there  arc  just  two  seasons  ;  the  one  may  bo  considered 
as  a  modorate  summer,  the  other  as  a  continuation  of  burning  dog-days,  l^nt,  dur- 
ing the  whole  year,  the  sun  at  mid-day  is  unsupportable.  At  Senegal  it  is  most 
intense,  amounting  to  113°  and  sometimes  to  131°.  The  barometer  almost  always 
rises  in  those  circumstances  under  which  it  falls  in  France,  that  is,  at  the  commence- 
ment  of  a  storm.  The  north  and  north-west  Avinds  blow  almost  without  |  wimis. 
interruption.  The  east  or  trade  winds  are  only  felt  within  90  or  120  miles  of  the 
coast.  The  south  wind  is  very  rare.  During  the  great  heats  a  dead  calm  previiils 
for  about  thirty  days,  Avhich  is  enervating  to  the  most  robust  constitutions.  From 
the  beginning  of  June  till  the  middle  of  October,  sixteen  or  eighteen  heavy  rains 
fall,  amounting  to  fifty  or  sixty  inches  of  water.  A  single  one  sometimes  gives  as 
much  as  six  or  seven  inches.     During  the  rest  of  the  year  there  arc  heavy  dews,  j' 

Of  all  the  countries  of  western  Africa,  the  Gold  Coast  seems  to  be 
subjected  to  the  most  intense  heats.  Near  llio  Volta,  Isert  saw  the  ther- 
mometer of  Fahrenheit  rise  to  95^  within  an  apartment,  while  it  was  134  in  (he  open 
air,  which  surpasses  by  26  degrees  the  greatest  heats  observed  by  Adanson  on  the 
baidis  of  the  Senegal. 

In  the  Gulf  of  Guinea  the  prevailing  winds  aie  from  the  south-west,  |  wimis. 
which  makes  it  diflicult  for  vessels  which  venture  into  it  to  get  out.     This  direction 
of  the  wind,  being  contrary  to  the  trade  winds,  is  to  be  exiilained  l)v  the  rarefacfion 
of  the  air  in  the  central  countries  of  this  part  of  Africa, — a  circumstance  from  whirh 
some  infer  the  absence  of  high  mountains. 

r»etwecn  Cape  Verga  and  Cape  Palmas,  the  hurricanes  called  torna-  |  unrricaiKs. 
does,  from  a  Portuguese  term  for  wliirlwiads,  are  very  fre(}uent  in  sunnner  and 
antunni ;  their  approach  is  announced  by  a  small  cloud,  apparently  five  or  .six  feet 
broad,  remaining  immoveably  in  one  spot.  This  soon  extends,  and  covers  a  great 
pint  of  the  horizon.  An  impetuous  whirling  wind  now  breaks  forth,  which  lasts  only 
about  a  quarter  of  an  hour  :  but  in  this  short  s[)ace,  enormous  trees  are  torn  u|>  by 
the  roots,  cottages  are  thrown  down,  entire  villages  destroyed,  and  vessels  drivoJi 
from  their  anchors  and  wrecked.  This  scourge  is  unknown  on  the  Senegal,  and 
even  from  Cape  Blanco  to  Cape  de  Verpa  ;  but  it  sometimes  occurs  in  the  Zahara. 
The  winds  raise  the  impalpable  sand,  ..  .ning  them  into  colunms  which  rise  to  an 
immense  height,  and  become  a  sort  of  sand-spout.  After  dificrent  changes  of  form, 
they  are  either  dissipated  through  the  air,  or  carried  along,  sometimes  to  very  great 

*  Schotte  dans  Forster  et  Sprengcl,  Uccucil  dcs  Mcmoires  pour  lu  Gcograpliie  et  TKUino- 
graphie,  i.  p.  55. 

t  Adanson,  Voyage  au  Senegal.     VVadstrom,  sur  les  Colonies,  p.   55,  trad,  .\llcin.  dc   >f. 
Zinimerniann. 

Vol.  II.— 3  T 


Tempi  THl nil) 
or  Guiiiia. 


514  UOOK   SIXTY-SIXTH. 

distances  ;  sometimes  they  break  through  in  the  middle  with  a  crash  Uke  the  explo- 
sion of  a  mine.*  The  harmattan,  the  name  of  which  seems  to  be  of  European  ori- 
gin, {air  matan)  is  an  east  wind  which  prevails  chiefly  in  Benin,  and  extends  to  the 
Gold  Coast ;  it  brings  on  a  dry  haze  ;  the  horizon  is  darkened,  the  skins  of  animals 
and  men  become  contracted  and  chopped.  These  harmattans  are  felt  about  the 
solstices,  t 

Mountains.  J  Near  the  sources  of  the  Senegal,  the  Joliba  or  Niger,  the  Gambia, 
and  the  Mesurado,  there  is  a  nucleus  of  mountains  from  which,  according  to  the 
most  recent  accounts,  some  branches  go  oft"  like  so  many  rays,  which  might  lead  us  to 
suppose  that  they  are  granitic,  or  schistous  mountains,  yet  the  numerous  falls  in  the 
rivers  seem  to  indicate  a  surface  rising  by  terraces,  and  hence  probably  calcareous. 
Some  of  them  must  be  of  great  elevation,  if  the  reports  of  the  negroes  to  M.  Mol- 
lien  were  correct,  that  to  the  south-east  of  Timbo  and  the  sources  of  the  great  river, 
some  of  the  mountains  "have  a  white  hat." J 

The  mountains  on  the  coast,  from  Cape  de  Verde  to  the  Gambia,  present  indica- 
tions of  volcanoes,  which,  however,  are  allowed  to  be  equivocal,  as  the  lavas  of 
authors  may  bo  considered  as  basaltic  rocks.  The  foot  of  Sierra  Leon  Cape  is  en- 
circled with  basaltic  rocks,  called  by  the  English  Carpenter's  Rocks,  and  the  whole 
coast  has  the  same  general  appearance.  Immense  alluvial  tracts  make  Senegambia 
to  have  some  resemblance  to  Guinea.  The  islands  to  the  south  of  the  Gambia  are 
partly  inundated,  and  continually  accumulating. 

Rivers.  I      The  rivers  of  this  country  are  very  numerous.     The  Senegal,  long 

The  Senegal.  |  confoundcd  with  the  Niger,  rises  in  the  country  of  Foota-Jallon,  near 
Timbo,  about  10°  N.  lat.  and  has  a  course,  first  to  the  north-east,  then  to  the  north- 
west, then  west,  more  than  800  miles  in  all,  before  it  reaches  the  ocean.  §  Among 
the  falls  of  this  river,  that  of  the  Feloo  rock  merits  most  particular  attention.  For 
seven  months  in  the  year  the  rock  stops  the  course  of  the  water,  but  during  the  other 
five  they  rise  high  enough  to  flow  over  the  top  of  the  rock.  At  the  mouth  of  the 
Senegal  there  is  a  bar  which  prevents  the  entrance  of  all  vessels  that  draw  more  than 
ten  feet  of  water,  though  immediately  within  the  bar  the  river  is  thirty  feet  deep. 
La  Barthe  observes,  that  in  1779  the  entrance  of  the  bar  was  eleven  miles  from  the 
island  of  St.  Louis,  though  now  it  is  fourteen.  These  variations  are  of  great  impor- 
tance in  determining  the  mooring  grounds.  They  are  owing  to  the  currents  in 
opposite  directions,  which,  in  proportion  to  their  relative  strength,  deposit  the  sand 
in  a  place  from  which  they  afterwards  carry  it  away.  Similar  shiftings,  take  place 
over  the  coast  in  general.  The  banks  of  the  Senegal  become  highly  picturesque 
when  we  ascend  140  miles  from  the  sea.  Lined  with  hills  and  mountains,  where 
tall  trees,  mixed  with  handsome  shrubs,  form  verdant  arches,  and  amphitheatres,  this 
river  would  furnish  one  of  the  most  interesting  voyages  in  the  world,  were  not  its 
charms  so  essentially  impaired  by  the  unwholesomeness  of  the  air,  the  hideous  aspect 
of  the  crocodiles,  and  the  bellowing  of  the  hippopotamus.  The  merchants  even 
The  Gambia.  |  avoid  it,  and  prefer  going  by  land.  |1  While  the  Senegal  is  only  navigable 
in  the  rainy  season,  the  Gambia  cannot  be  navigated  except  in  the  dry  season.  Forty 
gun  frigates  can  go  up  thirty-seven  miles,  and  large  merchant  [vessels  ISO. IT  The 
rains  give  it  an  enormous  increase  of  depth,  but  at  the  same  time,  such  inordinate 
rapidity  that  no  vessels  can  stem  the  current.  This  river,  though  exceedingly  deep 
and  wide,  has  only  a  course  of  610  miles.  The  Rio  Grande,  no  less  remarkable 
both  for  depth  and  width  at  its  mouth,  which  is  encompassed  with  islands,  has  a 
course  only  half  as  long  as  that  of  the  Gambia.  The  Rio  Mesurado  is  remarked 
for  its  short  and  rectilinear  course,  but  otherwise  little  known.  The  rivers  of  the 
coast  of  Guinea  seem  to  take  their  rise  in  the  Kong  mountains,  at  distances  from 
300  to  400  miles.  The  Rio  Volta,  which  is  the  least  known,  descends  in  a  scries 
of  cascades;  but  the  deepest  angle  of  the  Gulf  of  Guinea  receives  the  Formosa, 

•  Philosoph.  Trans,  Ixx.  p.  478.  f  Aitkin's  Voyajye,  p.  147. 

^  Mollien's  Travels  to  the  Sources  of  the  Senegal  and  Gambia,  edited  by  ]5owditcli,  p.  292. 

§  Mollien,  p.  152. 

II  Diirand,  V()yat,'-e  au  Senegal,  p.  343.    Lamiral,  I'Afnquc  ct  Ic  pcuplc  AlVicain. 

T  Dcin?uict,  Labut,  Stc. 


SP.NKGAMRIA  AND  GtriNEA.  .515 

Ihe  Calabar,  and  other  broad  and  deep  streams,  which  form  at  their  termination  a 
delta  larger  than  that  of  Egypt.  IVe  shall  afterwards  state  some  reasons  for  con- 
sidering these  rivers  as  the  mouths  of  the  Niger. 

At  the  head  of  the  trees  of  these  regions  stands  that  colossus  of  the  |  vegetation, 
vegetable  kingdom,  the  immense  baobab,  the  Mansonia  digitata  of  Linnaeus.  Iscrt, 
a  learned  Dane,  observed  several  species  of  this  genus,  though  only  one  |  Forest  trees, 
has  been  hitherto  botanically  known.*  Its  fruit,  surnamed  monkey's  bread,  affords 
abundant  aliment  to  the  negroes,  whp,  at  sun-rise,  watch  religiously  the  opening  of 
its  flowers,  which  have  been  closed  during  the  night.  The  whole  of  Senegambia 
and  Guinea  is  adorned  with  its  green  elliptic  arches.  The  name  of  Cape  de  Verd 
is  said  to  have  been  particularly  suggested  by  the  foliage  of  this  tree.  The  wide 
trunk  becomes  hollow  within  while  its  diameter  is  augmenting,  and  the  cavern  which 
it  forms  is  large  enough  to  serve  as  a  temple  to  the  negroes,  a  hall  of  assembly  to  a 
tribe,  or  a  habitation  for  several  of  their  families.  Its  height,  however,  is  very  mo- 
derate. Mr.  Golberry  observed  one  which  was  twenty-four  feet  high,  by  thirty-four 
in  diameter,  and  104  in  circumference.  The  forests  ol  these  countries,  equally  close 
with  those  of  Guiana  or  Brasil,  contain,  like  them,  cocoa  trees,  palms,  mangos,  ba- 
nanas or  pisangs,  tamarinds,  papaws,  various  species  of  citrons,  oranges,  pomegra- 
nates, and  sycamores. I  Among  the  rest  we  remark  the  courbaril,  or  locust  tree,  a 
species  of  Hymenma,  which  yields  an  agreeable  beverage;;};  the  Elais  Guinensis,  from 
which  oil  and  a  kind  of  butter  are  obtained;  a  pea-tree,  a  new  species  of  Robinia, 
found  on  the  Gold  Coast;  a  tree  resembhng  the  tulip-tree,  forming  a  new  genus  in 
the  Linnean  class  of  Tetrandria;  and  another,  improperly  called  a  cedar,  which  is  a 
new  species  o(  Avicennia.§  The  valuable  shea,  or  butter-tree,  forms  a  great  part  of 
the  riches  of  the  kingdom  of  Bambook;  but  that  tree,  probably  a  species  of  croion, 
belongs  more  properly  to  Nigritia.]]  The  tallow-tree,  however,  according  to  Roemer, 
grows  on  the  coast  of  Guinea. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  nutmeg, U  and  the  cinnamon-tree,**  grow  here 
spontaneously,  though  in  small  number,  but  the  assertion  requires  to  be 
accompanied  with  stronger  evidence  than  we  as  yet  have.  It  seems  certain  that  the 
Laurus  cassia  grows  in  the  forests.  The  existence  of  the  coffee-tree|'j"  is  only  pi-o- 
bable.  We  know  that  it  grows  to  the  south  of  Abyssinia,  but  we  are  not  certain  that 
it  is  precisely  the  Arabian  species.  Among  other  aromatic  plants,  Senegambia  and 
Guinea  possess  a  species  of  pepper,  the  Cardamomum  majns,  called,  from  its  locality, 
malaguctte,  also  pimento,  Spanish  pepper,  and  ginger.  Cotton  succeeds,  and  even 
excels  that  of  Brazil. 

The  indigo  of  tliis  country  is  excellent.  A  great  number  of  valuable  |  Gums, 
gums  which  this  country  furnishes  as  articles  of  commerce  are  well  known,  such  as 
gum  guaiac,  the  red  astringent  gum,  gum  copal,  the  inspissated  juice  of  euphorbium, 
and  Sanguis  draconis.  The  courageous  and  able  Wadstrom,  a  Swede,  had  brought 
from  Africa  fourteen  kinds  of  valuable  woods,  among  which  were  acajou  and  ebony. 
Several  dye-woods  are  found  here. 

Alimentary  plants  are  in  groat  abundance.  Two  species  of  Iloleus 
are  cultivated,  the  sorglmm  and  the  dourra.  There  is  a  third  species, 
called  by  Isort  the  Holcus  bicolor,  which  is  known  by  the  Portuguese  name  milho,  or 
millet,  on  the  Gold  Coast,  and  gives  a  return  of  IGO  for  one.  Rice  is  cultivafed  in 
the  high  lands.  Africa  has  received  maize  from  America ;  but  the  potato,  which  in 
Fetoo  is  called  broddi,  seems  to  be  indigenous. ;{;■];  The  other  esculent  herbaceous 
plants,  are  the  yam,  the  manioc,  or  cassava,  the  large  bean  produced  by  the  JJolichos 
Ugnosiis,  the  delicious  pine-apple,  which  grows  in  the  most  desert  places,  and  lastly, 

•  Isert,  Voyage  a  la  Guince,  p.  110—281. 

t  Labat,  Noiivelle  Description,  &.c.  i.  p.  62,  ii.  p.  322,  iii.  p,  12 — 37,  &c.  Schott,  in  Spren- 
gel,  i.  p.  66,  67.     Adanson,  Voyage  au  Scn<;gal. 

i  Labat,  iv.  p.  363.  §  Isert,  p.  116,  182,  &c. 

A  Labat,  iii.  p.  345.  Ehrmann,  Histoire  des  Voyages,  iii,  p.  72.  Compare  Itomer,  Relat.  de 
la  c6te  de  Guinee,  p.  175. 

t  Clarkson,  on  the  Impolicy  of  the  Slave  Trade,  p.  14. 

••  Smith's  New  Voyage,  p.  162.     Ehrmann,  Histoire  des  Voyages,  x.  p.  40. 

ft  Wadstrom,  Essai  sur  les  Colonies,  p.  84.  ^i  Mollien,  p.  24L 


Aromatic 
plauts. 


Alimentary 
plants. 


516  HOOK  sixTv-siXTii. 

different  species  of  melons  antl  of  cucumbers.     Orange,  banana,  and  papaw  trees 
have  been  introduced  by  tlie  Portuguese,  and  grow  in  abundance  and  perfection. 

Tobacco  is  found  every  where  in  great  abundance ;  that  of  Senegal  is  excellent, 
but  that  of  the  Gold  Coast  is  of  the  most  inditferent  kind.  The  negroes  are  so  fond 
of  smoking  this  plant  that  they  complain  less  of  hunger  than  of  the  want  of  tobacco. 
The  sugar-cane,  though  abundant  and  excellent,  serves  only  to  feed  the  elephants, 
the  pigs,  and  the  butfaloes,  who  are  extremely  fond  of  it.*  The  negroes  sometimes 
drink  the  juice  of  it.  The  exuberant  abundance  of  the  aloes,  balsams,  Glorioscc 
superbcc,  tuberoses,  lilies,  and  amaranths,  gives  the  flora  of  these  countries  a  look  of 
pomp  and  magnificence  quite  astonishing  to  the  European  traveller.  The  most 
singular  feature  of  the  African  vegetation,  is,  perhaps,  the  height  to  which  the 
Guinea  gfi-ass.  |  Guinea  grass  grows.  This  plant  forms  immense  forests,  from  ten 
to  thirty  feet  in  height  where  flocks  of  elephants  and  boars  wander  imseen.  The 
enormous  boa  serpent  conceals  himself  in  this  gigantic  turf.  In  order  to  render  the 
air  more  salubrious,  or  to  prepare  for  cultivation,  the  negro  tVequently  sets  fire  to 
these  savannahs,  which  shine  in  long  lines  during  the  night,  resembling  rivers  of  fire, 
that  relieve  the  gloom  for  a  great  way  round  ;  by  day  they  cover  the  horizon  with 
columns  of  smoke ;  and  the  birds  of  prey  follow  these  conflagrations  in  flocks,  to 
devour  the  serpents  and  lizards  which  the  flames  have  suflfocated.  This  practice  has 
appeared  to  some  of  the  learned  to  furnish  the  most  natural  explanation  of  the  "  tor- 
rents of  fire,"  seen  by  Hanno,  the  Carthaginian,  in  his  voyage  to  the  south  of  Cerne.-f 
Auimais.  |       No  part  of  the  world  produces  more  numerous  flocks  of  elephants, 

monkeys,  and  antelopes,  deer,  rats,  and  squirrels.  In  every  part  of  Africa  the  ele- 
phant lives  in  a  state  of  nature  ;  he  is  nowhere  tamed.  The  ancients  justly  observed, 
that  the  African  elephant  is  smaller  and  less  courageous  than  the  Asiatic  ;  but  his 
organs  of  defence  are  much  larger,  tlie  substance  of  his  tusks  is  harder,  and  less  apt 
to  become  yellow,  and  furnislies  almost  all  tlie  ivory  of  commerce.  The  method  of 
catching  them,  employed  by  the  chiefs,  is  to  assemble  the  young  men  and  take  them 
out  into  the  woods;  at  the  season  when  the  grass  is  dry,  they  set  fire  to  the  grass  all 
round  the  elephants,  who,  finding  themselves  unable  to  escape  from  the  flames,  perish 
in  the  conflagration,  sometimes  to  the  number  of  twenty  or  thirty,  by  which  means 
the  negroes  procure  a  large  quantity  of  ivory.  The  hippopotamus,  which  lives  in 
fresh  water  and  marshy  places,  grows  to  a  monstrous  size,  and  is  most  frequently 
seen  to  the  south  of  the  river  Cassemance.  The  rhinoceros  is  scarcely  known  even 
in  Benin.  The  lion  is  less  common  than  the  panther  and  the  leopard.  The  spotted 
or  striped  hyeena  is  frequent  in  the  country,  but  the  common  species  is  most  common 
in  the  north  of  Africa.  The  jackal,  however,  is  more  formidable  and  destructive. 
The  girafle,  which  has  been  seen  by  Mungo  Park  and  other  travellers  in  Nigritia, 
sometimes  wander  over  these  coasts.  J 

The  zebra  is  met  with  in  droves,  and  the  negroes  hunt  it  for  the  sake  of  the  skin 
and  the  flesh. 

Monkeys.  |     The  most  remarkable  species  of  monkey  is  the  Shnia  troglodytes, caW- 

ed  kimpanzay  in  Congo.  It  is  the  jocko  of  Buflbn,  who  has  confounded  it  with  the 
ourang-outang  of  India.  This  monkey  has  less  approximation  to  the  human  form 
than  the  ourang-outang;  but  perhaps  surpasses  him  in  intelligence.  They  sometimes 
attack  people,  especially  women  who  carry  any  provisions,  and  beat  them  with  sticks 
till  they  let  go  their  burden;  when  pursued  and  attacked,  they  defend  themselves  by 
hurling  stones  and  biting;  and  the  temales  which  have  young  ones  to  protect,  are 
particularly  fierce  and  courageous  in  their  resistance. §  A  recent  traveller  says  that 
this  animal  is  far  from  being  common.  The  hideous  mandril  varies  according  to  his 
age;  whence  Linnaeus  has  erroneously  divided  this  species  into  two,  (the  Simla  mai- 
vion  and  J\larmon.)  According  to  a  learned  naturalist,  it  has  not  hitherto  been  found 
except  in  Guinea  and  on  the  Congo.  ||  We  likewise  meet  with  the  pithecus,  the  ha- 
madryad, the  Simia  leonina,  or  macaque ;  the  diana ;  the  Sitnia  cephus,  or  moustac ; 

•  Wadstrom,  p.  67.  f  See  our  History  of  Geography. 

*  Spvengcl  and  Foster,  i.  p.  72,  iii.  p.  140.  §  Mollien,  p,  290. 
il  Cuvier,  Menajjeric  du  Museum,  art.  Mandrill. 


SENEGAMBIA  AND  GUINEA.  517 

the  CnlUtriche,  or  green  ape;  the  Simia  sab(ta;  the  whitc-nosc,  or  Shnia  pelaurisia; 
in  short,  ahnost  all  the  tailed  apes  and  baboons,  of  which  these  rcji;ion.s  seem  to  be 
in  a  particular  manner  the  native  country.  Two  remarkable  animals,  akin  to  the 
monkey  tribe,  have  hitherto  been  found  only  in  Senegambia.  These  are  the  Lemur 
i;;ala2;o,  and  the  Lemur  minutus.  The  poto  or  sloth  is  common  in  Guinea.  The 
Senegal  negroes  catch  the  zibeth  in  a  very  young  state,  and  tame  it.  Among  the 
antelopes,  or  gazelles,  the  kob,  the  nanguer,  and  the  nagar,  inhabit  the  banks  of  the 
Senegal  and  Rio  Volta.  Some  kevels  and  corinnse  are  also  found:  these  antelopes 
go  in  numberless  flocks,  which  often  contain  upwards  of  a  thousand.*  The  boar  of 
Kthioi)ia  peoples  the  marshy  woods ;  but  the  pig  of  this  country  is  small  and  weak. 
The  dogs  are  of  the  size  of  our  setters,  but  approach  somewhat  to  the  mastiff;  they 
do  not  bark,  and  their  hair  is  short,  coarse,  and  red,  as  in  all  warm  countries. "f"  The 
liorses  of  the  Gold  Coast  are  small  and  ugly;  but  Adanson  admires  the  Domestic ani. 
horse  of  Senegal.  That  river  is  probably  the  southern  limit  of  the  Ber-  ""*''' 
l)cr,  or  Moorish  breed.  The  ass  is  exceedingly  handsome,  and  very  strong.  Camels 
are  sometimes  seen  here,  but  never  to  the  south  of  the  Senegal.  The  negroes  rear 
cattle,  butTalocs,  sheep,  and  goats.  The  trumpet-bird,  or  monoceros,  is  found  in  all 
Ihe  court-yards  of  the  negroes,  together  with  the  armed  swan,  the  Egyptian  swan, 
the  pintado,  and  the  greater  part  of  the  poultry  known  in  Europe.  Among  the  mul- 
titude of  birds  which  inhabit  the  forests,  we  remark  the  Anlea  alba  minor,  or  aigrette, 
the  feathers  of  which  form  an  article  of  trade.  The  beautiful  paroquets  are  in  unli- 
mited numbers.  Swarms  of  them  are  seen  to  rise  from  the  trees,  frightened  by  the 
cries  of  the  monkeys.  Adanson  saw  the  nest  of  an  enormous  species  of  eagle,  or 
vulture,  called  by  the  natives,  n^ntatm.  This  nest  was  three  feet  high.  Numerous 
families  of  sparrows  and  hunmiing  birds  sport  round  the  hut  of  the  negro,  and  the 
iuunensc  baobab  supports  the  nest  of  the  enormous  pelican.J 

This  region  is  much  infested  by  venomous  insects,  disgusting  reptiles,  |  insects, 
and  clouds  of  locusts.  Of  the  last,  Isert  distinguished  more  than  twenty  different 
species  on  the  Gold  Coast.  On  that  coast  cameleons  are  very  common.  The  ser- 
pents are  numerous,  and  some  of  them  of  enormous  size.  M.  Mollien  mentions  a 
snake,  the  bite  of  which  occasioned  the  skin  to  fall  off  in  scales,  an  instance  of  which 
came  under  his  eye.  There  are  numerous  swarms  of  wild  bees,  the  honey  and  wax 
of  which  are  objects  of  trade  among  the  negroes.  In  the  sequestered  forests,  the 
termites,  improperly  called  white  ants,  display  their  astonishing  industry.  |  Termites. 
Golberry  saw  in  the  woods  of  Lamayava  and  Albrida,  on  the  banks  of  the  Gambia, 
some  pyramidal  buildings,  formed  by  these  insects,  which  were  sixteen  feet  high, 
and  the  bases  of  which  occupied  an  area  from  100  to  110  square  feet.  In  these 
nests,  the  wild  bees  generally  deposit  their  honey,  to  obtain  which,  the  natives  set 
them  on  fire  during  the  night,  that  they  may  avoid  the  risk  of  being  stung  by  the 
bees.§  The  crocodiles,  the  cacholots,  and  the  manatis,  sometimes  inhabit,  in  one 
common  society,  the  mouths  of  the  great  rivers.  Oysters  are  said  to  fasten  in  great 
multitudes  on  the  immersed  branches  of  the  mango  with  which  these  rivers  are  bor- 
dered. They  are  large,  fut,  and  very  good  to  eat,  though  less  fresh  and  cool  than 
those  found  in  more  northern  situations.  Cowries,  the  shells  called  by  |  cowries, 
naturalists  Cyproca  momfa,  which  are  used  as  money  in  all  these  countries,  as  well 
as  in  many  parts  of  India,  arc  fished  on  the  coast  of  Congo  and  Angola, |1  and  arc 
not  brought  hither  from  India  as  some  travellers  have  asserted.  We  are  not  certain 
if  they  are  found  on  the  coast  of  Guinea  Proper,  as  travellers  give  no  precise  state- 
ments on  that  point. TT  Much  coral  and  ambergris  is  also  procured  on  all  these 
coasts.** 

The  mineral  kingdom  of  these  equinoctial  countries  is  i)robably  as  |  Minerals, 
rich  and  varied,  though  not  in  so  great  proportion,  compared  to  other  parts  of  the 
world,  since  mineral  productions  are  not  influenced  by  climate;  but  we  know  little 

•  Golberry,  Fragmens  sur  I'Afriqiie,  t.  ii. 

t  Rccmer,  p.  273.     Mullor,  p.  244.  +  Mollien,  p.  51. 

§  Mollien,  p.  227.  H  Proyart,  Itelat.  p.  25. 

%  Hruns,  Afrika,  iv,  p.  547.  ••  Wadstrom,  p.  7"\ 


518  ROOK  SIXTY-SIXTH. 

Gold  mines,  j  of  their  mineralogy.  Among  the  objects  most  worthy  of  attention 
are  the  gold  mines,  which  are  said  to  exist  in  the  country  of  Bambook,  situated  be- 
tween the  Senegal  and  the  Gambia,  at  equal  distances  from  the  two  rivers.  If  we 
believe  two  French  writers,  Pelays  and  JDavid,  who  were  sent  into  these  countries 
by  the  old  French  Indian  Company  to  examine  these  mines,  they  are  situated  near 
the  villages  of  Natakon,  Semayla,  Nambia,  and  Kombadyree  ;  but  these  grounds 
from  which  the  negroes  obtain  gold,  are  only  alluvial  deposits,  derived  from  real 
mines,  concealed  among  the  mountains  of  Tabaoora.  Eighty  pounds  of  crude 
mixed  earth,  taken  from  a  pit  in  the  small  mountain  of  Natakon,  yielded  144  grains 
and  a  half  of  gold.  The  Semayla  mine  appears  to  be  the  richest.* — There  are  also 
gold  mines  on  the  Gold  Coast  at  Akim,  five  days  journey  from  the  Danish  Fort  of 
Christianburg,  but  they  are  not  very  productive.  At  a  distance  of  twelve  day's  jour- 
ney farther  north,  near  the  mountains  of  Kong,  we  have  reason  to  beUeve  that  the 
Accasers  work  a  rich  mine  of  this  precious  metal  in  the  form  of  deep  pits. I  Iron 
ore,  in  the  form  of  silicious  stones,  is  abundant  in  many  places,  and  is  smelted  by 
the  inhabitants,  and  manufactured  into  vessels  with  the  hammer ;  from  which  we 
may  conclude  that  the  metal  is  excellent  in  quality,  and  highly  malleable.  J  Labat 
Other  mine-  saw  whole  mountains  of  fine  red  marble  with  white  veins.  The  negroes 
"  *'  make  fine  pottery  with  a  white  unctuous  earth,  which  is  common  in  these 

countries.  It  is  on  the  coast,  and  most  especially  in  the  rivers,  near  the  gulf  of  the 
Idolos  Islands,  that  the  fat  clay  is  found,  which  the  people  are  said  to  mix  with  their 
food  like  butter. 

After  this  general  view,  we  shall  now  proceed  to  some  detailed  descriptions  of  this 
wide  and  important  region. 

The  French  The  fertile  plains,  watered  by  the  Senegal  and  Gambia,  are  occupied 

settlement.  ^y  ^  multitude  of  Small  kingdoms,  some  consisting  of  the  indigenous 
negroes,  and  others  which  have  been  seized  by  the  Moors.  Various  European 
powers  have  perceived  the  advantages  which  this  country  offers  for  colonial  esta- 
blishments. The  French  at  one  time  had  the  largest  and  most  numerous,  as  Fort 
St.  Louis  and  Podor  on  the  Senegal ;  the  forts  of  St.  Joseph  and  St.  Pierre,  in  the 
interior  in  the  kingdom  of  Galam  ;  the  island  of  Goree,  called  by  the  natives  Bar- 
saghish,  near  Cape  Verd  ;  Albreda  and  Joal,  on  the  river  Gambia  ;  Bintam,  on  the 
Cerebes  river  ;  and  the  island  of  Bissaos.  All  these  settlements  are  now  abandoned, 
and  the  island  of  St.  Louis  is  merely  a  factory  under  military  government,  the  re- 
turns of  which,  in  1801,  gave  a  population  of  10,000  inhabitants,  consisting  in  a 
great  measure  of  slaves.  According  to  Labat,  a  million  and  a  half  pounds  weight 
of  gum  were  exported  ;  also  1600  negroes.  The  Enghsh  have,  besides  Fort  St. 
James,  three  factories  on  the  Gambia  ;  one  at  Vintain,  another  at  Jookakonda,  and 
a  third  at  Pisania  :  the  last  of  which  is  the  farthest  from  the  sea-coast.  The  French 
exported  to  the  Senegal  goods  to  the  amount  of  52750,000  ;  and  the  English  dis- 
posed of  an  equal  amount  on  the  Gambia.  Spirituous  liquors  were  the  chief 
articles. 

The  kingdom  of  Owal,  or  Ualo,  contains  the  lake  of  Panior  Fonlo, 
which,  in  the  dry  season,  is  transformed  into  a  fertile  plain.  The  sove- 
reign, who  has  the  title  of  brak,  (meaning  king  of  kings,)  is  generally  subject  to  the 
neighbouring  Moors. 

The  Fouiahs.  |  The  Foulahs  of  Senegal  live  above  Owal.  Some  of  their  tribes  enjoy 
a  turbulent  independence,  such  as  those  of  Footatoro,  who  are  also  remarked  to  be 
the  most  insolent  and  inhospitable. §  The  greater  part  of  them  are  subject  to  a  sove- 
reign possessed  of  considerable  power,  who  has  the  title  of  Siratik.  In  this  country 
is  situated  Fort  Podor,  in  the  large  and  fertile  island  of  Morfil,  formed  by  two  arms 
of  the  Senegal. 

Extension  of  The  Foulahs,  who  arc  also  called  Peuls  or  Foleys  on  the  Senegal, 

this  people.  are  widely  diffused  over  Africa.  The  great  body  of  the  nation  lives 
about  the  sources  of  the  Gambia  and  Rio-Grande.     Besides  the  colonies  found  on 


Kingdom  of 
OwaL 


•  Golberry,  t.  i,  p.  433.  439.  t  Muller,  1.  c.  p.  271.  i  Molllen,  p.  147, 

§  Mollien,  p.  188. 


SENEGAMBIA  AND  GUINEA.  519 

the  river  Falem6  and  the  Senegal,  there  are  tribes  of  them  on  the  south  of  Fezzan, 
on  the  confines  of  Bournoo,  and  even  in  the  interior  of  this  kingdom,  where  they  are 
called  Fellata.  The  Foulahs  also  inhabit  the  kingdoms  of  Massina  and  Tombuctoo 
on  the  Joliba,  and  from  these  parts  probably  the  colonies  went  off  that  are  now  found 
in  Bournoo.  This  curious  fact  seems  to  be  substantiated  by  some  collections  of 
words  of  the  language  of  these  people,  made  in  Senegambia,  compared  with  others, 
communicated  to  M.  Seetzen  by  a  Fellata  of  the  town  of  Ader,  between  Bournoo 
and  Agadez.*  The  Foulahs  have  a  reddish  black  or  a  yellowish  brown  complexion, 
longer  and  less  woolly  hair  than  the  negroes,  noses  less  fiat,  and  lips  not  quite  so 
thick,!  These  features  seem  to  indicate  a  mixture  of  the  Berber  and  Negro  race. 
But  this  mixed  nation,  which  puts  the  reader  in  mind  of  the  LeuccKthiopes  of  the  an- 
cients, seems  to  us  to  have  received  from  the  Arabs  not  only  the  religious  and  civil 
influence  of  the  Koran,  but  also  the  name  which  it  bears,  which  seems  to  be  the  same 
with  that  of  the  Fellahs  or  cultivators  of  Egypt.  The  Foulahs  have  mild  dispositions, 
flexible  minds,  and  a  great  turn  for  agriculture  ;  but  those  among  them  who  live  by 
rearing  cattle,  migrate  from  one  country  to  another  rather  than  submit  to  tyrannical 
rulers. 

The  different  states  of  the  Serracolet'or  Serrawoolet  negroes,  form  a  |  setracoieu. 
sort  of  confederation,  of  which  Galam  is  the  metropolis  ;  but  the  true  name  of  the 
county  is  Kadjaga.  The  king  of  Galam  at  least  enjoys  a  certain  ascen-  Kingdom  of 
doncy  over  that  country,  which  he  owes  chiefly  to  the  trade  of  which  his  Gaiam. 
territories  are  the  centre,  as  well  as  to  the  trade  in  prisoners,  who  are  brought  from 
more  distant  countries.  By  an  agreement  among  all  the  Serracolet  princes,  the 
throne  of  Galam  is  occupied  by  their  families  by  turns.  J  These  negroes  are  trea- 
cherous and  cruel,  their  complexion  is  extremely  black,  and  it  is  difhcult  to  distin- 
guish them  from  the  Yalofs.§  The  air  of  the  country  is  the  purest  along  the  coast. 
The  Serracolets  are  great  smelters  of  iron.  For  hammering  it  they  use  rounded 
pieces  of  granite,  encircled  with  a  leather  band  fastened  to  thongs,  which  the  work- 
man holds  in  his  hands.  He  raises  and  drops  it  alternately  on  the  iron,  which  is 
placed  on  a  low  anvil  in  the  sand,  and  thus  fashions  it  into  bars  eight  inches  long.jl 
They  are  the  most  skilful  and  persevering  in  commercial  affairs  of  all  the  negroes  ; 
and  being  reputed  rich,  their  travelling  merchants  are  obliged  to  pay  heavier  duties, 
in  the  form  of  presents,  to  the  chiefs  through  whose  territories  they  pass.  In  Galam 
they  are  great  hunters.  Some  describe  them  as  treacherous  and  criminal.  Yet  it 
is  allowed  by  all  that  hospitality  is  practised  by  them  in  a  most  ample  and  disinterested 
manner. 

The  Mandingos  are  spread  over  the  country  which  bears  their  name, 
and  which  is  near  the  sources  of  the  Niger.  They  extend  eastward 
among  the  states  of  Bambara,  and  westward  among  those  of  Bambook  and  Woolly. 
These  negroes,  who  are  not  of  so  fine  a  black  as  the  Yalofs,  file  down  their  teeth 
to  a  pointed  shape.  They  are  a  sort  of  Mahometans,  have  many  Arabic  words,  and 
use  the  Arabic  alphabet. TT  Their  maraboots,  or  hermits,  perform  long  commercial 
journeys,  and  receive  visits  from  those  of  Morocco  and  Barbary.  They  are  well 
acquainted  with  the  interior  of  Africa,**  and  the  negro  slave  trade  is  in  their  hands. 
Since  the  year  1100  this  nation  has  ruled  over  the  rich  kingdom  of  Bambook. 

The  Bambookans  furnish  an  example  of  the  usual  fate  of  a  corrupted     The  Bam- 
people.     Their  rich  and  fruitfid  soil  supplies  the  inhabitants  with  the  ne-     '~°''*"'- 
cessaries  of  life,  with  scarcely  any  labour.||     Voluptuous  and  indolent,  they  live 
in  a  state  of  utter  anarchy,  and  their  wealth  becomes  the  prey  of  their  more  active 
neighbours.     Major  Houghton,  however,  gives  them  a  more  favourable  character, 

•  Mithridates,  by  Adelung  and  Vater,  iii.  p.  146. 

■j-  Golberry  Voyage  en  Afriqtie,  i.  p.  101,  &c.     Oldendorp,  Histoire  de  la  Mission  desFrcrcs 
^vangcliques,  p.  274.    I^abat,  iii.  p.  170.     Pommegorge,  Descript.  de  la  Nigiilie,  p.  52. 
t  Golberry,  Voyage  en  Afrique,  i.  p.  571. 

§  Labat,  iii.  p.  308—370.  iv.  p.  45.  Il  Mollicn,  p.  313.  2»8. 

1  Malthcw'.s  Voyage  to  Sierra  Leone,  p.  71— 9T,  Sac. 
••  Jobson,  in  I'urclias's  Pilgrim,  ]).  1573. 
■}f  (Jampagiioi),  duns  I'llistoirc  Gcntralcs  dcs  Voyages. 


The  Man- 
dingos. 


520  BOOK  SIXTY-SIXTH. 

representing  them  as  an  industrious  people,  who  manufacture  cotton  stuffs  and  iron 
utensils.* 

jaiionkadoo.  |  The  kingdom  of  Jallonkadoo,  in  which  the  river  Senegal  takes  its  rise 
to  the  south-east  and  south  of  Bambook,  is  inhabited  by  numerous  tribes,  whose 
language,  notwithstanding  the  doubts  of  Mungo  Park,  seems  to  be  a  dialect  of  the 
Mandingo.|  The  Jallonka  race  have,  in  general,  been  either  converted  or  perse- 
cuted by  the  Foulahs  and  other  Mahometans.  Some  fugitives,  who  have  not  re- 
nounced fetichism,  have  sought  an  asylum  in  the  most  mountainous  districts,  such  as 
the  mountains  of  Niekolo  and  Randeia,  where  they  have  mixed  with  the  Youluks, 
and  produced  a  mulatto  breed,  who  are  savage  and  wretchedly  poor.  They  are 
remarked  for  bad  and  decayed  teeth.  On  the  east  side  of  these  heights,  where  the 
chief  rivers  begin  their  course,  there  is  a  remarkable  difference  in  the  domestic  ani- 
mals. The  ass,  which  is  found  wild  on  the  southern  declivity,  is  here  so  entirely 
unknown,  that  wh^n  M.  MoUien  brought  one  with  him  in  his  travels,  an  animal  so 
strange  produced  consternation  among  the  inhabitants,  both  young  and  old. J  De- 
scending the  Senegal  from  this  country,  we  might  name  kingdoms  and  principalities 
almost  without  number :  but  we  shall  merely  notice  the  state  of  Bondoo,  a  pastoral 
country  to  the  west  of  Bambook ;  the  mhabitants  of  which  manufacture  cotton 
cloths,  and  dye  them  black  with  indigo.  §  The  country  of  Kassan,  to  the  east  of 
Galam,  is  considered  as  rich  in  gold,  silver,  and  coffee. 

The  Yalofs.  |  The  country  between  the  Senegal  and  the  Gambia  is  chiefly  inhabited 
by  the  Yalof,  sometimes  called  the  Walof  nation.  They  are  the  most  handsome 
negroes  of  western  Africa.  They  have  woolly  hair  and  thick  lips,  and  very  black 
complexions,  but  are  tall  and  well  made,  and  their  features  remarkably  regular.  If 
we  credit  M.  Golberry,  they  are  a  mild,  hospitable,  generous,  and  faithful  race ;  and 
their  women  are  as  attractive  as  jet-black  females  can  be. 

They  call  themselves  Mahometans,  but  their  religion  has  an  alloy  of  idolatry  and 
superstition.  Their  language  is  graceful  and  easy.  Their  chief  takes  the  title  of 
Barb-i-Yalof,  emperor  of  the  Yalofs,  and  reigns  over  an  extensive  coun- 
try, little  visited  by  Europeans.  His  place  of  residence  is  Hikarkor. 
Rich  in  provisions,  cattle,  and  poultry,  this  country  flourishes  under  a  more  regular 
administraton  than  that  of  the  adjoining  states.  Justice  is  administered  by  a  chief 
judge,  who  holds  circuit  courts  over  the  kingdom. ||  The  people  manufacture  cotton 
goods.lT 

Several  states  have  separated  from  the  Yalof  empire ;  such  as  that  of 
Baol,  and  that  of  Cayor,  governed  by  a  prince  who  has  the  title  of  Da- 
rnel. Cape  Verd  and  the  small  island  of  Goree,  which  was  fortified  and  embellishod 
by  the  French,  are  in  the  territory  of  Darnel. 

The  most  commercial  of  the  Yalof  states  is  that  of  Salum,  on  a 
branch  of  the  Gambia.  The  king's  residence  is  at  Kahan ;  his  cottage 
is  within  an  enclosure  of  great  extent,  which  contains  more  than  sixty  others,  inha- 
bited by  his  wives,  children,  othcers,  and  principal  slaves.  At  its  entrance  arc  three 
large  courts,  lined  with  the  cottages  of  his  servants,  each  court  being  guarded  by 
twenty  men  armed  with  javelins  and  zagays.  In  the  centre  of  the  royal 
enclosure  the  cottage  of  the  prince  stands  by  itself,  m  the  form  of  u 
round  tower,  thirty  feet  in  diameter,  and  forty-five  in  height,  covered  with  a  dome  of 
twenty  feet.  It  is  built,  like  all  the  dwellings  in  this  part  of  Africa,  of  pieces  of 
wood  covered  with  mallet  straw,  but  executed  more  nicely  than  ordinary  houses. 
The  ceiling  is  covered  with  carpets  curiously  figured  ;  the  floor  is  formed  of  a  com- 
position of  a  kind  of  mastic  with  red  earth  and  sand,  and  covered  with  mats.  Tlie 
ceiling  is  hung  all  round  with  muskets,  pistols,  and  other  arms,  and  horse  harness. 
The  king  is  seated  on  a  low  stage  at  the  farthest  part  of  the  cottage,  fronting  the 
entrance.     The  kingdom  has  an  area  of  11,500  square  miles.     The  population  is 

> 
•  Elucidations  of  African  Geography,  p.  9. 

t  See  the  words  quoted  by  Milliridates,  iii.  p.  169.  +  Mollieii,  p.  228,  230. 

§  Voyage  au  pays  de  Hanibouc,  1789. 
!l  IJenczet's  Account  ot  Guinea,  p.  8.  (London,  17'88.) 
^  Francis  Moore's  Travels,  8ic.  p.  51. 


Emperor  of 
the  Yalofs. 


Detached 
states. 


Kingdom  ol 
Salum. 


Palace'  of 
Kahane. 


Boundaries  of 
Guinea. 


SENEGAMBIA  AND  GUINEA.  521 

said  to  be  300,000  ;  the  lands  are  fertile  and  well  cultivated  ;  the  foreign  commerce 
is  extensive,  particularly  with  the  French  and  English,  the  former  nation  being  most 
respected,  and  best  adapted  to  the  character  of  the  people. 

The   Serrercs,  a  wild  and  simple  tribe,  witliout  cultivation  or  laws,  |  The  sen-eres. 
live  in  the  country  of  Sin,  (or  Barb-Sin,)  and  that  of  Baol.     The  negroes  call  them 
savages,  but  Europeans  speak  in  praise  of  tlieir  mild  and  peaceful  dispositions.* 

It  is  in  works  more  voluminous  than  the  present  that  a  reader  could  expect  to  find 
a  complete  enumeration  of  the  little  principalities  situated  along  the  |  Petty  states. 
Gambia,  together  with  the  discussions  which  might  arise  out  of  the  perpetual  con- 
tradictions found  among  travellers. "f"  We  shall  notice,  on  the  north  bank  of  the  river, 
the  countries  of  Barrah,  of  Yani,  and  of  Woolly,  the  capital  of  which,  called  Cas- 
sana  by  the  negroes, J  and  known  also  by  the  Arabic  term,  Medina,  or  the  city,  is 
populous  and  hospitable.  To  the  south  of  the  Gambia,  there  are  twenty  small 
states  which  dispute  with  one  another  their  obscure  existence.  The  most  |  The  Feioops. 
conspicuous  nation  is  that  of  the  Fcloops,  whose  territories  are  greatly  scattered, 
and  extended  from  the  Gambia  to  the  river  St.  Dominique,  and  a  little  beyond  it. 
Savage  and  revengeful,  but  faithful  to  their  friends,  they  scarcely  acknowledge  any 
government;  and  the  paltry  fetiche  is  the  only  object  of  their  worship.  Their  coun- 
try is  flat,  somewhat  sandy,  but  rich  in  pasture  and  rice  grounds,  abounding  in  cattle, 
and  maintaining  numerous  swarms  of  wild  bees,  which  produce  a  great  quantity  of 
wax.  Higher  up  the  country  there  are  steep  mountains,  composed  according  to  a 
rather  unlearned  traveller,  of  fine  sandstone. 

The  mutual  boundaries  of  Senegambia  and  Guinea  are  left  to  the 
caprice  of  geographers.  In  the  interior  of  this  doubtful  space,  on  the 
upper  part  of  the  Rio  Grande,  live  the  nation  of  the  Soosoos,  erroneously  called  the 
Foulahs  of  Guinea.  They  have  nothing  in  common  with  the  Foulahs  of  the  Sene- 
gal, though  Golberry  says  otherwise.  This  is  shown  by  the  whole  dissimilarity  of 
their  language.  § 

Teembo,  the  capital  of  their  country,  contains  about  7000  inhabitants.  Tliey 
have  iron  mines,  worked  by  women,  also  some  manufactures  in  silver,  copper  and 
wood;  it  is  said  that  these  people  can  bring  into  the  field  16,000  cavalry,  or  upwards. 
They  are  Mahometans,  but  surrounded  by  twenty-four  pagan  nations  or  tribes,  on 
whom  they  are  always  ready  to  make  war  in  order  to  procure  slaves. 

They  live  in  a  sort  of  federal  republic,  in  which  a  secret  association.  Laws  and 
resembling  the  vehmic,  or  black  tribunal  of  the  middle  age,  maintains  manners, 
order  and  dispenses  justice.  This  is  called  the  poorrah.  Each  of  the  five  cantons 
of  the  nation  has  one  of  its  own,  to  which  the  men  are  not  admitted  till  they  are 
thirty  years  of  age.  The  principal  members,  consisting  of  persons  above  fifty  years 
of  age,  form  the  supreme  poorrah.\\  The  mysteries  of  initiation,  accompanied  with 
some  dreadful  test  of  merit,  are  celebrated  in  the  midst  of  a  sacred  forest.  All  the 
elements  are  put  in  requisition  to  try  the  courage  of  the  candidate.  It  is  said  that  he 
finds  himself  assaulted  by  roaring  lions,  who  are  restrained  by  concealed  chains.  A 
dreadful  howling  is  kept  up  over  the  whole  forest;  and  a  devouring  fire  flames  around 
the  inviolate  enclosure.  Any  member  who  has  committed  a  crime,  or  betrayed  the 
secrets  of  the  body,  finds  himself  visited  by  armed  and  masked  emissaries.  On  the 
ominous  words  being  pronounced,  "  the  poorrah  sends  the  death,"  his  relations  and 
friends  desert  him,  and  he  is  left  to  the  avenging  sword.  Even  entire  tribes,  which 
make  war  in  contempt  of  the  orders  of  the  great  poorrah,  are  laid  under  the  ban,  and 
oppressed  by  the  united  attacks  of  armed  deputations  from  all  the  neutral  tribes. 
This  institution  seems  to  indicate  an  improved  degree  of  intelhgence,  and  consi- 
derable elevation  of  sentiment. 

•  Pommegorije,  Descript.  de  la  Nigritie,  p.  120—126.     Labat,  iv.  p.  156. 

t  Moore's  Travels,  p.  200. 

+  Schad,  a  German  Traveller,  quoted  by  Bruns,  Afrika,  iv.  p.  289.     Compare   Golberry,  i. 

§  See  eight  grammars  and  dictionaries  of  tlie  Soosoo  language,  published  at  Edinburgh,  In 
1800—1802.  5     6  '  I  5   ' 

II  Golberry,  Voyage  en  Afrique,  i.  p.  114. 
Vol.  II.— 3  U 


522  BOOK  SIXTY-SIXTH. 

ThePapeis.  |  Proceeding  now  along  the  line  of  coast,  we  find  some  detached  low 
lands  on  the  south  of  the  river  St.  Dominique,  inhabited  by  the  Papcls,  who  are  all 
pagans,  worship[)ing  trees,  cow's  horns,  and  all  sorts  of  visible  objects.  When  their 
king  dies,  according  to  the  report  of  a  traveller,  the  grandees  range  themselves 
around  his  coffin,  which  is  tossed  up  in  the  air  by  some  sturdy  negroes,  and  the  indi- 
vidual on  whom  the  coffin  falls,  if  not  killed  by  the  weight,  succeeds  to  the  throne.* 

Tliey  are  a  brave  people,  their  only  weapon  is  a  very  long  sabre.  Large  herds  of 
oxen  constitute  their  chief  wealth,  which  they  fatten  with  rice  straw.  The  territories 
of  these  people  extend  from  the  river  Geba,  to  tliat  of  Cacheo,  the  gates  of  the  Por- 
tuguese settlement  of  Bissao.  And  the  market  of  that  town  is  so  dependent  on  them 
for  supplies  of  provisions,  that  the  Portuguese  government  find  themselves  under  the 
necessity  of  cultivating  habits  of  good  neighbourhood,  with  having  on  some  occa- 
sions been  threatened  with  a  famine,  when  a  good  understanding  was  accidentally 
interrupted. 

On  the  frontiers  of  the  Papels,  to  the  south,  dwell  the  Balantes,  a  cruel  and  savage 
race,  with  whom  the  Portuguese  have  very  little  communication.  Salt  is  the  only 
article  of  merchandise  wliich  they  sell.  They  cat  dogs,  and  reckon  rats  the  most 
exquisite  of  dishes. 

Portuguese  Cachco  a  fortross  with  a  small  town,  is  the  station  of  the  Portuguese 

settlements.  authorities,  and  of  a  weak  garrison  to  maintain  in  point  of  form  the 
sovereignty  of  Portugal  over  this  coast.  There  is  also  a  fortress  called  Bissao  on  a 
large  island  of  the  same  name  formed  by  the  river  Geba,  at  its  mouth.  The  situation 
is  rendered  unhealthy  by  the  dampness,  accompanied  with  the  intense  heat.  Yet  it 
is  said  rather  to  have  the  effect  of  rendering  life  sickly  than  of  abridging  its  dura- 
tion. The  soldiers  of  the  garrison  consist  chiefly  of  mulattoes  and  blacks,  with  a 
few  whites  without  shoes  or  uniform,  but  are  muffled  up  in  robes  of  flowered  cotton 
and  mostly  in  rags.  They  are  on  the  whole  much  neglected  by  the  government. 
All  tlie  commerce  here  is  conducted  by  barter,  and  is  exclusively  in  the  hands  of  the 
governor,  who  thus  acquires  considerable  wealth,  while  the  inhabitants  are  idle  and 
poor.  In  an  inland  situation  160  miles  up  the  river  Geba,  is  the  Portuguese  settle- 
ment called  Geba,  of  which  M.  MoUien  gives  a  curious  account.  The  commandant 
receives  visits  in  a  large  hall  where  straw  beds  are  placed  all  round,  on  which  the 
negroes  seat  themselves  indiscriminately  with  Europeans,  and  every  one  has  complete 
personal  liberty  cither  to  whistle  or  lie  down  to  sleep,  or  eat  at  any  time  he  thinks  fit; 
yet  none  must  pass  the  door  without  taking  off  his  hat  most  respectfully,  whether 
the  master  be  within  or  not.  The  surrounding  district  is  called  Kaboo,  and  is  inha- 
bited by  a  mixture  of  nations  consisting  chiefly  of  pagan  Madingoes.  The  villages 
are  large  and  populous,  and  the  fields  well  cultivated.  The  houses  of  Geba  are 
composed  of  mud,  and  there  is  no  fort;  the  soldiers  are  negroes.  The  settlers  are 
on  good  terms  with  the  surrounding  natives,  who  make  war  on  one  another's  villages, 
and  sell  their  captives  at  this  place  to  the  Portuguese.  M.  Mollien  saw  only  three 
Jjuropeans  at  this  place. 

The  Bissajos  islands  form  a  smiling  and  fertile  archipelago,  surrounded, 
and  almost  covered  on  the  west  side  by  a  series  of  sand  and  clay  banks, 
165  miles  long,  rendering  the  navigation  extremely  dangerous. 

The  soil  of  tliese  islands  is  watered  by  numerous  small  rivers;  it  produces  rice, 
oranges,  citrons,  bananas,  melons,  peaches,  and  excellent  pastures,  on  which  the 
inhabitants  rear  cattle,  consisting  chiefly  of  hump-backed  oxen  of  prodigious  size. 
Fish  arc  in  great  abundance  on  all  their  shores. 

Ruiam.  I       Bulam  Island,  which  is  the  one  nearest  the  continent,  was  pronounced 

by  the  intelligent  M.  Brue,  a  good  place  for  a  French  settlement;!  the  English 
hearing  of  the  plan,  hastened  to  anticipate  it;  but  they  treated  the  natives  rudely; 
they  neglected  the  precautions  which  the  climate  requires ;  their  colony  went  to 
ruin,  and  is  now  annihilated. J  The  useful  plants  grow  here  in  great  profusion,  as 
rice,  indigo,  the  coffee  shrub,  the  tea  shrub,  and  a  variety  of  fruit  trees.     But  the  air 

*  Schad,  quoted  by  Bruns,  p.  289.  f  Labat,  v,  p.  85.    Pommegorge,  p.  133— 135, 

i  Beaver,  African  Memoranda, 


Cissajos 
islands. 


SIERRA  LEONE.  523 


18  humid,  and  proves  hii;hly  deleterious  when  the  due  precautions  arc  not  observed.* 
The  Bissajos,  or  Bidjoogas,  make  themselves  tbrmidable  to  their  neigh-     Maimers  of 
hours,  by  their  incursions,  and  the  cruelties  which  they  commit.    Fishing     ''"^  i^^^upie. 
and  piracy  are  professions  which  they  cultivate  by  turns.     The  cock  is  esteemed 
among  them  a  sacred  animal.     They  possess  much  muscular  strength  of  arm,  harsh 
features,  and  quick  movements.     Almost  all  of  them  have  muskets,  or  lances,  which 
they  use  with  much  address.     Their  petty  chiefs  have  turbulent  subjects  and  tem- 
pestuous courts.     The  family  of  a  minister  is  sometimes  ordered  by  the  caprice  of 
a  despot  to  be  sold  into  slavery.     Fertile  as  this  archipelago  is,  the  diet  of  the  inha- 
bitants is  extremely  simple.     Zealous  friends  of  the  Portuguese,  they  bear  an  im- 
placable hatred  to  other  European  nations. 

The  Portuguese  have  numerous  settlements  along  the  banks  of  the  |  Rio  Grande. 
Rio  Grande,  especially  on  the  south  bank.  Entire  villages  are  peopled  by  their  race; 
but  the  English  derive  much  more  commercial  profit  from  them,  tlian  their  own  na- 
tion. The  north  bank  of  the  river  is  occupied  by  the  Biafars,  called  also  .Tolas,  who 
possess  all  the  track  that  lies  between  the  Geba  and  the  Rio  Grande.  This  people 
arc  almost  continually  at  war  with  the  Papels;  but  they  are  much  gentler,  and  more 
tractable,  and  suffer  much  fiom  the  former,  to  whom  the  wealth  acquired  by  their 
industry  presents  strong  temptations.  Here  we  find  the  city  of  Gonala,  where  the 
king  resides;  Bidjooga,  on  a  river  of  the  same  name;  Balola,  and  several  Portuguese 
settlements,  the  largest  of  which  is  Caooda,  about  140  miles  from  the  mouth  of  the 
river.  The  south  bank  is  inhabited  by  tlie  Nalocs,  a  negro  race  so  |  iiioNaioes. 
completely  mingled  Avith  the  descendants  of  the  original  Portuguese,  as  not  to  be 
distinguishable  from  them.  Their  pursuits  arc  agricultural  and  pastoral,  and  their 
country  is  exceedingly  fertile.  The  Portuguese  have  introduced  among  them  some 
useful  knowledge;  their  well  cultivated  fields  produce  the  best  indigo,  and  the  finest 
cottons.  The  cloths  which  they  manufacture  from  the  latter  substance  are  highly 
valued  for  the  fineness  of  their  fabric,  and  they  have  the  art  of  dyeing  them  with 
beautiful  colours,  which  make  them  objects  of  demand  with  the  adjoining  nations. 
Their  principal  river  is  Nuno-Tristao,  called  by  some  writers  Nonunas,  a  name  which 
appears  favourable  to  the  views  of  those  who  wish  to  identify  it  with  the  river  Niinius 
of  Ptolemy;  but  both  terms  are  of  Portuguese  origin. 

The  islands  of  Los,  where  some  English  merchants  have  formed  a  settlement,! 
owe  their  present  name  to  the  Portuguese,  being  a  corruption  of  Yola  de  los  idolos. 
The  native  inhabitants  are  called  Forotimah. 

Immediately  to  the  south  of  this  Portuguese  line  of  coast  we  find  the 
English  settlement  of  Sierra  Leone,  formed  in  1787,  for  the  express  pur- 
pose of  labouring  to  civilize  the  Africans.  In  this  quarter  the  Enghsh  have  made 
tho  greatest  exertions  to  limit,  if  not  to  abolish  the  trade  in  slaves,  but  i)hilanthropy, 
and  penal  statutes,  and  vigilance,  have  been  found  but  feeble  barriers,  when  opposed 
to  the  cupidity  of  unprincipled  traders.  It  is  computed  that  there  are  not  less  than 
three  hundred  vessels  on  the  coast,  engaged  in  this  disgraceful  traffic,  |  slave  iraiie. 
which  is  probably  carried  on  to  as  great  an  extent  at  this  day  as  at  any  l"ormer  period. 
It  appears  from  papers  recently  laid  before  tho  British  Parliament,^  that  the  whole 
line  of  Western  Africa,  from  the  river  Senegal  to  Bengucla,  that  is  to  say,  from 
about  the  latitude  of  15°  north,  to  the  latitude  of  about  IS*^  south,  has,  during  that 
period,  swarmed  with  slave  vessels  ;  and  that  an  active  and  increasing  trade  has  also 
been  carried  on,  upon  the  eastern  shores  of  that  continent,  particularly  from  the  isl- 
and of  Zanzcbar.  Not  less  than  10,000  liberated  slaves,  from  the  slave  slu'ps  cap- 
tured by  the  British  cruizcrs,  were  calculated  to  be  in  the  colony  hi  182 1.  The 
landing  of  these  cargoes  is  often  a  very  aflecting  scene.  The  poor  creatures,  de- 
livered from  the  hold  of  a  slave  ship,  faint  and  emaciated  by  harsh  treatment  and 
disease,  when  received  with  kuidn(!ss  and  sympathy  by  the  inhabitants,  among 
whom,  perhaps,  they  recognise  a  brother,  a  sister,  or  countryman,  whom  they  had 

*  Johansen's  Account  of  the  Island  of  lUiIani,  (London,  1780.) 
t  Curry's  Observations  on  the  Windward  Coast,  p.  ISO. 
+  Kcport  of  Commodore  Sir  G.  K,  Collier,  Ucc.  ~7,  ItJUl. 


Sierra  I-coiie. 
I'liilantbi'OiMc 
sctlleineiit. 


524  liOOK  SIXTY-SIXTH. 


Liberated 
slaves. 


supposed  long  since  dead,  but  whom  they  arc  astonished  to  see  clothed  and  clean, 
are  overwhelmed  with  feehngs  which  they  find  it  difficult  to  express.*  On 
their  arrival,  those  of  a  proper  age  are  named,  and  sent  to  the  adjacent 
villages.  A  house  and  lot  is  appointed  to  each  family;  they  are  supported  one  year 
by  government,  at  the  expiration  of  which  they  are  obliged  to  provide  for  themselves. 
The  captured  children  are  also  sent  to  villages,  where  they  are  kept  at  school  till 
married,  which  is  always  at  an  early  age.  At  the  head  of  each  village  is  a  mission- 
ary, who  acts  in  the  double  capacity  of  minister  and  schoolmaster.  The  number 
of  persons  attending  the  schools  in  January,  1S21,  was  1959. 

The  African  Institution  endeavours  to  promote  a  friendly  intercourse  with  distant 
as  well  as  neighbouring  countries.  The  natives  of  Foulah  resort  to  the  colony  to 
Commerce.  |  participate  in  the  advantages  of  legitimate  coinmerce  ;  and  it  may  even 
be  expected,  that  some  years  hence,  caravans  shall  resort  to  the  neighbourhood  of 
Porto  Logo,  (on  a  branch  of  the  Sierra  Leone,)  to  convey  the  manufactures  of  Eu- 
rope into  the  very  interior  of  the  continent  of  Africa."!"  Trade  is  rapidly  increasing. 
The  total  invoice  amount  of  imports  at  the  port  of  Freetown,  for  the  year  1820,  was 
^66,725  9s.  4|rf. ;  and,  for  the  same  period  in  1S21,  the  amount  was  ^6105,060  15s. 
lO^d.  being  an  increase  of  £38,335  6s.  6d, 

The  exertions  of  the  African  Institution,  aided  by  the  missionaries  of  the  Church 
of  England,  have  effected  a  remarkable  improvement  in  the  morals  of  the  inhabitants, 
who  are  stated  to  be  generally  contented  and  industrious. 

The  total  population  of  Sierra  Leone,  by  the  latest  returns,  is  computed  at  17,000. 
Besides  Freetown,;];  there  have  been  built.  Regent's  Town,  which  contains  nearly  2,000 
inhabitants,  and  the  towns  of  Gloucester,  Leopold,  Charlotte,  and  Bathurst,  all  of 
which  appear  to  be  thriving.  A  little  to  the  west  of  Sierra  Leone  is  Krootown,  a  small 
village  inhabited  by  about  500  Kroomen.  The  British  ships  of  war  on  the  station,  have 
each  from  twenty  to  seventy  of  these  men  on  their  books,  who  are  said,  whatever 
their  pilfering  habits  may  be  on  shore,  to  behave  with  the  utmost  propriety  on  board 
of  ship.  A  fort  erected  on  the  Island  of  Banco,  commands  the  entrance  of  the  river, 
which  has  been  ascended  by  Europeans  as  high  as  was  allowed  by  its  picturesque 
cataracts.  In  this  country  indigo  grows  well;  several  varieties  of  coffee  are  known, § 
the  citron  is  degenerated,  and  its  fruit  resembles  lemons.  All  the  esculent  and  aro- 
matic plants  of  Africa  are  in  great  abundance.  The  gum  of  the  butter  tree  is  used 
as  a  yellow  dye  ;  the  colla  bark  seems  to  belong  to  a  species  of  cinchona.\\  The 
puUam-tree  produces  a  silky  cotton.  The  chimpanzey  monkey  is  met  with  in  the 
interior;  an  animal  five  feet  in  height,  with  a  pale  face,  the  hands  and  stomach  with- 
out hair,  habitually  holding  himself  erect,  and  even,  it  is  said,  sitting  hke  a  man  ;  cir- 
cumstances which  make  him  highly  interesting  to  the  naturalist.  IT 

When  the  Portuguese  discovered  these  places,  they  called  the  promontory  to  the 
south  of  the  present  settlement,  Cape  Ledo,  and  the  mountains  in  the  interior,  Sierra 
Leona,  or  "  the  Mountain  of  the  Lioness."  This  name,  somewhat  disfigured,  has 
been  since  given  to  the  Cape,  the  river,  and  the  adjacent  district.** 

The  English  seamen  have  given  the  name  of  the  Windward  Coast  to 
all  that  hes  between  Cape  Mount  and  the  river  Assinee,!!  and  they  di- 
vide it  into  three  parts,  the  Grain  Coast,  which  terminates  in  Cape  Palmas;  the  Ivory 
Coast,  bounded  on  the  east  by  the  river  Frisco  or  Lagos,  and  the  coast;  and  the  coast 
of  Adoo  or  Kaka  comprehending  the  remainder.  The  part  lying  between  Cape  Palmas 
and  Apollonia,  is  generally  included  under  the  name  of  the  Cote  de  Dents,  or  the  Ivory 
Coast.  The  English  themselves  difler  in  their  application  of  the  term  Windward 
Coast;  some  of  them  extending  it  no  farther  east  than  Cape  Palmas. JJ  The 
Gold  Coast  begins  either  at  Cape  Apollonia,  or  the  river  Assinee,  and  is  generally 

*  Sixteenth  Report  of  the  African  Institution,  p.  323.  f  Ibid.  t  Ibid.  354. 

§  Afzelius,  in  the  Report  on  Sierra  Leone,  addressed  to  the  Proprietoi's,  Curry,  p.  37. 
I  Curry,  p.  40.  J  Afzelius,  libro  citato. 

**  Dalzel's  Instructions  on  the  Coast  of  Africa.     London,  1806. 
ft  Norris  and  Young-,  quoted  by  Dalzel. 

iii-  Clarkson's  Essay  on  Slavery,  p.  29.    Newton's  Thoughts  on  the  African  Shive  Trade,  at 
the  beginning. 


Division  of 
Guinea  into 
coasts. 


Qiioya  and 
Hondo  coun- 
tries, &c. 

led  Mendi- 


GUINEA.  525 

considered  as  terminating  at  the  river  Volta.  Then  comes  the  Slave  Coast,  that 
of  Benin  or  Wara,  that  of  Calabar,  and  that  of  the  river  Gabon.  All  these  coun- 
tries taken  together,  form  Guinea  in  its  strictest  acceptation,  which  we  shall  here 
retain. 

Between  Capo  Mount  and  Cape  Palmas,  the  coast  produces  abundance  ^,'™J^'^"^J^°"'  »f 
of  rice,  yams,  and  manioc.  The  cotton  and  indigo  of  this  country  are  coast, 
of  the  first  quality.*  The  articles  for  which  Europeans  have  hitherto  visited  it  are 
malaguctte  pepper,  red  wood,  and  ivory.  The  inhabitants  are  skilful  and  intrepid 
rowers,  and  bid  defiance  to  Europeans.  The  negroes  on  the  banks  of  the  river 
Mcsurado,  speak  a  corrupt  dialect  of  Portuguese,  and  acknowledge  themselves  vas- 
sals to  Portugal,  but  are  not  as  some  have  supposed,  Europeans  changed  to  negroes 
by  the  power  of  the  climate.  Sesthos,  or  Sestre,  is  a  pretty  large  negro  town.  The 
houses  are  in  the  form  of  conical  huts  two  stories  high."f 

The  old  travellers,  consulted  by  Dapper,J  assign  a  place  here  to  the 
kingdoms  of  Quoya  and  Hondo,  which  they  describe  as  dependent  on  a 
more  powerful  kingdom  in  the  interior,  the  inhabitants  of  which  were  ca 
Manoo,  that  is,  the  governing  people.  The  word  manoo,  or  monoo,  an  epithet  com.' 
mon  to  all  the  tribes  of  these  nations,  has  a  striking  affinity  to  the  word  mannoo, 
which  signifies  man  in  the  dialect  of  the  Sokkos,  a  people,  of  whom  Oldendorp,  the 
missionary,  knew  some  individuals  at  Saint  Croix,  and  who  must  live  to  the  north- 
west of  the  Aminas.§  The  Sokkos  are  neighbours  to  the  Uwangs.  The  specimens 
of  their  language  given  by  Oldendorp,  resemble  the  Jallonkadoo  words  given  by 
Mr.  Park.  The  king  of  the  Sokkos  has  many  princes  under  him,  and  takes  the  title 
of  inansa.  There  are  presumptions  of  the  identity  of  the  Sokkos  with  the  Mendi- 
Manoos.  [n  manners  and  laws,  these  people  bear  some  resemblance  to  |  Manners, 
the  Soosoos.  They  have  a  secret  tribunal,  a  mysterious  order  called  BcUi-Raam, 
similar  to  the  jyoorrah  of  the  Soosoos.  [|  At  the  funeral  of  a  man  his  favourite  wife 
is  sacrificed  by  the  priests  and  thrown  into  the  grave  of  her  husband.  The  Sokkos, 
whom  Oldendorp  knew,  said  that  baptism  and  circumcision  were  among  the  religious 
practices  of  their  country,  from  which  a  learned  geographer  rather  boldly  attempts 
to  infer  some  connection  between  the  nations  of  Guinea  and  the  Abyssinians,1[ 
These  Sokkos,  it  must  be  remarked,  are  quite  different  from  the  A  sokkos,  in  the 
country  of  the  Issinese,  on  the  Gold  Coast,  which  appear  to  us  to  be  the  Insokkos 
of  M.  Ehrmann,**  though  M.  Bruns  says||  that  he  could  not  find  the  Insokkos. 

Two  other  traditions  are  worthy  of  our  notice.  The  nations  now  mentioned  have 
been  subdued  by  the  Folgians,  who  are  probably  the  southern  Foulahs.  Another 
nation  called  the  Gallas  has  been  expelled  from  these  countries, JJ  but  to  look  in  these 
for  the  Gallas  on  the  confines  of  Abyssinia,  is  to  confound  the  negro  and  the  Caflie 
race  with  each  other. 

The  Ivory  Coast,  as  far  as  Cape  Lahoo,  is  inhabited  by  a  warlike  |  ivory  Coast. 
nation  of  a  dark  unsociable  disposition,  at  least  towards  Europeans,  and  according 
to  report  addicted  to  cannibalism. §§  The  Portuguese  have  surnamed  them  )»«/«*- 
gentes.  The  coast  is  adorned  with  natural  orchards.  In  the  river  St.  Andre,  ele- 
phant's teeth  are  exposed  for  sale,  weighing  200  lbs.  The  animal  called  quogclo 
mentioned  by  Desmarchais,  does  not  resemble  any  species  known  to  us. 

To  tho  east  of  Cape  Lahoo,  arc  the  Quaquas,  or  Good  People.  |  The  qnaqnas. 
These  are  divided  into  castes  like  the  Hindoos  and  ancient  Egyptians,  and  the  son 
uniformly  follows  tho  profession  of  his  father. 

The  Gold  Coast  derives  its  name  from  the  great  trade  in  gold  dust 
carried  on  in  it,  which  has  given  rise  to  many  European  establishments. 


Tho  Gold 
Coast. 


,    -,,--, . ,--,  r .  -  -   (edit.All.de  1670.) 

§  Oldendorp,  Hist,  des  Missions  Evangel,  p.  280, 

D  Dapper,  1.  citat.  p.  415.  %  Bruns,  Afrlka,  iv.  p.  574. 

*•   Hist,  dcs  Voyages,  x.  p.  137.  ff  Afi-ika,  iv.  p.  376.  ^^  Dapper,  p.  388. 

§§  Smith,  p.  110.    Desmarchais,  Voyage  k  Cayenne,  Stc,  i.  p.  200. 


European  set 
tiements. 


526  BOOK  STXTV-SIXTH. 

It  also  abounds  in  fish,  the  chief  of  which  are  the  sea  bull,  and  the  fish  called  from 
its  shape,  the  hammer. 

The  forts  and  counting  houses  belonging  to  Europeans  in  this  quarter, 

are  about  forty  in  number,  fifteen  Dutch,  fourteen  English,  four  Portu- 
guese, four  Danish,  and  three  French.  At  present  most  of  them  have  been  de- 
stroyed or  deserted,  which  some  ascribe  to  the  slave  trade  ;  a  circumstance  which, 
if  true,  would  indicate  that  they  were  concerned  in  a  business  less  innocent  than  the 
trade  in  gold  dust.  The  Dutch  trade  was  concentrated  at  Elmina.  The  principal 
English  estabhshment  was  Cabo-Corso.  The  head  quarters  of  the  Danes  were 
Christianburg  ;  the  Danish  forts  of  Printzensten  and  Konegsten  are  well  built.  The 
Danes  commanded  the  river  Volta,  and  were  in  great  favour  with  the  tribes  on  the 
coast. 

Particulars  on  I  A  learned  Dane,  Mr.  Isert,  went  into  the  country  of  Aquapim,  fifty- 
the  interior.  |  six  milcs  froui  Cliristianburg.  The  country  seemed  beautiful,  fertile, 
and  populous.  It  is  generally  well  wooded,  yet  more  salubrious  than  the  sea-shore, 
agreeably  diversified  with  mountains,  valleys,  and  hills.  Water,  which  on  the  sea- 
shore is  scarce  and  brackish,  is  good  and  plenty  in  the  interior.  At  a  distance  of 
five  Danish  miles  from  Christianburg,  a  chain  of  mountains  begins,  which  is  covered 
with  tall  trees,  and  composed  of  coarse  grained  granite,  gneiss,  and  quartz.  The 
information  obtained  by  the  researches  of  the  African  Association  of  London,  coin- 
cides with  the  account  of  Mr.  Isert. 

In  the  neighbourhood  of  the  sea,  the  soil  of  Guinea  is  in  many  places  light  and 
sandy,  and  consequently  unfavourable  to  the  culture  of  the  greater  part  of  tropical 
productions.  In  places  where  the  soil  is  of  a  deficient  character,  the  vegetation  of 
many  plants  is  opposed  by  other  circumstances.  Among  these  are  the  coolness  and 
moisture  of  the  sea-breezes,  or  south-west  winds,  which  meet  with  nothing  along 
the  coast  to  interrupt  their  progress  ;  the  saline  impregnation  which  the  air  derives 
from  the  sea  ;  and  the  surf,  which  is  general  and  violent.  At  a  distance  of  two  or 
three  milcs  from  the  shore,  the  land  becomes  more  productive,  and  improves  pro- 
gressively, till  at  the  distance  of  eight  miles,  it  becomes  very  fertile  and  fit  for  all 
the  crops  reared  in  intertropical  situations.  The  climate  at  the  same  time  is  sufli- 
ciently  temperate  to  admit  of  the  vegetation  of  the  different  grasses  and  trees  of  Europe.* 
Cultivation  of  Thcsc  observations  apply  in  a  particular  manner  to  the  Agoona  coun- 

the land.  ^yy^  ^^  which  Wimbali,  or  Winnebak,  is  the  capital.     All  the  lands  in 

this  district  are  in  common.  No  person  is  allowed  to  become  proprietor  of  more 
land  than  he  can  cultivate  with  his  own  hands  :  scarcely  a  tenth  part  of  the  land  is 
cultivated.  Each  individual  may  occupy  and  till  whatever  portion  he  pleases  ;  but  if 
he  leaves  ituntilled,  he  cannot  prevent  another  from  seizing  it  in  the  same  temporary 
way.  The  purchasing  and  measuring  of  land  are  unknown  among  the  people.  It 
is  never  sold  except  to  Europeans.  The  latter  are  safe  from  all  disputes  about  their 
right  of  possession  ;  but  they  are  not  equally  sure  of  enjoying  the  benefits  of  their 
crops,  unless  they  have  an  adequate  force  to  defend  them  from  the  hccntious  cove- 
tousness  of  the  natives. 

Though  the  whole  Gold  Coast  exhibits  one  general  character  in  its' 

soil  and  climate,  there  are  essential  differences  in  some  particulars. 
For  example,  the  Anta  country,  which  the  river  Aucobra  separates  from  the  State  of 
ApoUonia,  has  a  rich  soil,  plenty  of  wood,  is  well  watered  and  industriously  culti- 
vated. It  has  harbours  and  good  roadsteads.  The  State  of  Apollonia  is  still  better 
watered  with  lakes  and  rivers ;  it  contains  more  flat  land  adapted  to  rice  crops,  sugar 
cane,  and  other  species  which  require  humidity.  The  chief  disadvantage  under 
which  this  coast  labours,  is  a  violent  surf,  which  makes  the  landing  very  dangerous. 
The  form  of  government  is  absolute  despotism,  which  operates  as  a  preventive  of 
most  of  the  disorders  which  are  common  in  the  adjoining  countries.  Africa  unfor- 
tunately is  obliged  to  look  to  slavery  for  its  safety.     Among  the  pretended  re})ublics, 

•  Meredith's  Description  of  the  Agoona  country,  in  the  Fourth  Annual  Keport  of  tlic  Afri- 
can Association. 


Diversities  of 
soil. 


KinRdom  of 
Daiiomey. 


GUINEA.  527 

or  rather  turbulent  oligarcliics  of  the  Gold  Coast,  the  warlike  state  of  Fantce  is  the 
most  powcrfuf  and  the  most  regularly  constituted.* 

The  interior  is  occupied  by  two  powerful  nations.  The  Aminas,  who  I  inland 
have  plenty  of  gold,  extend  in  a  north-western  situation,  to  a  space  of  |  ""'°"'' 
fourteen  days  journey-t  Their  language,  which  has  become  known  by  the  researches 
of  the  Danes,  prevails  over  a  great  part  of  the  coast.J  The  Ashantecs  in  the  north- 
east, seem  to  be  the  Argurtans  of  a  certain  French  writer.§  A  king  of  this  nation 
in  1744,  made  a  very  distant  expedition  to  the  north-east,  marching  twenty-one 
days  through  a  well  wooded  country  intersected  by  rivers  ;  fourteen  days  were  em- 
ployed crossing  a  sandy  desert  where  no  water  was  found.  The  Mahometan  nation 
which  it  was  his  object  to  attack,  surrounded  him  with  an  immense  army  of  cavalry, 
so  that  he  returned  with  a  slender  remnant  of  his  force,  bringing  along  with  him  a 
great  number  of  books  in  the  Arabic  language,  which  afterwards  came  into  the  hands 
of  the  Danes,  and  probably  are  now  in  the  royal  library  of  Copenhagen.  ||  The 
learned  Mr.  Bruce  thinks  that  this  country  was  Degombah,  the  same  which  was 
visited  by  the  sheriff  Imhammed,  and  Timbah,  mentioned  by  Oldendorp,  on  informa- 
tion derived  from  negroes.  The  Timbah  nation  is  called  by  the  Aminas,  the  Kas- 
siante. 

The  Slave  Coast,  in  the  strictest  acceptation,  includes  the  States  of  |  slave  Coast. 
Coto,  Popo,  Widah,  and  Ardra.  The  maritime  flat  country  here  is  broader  than 
that  of  the  Gold  Coast,  and  extremely  fertile.  Poultry  are  in  uncommon  abundance, 
and  the  air  is  darkened  by  flocks  of  bats  like  dense  clouds.  The  French  had  a 
trading  settlement  at  Widah,  or  Judah,  and  the  Portuguese  sell  their  tobacco  at 
Port-Novo.  The  small  states  of  the  sea  coast  are  subject  to  the  king 
of  Dahomey,  who  by  his  concfuests  raised  himself  from  the  rank  of  a 
small  proprietor,  to  that  of  a  great  African  monarch.  He  has  only  1940  miles  of 
sea-coast,  and  though  he  can  bring  into  the  field  SOOO  men,  yet  being  every  where 
surrounded  by  enemies,  he  would  soon  be  expelled  from  the  maritime  parts,  if  he 
were  not  supported  by  the  European  forts.  His  villages  are  large  and  populous. 
Abomey,  the  capital  of  his  kingdom,  is  situated  at  a  distance  of  eighty  miles  from 
the  coast,  and  contains  2400  inhabitants.  The  king  has  two  pleasure-houses  at 
Clamina  and  Agona,  where  he  most  commonly  lives.  These  palaces  are  only  a 
better  sort  of  cottages,  contained  within  a  park  more  than  half  a  mile  broad,  sur- 
rounded by  an  earthen  wall.  In  this  place  there  are  800  or  1000  women,  armed 
with  muskets  or  javelins.  These  light  troops  form  the  king's  guard,  and  from  them 
he  selects  his  aids-de-camp  and  his  messengers.  The  ministers  leave  their  silk 
robes  at  the  gate  of  the  palace,  and  approach  the  throne  walking  on  all  fours,  and 
rolling  their  heads  in  the  dust. 

The  ferocity  of  these  kings  almost  surpasses  conception.  Mr.  Dalzel, 
the  English  governor,  found  the  road  to  the  king's  cottage  strewed  with 
human  skulls,  and  the  walls  adorned  and  almost  covered  with  jaw  bones.lT  The  king 
walks  in  solemn  pomp  over  the  bloody  heads  of  vanquished  princes  or  disgraced  mi- 
nisters.** At  the  festival  of  the  tribes,  to  which  all  the  subjects  bring  presents  for 
the  king,  he  drenches  the  tomb  of  his  forefathers  with  human  blood.  Fifty  dead 
bodies  are  thrown  round  the  royal  sepulchre,  and  fifty  heads  stuck  up  on  poles.  The 
blood  of  these  victims  is  presented  to  the  king,  who  dips  his  finger  into  it  and  licks 
it. II  Human  blood  is  mixed  with  clay,  to  build  temples  in  honour  of  deceased  mo- 
narchs. JJ  The  royal  widows  kill  one  another  till  the  new  sovereign  puts  an  end  to 
the  slaughter.     The  people,  in  the  midst  of  a  joyous  festival,  applaud  these  scenes 

•  Renner,  p.  187,  p.  236.  |  Oldendorp,  Hist,  des  Missions,  p.  277,  &c. 

i:  See  Protten's  Introduction  to  the  Fantee,  or  Amina  language,  published  in  the  Danish 
language  at  Copenhagen,  1764. 

§  Pommegorge,  Description  de  la  Nigritie,  p.  142.  0  Roemer,  p.  188. 

'i  Dalzel's  History  of  Dahomey,  London,  1796. 

*•  Bruns  and  Zimmermann,  Uecueil  Geograph.  iii.  p.  115. 

tt  Norris,  Voyage  a  Dahomey,  dans  le  Magasin  des  Voyages,  v.  Herlin,  1792.  Isert,  Voya- 
ges, p.  irs. 

++  Bruns  and  Zimmermann,  p.  114. 


Barbarous 
customs. 


Kingdom  of 
Benin. 


528  BOOK  SIXTY-SIXTH. 

of  horror,  and  with  dehght  tear  the  unhappy  victims  to  pieces,  yet  they  abstain  from 
eating  their  flesh.* 

The  Ejeos.  |  The  king  of  Dahomey  is  tributary  to  the  king  of  the  Eyeos,  a  very 
powerful  nation,  whose  territories  are  north-east  from  Dahomey,  and  extend  to  the 
banks  of  a  large  lake,  from  which  several  rivers  take  their  rise,  and  fall  into  the  Gulf 
of  Guineji.  May  not  this  be  the  lake  of  Wangara?  The  Eyeos  are  considered  as 
conterminous  with  Nubia;  which  is  certainly  an  exaggerated  statement.  The  king, 
whose  numberless  cavalry  forms  his  chief  force,  lives  150  miles  from  the  coast.  The 
Eyeos  are  a  warlike  people.  They  have  among  them  extensive  cotton  manufac- 
tures.j" 

East  from  Dahomey,  and  south  from  the  Eyeos,  lies  the  kingdom  of 
Benin,  the  king  of  which  can  bring  100,000  men  into  the  field.  The 
river,  which  the  Portuguese  call  Rio-Formosa,  is  very  broad  at  its  mouth,  and  has 
been  navigated  as  high  as  Agathon,  one  of  the  chief  towns,  about  forty  miles  north- 
east from  the  sea.  The  road  from  Benin  to  Agathon  is  much  frequented,  and  lined 
with  very  tall,  and  very  strong  trees,  which  afford  an  abundant  shade.  The  city  of 
Benin  on  the  river  of  the  same  name,  is  surrounded  with  deep  ditches,  and  there  are 
traces  of  an  earthen  wall  by  which  it  has  been  protected.  The  streets  are  fifteen 
feet  broad ;  the  houses  low,  covered  with  the  leaves  of  the  macaw  tree,  and  kept 
exceedingly  clean. — There  are  no  stones  in  this  country,  and  the  soil  is  so  soft  that 
the  river  detaches  several  acres  at  a  time.  The  moveable  islands  thus  formed  are 
the  dread  of  seamen. '|  The  vast  palace  of  the  king,  on  the  outside  of  the  city,  is 
defended  by  walls ;  it  contains  some  handsome  apartments,  and  fine  galleries  sup- 
ported by  wooden  pillars.  The  market  is  not  exactly  adapted  to  the  taste  of  Euro- 
peans ;  the  leading  articles  are  dog's  flesh,  of  which  the  negroes  are  very  fond ; 
roasted  monkeys,  bats,  rats,  and  lizards ;  it  also  contains  delicious  fruits,  and  goods 
of  all  descriptions.  The  climate  is  one  of  the  most  deadly  to  the  European  consti- 
tion. — M.  Palisot-Beauvois  calls  it  pestilential. §  Between  three  and  four  thousand 
slaves  were  purchased  here  by  the  traders. 

The  inhabitants  of  Benin  have  the  same  laws  and  customs  as  the  peo- 
ple of  Dahomey.  The  king,  who  is  venerated  as  a  demi-god,  is  believed 
to  live  without  aliment,  and  when  he  dies,  is  believed  only  to  lose  his  former  body, 
Festivals.  |  in  Order  to  revive  under  another  shape.  At  the  festival  of  yams,  he 
plants  a  root  in  a  pot  of  earth  in  the  presence  of  the  whole  people.  Immediately 
after  it,  another  pot  is  presented  with  a  juggling  dexterity,  containing  a  root  which  has 
begun  to  bud.  This  miracle  inspires  the  credulous  spectator  with  the  hopes  of  a  good 
harvest.  Human  sacrifices  form  part  of  the  propitiatory  worship  offered  to  the 
avenging  or  evil  genius.  The  victims,  who  are  generally  prisoners  of  war,  when 
immolated,  amidst  the  dreadful  vociferous  songs  of  the  whole  people,  show  a  most 
stupid  indifference.  At  the  festival  of  corals,  the  king  and  all  the  grandees  dip  their 
coral  necklaces  in  human  blood,  supphcating  the  gods  to  preserve  for  them  this  high 
mark  of  their  dignity.  |1 

The  kingdom  of  Waree  comprehends  the  flat  marshy  countries  to  the 
south  of  Benin,  where  there  is  a  number  of  rivers,  probably  branches  of 
the  Rio  Formosa.  After  Cape  Formosa,  the  Calabar  country  begins,  which  is  also 
intersected  by  many  rivers,  among  which  is  the  river  Bey,  or  New  Calabar,  which 
admits  vessels  of  300  tons.  The  sovereign  has  the  title  of  delemongo,  or  "  the 
Great  Man."  The  island  of  Bonny  is  a  great  slave  market,  and,  along  with  Calabar, 
used  to  export  14,000  annually.  One  part  of  this  coast  is  covered  with  layers  of  sea 
salt.TT  After  the  high  land  of  Amboses,  which  seems  to  contain  volcanoes  equaUing 
the  Peak  of  Teneriffe  in  height,  we  arrive  at  the  river  of  Cameroons,  or 
Jamoor,  the  mouth  of  which  is  very  broad.  It  has  a  good  harbour,  and 
the  water  is  good  and  sweet.  Here  wax,  elephants  teeth,  red  wood,  and  refresh- 
ments, are  to  be  had  at  reasonable  prices,  and  the  Dutch  carry  on  a  great  trade  with 

*  Isert,  p,  180.  f  Idem,  p.  160.     Snelgrave,  p.  56—121.    Dalzel,  rommegorge,  &c. 

i  Bosmann,  p.  450,  &c.  §  Palisot-Beauvois,  Memoire  hi  a  I'Institute,  15  Nivose>  an  \x. 

fl  Ibid,  i  Oklcndorp,  Hist,  dcs  Missions,  p.  280. 


Laws. 
Customs 


Kingdom  of 
Waree,  Cala- 
bar, &c. 


River  of 
Cameroons. 


GUINEA.  629 

the  natives.  Tlie  river  of  San  Benito  is  110  miles  beyond  it.  From  the  shore  a 
double  range  of  very  high  mountains  is  seen  at  a  distance  of  thirty  or  forty  miles. 
About  forty  miles  from  the  mouth  of  the  river  is  Cape  St.  John,  which  is  rather  of 
dano-erous  navigation,  from  a  sand-bank  about  a  league  out  in  the  sea. — This  Cape 
forms,  with  Capo  Esteiras  to  the  south,  a  bay,  in  the  middle  of  which  is  the  island 
of  Corisoo,  which  has  never  been  particularly  explored.  The  river  of  River  of 
Gaboon  to  the  soutli  of  this  Cape,  in  the  Pongo  country,  is  only  twenty-  ^'*^°'^ 
eight  miles  from  the  equator.  The  approach  to  these  coasts  is  rendered  difficult  by 
the  prevailing  currents.  There  arc  two  small  islands  at  the  mouth  of  the  river;  one 
called  King's  Island,  because  it  is  the  residence  of  a  king;  and  the  other  called  the 
Island  of  Parrots.     The  negroes  along  this  coast  are  a  bold  and  hardy  race. 

The  gulf,  which  is  bounded  by  Cape  Formosa  on  the  north-west,  and  on  the  south 
by  that  of  Lopez-Gonsalvo,  takes  the  name  of  the  Gulf  of  Biafra.  It  contains  the 
islands  of  Fernando-Po,  St.  Thomas's  and  Priirce's  Island,  which  we  shall  describe 
in  another  place. 

The  nations  of  these  coasts  are  very  little  known.  The  Calbongos  The  caibon- 
live  on  the  San-Benito,  and  the  Biafras  on  the  Cameroons.  In  the  inte- 
rior, an  African  has  informed  us  of  the  Ibbo  nation,  to  which  he  himself 
belonged,  and  which  seems  to  furnish  the  greatest  part  of  the  slaves  exported  from 
Benin.  He  had  travelled  between  six  and  seven  months  from  his  native  district  to 
the  smiling  and  fertile  valley  of  Calbari.  In  every  part  yams,  bananas,  pumpkins, 
and  sugar  canes,  were  in  abundance :  the  cocoa  tree  was  rare.  There  is  a  town 
called  Timmah,  situated  on  a  lake.  He  had  also  seen  a  great  river,  but  does  not 
give  any  certain  account  of  its  direction.*  The  vague  notices  of  this  traveller  serve 
rather  to  excite  than  to  satisfy  the  curiosity  of  geographers. 

•  Olauda  Esquianos,  or  Gustavus  Vasa  the  African's  Account  of  his  own  Adventures. 


Roj,  tlie  Bia- 
tras,  and  the 
Ibbos. 


END  OP  VOL.  II. 


Vol.  II.— 3  X 


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